Daryl Teo's Blog

Looking for a Job: Personal Experience

Dec 9, 2008 Articles

Not to long ago I was searching for an Internship position as part of my degree requirements. I have since been offered an opportunity at a relatively small company, which I have great impressions of so far. This article talks about the experiences I’ve gone through in my search, which I hope will provide any insights to any who read this.

Start Early

For anyone looking to perform any length of work experience, it is especially important to start your search early. Sure, it is easy to identify big companies like Google, Microsoft et al., however more often than not you will find entry into these companies extremely difficult. Furthermore, big companies may not be the most beneficial to you, in terms of work experience (I will explain more later). Therefore, it is important that you do not put all your eggs in a single basket. When I begun my search, I had completely no idea what companies were available locally. If you do not know what companies there are, how would you be able to send your resumes?

The other aspect of the search is Networking. Networking is a skill that you should practice early on, and the art of communication is key here. A potential employer or colleague may be amongst those you talk to, and (like a game of poker) it is often very easy to read a person’s character and personality from the way he/she expresses ideas. Exchanging namecards is also a good way to network (get some simple ones with your email on it). Remember: from your point of view, you are the one seeking employment. But from their point of view they might be looking for potential employees.

The aims of the search are therefore to:

• find out what companies are out there, and what roles you would like to fill.
• increase the size of your network, and therefore increase your visibility.

Do not expect this to happen overnight, or even over a month. You should go out with this mindset as soon as possible. You never know when your roommate’s wild party could result in a lucrative partnership in the future.

Preparation

Another important aspect of your search is being prepared. There are many things you should prepare for your job search, and again, this must be done early and consistently.

The most obvious thing you need to prepare is your resume. If you haven’t got one, start writing one. Once you have written one, let others review it. I have shown my resume to lecturers, friends, and even interviewers, and tweaked my resume each time. You will soon learn what you should put on the front page, how to attract the reader’s attention to a particular point, and what not to put in a resume.

Note that you shouldn’t write a generic resume which you will distribute to companies. The best resume is always a resume that is tailored to what a specific company is looking for. Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use a template of some sort to assist in the layout of your resumes. You should follow the same guidelines for your Cover Letters.

Now for the less obvious points, which I had to learn the hard way.

Determine the kind of position you want, and be consistent and assertive about it. On a previous occasion, an opportunity fell through simply because neither party understood what the other party wanted. I was not sure what roles the company was offering, and the company wasn’t sure what position was suitable for me. Being assertive about the role that you want shows that you are knowledgable, confident, and have at least shown interest in the role by researching about it.

And lastly, do some research regarding industry standards for salaries. Some companies do ask this question in interviews, and take that into account (remember that the goal of a company is profit). Obviously, you do not want to sound too demanding by asking too much. However, asking too low is simply asking for trouble, since it may imply a sense of desperation. At the end of the day, Know What You’re Worth.

Don’t Be Afraid

Most people are terrified of being put under pressure, be it in a formal or a social environment. Interviews are unfortunately high-stress scenarios, since you are never sure what questions will be thrown at you. However, at this stage you should really ask yourself: “What do you have to lose?”. As a student, this is the best time to get out into the market and experiment. Every interview you do only adds more replies to your belt, and you’ll start to find similar questions. Common questions such as:

• describe yourself in a few minutes
• what is your greatest strength, and your biggest weakness?
• what is it that you have that would benefit the company?

From the employer’s perspective, the point of an interview is to determine your skill level, your compatibility with potential colleagues, and ability to communicate (see this often?). So every interview is a great experience to improve on your interview skills. And in the end, what do you have to lose?

Big vs Small

The first companies that I applied for were all considerably large companies, such as Google and Microsoft. However, now that I have experienced a little of working in a small company, I think there are a few things to consider when choosing a company.

Big companies are usually well established. However, your potential for career advancement is severely limited within the company. The company is not likely to grow, and you are most likely already at the bottom. Of course, it is possible to seek employment from a different company. But then we see a new problem; a smaller company would possibly feel suspicious. Why would you, an employee at a big company, want to scale downwards?

Furthermore, in a big company, you are often a small cog inside a well-oiled machine. Consider the length of your stay as part of your internship. Chances are, you will not get to experience the scope of the entire company, and be assigned a single dedicated task instead. A small company does not have that much resources, and every employee would be required to function at many different tasks, be it analysing, developing or testing.

Lastly, a big company often has strict protocol designed to keep the company efficiency at a maximum. However, most of the time, these protocol cannot be ported to a small company. For example, bug reporting protocol involving 5-6 managers wouldn’t make sense in a company of 12 people.

Whatever your decision, make sure you have thought it through carefully.

Conclusion

These are just some of the things I’ve learnt over the past few months. I do not know how well these apply to you, so take my views as just my personal opinion. However, I hope those who read this article benefit from it, or form their own opinion. Feel free to discuss this article in the comments below!

Tags: advice, experience, internship, job search, personal