Preliminary Reminder: There are criticisms in this article. There are definitely exceptions to these criticisms. Here we evaluate/criticize general approaches, not exceptions. Although the recommendations are specific to the software sector, other sectors experience problems due to approximately the same situations.
Like all my current student friends, I was also studying once and experienced the situation of graduating and new graduates. I have never founded a company, I have never been a boss, and I do not intend to go down these paths, I think technical jobs are more for me. For this reason, my recommendations will generally be aimed at friends who want to advance technically.
First of all, over the years I have been working, I have attended many technical interviews as a candidate and as an interviewer, and I have observed the mistakes made. I think most people agree that it is not possible to evaluate people with an interview of at most 1-2 hours, because each person’s character is different and their way of expressing themselves is different. For example, I don’t think I can answer correctly even the very simple conceptual questions I will be asked about data structures or programming languages in an interview, and most of the time I couldn’t, I couldn’t even remember. On the other hand, I think I can produce a solution more easily when asked for a solution to a concrete problem. For this reason, companies also adopt small project assignment methods. The situation that arises here is that the size of this small assignment is not adjusted properly. For example, we have heard of people trying to measure the installation of theme plugins etc. of a complete WordPress site. :) Or, when we, the friends we call experienced, were reviewing, we expected codes that thought like their own logic and were written in this way. In both cases, this issue has become questionable. Personally, I would not want to be a fan of taking and doing this type of project assignments during interviews. The other method is ready-made exams, and the answers to the questions are available everywhere. Many questions, such as solving Rubik’s cube, can now be solved by memorization.
Even though I am not experienced in the field of education, I wrote this article to explain how we can make better evaluations on this subject based on what I learned in the training courses I took, or how new graduates can express themselves better.
First of all, we need to stop being hostile to companies because they want experienced personnel and make a self-assessment. Why ?
The only point that companies are interested in is rightfully making money; if they cannot make money, the company cannot exist. After a company makes money, it does not care about other details (The value given to the personnel is another issue), when it comes to hiring personnel, they generally advertise for employees according to the criteria determined by the technical team. This team is not the owner of the company, it is one of us and evaluates us. Maybe the people who complain about this today will behave in a similar way when they come to relevant positions in 5-10 years, and new graduates will complain about it too.In fact, I think it is very difficult to achieve harmony in the team by recruiting an experienced person. Instead, the addition of an inexperienced friend to the team will help to ensure harmony within the team. Because the way people work and approach problems is very different. This difference can sometimes lead to major discussions and dissatisfaction within the team, which I have witnessed many times. If the new person is a subordinate, it turns into an argument with the superior about the solution method and not accepting the job, and the superior will not be accepted by the subordinates because he will try to change the existing order of the team. (Right and wrong is a separate issue on this issue, so I will not go into it.) On the other hand, if someone is inexperienced, these problems will not occur because their methods and approaches are not yet very rigid and clear. All this aside, if we go back to the question of why one wants experience, especially in Turkey, project calendars are kept very short and in many projects, there is an expectation of maintaining the existing project or painting the inside of the drawn lines, rather than producing value. This does not require people who are open to new ideas, but rather people who can do the given job quickly, and new graduates are generally slow in this regard because they do not yet have a good command of the subject. Since these lines need to be filled more quickly, experienced personnel are required to meet the short schedule. Those who join the team in this way usually do not become permanent. Most people are aware of this, but since the parties’ business is resolved, both parties accept it. In other words, the problem does not arise in the company, but in the conditions that force the experienced and decision-making people in the team to do this.
The other reason is that experience can be defined as being in a team and contributing to a project, not the years passed. When a new graduate joins the team, team members must be ready and accepting of this in order for that person to gain experience. Because in this part, not only the manager and the company owner, but also other members of the team are involved and they need to cooperate and help the new friend gain experience. At this point we need to stop and think. The company added a new graduate to the team, and the team spent their own business time to help. From the company’s perspective, a salary is paid to a newly graduated person who has joined the team, and at the same time, the time of the current employee is spent to help this friend. Here, experienced members of the team must want to take initiative and help without disrupting their work. If team members do not want to do this, these conditions cannot be forced to accept. Naturally, this time it was other members of the team who blocked the new graduate friend’s path, so we did it to ourselves again.
As it is generally seen, we actually do it ourselves, but our inexperienced friends are having problems due to the behavior of our experienced friends.
We have some friends on this subject, I really appreciate them, they are trying to help with volunteer trainers, blogs and videos, but as I said, this issue does not happen only with the desire of a small group of people, for a person in a team to gain experience, the majority of that team must be willing to do this.
What can new graduates do about this?
We criticized experienced friends above, now let’s look at newly graduated friends. Every year, many people graduate from relevant departments related to software, and we must accept the fact that there are also many people who graduate from different departments and want to become software developers because they are interested in the software field, attend trainings and receive certificates. The sector actually feels a serious need within itself, which is why friends from many related and unrelated departments work in the sector and do very good jobs. In fact, people who want to can find a way and take their place in this industry. Let me state again that there are definitely friends who really want to but cannot find a way, and they can create a way for themselves in the way I will talk about in a moment.
1. Prepare a beautiful CVIn the company I work at, we attach great importance to new graduates and interns and try to recruit them and include them in the team. The biggest result of this is that the majority of our team is an intern or new graduate who has gained experience there. During this process, we review many CVs through school collaborations or direct applications. The CVs that come in are really upsetting. Yes, a full CV is not expected, but in this regard, we must first value ourselves and show that we really want to do this job. I don’t think, when hiring a new graduate or intern, no one expects the person they are evaluating to have high-level knowledge. For example, when preparing a CV, there are those who apply with 2-3 lines of name and surname information in a word file without researching how to prepare a beautiful CV, and there are others who do not even bother to do this and send a transcript directly. There are many tools and templates on this subject, and there is a reason for them. We need to value ourselves, research and prepare a good CV.
2. Detail all the work you have done in technical terms without any story
Many project assignments are made in schools or courses. It is not very important how these assignments are determined and what they serve, which many course instructors do not pay attention to. What is important is how the problem is solved and how we contribute to it. For example, a ticket sales project was carried out as a team. Explaining which part of this project I made the screen, how I solved it and what I used will show my mastery of the subject. On top of this, we should not neglect to do research on the applications, approaches and technologies you use here. Yes, no one wants detailed knowledge of dominance, but this type of research reveals your curiosity with small pieces of information. Do not write here about projects that you did not do yourself or to which you did not actively contribute, as this will be against you. Situations may arise when project details are being discussed and you cannot answer and eventually say “I didn’t do this.”
3. Don’t settle for school/course, do individual studies
I have started many projects in my past, but I have never been able to finish any of them. This is not something to be ashamed of and hide, but rather a good evaluation item that explains our perspective on the problems that reveal our interest. This is how we can explain how we evaluate a problem and take solution steps. If there is someone who can start and finish such a project (there certainly is), they do not need this advice anyway. :) For this reason, it is a heading that must be included in your CV. What is important here is not the idea, but at least a project that has been started :) Approaches such as “I dreamed of this” will not contribute.
4. Be sure to use a platform such as Github/Bitbucket/Gitlab
Research what these platforms are, open an account and upload the source codes of your projects/work. The person who will evaluate you will review these codes and ask you questions directly from here. In this way, we can eliminate the situation of being asked to work externally for the interview. While doing these, let’s pay attention to the research and learning part. Just as an empty github account has no meaning, a github account where the codes are zipped will also have no meaning.
5. Don’t be afraid to researchTo research new technologies and approaches, be sure to follow active platforms and channels and read plenty of documents. Additionally, do not hesitate to research the companies you are applying to. Do not hesitate to ask questions to experienced friends on the subject. LinkedIn platform provides a very good environment and a nice network for this type of research. I am sure that we have many friends on the platform who are happy to help. Before applying to a company, researching the company and writing a cover letter specific to the company can be really useful. How do I know? Just for this reason, I accepted an intern friend for an internship without even having an interview. :) This research actually reveals your true interest. In this context, research the company’s website, its projects, its employees, their field-related posts, whatever you can think of, contact the people in the team, and if there are topics you are curious about, ask questions (just without boring them :)) and let the place you apply notice your interest.
Basically, it will be beneficial for you to pay attention to these issues. There are very detailed articles and evaluations about preparing a CV and applying for a job, and articles shared on the internet prepared by experts in the field.
My new graduate and intern friend, someone is definitely looking for you to help you as much as possible, you don’t have the chance to know everything, but you have the chance to follow and gain knowledge, improve yourself and express your work by preparing a nice CV for yourself.