From Mediocrity to 4.0-Landing the dream Job

The year was 2019; I had finally begun my graduate program at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock. Fortunately, a friend advised me to apply for internships from Day-1, so I started from Day 1. Because I did not have any funding sources for school, I had to combine applying for internships with looking for On-campus employment.

Finding on-campus employment was really tough. It may have been easier if I had landed in the country well before the semester started, as most of the jobs were filled by the time I came in. Understanding the value of my network, I started informing friends I had made about my job challenges and encouraged them to inform others so I would know of any job openings they came across. This Worked!

Initially, I got a job as a library assistant, and later on; I got a more lucrative job as a graduate research assistant. This job paid part of my school fees, allowed me to pay tuition for American residents from Arkansas (In-state Tuition), and gave me a monthly stipend.

The path to finding a fall internship was not rosy as well. By the end of the Spring of the following year, I had applied to over 200 job roles and interviewed with 10 companies but I could not land a job.

Getting the 10 interviews were also very tough. I got a lot of rejection emails, which I became very accustomed to getting at some point. In the end, the journey was well worth it, as I made a lot of mistakes but learnt a great deal.

I remember interviewing with Walmart back then and the interviewer asked–Why do you want to work for Walmart? Naively I responded, “Who wouldn’t want to work for Walmart. I mean we all shop from Walmart”–Big Mistake, maybe. I didn’t get the job!

In the end, I interviewed with Roche, Walmart, Goldman Sachs Ayco, American Express, Facebook, Dropbox, Square, Apple. I didn’t get into any but eventually got an externship (unpaid internship) with HP. My first real internship opportunity came from a company called First Orion Corporation 5months before I graduated from UA Little Rock. They employed me as a Product Analyst intern.

The path to getting full-time employment was, however, more seamless. As was customary, I applied to many companies to increase my odds. So, between June 2020 and January 2021, I applied to over 178 job roles. I tracked 158 of these. This paid off. Even though I had several rejections, I got interviews with Verizon, Adobe, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook. They butted me out in the last stage of the Verizon interview and the second stage of the Adobe interview. I opted out of the last stages of the Amazon and Facebook interviews because I had accepted an offer with Microsoft.

Principles that Worked

Identify your strength and Talents - The general narrative when I started applying for internships was that only software engineers and data scientists could land top jobs in Tech. While I had basic experience in both areas, they were however not my strongest skills. I had spent over 10years building digital products and I was pretty good at this, yet I jumped on the narrative and tried to get only core data science jobs.

Unsurprisingly, I wasn’t successful. I also found it difficult to pass the few interviews I got in these areas, as they were often too technical for me. Eventually, I circled back to my core talent- product management but this time with a sub-focus focus on data science.

Start Early and Track - I began my job applications early enough and tracked companies I applied to using a google spreadsheet. This allowed me to follow up on interviews and prepare adequately.

Have a superb Resume - By the time I landed my job, I had revised my Resume over 40times. Every day, there was something new to add or a narrative to change. I also learnt keyword formatting. This is hugely important as many times, when we apply to jobs, a system reviews for matches with the published vacancy's job description and only passes on those that are hugely similar to the recruiter. So it is important to spend time on keyword optimization for your resume.

In America, many recruiters like one-page resumes except where you are applying for Ph.D. positions. Also, it is important to include achievements in form of data and metrics in your resume e.g. Achieved $2million in sales revenue through a channel I deployed, etc.

Have a great LinkedIn profile and/or Personal website - Your LinkedIn profile and personal career website are as important as your resume. Both platforms allow you to give recruiters more details about yourself and show them your portfolio. Two of the interviews I attended were set up via recruiters reaching out on LinkedIn because they liked my profile. I find tracking my LinkedIn Social selling Index relevant.

Understand how interviews are conducted - In the United States, behavioral interviews are important. Typically, answers during these interviews are expected in STAR format. (Situation, Task, Action, Result). To master behavioral interviews, it is important to practice. Write what you would say if asked a question like “Tell Me About Yourself” and practice what you write until you can say it without looking at your writeup. For software engineering(SWE) roles, many organizations rely on hacker-rank and Leetcode to get their questions. Sign-up and practice.

Research and Prepare - For every interview I secured, before the interview, I researched the company thoroughly, my interviewers, and the job expectations. This was relevant for asking the right questions during interviews and ensuring I was adequately prepared.

Utilize your personal and social network - The friends and network I had formed over the years were also very relevant. They helped me prepare for interviews, understand the kind of questions to expect, and referred me for job opportunities.

Attend Conferences and Job fairs - a few of my job interviews were secured through conferences and job fairs. Going through several interviews helps boost your confidence and helps identify weaknesses early enough.

Learn, Unlearn and Relearn - No company wants to hire a liability. While my primary job skill is centered on product/program management, I can work as a business analyst, operations manager, data scientist, testing engineer, UI/UX designer, website designer, Logistics Manager, Farmer, Researcher, legal assistant, HR generalist etc. These are based on skills, courses, classes, and endeavors I have embarked on and taken over the years. Be Versatile!!

Expect Failure - it took a while before I started getting interviews. I applied to about 200 roles for an internship and over 175 roles for a full-time position. Don’t expect success overnight. It is going to be a painful but rewarding journey once you have what it takes and learn from your mistakes.

In summary, Success is not for the faint of heart.

Job tools that were important include;

Resume Keyword optimization

• SkillSyncer: https://skillsyncer.com/
• Jobscan: https://jobscan.co/
• ResumeWorded: https://resumeworded.com/

Job Vacancy portal 

• LinkedIn Jobs: https://www.dhirubhai.net/jobs/
• Indeed: https://www.indeed.com/
• Glassdoor: https://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm

STAR format

• STAR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QfSnuL8Ny8

Resume Design 

• Canva: https://www.canva.com/

Interview Prep Videos 

• Exponent: https://www.youtube.com/c/ExponentTV/videos
• BigInterview: https://biginterview.com/

Code

• LeetCode: https://leetcode.com/
• Hackerrank: https://www.hackerrank.com/
• SQL: https://mode.com/sql-tutorial/

Books

• Coding: https://www.crackingthecodinginterview.com/
• Product Management: https://www.crackingthepminterview.com/
• Daily coding problem: https://amzn.to/3yvA6d6