How to have kick ass ICT career

John Clegg - ProjectX + Summer of Code Victoria University 15th July 2008

Introduction

What are companies looking for in a graduate?

Tips to help you along your way

Where to go for help?

Who am I ?

John Clegg

CEO - ProjectX

Summer of Code

Where I’ve been ?

C+ Average

Career didn’t follow a plan

Spent time working in USA, OZ, UK, India, South Africa and NZ

Talked to a lot of people about hiring

Getting a good job is HARD!

Here are five things companies look for

in a graduate

#1 “Who are you”

We see a lot of resumes

What are you all about ?

What does the world say about you ?

What makes youdifferent ?

Its not about grades

We hire people not grades !

We don’t want robots

Self awareness

What are your strengths ?

What are yougood at?

Look at Tiger Woods

What is the best part ofTiger Woods

game?

His Drive

What does Tiger Woodspractice the most ?

His Drive

Lesson #1Work on your strengths

Minimise your weaknesses

#2 “What are your Interests?”

Tell us more about yourself

There are plenty of things that suck about computers

What do you like aboutcomputers?

What do you like aboutprogramming?

Lesson #2Tell us why you want to

work in ICT

#3 Curiosity

We have lots of problems

We need people to hunt them down

Figure out what’s wrong

Build Solutions

Lesson #3Be curious

#4 Learning

“By nature men are pretty much alike; it is learning and practice

that set them apart.”

Confucius

"Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back."

-- Chinese proverb

How do you learn ?

Visual ?

Aural ?

Kinetic ?

Or by Osmosis?

Or by Osmosis?

Mindmaps ?

Lesson #4Figure out how you learn

Check out NLP

#4 Execution

When do you work best?

In the end its about outputs

Its about hitting targets

Formula for success:Under promiseOver deliver

- Tom Peters

Lesson #5Focus on getting things

done

Summary

1. Show us your strengths

2. Tell us why you want to work in ICT

3. Figure out how you learn

4. Figure out how you learn

5. Focus on getting things done

Here are five tips foryour career journey

#1 Its not about “you”

Its about what you can do for your company

Tip #1 Kick ass for your company and its clients

Build your own ‘brand’

#2 Its not about “qualifications”

We don’t want robots

Learning is a one step in a journey...

... what you do with it, is more important!

“The difference between the novice and the master is simply that the novice has not learnt, yet, how to do things in such a way that he can afford to make small mistakes”

Signal vs Noise Blog

You learn by doing lots of small projects

Tip #2 Show us what you can do

Build a portfolio

#3 Learn about the industry

Read blogs that interest you

• Silicon Welly• NZ Herald• Stuff Tech Pages

Find out what’s happening in the industry

Technology changes fastKeep up

Tip #3 Keep with the news

Ask people what they read

#4 Its about People

Connect with other geeks

Google doesn’t know all the answers

Tip #4 Connect with User groups

• Unlimited Potential• Super Happy Dev House• Geek Girls• Specialist User groups

#5 Communication

You have to talk to people

Best tech doesn’t all ways win

People with better communication skills

succeed

Ask Questions

Tip #5 Talk to people

Summary

1. Kick ass for your boss

2. Build your portfolio of interesting projects

3. Keep up with industry news

4. Join and participate in user groups

5. Just talk to people

Where to go for help?

Visit them at 14 Kelburn ParadeWellington

http://www.victoria.ac.nz/st_services/careers/

Talk to a Student Liaison

Go to industry network events

Books

More books

Questions

Thank you + Good Luck

‘I find I am so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it’s the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain.’

“Red” Redding, Shawshank Redemption

Boot camps start Thursday