Stupid guide for starting a professional career

So you are searching for a job and not able to figure out how to do it? Where to start? how to look for the right opportunity? What one should do to land the right job? Here is a simple algorithm which might help you to drive in the right direction.

Let's start...

First, It is always better to figure out where you stand before deciding where you want to go. Let see who you are first.

There are three kinds of characters

• Normal Person: They are clear about what they want to do in their life. Imagine all of the people you envy, Yes, including Elon Musk, they are normal people.

Legend's: Will figure out type, Street Smart, Have a practical opinion, Lazy, Get motivated easily

• Ultra Legend: No clue about what is going on in the world and in their life. Also, they think the world is unfair to them. They have opinions about everything and everyone. These are the same people who exactly know, "How Dhoni should have made the decision". These are the ones who think they are normal people.

I was or maybe even now sometimes an Ultra legend. To show my mindfulness here is one of the answers I have given in my interview.

Interviewer: What is the page size in the Window NT Operating system

Me: A2, A4, I think A3 was also there

Interviewer: You made my day, why don't you own this company        

What assumption I have made

• If you are a normal person, the high probability you are not reading this (Really you thought you are). So you must be falling into Ultra legend or at least probable in the Legend category. All tips here are to build a simple algo to move from Ultra legend to Legends categories.
• You want to work in the software field. Although you can generalize this for any field ( if you want to work hard).

This algorithm is not anywhere near perfect. It does not guarantee you will be successful. It does not guarantee you will lend in BigBoss. It also does not guarantee that you will get a call from Elon Musk for coffee.

Side note: I followed this and miserably failed but who knows you might get benefitted :)

Why regular things don't work?

• ~ 400000 jobs available in the software
• ~3+ million competitors (including your batchmate, Previous batch, your friend, your cousin, your dad, mom, uncle, aunt, and your girlfriend/boyfriend too ). Welcome to reality.

How I know this number, Read the title again, also if you are able to figure it out yourself, Congratulations, you can leave this page right now. You are almost in Legend category now :)

When all else fail, there is always delusion

So, we have 7 people competing for 1 job. Not bad. Look brighter side, you don't have to narrate a sad story on Indian idol.

Some clarity before moving forward:

• Active and passive activity. Playing football is active, watching TV is passive, Writing code is active, using apps is passive.
• Don't be tempted to do or try to do everything in every field. Focus on a few, measure your performance, Laugh out loud on your mistake and share it with everyone, improve, change and then repeat.

Finally here are three steps to follow

1. Give reality check and start focussing
2. Identify the area of interest and narrow your search
3. Target, Learn, strike and Repeat

Steps 1: Give reality check and start focussing

• Stand up and look in the mirror and Ask this "Will I hire this person if I have millions of dollars invested in my business? If the answer is Yes, Ask again, Really?"

• The things which you will focus on eventually you will achieve. Imagine you are born in the jungle (Mogli). Do you think throwing arrows in every direction, running in every direction, and praying to birds/stones/fire will get you the end day meal? If not, then please respect Darwin and evolve smartly or you can always have an opportunity to perform on Tiktoke (No offense).

All cows were like other cows, all tigers like all other tigers - What on earth happened to human beings?

Step 2: Identify the area of interest and narrow down your search

• Now, You need to find your passion (lol, this is way too cliche). If you already have one then, Better figure out a way to make money out of it or do the below exercise. In case you are like me who don't know what passion means or like doing everything for a few days and get bored to say "Aise kaise kar lete he log ye kaam pure Life" do the below exercise to identify an area of interest.

The first exercise, What do I like doing?

How to do it?

• Close your eyes and imagine what "Active" things you generally do where time dilates for you. In simple terms, something which you can do for a long long hour without tea, coffee, or any other person
• Remember the "active" thing where you involve frequently and give random shit excuses to not join other things. In simple terms, your mom is calling you for dinner and you say 10 minutes for the next 3 hours.?

Chances are you will find your passion. If not, don't worry, At least you will find things which you can work on without getting stress and lots of smiles on your face. It's time to figure out which of the below categories of actions you enjoyed most

1. Building something - Software engineer/Devops/Coder/Programmer/Geek/Bhagwaan/Shaktimaan/etc.
2. Collaboration - Sales/PreSales/Program Manager/Technical Program Manager/Admin/IT/Service industry/etc
3. Observation and Contribution - Consultant/Analyst/Product/etc

Above is just tentative guidelines, not rules. Don't be "Subodh" from "Dil Chahta He"

The second exercise, What area excites me most?

How to do it?

• Explore your browser history (Biography, Moneycontrol, Astalavista, Any Dev blogs, etc.)
• Explore your book collection (Mayapuri, Gruhlaxmi, KKR review, Finance, SaaS, Cloud, WTO, Quant algorithmic trading, etc)
• Explore your friend circle
• Figure out what your family generally talks about which gets your attention.
• Things which upset you most and you always have opinions about (Except cricket and politics)

When I did this exercise I realized I like to know about Hacking and Movies. Unfortunately, we didn't have any startup or software company dealing in those areas. But now there are plenty of opportunities.?

These exercises should help you identify few areas of your interest.

Again, Say with me loud and clear, THESE ARE NOT RULE. Don't comment saying, I read TOI and want to know about BigBoss but still I like to work on Quantitative analysis. Well, you can say that as well, but in that case, you are a Normal person then :)

We have what you like to work on and which field interests you. Take an intersection and list down those in ascending order.?

Tip: Don't take more than 3 fields (eg. Finance,SaaS, Healthcare) and more than 30 companies.?

Step 3: Target, Learn, strike and Repeat

• Visit these company websites and go through their products
• Listen, follow, read all leadership material from these company
• Figure out their industry, team Structure, and who all are their part of the Recruitment team.

Tip, Sometimes linkedin doesn't directly give you the name, so do the intersection of different employee connections working in these companies. Figure out what kind of developer or skillset these company hunting for.

• Write a script to scan their career page, and send yourself notification of changes.
• Buy a good book, subscribe to good blogs about the Tech stack they are using. How to figure out which tech stack they are using? There are a lot of third-party tools which can tell you by analyzing their product or you are a tech geek, figure it out. Kuchh to mehnat karo mere nandlal :)

Tip: Stop paying or subscribing to courses and certificates. Why do you need a certificate from someone else? Let your word reflect your intellect.

• Be proficient in one of the main programming languages they are using
• Be proficient in one of the main DB they are using
• Read/Learn How browsers work from Google. Must read before sitting for an interview.
• Learn CAP theorem
• Learn and practice the most used Linux command and read about load and stress debugging
• Take Bath -> Sometimes cold showers do miracles in life.

Lastly, Laugh, Smile be stupid more often. No power, money, or possession is more precious than laughing at oneself and taking it easy. :)

Time is your capital, Invest wisely

If you want me to write down how to crack the interview. Do let me know in the comments. It is more art than science.