6 Tips for Freshers to Prepare for Software Developer Job

When I came to office today morning, my team told me that we have received around thousand resumes for one Jr Developer Trainee Position. Team was overwhelmed and I was worried looking at the state of freshers job market. There are resumes from 2015, 2016 batches as well and that was more worrying factor.

So, I decided to put some notes for my young friends. I hope it will help some of you in moving towards right direction.

I am listing 6 suggestions, which should help you increase probability of getting placed or atleast prepare you for job interview in IT industry. Make note, I am not listing those - how to crack interview (crash tips). I want you to start working on each of these suggestions and try to improve on it everyday, as some of these will take time.

1. Profile Yourself

As a fresher most companies will look for three important traits. Profile yourself - where you are good at and where you need more work.

• Technical Skills: Make sure you UNDERSTAND basics like OOPS concepts, Data base concept, Data structure and one programming language depending upon your interest area. UNDERSTAND is very important word, don't just read interview question. Any good interviewer or decent programming test will expose your lack of understanding. 
• Programming Skills: Have you done enough coding? Programming language doesn't matter but you should start doing your academic projects (if not already done), sample assignments. Learn & explore by doing practical examples, project etc. This will automatically give you confidence to face any technical interview and will also help you with program tests. For MNC's this always takes second priority and Communication skills takes first priority. I will come back to this point later.
• Aptitude: Most of the companies use this as a filtering criteria but Aptitude is very important judging criteria. Aptitude is basically defined as an innate, learned or acquired ability of individual to perform task. It can be judged in various ways like numerical reasoning, logical reasoning, verbal reasoning etc. Some are natural in aptitude but it is something which can easily be perfected with practise.

Once you complete profiling, start working on your weak areas. I have listed pointers on how to work on each one of it.

Improve Technical Skills

I mostly encounter in the interviews that most candidates doesn't have sound base knowledge of technology fundamentals even if it is covered in graduation courses. Most try to take shortcut by reading online interview questions. There is 50-50 chance, you might succeed in answering the interview question. 

I suggest everyone to read and understand the concept for - OOPS, DBMS and Data Structure. This is base of any application development and programming. Most good interviewers will test your knowledge on these concepts. You can better understand these concept by trying to implement it in actual code. Why always use Car or Animal example to explain OOPS concepts, explain it using the small app you built for say employee management. 

Improve Programming Skills

This is actually basic necessity for anybody who wants to be a developer. If you have not done any programming during your graduation this is the time to start! It will not only help you in the interviews/program tests but it will also help in becoming good developer. Take any one programming language like Java (preferred), C++ or PHP (in case of web development) and start working small assignments or live projects. Offer to freelance for some project without charging or take up internship (more on this in different suggestion). The more you program, more you become comfortable and confident for tests and interviews. It will also give you option to work as freelancer in waiting timeframe.

Prepare for Aptitude Tests

I personally think with good practise and technique understanding, it should be easy to crack any aptitude test. There are many websites which offer online aptitude practise (just google it), more practise you do more perfect you become. This is the crude but effective way to clear this stage. If you want better way and learn the concept/techniques then there are good books like A Modern Approach to Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning by R. S. Agrawal.

2. Practical Experience

If you are just out of college and searching for the job then this may not be applicable for you. But anyone who has already spent more than 6 month in job search must think and act on this suggestion. The biggest mistake students do is wait for too long for perfect job and then they start doing desperate things like joining so called "placement guarantee" firms by paying hefty fees or purchasing fake experience letters. I am not against joining classes but don't join for such classes for sole reason to get placement opportunity. 

If you want to stand out of crowd, gain practical experience from IT company. The best way to gain experience is internship. Offer to work as an intern to a good company which can give you experience in particular field. Make sure you ask for good quality work as an intern and you actually gain practical experience. 

If you perform well during internship there is always a opportunity to get job in the same company else you have practical experience to show-off and answer to the question - what were you doing till date?.

Please be extra sure, not to join or pay to company for any kind of fake experience letter. Any experienced interviewer can easily catch your fake experience letter. 

Knowledge is important and not the experience letter!!

3. Be Flexible

Freshers do have lots of wrong notions, like developers get good job growth, there are lots of testing jobs and non-it background people should choose testing career, only Java has future etc. And they try stick to it. 

If you have definite career goal based on your skills then take decision according to it. But if you are undecided or unsure about it then just be flexible with technology. If you know Java and company works on ASP.NET be open to work on it. If you have done android course and company is offering you opportunity in web development take it.

Now a days, you should be open to work on multiple technologies as per demand. This adds to your skill set and make your resume more attractive. Becoming jack of all is not a bad thing at all.

4. Resume

Resume is the first application received by recruiter. You get shortlisted based on it. Try to find a way to stand out but try to be true and honest. These tips might help.

• Avoid copy/past of resume. I once had a candidate who was not able to tell me objective written on his resume. Take the template if you want but write what your objectives, skills.
• Make sure you add and highlight your expertise or interest areas. Say you are good in Java, make sure you mention that with supporting statement in the professional summary/in first 2 paragraphs.
• Don't just add all the technology names you know. List only couple which you are very confident about.
• If you know the skill set required for a job, try to highlight skills related to that job. There is high probability of shortlisting your resume if you have matching skills set.
• Properly highlight project experience from academy or during internship.
• If you have practical experience, make sure you highlight that in first 2 paragraphs.

5. Communication Skills

Lots of companies give significance to the communication skills. I personally don't feel communication is crucial in becoming good developer. In fact, lots of good developers I know are not very good in communication. That is a personal trait.

But in India (in most cases), Communication Skill = English language, so this is something everyone should work on and can easily be improved. Large number of candidates from semi-urban or rural area fail to crack interview because of their lack of English proficiency. They can't answer simple questions due low confidence in speaking english.

Trust me you can improve your English very easily and it is continuous process. Start now and try to follow these simple instructions:

1. Don't be afraid of speaking in English in public, stop worrying about what others will think or if they will laugh at you.
2. Start reading English news (google new is fine too) or newspaper. Spend 30 min everyday, it will be easily the best source of vocabulary and will increase your current affair knowledge :).
3. Speak in English with your friends and family. You are most comfortable with them, so it should give you confidence.
4. Watch English news, English TV programs (Friend, Big Bang Theory :) - perfect stress busters  ). 
5. Practice your English with customer care executives for your mobile connections, DTH connections, bank help line number as well. As you are on phone, you may not feel that nervousness. 

6. Do's & Don'ts

Finally I am listing few more Do's and Don'ts

• Dos
• If you want to, join training class which gives more practical training and hands-on experience. Demand learning!
• Write personalised one to one emails to HR while applying for the Job.
• Make sure your subject line is proper and giving it all the information needed like - Resume/Jr Developer/2016 Passout/Java/6month internship
• Ask the regular HR questions to yourself like short term/long term goals, why particular company etc. I don't advice particular template, just try to answer them honestly. 
• Research about the company like services, products etc.
• Take interview as discussion rather than oral exam, try to be friendly but respectful with interviewer.
• Be as honest as possible with answers. 
• Confidence is the key, take the deep breath before interview and start interview with smile :).
• Don't
• Spend money for experience letter or placement consultancies.
• Join classes solely for placement opportunity.
• Send bulk emails adding all the company HR ids in TO.
• Copy paste the resume of somebody else.
• Prepare for interview by reading interview questions.
• Wait too long for perfect job.

I hope, these suggestions might help some of you. If you have any further questions or need any kind of guidance - please feel free to reach me. I have created email id careercoachamol@gmail.com solely for this purpose & I will try to be as responsive as possible. If you are in Pune you can drop by to my office (please let me know) for any queries.
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