Tag Archives: LinkedIn

Moving Madness: How to Survive Relocation

by in Personal Development, Professional Relationship Building, , , , 0 Comments

By Livi Erickson

Despite a growing number of computer science related jobs, there is still a pretty good chance that in some point in your life, you will be faced with a career opportunity too good to pass up – and it might be in a new location. Not only do you have to worry about the job itself – moving and getting settled into a new part of the country (or world!) can be challenging and stressful. I spent all three of my summers during college at an internship in Seattle, Washington – which happened to be on the other side of the country from where I had spent my entire life.

Each one was unique, but there was definitely a lot to get adjusted to, and by the third time around, I finally felt like I was prepared for what seemed like the inevitable move to the Emerald City when I graduated. Imagine my surprise when I found out just three months before starting work that I’d actually be relocating to San Francisco!

When you relocate for a job, you are making a huge lifestyle change and should be prepared for that. Luckily, there are ways to make it a little bit easier, especially if you are making the leap and joining a community that is known for being “tech friendly”.

1. If you’re joining a big company right out of college, take advantage of the intern or new hire programs that they may offer – and if they don’t have any, consider reaching out to a recruiter or manager to see whether or not you can start one! Companies like Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon each hold various events for their interns and recent grads to connect them with other new employees who may be in a similar situation. Smaller companies might not have specific programs in place, but you can usually talk to someone in HR and ask them to email people who might be interested if you plan a dinner or happy hour someplace. They should have a list of employees who they can pass on information to – all you need to do is ask!

2. Join a developer meetup or attend local hackathons and conferences. When I first moved to San Francisco, I didn’t know a single person outside of my coworkers, so I got to work applying for conferences and hackathons. Not only will you get to meet new people, but you can often work on interesting projects, win prizes, and network with all sorts of professionals. Several cities offer women’s dinners (such as the Girl Geek Dinners Series) which are a great way to meet with new people in a low-stress setting – and you get some good career advice out of them!

3. Take classes in areas that interest you at local universities or community centers. Interested in learning a new programming language or brush up on your entrepreneurial skills? Many colleges will offer extended learning classes for non-students to get a chance to learn from the university professors in various areas that can complement your formal degree. If you’re a passionate lifelong learner, these courses can introduce you to new people in your area, and you get to learn new things! Not feeling up to committing to an entirely new course? Most colleges will also offer free seminars and give talks open to the public in the evenings.

4. Consider joining a volunteer organization in your area. What better way to help make your own adjustment to a new area than by helping out others? See if there are local programs that target getting youth interested in STEM and volunteer to work with them to do science experiments or teach the basics of writing code in a kid-friendly language such as Scratch. You’ll get to sharpen your technical skills, meet other like-minded people who are volunteering with you, and you’ll be helping get kids interested in pursuing technical careers! Try out your local Boys and Girls club, scouting troops, or elementary schools to look for opportunities, or ask your coworkers if any of them support organizations who are looking for help. One of the most rewarding experiences I had shortly after moving was helping with a Girl’s Day science event, and I had a chance to get to get to know more people at my office through it, too!

5. Use social media to your advantage by joining Facebook groups for your area and checking nearby trends on Twitter for cool events to attend. Some sites, like meetup.com, are designed to help you find groups of people with similar interests and plan events, while others are more general and can just help you make new connections. The benefit of social media is that you can talk to other people before committing to anything, which can help make things less awkward if you’re like me and occasionally feel anxious when meeting new people.

6. Last but not least – say yes to any invitations that come your way! If a coworker invites you to trivia, GO! It might feel strange to “hang out” with people you work with, especially if you are a new college graduate, but you’re probably going to be spending 40 hours a week with some of these people, and becoming friends with them makes work more enjoyable. You’ll also get to potentially try new things, and the experiences that you’ll get can surprise you. One of the best ways to bond with new people is by doing things that are a little outside of your comfort zone, so don’t overthink things and be willing to try something new. Who knows – you might even discover a new passion!

Of course, even if you’re incredibly social, it can still be a rough adjustment phase, especially if you’re in a different state (or country!) as the rest of your friends and family. For me, I got through this by making sure to have regular phone calls with my loved ones – being able to video chat made it much easier to feel like they were still nearby. Keep in mind that it can take an average of 2 or 3 years to truly feel settled in a new place, so ensure that you are also setting a new routine and staying active. If you’re up for it, consider finding roommates when you move so that you have a few other people around to kickstart a social circle in your new location.

Have you relocated for a job before? What helped you adapt in your new place?

Livi graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in Computer Science in 2013 and is currently working as a program manager at Microsoft. When she’s not in front of a computer screen, she enjoys practicing yoga, cooking, and reading.You can follow her @misslivirose and LinkedIn.

Femgineers Build Street Cred

by in Change the Ratio, Events, Presentations, Talks, , One Comment

Last Tuesday, Femgineer hosted its last forum of the year at Wealthfront. The forum proved to be our most attended with over 60 people in the audience. WealthFront did a great job welcoming the community of Femgineers! Femgineers were greeted with an interactive registration display that showed their names all throughout the wall’s television monitors and displayed live tweets about the event throughout the evening.

Besides the food and festive networking, many got a glimpse at Wealthfront and their company culture. Team members actively introduced themselves and readily shared what they enjoy most about working at Wealthfront.

After an hour, everyone found their seats to listen in to our main topic of the night “Building Street Cred” by former VP at Adobe, Karen Catlin. Karen presented metrics and tactics to help Femgineers stand out in front of prospective employers.

At one point the discussion turned to what people should and shouldn’t show on their LinkedIn profiles. To the audience’s surprise there were a number of LinkedIn employees present, who happily answered their questions! The LinkedIn employees reassured the audience that you don’t have to be overly concerned with what people in your office might think as you update your profile. One of the LinkedIn employees told the audience that there are just too many updates to keep up with, and it can be hard for others to know your true intent.

As the presentation transitioned to Q & A, many posed questions about finding ways to beef up their own “street cred” in terms of their own situation. Karen suggested ways for improvement as well as tailoring some of the lessons from the presentation. In addition, the community of Femgineers shared feedback from their own personal experience afterwards.

As always we have a break out session, which gives Femgineers a chance to put into practice what they just learned from the talk. Plus they get a chance to network more intimately with peers, and receive feedback.

Keeping up with the excitement and level of engagement from the Q & A, a surprising number of Femgineers came to the front to share their group way of handling street cred. Even those that weren’t inclined to talk, mustered up the courage and began to share. Many felt it was a great way for them to practice their public speaking skills.

In the end the event proved to be our best forum ever, and went beyond expectations for both Femgineer and Wealthfront. We plan to continue hosting forums next year, and building momentum towards our goal of changing the ratio and empowering more female engineers everywhere!

Get a behind the scenes look at what went into producing this Femgineer Forum!

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So you want that dream software engineering job? Here’s what to do.

by in Frances Fridays, , , , , 0 Comments

by Frances Advincula

I was anorexic in high school, and to start over in my efforts of recovery, I ran away to the other side of the world. I ended up turning down a scholarship to a private university and enrolled in a small, new college in Manila for undergrad. My parents rightfully worried I was throwing my future away. I worried about it too, but I think things turned out just fine. I love all the cutting edge things I get to code for Accenture Software now, and I’ve been asked to be interviewed by well-known companies  — Google, Microsoft, Amazon, LinkedIn, Netflix, Fog Creek Software, and hot startups — AirBnb, The Levo League.

Why the sob story? I want to help everyone realize that, no matter what your state is in life, you can still do something proactive to better yourself, to achieve your goals. Yes, you have a shot at the big companies and rising startups even if you didn’t go to Stanford or live in Silicon Valley (although that most certainly helps!). I did it from the other side of the world,  from school in a developing country. You can too.

To help you get started,  I thought I’d share what I did, in hopes that you too, can find your dream femgineering job. You wan’t to  be ready when luck comes knocking, don’t you? 

Perfect your cover letter and resume.
If you are still in school or in an entry-level position, keep your resume to one page. I’ve heard that HR will throw it straight to the trash pile if it’s any longer than that. But anyway, just common sense — practice good grammar, proofread, ask your friends to proofread, etc. And read this article by Joel Spolsky: “Getting Your Resume Read.” It is the best, actionable advice on the topic that I have ever read. Ever.

Build your portfolio of coding projects.
CS theory is great (Automata Theory was one of my absolutest, favoritest subjects), but if you want a software engineer job, you have to show that you can write code. If you don’t have a lot of experience, software school projects are a good thing to list on your resume. But listen, I didn’t even have a GitHub back then, but I had my portfolio –and it served me well. So just imagine how far having GitHub can take you! Oh the places you’ll go!

Get an engineering internship, no matter what.
This is included in Joel Spolsky’s advice to CS students (which you are at a serious disadvantage if you don’t read it). Nothing will teach you how the industry works than a solid internship. You’re gonna be walking the talk by the time it’s over. I actually did mine fulltime for 6 months at Accenture, and I wasn’t the same person afterwards. If you really can’t find a good internship, consider remote ones like Gnome’s Outreach Program for Women.

Have a blog or write for other publications.
Why? Because blogging shows that you are curious and passionate. Blogging shows that you are willing to spend time outside of work/school for the things you care about. Blogging exposes you to new ideas and people who care about those ideas. Blogging forces you to be an expert in something (really, how are you going to write about it if you know squat?). Find organizations you want to write about and shoot the editor a well crafted email, volunteering. The worst case is that they’ll say no. This is how I got to write for a few startups, and even a fashion magazine!

Be Googable.
You are a young person. Social media is expected of us (plus, lots of startups communicate via social media). It’s also a great way to show you care without investing too much time blogging.  A couple of ideas that go beyond Twitter/Facebook/Google+ include:

  1. Pinterest – Make boards about topics you are interested in: UX, Women-in-Tech, Startup Lessons, etc.
  2. Good Reads – Show that you are well-read with software and startup books! Poornima has a great reading list, and check out the Fog Creek Software MBA Program’s reading list.

Sharpen your interview skills.
Tech interviews are hard. You get asked the normal questions and you get grilled in coding problems and alogrithms too. You have to be prepared!

  1. Her Campus’s, 20 Interview Questions and How to Answer Them
  2. Coding Horror’s, Getting the Interview Phone Screen Right
  3. Poornima’s slideshow, Interview Skills & Secrets
  4. Palantir’s 3 Part Series: How to Rock an Algorithms Interview, The Coding Interview, The UI Design Interview
  5. Gayle Laakmann McDowell’s book, Cracking the Coding Interview: 150 Programming Questions and Solutions is a really good, and thorough review of CS and programming fundamentals.

To calm your nerves, remember that an interview is two-sided. You are interviewing them too! You are also trying to find out if that company will invest in your learning and if you will fit into its culture (Read “My Interview Questions for Potential Employers“).

One last piece of advice.
Take time to enjoy your last semester too. People told me this, I ignored them, and I very much regret it. This is your last chance to savor your campus, your college friends, and the privilege of not yet fully being in the real world, with bills and rent and performance reviews to worry about. (Oh and it’s also probably not a good idea to take the GRE the same week as your finals, just sayin’.)

 

Frances Advincula writes the series Frances Fridays. Frances recently graduated with a degree in Computer Science and is currently pursuing a masters at Johns Hopkins. She now works as a Software Developer for Accenture Software. A proud geek girl, she’s sure she is the only one who can’t play video games. Tweet her at  @FranAdvincula.

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