What to Consider Before Your First Software Development Job
I made my decision to change my job recently and gave a few interviews and I‘m still searching for opportunities. While I was searching I realized something about the job interviews or offers you get. I realized how the first job impact where you can get next. I would like to share my experience and things I could have done and you could do to have better job opportunities in the future.
Didn’t research the company enough
We all have been there always looking out for companies like FAANG but not every one of us gets a job there. Some of us get offers from startups either through referrals or job portals. After a few rejections because of no industrial experience we just are like “Just give me a job so that I can get experience and some exposure.” So we jump into it without researching at the first offer thinking what could go wrong?
I’m not complaining or blaming anyone I’m just gonna give out some scenarios.
Here is the best-case scenario. You get an amazing work culture, great team, and opportunity to grow and learn (we all want this). What could be the worst-case scenario? First one. You are the only engineer and have been always on Leetcode or any CP platform and learned mostly about DSA or Algorithm and now you’re tasked with making some app that you have no idea how to approach. Second, You found a good mentor but you’re overworked and you get almost no help and in the end, you wanna quit but you can’t because of the Bond you signed because you have no idea how legality work...
How to research a company?
- LinkedIn: Find the company and look at their post or job opening or maybe have a casual chat with one of the employees, not the HR though.
- Glassdoor: This is an amazing site, you get reviews or you could post one anonymously. You could find information about their work culture and also the salary of some employees
- Crunchbase.com: Here you could find information like when the company was registered, is it operational and where is it based on, and also who its founders are.
Don’t know how to answer questions like your expected CTC
Here’s the one piece of advice don’t give them numbers or range in the telephonic round no matter what they say. This here my friend is a holy grail that can help you get better job offers later.
Here's the fun part as soon as you give a number or range without knowing what the company has to offer you’re doomed. Why? you may think. Here’s Why?
- You say a number that is way lower than their budget and later you realize you could have asked for more…
- You gave a number that is a bit high or way high and you lose the chance to even interview
- You gave numbers from their range then negotiation begins and the question will be like what if we can’t give that much? Or since you’re inexperienced why you are looking for CTC for a person who has 2–3 years of experience?
Does any of the points ring bell? It is really important not to give out expectations at the beginning that could lead to a trap and your first offer will define how much more you could next?
How to answer this question?
Here’s what I say. “I can’t answer that question yet until I don’t know what I’m getting into and what would I be doing there?” Another thing I say is “I can’t answer that question until I know the work culture or benefits I’ll be getting?” And If there’s someone persuading then I just answer “I saw the job posting and the salary range provided there works for me. We could talk in detail once I know the work culture and what I’ll be working on.” and If I have an offer then just give a number with a minimum of 20% more but less than 50% this increased the chance of getting interviewed and also let the interviewer know that you know the industry standard. In any situation, if you have an offer they’ll always give 20–25% more than the previous offer, or for some reason, the offering party has backed off the new one will match them.
Confusing CTC with Salary
We all have been there when we first heard the term CTC which for us meant salary until you get the appointment letter where your CTC breakup is mentioned. We look at the in-hand salary and are confused how are you getting half of the current CTC? I’ll write another post sometime on CTC and how to understand it. For now, just understand that salary is what you get and CTC is what a company pays for you this includes Home rent, Travel, and other amenities like internet reimbursement. Some companies will just pay you in hand and other allowances if they provide you with a place to stay. The same goes for the travel allowance. I haven’t found any company yet that deducts allowances but that’s what a CTC means. So while giving out numbers don’t confuse CTC with Salary and do add your allowances in it.
Not taking time before accepting the Offer or time off before joining
Why is this important you may think I got the offer and I have a job why should I wait? Here’s the fun fact. With waiting out 2–3 more days you may have a chance from hearing from other companies and interviewing with them because you’re not committed yet. And waiting out for a week gives you chance to take another interview from round 1 to the final round without worrying about joining the job. And if things go right then you will have an offer letter with 20–50% more CTC.
It’s a different case if you already like the company and their work culture then you can ignore the current point.
Always on CP platform rather than building project or portfolio
This has not much to do with the mistakes themselves but can be helpful.
Competitive Programming or CP for short is a mind sport usually held over the Internet or a local network, involving participants trying to program according to provided specifications. These were great a few years ago but nowadays these include problems that have nothing to with programming in general. I could be wrong but here’s what I think about CP… It is just a waste of time and gives a false sense of doing something great. It’s better you build a few projects, contribute in open-source and improve your portfolio. All the stars in CP will not guarantee you a job or equip you with the knowledge that will help you solve a real-world problem.
Build a portfolio of projects (app clones also work) so that it is easier for the company to know if you have worked or built something similar to that of their products. This gives an edge to you over other candidates and also improves your chances of getting selected for the next rounds.
If you found this post helpful do refer to others who could also help others. If there is anything I could have added to this post do let me know I’ll add them. Thanks for reading this post.