Need advice on career choice

Career Advice
#1

Hey there everyone, hope you are all safe and well.

I will graduate (B.Tech. Computer Science 2016-2020 batch) in the coming month. All my results are out (8.5 GPA out of 10.0). I study in a good tier-3 college and also had a really good placement (5 LPA) which I obtained via campus placement during the start of my last year. Since I had a good placement I slacked of the whole year (till then I was doing courses to develop my knowledge but stopped them all, this I regret a lot). I was not allowed to sit in anymore placement drives as one student can only have one placement in my college.

Now there is a pandemic and a few months before, my company cancelled our placement offers as they couldn’t hire anymore.

I have been applying for a lot of jobs and finally got another offer in a company with low package and a 2 year bond.

I am not particularly good in coding but have really committed myself to improving my coding.

I am in no rush to find a job, and is financially quite stable. I just need advice to whether I should accept this job offer. I really want to study coding better and make up for the time I slacked off in college and then apply for better jobs. Is this a good idea?
Considering the current pandemic situation will I get better jobs after sometime (considering I do courses like that of FCC and maybe some personal projects too)?
Is it okay to stay unemployed for some months (or maybe a year) right after graduation?
I am extremely stressed as I have no good jobs right now. Is me being stressed completely idiotic?

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#2

Hi jkp,

I’m hunting for a job too, but my story is quite different. I won’t talk about that here though.

I didn’t complete my college degree ( I dropped out the 2nd year), but I can give you some advice after reading some cool stories here here.

First and foremost: DO NOT ACCEPT THAT JOB.

Have you ever thoughts about how many things you can achieve in two years?

Some math:

If you study 10h/day for the next 60-90 days, you can easily acquire 2-3 certifications on FreeCodeCamp.org.

Certifications on their own do not matter much, but projects do, and at the end of each certification you have good projects to complete, which help you craft a great portfolio.

You can start sending out CVs well before the end of your certifications on AngelList, LinkedIn, Indeed, FlexJobs and so on.

In a matter of 3-5 months you can get a well paid entry-level position I’d say.

Moreover, you said to be in a good financial situation, so why not working your ass off getting some nano-degrees on Udacity?

Again, certifications do not matter much, but projects that you’ll have to complete do.

Those are recognized by big brands in the industry, and you got even career coaching at the end of each nano-degree.

You seem to be overanxious. You’re overthinking this situation too.

Just take the lead, choose a programming path and start working your ass off until it pays off.

#3

I’m not sure employers care about FCC projects, though. There are a lot of to-do list and drum machines out there…

#4

I am doing a JS course in Udemy parallel to this. Is doing these courses and maybe a personal project which I can put into my resume good enough for better jobs than what I have now?

#5

I am just learning so we’ll have to wait for real programmers to answer, but I’m just passing down the advice I was given and have read. I have heard that projects from tutorials and courses are considered much less valuable than something unique you built up yourself. Once in a while, someone will post a projects page here, and the ones that get good feedback are doing pretty sophisticated things that are above tutorial-like projects.

IMO you should do these projects and courses and build as much of your own stuff as possible. It may just be a while before you’ve reached the level of projects that will make a difference.

But then again, you have a degree and so maybe that will be enough, too, so definitely put yourself out there and give it a try!

#6

Hey Cactus,

I believe you’re correct on projects.

The more original they are, the better.

In my situation, there are two facts:

1.I just figured out that the FCC learning style is not my own. I’d die before finishing the certifications. I loved the learning style of Codecademy, and taken 6 different language courses, but I know that their coding projects are not enough.
2. I have just a vague idea of what I may do as a personal project and then work my way up from there learning by doing.

We’ll be waiting for experts opinion, but for now, @jkp, don’t get that job. Realize you have way better opportunities.

Try to apply to some internships on Angellist. I understood you’re in the US, so it won’t be a problem applying to them.

#7

the only mandatory part of freeCodeCamp certs is the projects, so you could do those and get the certificates without all the lessons

#8

If he works 40 hours per week, he could still spent around 40 hours per week (including weekends) working on tutorials & projects. I think this is not necessarily an either or choice.

#9

that’s right, but he’s then obliged to work for two years in that company. I’d not do that myself when I’m not clear about my career path and the role itself.

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#10

Did you take the certifications?

I understood that taking the lessons is not mandatory, but you should gather info anyway from other resources, in my case that would be Codecademy.

I’ll probably figure this out on Monday, as I guess that Codecademy has his own set of resources as well to learn the foundations of data science.

To work my way from there to building the projects I guess it’s always the same: Read, Research, Ask.

That being said, I’m still trying to understand if projects are worth the effort, as many may do that so the perceived value decreases.

#11

I was thinking instead of starting from public datasets and working on those with different functions and from different perspectives.

Obviously it needs to be articulated, but that’s the main point.

Starting from real-life data and work my way to building a project ( in this case data analytics, visualization and conclusions) gathering information along the way.

#12

I have one of them

it’s more of a personal milestone, as freeCodeCamp is not an accredited institution.

#13

That sounds like an incredibly unhealthy and counterproductive path to take. We’re humans not machines.

#14

This highly depends on the company.

When you apply for a job at a local small startup, you send a message to the CEO including a compelling motivational letter. They will invite you and you talk about life, business, your motivation, your skills, your side projects etc. I never had to show my university degree or some other certificates.

When you apply for a job at a big company, you fill out an application form on the company’s website or a recruiting agency. The highly automated Applicant Tracking System filters out depending on 100 items (degree, certificates, GPA, language, timezone, projects (race, ethnicity, religion, age, gender, social media :face_with_monocle:). If you pass it, you get a message from the recruiter of the recruiter of the recruiter of the company. They will invite you for the 1st of 10 assessment center rounds.

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