Career Planning

Off late, I've been receiving several mentoring requests from seasoned professionals, fresh talent who are dreaming about building career's in software Industry. Most of the questions fall under two categories.

1. I'm a graduate out of school, what should I learn ?
2. I'm seasoned professional with "X" years of experience, which new skill/technology should I learn ?

Learning is never ending journey. It's one of the critical skill to thrive and survive. You'll find millions of research articles, blog post's, motivational videos which may inspire you to learn. I've nothing new to offer Or convenience - Rather, reiterate about learning from two great minds.

Once you stop learning, you start dying - Albert Einstein

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever - Mahatma Gandhi

While mentoring is always specific to individual(s), I do see some common grab's for people seeking similar guidance. This is the only purpose of this article, below is a compiled list for everyone's benefit.  

Learning Cloud:

Like it or not - Cloud is already reality and future. Pick your Passion | Cloud(s) and start your learning journey. 

•  Microsoft : https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/browse/
• Amazon : https://aws.amazon.com/training/learning-paths/
• Google : https://cloud.google.com/training
• IBM : https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn

Interview Preparation :

Recommend read Tips to prepare for Coding and System Design interviews by Roshini Kesavan *this section is only relevant to people considering software engineering discipline*

Resume Writing: 

This is one of the critical and seldomly neglected area. I'd highly encourage you to spend quality time, understand about yourself (personality, passion, skills) - Pick a book & pen, scribble everything that come's to your mind before opening word document.

I've recently attended interesting session(because of my Technical Leadership course @ UW). Highly encourage, everyone to watch Resume Construction by Matt Youngquist

Once ready, you may want to leverage tools like resume assistant to build resume. 

Event's & workshop's :

Attend LinkedIn workshops for FREE(thanks to Microsoft), re-work on your LinkedIn Profile (create one if you don't have). This is you're only professional identity in digital/social world).

Job Search:

https://opportunity.linkedin.com/jobs

Interviews:

Several people consider question's like "Tell me about yourself", "Describe most challenging time on a project", "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?", "Do you have any questions for me?" as simple and straight forward questions. They seldomly realize that, these are opportunities of creating powerful impact. You'd never want to miss this valuable set of trainings offered by LinkedIn for FREE. The "key" is to pivot this content with you're experiences.

Other useful resources :

• Microsoft has launched digital skills initiative to reach 25 million people worldwide in 2020. Together with LinkedIn and GitHub, it is bringing together and integrating three sets of offerings to meet the needs of job seekers – with free access to learning opportunities, certificates, and employment tool
• Finding a Job during Challenging Economic Times.

LinkedIn Tips & Tricks:

On Job Change : Seek perspectives of your peer's, managers via LinkedIn recommendation https://www.dhirubhai.net/help/linkedin/answer/96/request-a-recommendation

Settings: Turn on "Career Advice" for mentoring opportunities.