Friday, December 05, 2008

Looking for Jobs in Difficult Times

It is difficult and painful to look for job in SoftwareEngineering in this time of turmoil. However there are couple of things you can do.

1.0 Join Education Extension Services ( Most Universities have this )to do meta learning- This means you have to find out what is important that you must be willing to learn.

2.0 Learn to discipline yourself- In this economic times measurable , reproducible and desirable skills are necessary.

For instance you need skills at ground level and University will provide knowledge at 50,000 feet level. Learn to differentiate between knowledge and skills. Do put special emphasis on the skills part of it.

3.0 Learn to understand the unstated rule of the game- in most countries people will not hire Govt. sector employees in private sector. In this economy SMB market is poised for rebound faster tahn others and you should be looking for assignment there. This also means the SMB market will be looking for hard skills. If you have worked in soft skills area. this will be definitely difficult. In this economic climate a large number of people will be redundant with soft skills. What is your employment strategy.

4.0 You may have to embrace GTD-getting things done. You may have to network during day and study during night. I recently came across a cultural mind-set in Europe. If you have no jobs for 2 years , your are not employable.

5.0 The criteria for interview in SMB market Place are the following- (a) Smart and Get things Done --- The book.

(b) Humble, Hungry and Smart.

5.0 In SMB market, you have to be aligned with market dynamics. If for any reason you give the impression that you are reluctant to learn- You can not be called for interview.

6.0 For new graduates- The onus on you to educate yourself for the application of your knowledge. The days of training someone for 3 years in the hope that you might produce something is gone. Take a look into dice.com of the reality of the Job market. If the masters program at CS/EE did not prepare you for SystemC/.NET Programming-- too bad. you have to prepare yourself.

7.0 Time for extreme competition is on us and we can embrace it or watch TV and drink beer- the choice is yours.

Ref:

1.0 Smart and Gets things Done ISBN-10: 1590598385

2.0 Execution- ISBN-10: 0609610570

3.0 Humble, Hungry, Smart

These are some of my personal views.