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If you guys can give a general advice to start for a fresh bachelor graduate who doesn't have enough experiences but really want to join a startup in as an entr

by newgrad 16y ago

If you guys can give a general advice to start for a fresh bachelor graduate who doesn't have enough experiences but really want to join a startup in as an entry-level position or as an intern, what would it be? I need to get a job in a period at most two months :(.

slantyyz 16y ago
If you're a coder, get as much of your code out there. Contribute to open source projects. Put stuff in Github, Bitbucket or whatever. Put links to your code in your resume. The good recruiters will look at the quality of your code (and the complexity of the problem you're trying to solve) if you give them the chance. You basically want to show that you have good coding technique, habits, etc. The smarter recruiters out there may use this info to balance out any deficiencies in your work experience. Keep in mind that this advice is probably useless if you're applying to a larger company that uses HRBots and/or pure checklists as hiring criteria. For those companies you should read some of those self-help "ace the (technical) interview" types of books to help you out. HRBots tend to ask textbook questions looking for textbook answers. On a side note, you'd be surprised how many people out there don't know how to answer even the simplest textbook interview questions.
- newgrad 16y ago
  Thank you slantyyz for the excellent feedback. Honestly during my last three years of college I made a huge wrong journey. I spent all my free time by solving general algorithm puzzles posted in the web such as top coder practice, Facebook coding challenge, RapLeaf coding challenge and their nature. I thought that was the best way to score an interview. Now that I am interested in applying for a startup, I realized that real projects that involve a diversity of technologies actually gives you more credential rather than technical knowledges. But it is a bit too late. I better start grabbing some of my small algorithm codes and put it online now.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago
    For a junior position, I think one of the best ways to show what you can do is to have a side project you've worked on. At that level we normally don't care about your leadership ability, skill at designing scalable architectures or knowledge of the domain, etc. We really want to know if you can take a design and produce good code from it and if we would like working with you. The former can be very difficult to ascertain in an interview for a number of reasons. If you have a project that you can point to, particularly if you have a URL on your resume, or some other way the technical interviewer(s) can see it before the interview, you're well ahead of everyone else.
- TheSmoke 16y ago
  I hope this works for other countries as putting my code out there didn't help me, in Turkey, for over 10 companies I have applied but I should note that this is the reason why I have a job now. If you are interviewing with the start-up founders, the #1 reason you are not hired is the salary you request. If you are interviewing with the lead developers, #1 reason you are not hired is that they felt you are better than themselves and you could replace them so don't make them feel that any way. Do not put hope in any of the interviews. If you are told that they will get back to you, expect nothing and if you are told that they will get back to you, for say, in 2 weeks, either negative or positive, again, expect nothing. Just apply as many jobs you can and go to interviews if you are called and then wait. Eventually, if you are a good developer, you will get a job. Another thing is experience. If you don't have any working experience, be patient for a little while and work less than a salary you'd request normally and after a long time such as a year passes, start looking for a new job when you are still working. Then you'll get a better job.
  - Avenger42 16y ago
    "If you are interviewing with the lead developers, #1 reason you are not hired is that they felt you are better than themselves and you could replace them so don't make them feel that any way." I can't imagine that this would be true. If I were the lead developer at a startup (disclaimer: a position I've never been in), then I'd be looking for the absolute best developers the company could afford. The goal is to reach the exit, and hiring average or mediocre developers doesn't get the company there as quickly as hiring superstars does. In fact, I think that hiring the wrong people could potentially prevent you from making it to the exit at all. A startup, to me, doesn't seem like the place to be building an empire. By definition, you're working with fewer resources and you're likely answerable to too many masters.

by newgrad 16y ago

slantyyz 16y ago

If you're a coder, get as much of your code out there. Contribute to open source projects. Put stuff in Github, Bitbucket or whatever. Put links to your code in your resume. The good recruiters will look at the quality of your code (and the complexity of the problem you're trying to solve) if you give them the chance. You basically want to show that you have good coding technique, habits, etc. The smarter recruiters out there may use this info to balance out any deficiencies in your work experience. Keep in mind that this advice is probably useless if you're applying to a larger company that uses HRBots and/or pure checklists as hiring criteria. For those companies you should read some of those self-help "ace the (technical) interview" types of books to help you out. HRBots tend to ask textbook questions looking for textbook answers. On a side note, you'd be surprised how many people out there don't know how to answer even the simplest textbook interview questions.

newgrad 16y ago
Thank you slantyyz for the excellent feedback. Honestly during my last three years of college I made a huge wrong journey. I spent all my free time by solving general algorithm puzzles posted in the web such as top coder practice, Facebook coding challenge, RapLeaf coding challenge and their nature. I thought that was the best way to score an interview. Now that I am interested in applying for a startup, I realized that real projects that involve a diversity of technologies actually gives you more credential rather than technical knowledges. But it is a bit too late. I better start grabbing some of my small algorithm codes and put it online now.
- HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago
  For a junior position, I think one of the best ways to show what you can do is to have a side project you've worked on. At that level we normally don't care about your leadership ability, skill at designing scalable architectures or knowledge of the domain, etc. We really want to know if you can take a design and produce good code from it and if we would like working with you. The former can be very difficult to ascertain in an interview for a number of reasons. If you have a project that you can point to, particularly if you have a URL on your resume, or some other way the technical interviewer(s) can see it before the interview, you're well ahead of everyone else.
TheSmoke 16y ago
I hope this works for other countries as putting my code out there didn't help me, in Turkey, for over 10 companies I have applied but I should note that this is the reason why I have a job now. If you are interviewing with the start-up founders, the #1 reason you are not hired is the salary you request. If you are interviewing with the lead developers, #1 reason you are not hired is that they felt you are better than themselves and you could replace them so don't make them feel that any way. Do not put hope in any of the interviews. If you are told that they will get back to you, expect nothing and if you are told that they will get back to you, for say, in 2 weeks, either negative or positive, again, expect nothing. Just apply as many jobs you can and go to interviews if you are called and then wait. Eventually, if you are a good developer, you will get a job. Another thing is experience. If you don't have any working experience, be patient for a little while and work less than a salary you'd request normally and after a long time such as a year passes, start looking for a new job when you are still working. Then you'll get a better job.
- Avenger42 16y ago
  "If you are interviewing with the lead developers, #1 reason you are not hired is that they felt you are better than themselves and you could replace them so don't make them feel that any way." I can't imagine that this would be true. If I were the lead developer at a startup (disclaimer: a position I've never been in), then I'd be looking for the absolute best developers the company could afford. The goal is to reach the exit, and hiring average or mediocre developers doesn't get the company there as quickly as hiring superstars does. In fact, I think that hiring the wrong people could potentially prevent you from making it to the exit at all. A startup, to me, doesn't seem like the place to be building an empire. By definition, you're working with fewer resources and you're likely answerable to too many masters.