Do you need help getting going in your software engineering career? If you’ve having difficulties starting your career in software engineering, it could very well be an issue of a personal network over a lack of skills. On the other hand, certification is a good way to beef up one’s résumé. Perhaps you have issues in an interview; information technology people have a reputation for being introverted or socially awkward. It all depends on your career goals; software is a huge industry with many needs in different areas: according to the Job Bank of Canada, the job prospects for a software engineer over the next three years are overall good (4 on a scale of 5), only limited (2 on a scale of 5) in Ontario and moderate in New Brunswick and Quebec.
Building the Software Engineer’s Contact Network
It can be extremely costly for a company to make poor hiring decisions when it comes to software engineers. Projects can be set back, opportunities lost, and of course there’s the cost of both terminating an employee and looking for a replacement. Knowing someone’s skills and attitude ahead of time can reduce the risk, and that’s where having a personal network of contacts comes in. People in your network can vouch for you or provide valuable information about employers. Try memberships in professional associations such as the Professional Engineers of Ontario, Canada’s Association of Information Technology (CIPS), and the Canadian Society of Electrical and Computer Engineering (IEEE Canada). You can also find groups using social networks such as Meetup for Software Engineers, LinkedIn, or the best Discord servers for software engineers.
If you’re unfamiliar with using Rite Careers LinkedIn training.
Strengthening a Software Engineer’s Résumé
Indeed has a list of 11 software engineering certifications and providers if you have the time and resources to spend on their certification process. Certain jobs will require certification.
Aside from certifications, experience is extremely important. You can always make a start with entry-level positions, but independent software projects in game development or tools also demonstrate your skills and expertise – especially if the employer can test them out for quality.
Your résumé will need more than certifications and projects to catch an employer’s attention. You’ll want to customize it to match their needs, and you may need to work on your cover letter just to get it seen. Some information technology and engineering professionals have difficulty with writing as they tend to focus on algorithms, math and logic over words, and again this is where Rite Careers can help with writing résumés and cover letters.
Interviewing Practice
Everyone benefits from interviewing practice. There are guides available online, such as the Tech Interview Handbook and Stack Overflow’s “The Science of Interviewing Developers” has some insight from the other side of the desk.
If you’re just not confident in an interview however, you need to practice. Experience and practice are the only ways you’ll be able to appear confident and beat the jitters.
Rite Career’s interview practice can help speed up that process, and better yet you can get feedback to see where you need work – something that’s hard to get from your career-search interviewers.
Good luck in your Software Engineer career journey!
