hamidnazari/mdm-how-to-career

Notes on Careers in IT, developed as part of a Melbourne Developer Meetup brainstorming session.

Melbourne Developer Meetup: How to Career

If You're Employed

Have a Plan

• Identify your long term objectives. Where do you see yourself in a year? In 5 years? In 20 years? When you're 80 and looking back at your life, what have you achieved that makes you satisfied?
• Set milestones and think about how you can reach them.
• Be willing to get out of your comfort zone.
• Do a retrospective on your career path every once in while. Ask yourself:
  • What should you start doing?
  • What should you stop doing?
  • What should you keep doing?

Build Your Personal Brand

• Build your network; Offline as well as online:
  • LinkedIn
  • Meetup
  • Twitter
  • GitHub
  • etc.
• Position yourself within the right group of people. "We are who we hang out with."
• The IT industry in Australia is a small world. Treat everyone well; People you work with now, your acquaintances, recruiters, etc.
• Be mindful of what you post on social media.

Become More Skilled

• Online training:
  • Tuts+
  • Lynda
  • Safari Books
  • Coursera
  • edX
  • Udacity
  • Udemy
  • Codility
  • TreeHouse
  • YouTube
  • etc.
• Keep up to date:
  • Online resources
    • Hacker News
    • Slashdot
    • StackExchange sites' top questions of the week (e.g. StackOverflow's, ServerFault's, etc.)
    • Github Trending Repos
    • Podcasts
    • Books
    • etc.
• Develop your soft skills.

If You're in the Market

Let Your Network Know

• Leverage LinkedIn, Twitter, Meetups and their community announcements if applicable, etc.
• Get in touch with recruiters but know that their goal is to fill in positions, not to find you a job.
• Stay confident and never give up.
• Good jobs sites:
  • Seek
  • CareerOne
  • MyCareer
  • Victorian Gonvernment's
  • LinkedIn Jobs
  • Whirlpool Job Board
  • etc.
• And if you want to freelance:
  • oDesk
  • Freelancer
  • elance
  • Remote Jobs
  • etc.
• Expand your reach as much as you possibly can.

Embrace Change

• Are you too busy to nudge your career path in the right direction?
• Stick to your values.
• Be opportunistic, turn bad events into opportunities.

Apply, Interview, Rinse, Repeat

• Send as many as resumes as possible for jobs that matter to you; Even the ones that might seem out of reach. You'll never know!
• Study the companies you are applying for.
  • What is their vision?
  • What are their values and do they stick to them?
  • What's their culture like?
  • etc.
• Personalise each CV and Cover Letter you send to companies.
• Keep a copy of every single application you submit for future reference.
• Practice interviewing. Then practice more, and then even more.
• Dress for success, not only for interviews, but also your day-to-day job.
• When interviewing, be confident, be yourself, and do not BS.
• Find out who is going to interview you and what their professional background is.
• Always negotiate your salary. It'll turn into one of your most profitable sentences you'll ever say in your life.
• Be courageous enough to turn down an offer if you're not entirely satisfied with the type of work and the culture.
• For more interview and job seeking tips consult the internet but use your own judgement.

If You're an Employer

Do Care

• Help your employees with their career development.
• For many professionals, money is not the main factor in choosing a job.
• Give back and support the community.

Copyright © 2015 - Authored by Hamid Nazari and Melbourne Developer Meetup members.