Here are our 8 top tips when entering the tech jobs market as a Graduate:
1) Identify ALL of the potential roles in tech – some of the roles on the periphery of software engineering or data science may be better suited to your skills and have far fewer applicants. Our ‘Graduate Software Engineer’ and ‘Graduate Data Scientist’ roles get hundreds more applicants compared to ‘Graduate DevOps Engineer’ for example. Speak to friends in tech or recruiters like us to find out what kind of roles may suit your personality and your aspirations. You may discover a role that you’ve never heard of before!
2) Get that friend who is militant on grammar and spelling to check your CV (they needn’t check this article!) If you don’t have such a friend we recommend using Grammarly.
3) Your CV can go over more than 1 page – although max at 3 pages! We’ve heard of Universities recommending 1 page to students – in a combined 30 years in recruitment we’ve never seen a tech manager reject a CV because it was over 2 pages. However, I’ve seen plenty rejected for not offering enough information. (Any candidate registered with RedTech can receive our free CV template which we made in conjunction with hiring managers to include the information they like to see on a Graduate CV).
4) It is becoming increasingly common for tech hiring managers to request a GitHub / Online Repository / Portfolio to see examples of your technical work, so we highly recommend you put one together! If you already have one, add the link to your CV.
5) Further to the above, start thinking about personal projects you have completed, which are relevant to the tech field you want to get into. If you don’t have any, we highly recommend you put some together. This could be a handy mobile app, a website for a friend, a data project to gain information, or helping someone build a computer! Hiring managers often tell us this demonstrates a passion for tech and gives an insight into your interests.
6) Throughout your job search be thinking of SEO / Search Engine Optimisation in reverse. Your CV may be added to databases, so when a role arises you want to ensure that all of your technical skills and desired job titles are placed somewhere within your CV so you come up in a search. The same goes for when you are searching for roles in your desired field. Determine all of the slight variations of your chosen field i.e. Software Engineer / Developer / Programmer.
7) Work out what is important to you early in your job search. The following rank differently depending on an individual’s personality and circumstances: Responsibilities; Industry; Impact; Career Progression; Training; Remuneration; People; Culture; Location; Job Security; Tech stack/Tools. This will ensure you ask the right questions in an interview and if you end up landing more than one offer, you can quickly rank which is the best offer for you.
8) When preparing for interviews ensure you research the role & company in detail. Also, come up with a list of questions to ask. Similar to our CV template, we offer interview preparation advice and coaching to any candidate who is interviewing through us.
We hope you found this useful. To view our live roles visit www.redtech-recruit.com or email applications@redtech-recruit to make a speculative application. If you are looking to hire top emerging academic talent, please email info@redtech-recruit.com