I'm going to complete a year in my new job. I work as a UI designer and full stack developer. I had written down some notes while searching for jobs that you might find fun. Here goes:
- Read - The more you read, the more you know and the more advantageous your position.Read about the company, read about the skills in your resume on Medium, read fiction if you're exhausted, just read. You can never go wrong with it. In one of my interviews, the interviewer and I ended up discussing the Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy. I'm currently working in that company with the most amazing people who love to read.
- Start preparing before you even think about a job change - Last day cramming doesn't work. Interview questions on the internet can only help you answer the initial questions, not the discussion that follows. You have to start studying way before. Moreover, it's fun since you're not studying for exams you don't have to stick to one topic. There is never a not-right-now moment when you find something interesting and would normally have to put it off till after the exams or interviews.
- Learn from your current project - There is always so much happening in a project, so many things you might not have worked on or something you took for granted. Even if it doesn't relate to the skills in your resume, having a couple extra things in your bag is a huge plus. It also shows you like taking new responsibilities.
- Make an excellent resume - Having a good academic record does make things easy, but what you put forth is what most people would see. Highlight your best points. Putting in a lot of keywords would get you a lot of interviews, however, if you're looking for something specific (and I hope you are), don't panic and put in the famous keywords (java, c#). Wait! Add what you want to work in and follow up on every interesting opportunity.
- Show and tell - make projects that you can talk about in interviews (or make them anyway because they are fun). This holds for a coding job, not sure about other vocations. Code away on Github, Codepen, Freecodecamp, or anywhere else you like. The resources are endless.
