My employment experience
Intro
Hello, I am sharing my experience of employment in IT. Links, examples, without water. I do not pretend to know the best advice, just share my own. Be sure to criticize me and write your opinion on each item, truth is born in a dispute.
Search
In general, look for a job before you completely part with the previous one. It is important not “from where”, but “where”. You don’t have to go into the void.
Before searching, decide what you want, in detail and clearly, what you definitely want and what you agree to put up with in case of absence. Here are a few things to think about:
Working conditions: office or remote, hybrid, freelancing, outsourcing and whether it matters;
Relationships: TC, SZ, IP and is it important in your case;
Job details: game logic or interface programmer, character or level concept artist;
Income (usually based on the results of the interview);
Bonuses from work: medical insurance, parking, sports, study, conferences.
Example
After a year of remote work, I definitely wanted to go to the office and did not put up with another, a device according to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, because in fact no one owes anything to anyone in the case of GPC or SZ, the desire to do something more than hyper-casual games on Android, but I definitely want to develop game logic, wishes were parking at the office, sports and health insurance.
Income should be written and said as an average value for the market. If it is below average, then you do not value yourself, you are not sure of your knowledge, if it is higher, “salary expectations are too high.”
Your income reflects your competence. The evaluation of you as a middle or a junior is very subjective: my colleague was surprised if we worked in the same department, while potential employers “stopped on more experienced employees.” Do not think too well of yourself, because there is always room for improvement. Do not think too bad of yourself, because the impostor syndrome makes life difficult. Do not guess, ask your immediate supervisor or colleagues for an objective assessment of your skills, a view from the outside. An Internet search can also help, suggesting what a specialist in your field should know. A dry and clear list of questions and detailed answers that are good to know, be able to practice. The number of knowledge gaps is a sign of your competence. Here is an example of social security questions for a unit developer.
At best, take your time and choose your work location carefully. Go from the best option for a place of work that takes into account all your wishes, to the worst. But do not delay, the job search should end with a result, not an attempt.
Do not arrange a mini vacation or the opportunity to make repairs in the apartment, it distracts from the important. Job hunting is not the time for fun and relaxation. Here are great tips from SuperJob.
Summary
As for me, a resume is a must for a serious specialist. This is a dry squeeze, which allows you to quickly get acquainted with the candidate, of which the employer may have hundreds. Required fields:
Photo – normal, neat, without accents, you don’t need to show on the background how you like football or travel;
Contacts – a cart and / or mail, plus a phone, social networks;
Work experience – place of work and length of service, write your publications here;
Stack of tools;
What did you do at the workplace – specific duties, full-time and non-staff.
Makes the resume complete:
Verification of experience – a section that justifies finding skills in the list of your skills;
Outside of work, but related things – publications, participation in contests, repositories and pull requests (if a programmer);
About myself as a person – what brings pleasure outside of work, hobbies, volunteering, favorite things in life. By the way, “The main things in life are not things.”
The resume must be truthful. It’s not too late, but early, deception will be revealed, because the first questions in the interview will be questions on the resume, and they are already repelled and asked additional questions. questions.
Contains keywords. The first person who sees your resume and puts it on the table for a more competent employee is a recruiter who does not have to know the intricacies of your profession. It searches by keywords. Work experience and skill stack, well-known projects and organizations.
Example
Here is my resume, fit on A4 all the necessary items. On the second page, I gave links to all the latest released projects that I worked on. Criticize! Let me know what needs to be fixed.
Happening
At one of the interviews the director asked about the tool specified in the resume. As it turned out, my basic knowledge was so basic that he politely advised me to remove the keyword from the list of skills.
Communication
Respond. Don’t sit and wait for someone to knock on the door. First of all, you need a job, and the employer always has a share of vacancies.
Happening
Now aggregators for job search rule the score. I searched for a job and employers showed who viewed their profile. Some I did not consider as options after studying. The employer also does not sit and look at the profiles of specialists, which is also displayed, only now with me. So we looked at each other’s profiles until a conversation began. Found out the details of the work and it turned out that this is a great option!
Make it a rule that a cover letter in response to a vacancy is required to be written. This distinguishes you from other candidates, this is a good tone. Accompaniment must be individual, at least partially.
Example
“Hello. I’ve been making games in Unity and C# for over a year, developing game mechanics, AI, tools for Unity, worked in a team. I would like to work in a team [название организации], interesting work in the office, thirst for self-realization, improving skills! looked at your project [название проекта]I want to participate in the development.
[контакты]
[резюме]
[портфолио]”
Politeness in all cases. Regardless of the stage of communication and the proposed working conditions, on the requirements and expectations, on the result of communication.
In an article from perelesoq, the example given surprised me. “You are a beggarly office, and you are a fool” is an unacceptable case, this is the bottom of a specialist.
A diametrically opposite example of good manners and perspectives will be if you are not ready to respond, write something like: “now I am employed and not ready to respond, but let’s stay in touch if something changes.”
Go to “you” in agreement, and not by definition, say this question aloud or wait for the interlocutor (I do).
Preparing for an interview. You need to prepare for it. Know the well-known and latest projects of the company, what they are doing now and in general, simple questions like whether there is an office (if you ask about it, but it’s already written in the vacancy, it means you didn’t read the vacancy at all).
Happening
In some vacancies, at the very bottom of the description they write: “If you have read right up to this point, then please answer in the cover letter, which is better: ios or android?”.
Loyalty issues. Loyalty questions need to be answered correctly. This is a sign that you know what you will do, and did not pass by. Everything is simple here: if a company develops mobile applications, you shouldn’t say “I can’t stand mobile phones”, if you are hired for a position in interface development, you shouldn’t say “I’m actually a game logic developer, but so be it.” Perhaps you should not get a job in a company whose work is not what you were looking for.
Happening
I wanted to make games and I didn’t represent myself at that time. At my first interview, I put on a businesslike air and gave out this: “… but I have not yet decided what I would like to do in life, programs or games.” They didn’t take me. By the way, six months later I once again asked to join this organization, and they took me without question. I was so excited and initiative that I finished the probationary period ahead of schedule.
Example from books “They say IT pays a lot”. I highly recommend reading.
If you get a job in a casino, then to the question “Will you feel guilty if you lose a large amount of any casino client?” the answer is no, otherwise why are you here.
During an acquaintance, an interview, it is worth using a webcam if this is not a face-to-face meeting. For what? Man is a social being who has communication skills. Even the best specialist, who simply does not know how to talk to people and behave more or less publicly, will be outside the team. It is better to be outwardly neat and show it to the employer, not be afraid to show yourself, you can blur the background, it is best not to have extraneous noise.
If you don’t know something, then it’s better to say so, adding that you know a similar tool (if so), the interviewee can also ask a leading question.
The interview goes both ways. Do you know exactly where you are going? Evaluate the place of work, employees and their questions, ask for details, look at their answers.
What exactly will you do (the vacancy may indicate a new unannounced project, but in fact they are looking for an employee to support an existing project);
The procedure for further actions (fulfill the TOR, come to the office, bring documents);
How the work is organized (in a conversation it may turn out that the modeler, screenwriter and programmer are one person);
What tools are used (and they know exactly what Git is, it seemed to me that they do not understand what model unwrapping is);
Schedule;
Are there any processing and how often (analogous to the joke “how much does it cost and why is it so expensive?”).
In a chat, you should answer directly and without kickbacks like “everything is in the resume.” This is also an indicator of politeness and interest in the vacancy. We are human beings and we can miss details, forget or get bogged down.
Test
Being able to estimate the complexity and time to complete a task is also a skill that is also tested. Do not neglect the principles, remain a competent specialist, fulfilling the TK.
Happening
Before IT, I was an engineer, in every office there was a sign “Importance or urgency of work is not a reason for a safety violation.” You are evaluated primarily as a specialist, a competent employee. But everywhere there are exceptions, and you should not completely neglect the terms.
Happening
I did not complete the test task on time, but I tried very hard. According to the life rule “better on time and wrong than late, but perfect”, I gave back the incomplete work by the time with the words “I didn’t complete all the points, but did not neglect the rules of clean code”. I did not hope for success, but after 3-4 days they told me that they studied the project in detail and in the feedback, in addition to minor comments, they wrote “the code is written cleanly and competently, a lot is thought out and laid down.” They took me to work. Literacy in the performance of work was valued higher than the coverage of all tasks. By the way, the TK was very capacious and, my assumption, by analogy with the Unified State Examination: 100 points is an asymptotic goal that cannot be achieved, but you need to strive for this.
mood
Do not worry about failures in social security or TK, it is absolutely normal that they will not be hired on the first try. Accept criticism normally, evaluate you as a specialist, and not as a person, you should not take it close. Take lessons from each social security and TK and change something in behavior, learn theory, improve your skills. “If you do the same actions without changing anything, it is foolish to hope for a different result.”
Be positive, but don’t be a clown, keep the conversation light but meaningful.
The golden mean is generally my advice, which can be traced throughout the article.
If we went to the top, according to the most desired vacancies, as it was written at the beginning of the article, then the chance of luck may be small. That’s why they are the tops, it costs even less to be upset because of an unsuccessful social security.
Outcome
Improve your skills, prepare for each stage of employment, scroll through the tips in your head, practice speaking confidently and clearly, do not wait for a knock on the door and do not worry)
Comment, criticize!
