Four Things I’ve Learnt as a Graduate in the Tech Industry
The absurdity of graduate life really hit me about two weeks into working at Bad Dinosaur, a small, Edinburgh-based software agency. While mere weeks ago I was desperately shoving my CV and personalised cover letter through the virtual mail slot of pretty much any company looking to hire someone with minimal experience for a marketing position, I was now the one posting such job adverts. And as the responses started rolling in for my ads, and I got more accustomed to my new workplace and role, I realised a few things about searching for jobs and starting in your first role after university that I wish I’d realised earlier. And despite the fact that I feel like two kids inside a trench coat moonlighting as a competent adult on a daily basis, I thought I’d share some of the things that I’ve realised in my first month and a bit as a member of the 9-to-5 club.
1. You have to embrace the unknown.
Mere months before I was thinking of CTRs or Scrum meetings, I was instead agonising over the representation of maternity in the writings of Virginia Woolf. I chose to study English Literature and History of Art because I’ve always been passionate about storytelling. However, after innumerable hours of unpaid work experience, careers service events and job applications I realised that finding a full-time, paid job within the arts was something that was going to be incredibly difficult.
That’s when I started considering my options, and marketing came to mind. I would be able to tell stories and use my creativity within a rapidly changing field — and I was up for the challenge. Ditching the idea that I knew what the perfect role for me was before I even entered the work force was what led me to a role I find both challenging and extremely rewarding, and into an industry that I had never considered but have now found a passion for. Had I not considered what it was I most enjoyed about my degree I might have ended up in an administrative job at an arts organisation, something I wouldn’t have enjoyed at all, or I’d still be looking. Instead, I get paid to write, create visual content and solve problems creatively. I honestly can’t think of a job I feel I’d be better suited for.
2. The world of tech startups is a great place to be.
Bad Dinosaur is a proud resident of CodeBase, Scotland’s largest tech incubator. The brutalist-chic ex-council building hides underneath its cold exterior heaps of creativity, fresh ideas and collaboration I wasn’t necessarily expecting. I knew right away that this was the place for me when I arrived at CodeBase for my interview. The hotdesking space looked more like a cool hipster café than a typical office with its mismatched, thrifted furniture, palm trees and a ping pong table. I was never really sure how well I’d fit into a very formal, corporate environment, and as soon as I saw that Kyle, the founder of Bad Dinosaur, had chosen to wear a t-shirt and shorts to my interview, I knew this wasn’t a place where I’d have to pretend to be anyone I wasn’t. The interview itself was very relaxed and informal, and we ended up making silly jokes as well as discussing the role and how I’d have pretty much total freedom to do what I wanted with the marketing of Bad Dinosaur.
This is what I love about working for a startup. As the companies are small, you end up with a lot of responsibility over a very varied range of projects, and develop a close relationship with your coworkers. I get to try on a variety of roles in my job, from Facebook adverts to SEO to hiring, which will doubtlessly prove invaluable when it comes to deciding the next step on my career path. Furthermore, working in a small team has meant that I never feel uneasy asking for help or explaining my frustrations, as my bosses sit right next to me, rather than in some ivory tower of a corner office.
3. You’ve got to fake it ‘til you make it.
Overcoming the impostor syndrome is something that I only really started feeling after entering the work force. University was different because I got handed a grade reflecting my performance on a regular basis. When I started my job at Bad Dinosaur, I was given a great deal of freedom, something that I was, and still am, very grateful for, but initially it did freak me out. I kept thinking ‘Do they know just how little I know about what it is that I’m doing?’ I got frustrated when I didn’t get as many clicks on the ads I created as I was hoping for and when I had to admit I didn’t have the skills to complete a video project on my own. However, Kyle and Russ, the Director of Bad Dinosaur, are always there to point out that I’ve been hired on as an intern — I’m not supposed to know what I’m doing. In fact, one of the reasons they chose to hire me was my unfamiliarity with the tech industry. They figured that if they could explain what it is that they are working on to me, they could also do that for our clients. It’s far too easy for recent graduates to forget that no one can expect them to be an expert in their chosen field the minute they sign a contract. In fact, it was my honesty about the limitations of my knowledge coupled with my eagerness to learn and prove myself that helped me land my job.
4. How you dress matters.
One of the perks of working in the tech industry is undoubtedly its relaxed culture when it comes to dress code. At CodeBase, the accepted uniform seems to be a T-shirt and jeans rather than a suit. Maybe an un-ironed button-down shirt if you’re feeling fancy. When I first started at Bad Dinosaur, I was happy to find that no one batted an eyelid at my dresses with quirky prints or my patterned tights, but this did little to change my feeling that I was just a kid doing work experience at a family friend’s company.
I then started experimenting with wearing heels and neutral-coloured blouses, even donning the occasional blazer, and this made a world of difference to how I felt. Although I doubt anyone’s perspectives of me changed in any significant way, I felt much more confident. It’s like those studies that have found that when you fake a smile for long enough, you actually start feeling happier. This simple change might not have completely eradicated my impostor syndrome, but it has freed me to believe in my potential. Or at least that’s what I told myself when I ordered yet another blazer off of eBay after a few glasses of wine thinking ‘Fuck it, be like Sheryl Sandberg!’ (Although it’s not what I admire about her the most, she can really rock a blazer, Google it.) What I’m trying to say is that it is important not only to feel comfortable, but empowered in what you wear, and while many employers have a far more restrictive dress code than mine, I believe there will always be a small way to express yourself.
—
The word that first comes to mind when I think about finding graduate employment is ‘soul-crushing’. However, if you keep your eyes and your mind open, and don’t give in to the urge to sell all your belongings and move to Costa Rica to become a sloth nanny (no matter how tempting that sounds), you will one day soon find yourself wondering what it was you were so scared about in the first place. Don’t worry, we’ve got this.
—
Find out more about Bad Dinosaur at www.baddinosaur.co.uk.
