How to find a *good* software job if you are a new graduate?

Question

Hi,

I'll soon (in an year) be graduating with an undergraduate master's (four years) in computer related field. At my university campus placements will start the coming semester. This will be the last semester on campus as we would be going off campus for industry internships in the final semester. Generally the Placement Division gets everybody a job. But my concern is that if one relies on them for a job one tends to end up in a non-creative position writing different flavors of simple database entry and retrieval code, if you know what I mean.

So how and when does a person like me go about searching for a reasonably good (read creative) job? Ideally I would like to do web development (esp. in Python) and don't mind the location of the job. I'm currently in India if that changes things.

Thanks for your time.

Edit: All suggestions are welcome but I'm primarily hoping to find how does one find such jobs to apply for.

Answer 1

Check this out.

Answer 2

The only thing I can say is don't settle for something you don't want to do. I passed up a bunch of QA jobs because I wanted to be a developer (although nowadays the best QA people are developers).

Answer 3

1. To get a good software job, or a job at all you need to be good yourself.
2. Have something, or multiple somethings to show or talk about in the interview.
3. Know a range of languages, it helps if you know the language required for the job (generally it's an X job, whether or not that'll actually be the case when you get it.
4. Specialize in something, be passionate about an aspect of software (it helps if they're looking for that quality).

If you fail at any of the above, become a web developer.

Answer 4

I think it helps if you are a person first and a programmer second - soft skills like communication, documentation etc. etc. go a long way in an actual job, and it's no longer really about having an encyclopaedic knowledge (though one would certainly help, I still reckon half of all code being made at the moment comes in some way or another from Google :))

And plus, if you are an interesting person, you're at least more likely to be remembered, which might lead to future opportunities once you have the fabled "experience" under your belt!

Answer 5

It depends on what you are looking for. At a large software company junior devs are the labor. Mostly don't ask why...just build what we tell you to. There may be exceptions but generally you will be implementing features designed by someone else.

I worked at startups and was able to develop faster simply because I had more responsibility. However I also had good mentors and if you are at a large company they often have established mentoring programs.

Things I look for when hiring:

1. Enthusiasm and depth in a single project. I don't usually care what so long as it is reasonable.
2. Understanding software principles. I care less about language. They usually fall into 4 major categories, C/C++, Managed Languages (Java, C#), Functional languages (OCaml, Haskell) and dynamic languages. You need to understand the category I am hiring for not necessarily the language if you are good.
3. Can you work with others.
4. Can I work with you.

Thats it. Most junior devs have no idea how to really effectively use source control and the other tools of the trade. Training in areas like this are simply a tax companies pay to develop talent.

But once again it depends on what you want to do and what you want to learn. Most junior devs think they understand scale and I like to let them really fail once so they understand what is involved. Think more about what are you doing in 5 years and how will this job help you get there.