Tommy Liang

Let’s talk about the job search timelines for students. This applies to both internship and full time job seekers in the US. Specifically, how, when and which companies to apply to.  This works well for students who graduate or start their internship in May/June. December graduates will have to modify their timelines accordingly. The first step is to update your resume. If you want tips for the same, please refer to my other post on this topic. ( https://lnkd.in/ghVxeUUW ) 1. August - September - Apply to financial institutions like Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Bloomberg etc as they are the first ones to open their roles in August. An easy way to find these companies would be to find the top players in finance categories like Asset Management, Consumer Banking, High Frequency Trading etc. - Large tech companies start their process from Mid-August to Mid-September. Make sure to apply as soon as the role opens up. Depending on the company, referrals may or may not add value. 2. October - December - Around these months, midsize companies generally start hiring for university roles. If you are not aware of the company names, these roles do generally show up on LinkedIn  jobs, Builtin, University Job Portals etc.  - Another way to search for these company names is through ETFs like S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, QQQ. Similarly looking at the top players in multiple sectors like Healthcare, Pharma, Communications etc. 3. January - February - Small and Mid sized companies continue to post roles during this time. I would recommend continuing to apply for all the positions that you see on listing sites. 4. March - April - This is a good time to start reaching out to managers on Linkedin. Specifically just search the word ‘hiring’, ‘hiring swe’ etc with different combinations. - Be kind and have a short 4 line message about you, why you are reaching out and the relevant details about your experience. Please do not spam people with multiple or long messages, it does not help anyone. Bonus Tip: Technical conferences, Hackathons(eg: MLH), Internal University Mailing Lists are also some good ways to network. Volunteering for conferences helps get free entry, so consider applying early for them.   Lastly, remember to keep applying, be optimistic and don’t be dejected by any rejections. The process can be tedious and requires effort & patience. In the end, everything works out!

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Getting through - Applying for jobs and Reaching out to recruiters We had the 'Pleasure' of job hunting when the tech market is "not so great" and hope this gives some clarity for those who are out there with a green tag. While this was definitely stressful , confusing and exhausting there are certain things that I learned during this period that can be applied under any stressful situations in the future. 1.Don't panic I know the feeling especially when you read/hear about all the layoffs happening around you . Its not an unusual thing in the tech industry , the tech industry has always gone through ups and downs for the past two decades and some of us are facing it for the first time . I remember during my school days back in 2008 exactly not understanding what a 'recession' is ,all I knew was all 'computer' people are losing their jobs and I am not going to work on 'computers' in the future but all it took was couple of aptitude tests , a group discussion and 'Print all odd numbers less than 20' program to get into internship and than a full time job at BNYM as an application developer , and through out my college all I knew was conical tanks, motors and wires, yes IT was booming and anyone who can communicate decently , know how to switch on and fire up a computer can get a job in IT.So yes market has gone through its ups and downs and its nothing new. Prepare don't panic :) 2.Applying for Jobs: Have you applied for 2000+ jobs but never heard back? Pause !One might think applying more jobs might increase the probability of getting calls but the truth is your applications might not even pass through the ATS. What helps is applying to jobs that matches closely with your resume. This also helps to keep track of the number of applications its status. This is the screen shot of a sample excel sheet with some dummy data that you can use to track and follow up job leads 3.Reaching out to recruiters: The most important part of any job search process is reaching out to recruiters, usually there will be a contact from recruiting team/ job poster on Linkedin . You can reach out to them after applying for jobs , It is good to give a basic information when you ping them so that that they have it handy ,for example Hi John, I am reaching out to you regarding the senior .net developer role that you posted . This job description greatly aligns with my skill set and experience. I am on H1B , located in (your location) , open to relocate if necessary. I have attached my resume , please have a look and reach out to me at(xxx-xxx-xxxx) in case if you have any questions. Thank you. Some jobs ask for a cover letter, you don't have to spend lot of time editing your cover letter but its good to keep a simple one which you can tweak a bit based on the jobs you are applying for. I will post interview process, upgrading skill set, preparing for interviews and tools we used on my next post since I am about to exceed my maximum characters. :)

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🔥 JOB ALERT 🔥 I curated this list primarily for early career software engineers and those pivoting into tech by way of self-study and bootcamp since I've been the "career mom" to so many of you who started out in tech stressing out over the fact that you didn't have as much real world experience as your competition. Here's something that I've learned from having pivoted a few times over the last 30 years myself and from the 100's of people I've known over the course of the last 10+ years that I've been in recruiting and career coaching who have also made successful pivots: ✅ As long as you're pragmatic about the fact that you have gaps to cover and ground to make up but are willing to put in the work to even the field... ✅ As long as you're willing to push past your comfort zone.. ✅ As long as you keep putting one foot in front of the other... ✅ As long as you heed good advice and throw out bad advice... ✅ As long as you have a job search plan that you not only know how to execute but modify along the way... I promise you, no matter how daunting nor difficult the journey ahead may appear, you will get to your destination and a year after that, you'll look back at where you were just 12 months before and you'll not only be proud of what you achieved but you'll be able to look at what you've gained and you'll know the trials and travails that you had to go through to land that first big job was worth it. Always remember, career success starts with a strategic plan and job searching is a marathon, not a sprint. And when you need help landing the right job faster, with no guesswork and less frustration, call your career mom. 😉 Dezzi #earlycareer #hiring #techjobs #softwareengineerjobs

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Looking at over 200 LinkedIn profiles a day, I can tell you: you won't get noticed if you mix experiences from different fields. If you're a software engineer, but also list roles as a mentor, teacher, and investor, it looks unfocused. Recruiters and hiring managers are often looking for a clear, streamlined career trajectory. Mixing experiences from different verticals can dilute your expertise and make it harder for them to see you as a specialist in any one field. To improve your profile: 1. Prioritise experience related to the job you want. 2. Highlight key accomplishments in your main field. If you want to showcase other roles (like mentoring or investing), consider adding them in separate sections like "Volunteer Experience" or "Projects." Keep your profile focused and targeted to make a stronger impression.

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As I jump down the rabbit hole of web3, I'm running into some interesting challenges I haven't faced before as a recruiter. I'll be building out my GitHub profile to supplement my "techie" profile just a smidge more. Shout out to Severin Ibarluzea for creating a YouTube video on how an employer might read a GitHub profile despite not having a tech background. I watched another video by another creator, but Severin's was much closer to the mark, so I'm sharing with my fellow recruiters. Oddly, it wasn't even the first video that was recommended when you do a search, so something in the algo is still quite biased towards content creators (maybe with higher views, monetization, etc.) vs the actual content you're searching for. If you're a tech recruiter, it's just another useful skill to have to form a better picture. By no means is a "good" GitHub profile necessary, since there are plenty of amazing engineers who have never even touched GitHub. But if you're an engineer who lives in the open-source world, it's certainly going to help your cause. Note to readers who don't know, Microsoft owns both LinkedIn and GitHub. ;) I'm still learning, but here's what I've learned so far. Key takeaways: -did they bother to update their main page to display more content -how active are they? (more green squares - more isn't better, but it could help you figure some things out) -how many followers/how many are they following -stars -click into one of their pinned projects, notice if they're documenting at all What else can you recommend? #learning #github #bettertalentacquisition

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