Chapter 15
IN THIS CHAPTER
Having a professional headshot taken by a photographer
Establishing a GitHub profile and get plenty of referrals
Creating your own YouTube channel
Having a good blog as well as produce an audio podcast and vlog
Showing off mobile apps, a self-published book, and speaking engagements
If you’re applying for a software development job, always presume that many of your fellow programmers will apply for that job, too. Here are ten ways you, and not just your résumé and cover letter, can stand out to your potential employer and get you an interview.
Use a professional headshot, taken by a professional photographer, as your profile picture on all your social media profiles. Don’t use a good selfie you took of yourself while you were on vacation. Instead, get some recommendations for a photographer from friends, colleagues, and even your social media connections.
Then dress professionally (at least from the waist up), get well-groomed, go to the photography studio, and get headshots that will show you’re a professional. Once you get the photos and you’ve decided on the ones you want to use, put that headshot on all your social media profiles to create a consistent brand for yourself.
If you don’t have a GitHub profile to interact with other software developers, sign up for free on the GitHub website (https://github.com
), shown in Figure 15-1.
A GitHub profile not only gets you access to other developers, it also affords you the opportunity to demonstrate your programming abilities. If one or more people who work at an employer can find your GitHub profile and can see the type of code you’ve written as well as the projects you’ve contributed to, they’ll have much more confidence that:
One big benefit of LinkedIn is that you can get and ask for plenty of online referrals, which LinkedIn calls recommendations, and post them on your LinkedIn profile for anyone to see. But you shouldn’t just rely on people to give you recommendations on LinkedIn — you should already have plenty of people you could ask who would be happy to recommend you for a programming job.
So, ask those people if one or more people will write you a recommendation letter to send with your cover letter and résumé. The hiring manager or team manager may be a bit confused at first with all the papers included in your envelope, but then realize that you have plenty of people who are happy to recommend you and talk with company management about you.
That added proof that you’re well-regarded in the industry will get your résumé and cover letter noticed. Referrals are not a panacea because you still have to make sure your résumé and cover letter look great, but including referral letters will make it much more likely that whoever is reviewing résumés looks at yours.
We live in an age where it’s easy to make videos and post them online, so it’s a good idea to post a video résumé starring you on all your social media websites.
You can hire a videographer to professionally produce your video résumé, but you can probably do it yourself using your webcam. Just be sure to practice talking naturally into the camera so you come off as authentic and genuine. When you’re ready to record, we recommend men wear at least a shirt and tie (if you’re just sitting down) and groom yourself so you look professional.
You can put a link to your video résumé in your printed one. When people reviewing your résumé type in the link, they should see a brief video that not only features you talking about who you are as a programmer and your experience, but also shows some of your personality so the viewer can get to know you a little bit.
If potential interviewers feel like you’re someone they want to work with after they watch your video résumé, don’t be surprised if you get a phone call or email message asking to set up a phone screen or an in-person interview.
If you want to go one step further with your videos and stand out not just to potential interviewers but to the software developer community at large, include your video résumé on your YouTube channel. This channel should also include several videos that show off your personality and expertise (see Figure 15-2).
A YouTube channel that you promote regularly on your other social media and software developer websites like GitHub will start to get you followers. What’s more, people at your prospective employer will look at your YouTube channel and think, “Wow, this person is teaching hundreds of developers on YouTube, so this is a good person to have on our team. This is someone who not only knows their stuff but will help our other programmers learn and grow.”
Your YouTube channel may not only attract followers but may also prompt people to send comments asking if you’re looking for a job. If you decide to start looking for employment, you can create a video that says you’re looking for a job and feature that video on your channel so you can generate leads.
Programming requires you to type code, so you should have a good blog that shows your coding expertise either in your preferred programming language and/or a variety of programming languages. A blog, such as the Simple Programmer blog shown in Figure 15-3, can
If you design your blog so you feature your desired search keywords prominently and frequently, Google will have an easy time finding your blog when people search for those keywords. Don’t forget to promote your latest blog posts on your social media and software developer websites, too.
You may find that during the interview, one or more interviewers will ask you about the blog because they’ve been reading articles on it. So, the blog acts as an extended interview that shows people at your prospective employer that you write well, can articulate your points, and that you’re an influencer and leader in the programming community.
If you want to go all-out to promote your expertise and personality, then add an audio podcast or its video equivalent, the vlog (short for video log), to your blog and YouTube channel offerings.
The vlog can be posted to both your social media websites, your blog itself, and/or your YouTube channel. You may also want to have your podcast on sites that host podcasts, such as Libsyn (https://libsyn.com
), shown in Figure 15-4.
If you’re the host of a podcast, it’s likely you won’t talk during the entirety of each podcast. (The length of a podcast will vary depending on the topic.) Instead, you’ll be talking with other people and creating a lot of connections. You’ll also show that you’re involved in the developer community.
As you build influence and a loyal listenership and/or viewership, you may become a celebrity among developers. Your popularity will make it easier for you to get the job you want because companies want to hire a famous software developer to work on their teams.
If you’ve published one or more apps in an iOS or Android app store, don’t forget to include this information in your résumé and cover letter, and ensure that any interviewers can easily find a link to the app on your social media profiles, blog, and YouTube channel.
Showing that you’ve developed one or more apps gives interviewers proof that:
If you haven’t built an app before, there are plenty of tutorials online — all you have to do is type build ios app or build android app in Google and you’ll get a results page full of tutorial links so you can get started.
The one tangible thing you can bring with you to your interview, other than copies of your résumé, is a copy of a self-published book. It can be difficult to write books for major publishers unless you already have experience with them as a technical editor, you coauthor a book with a lead author, or if you’ve self-published a book.
It’s easier than ever to publish and distribute a self-published book. You can sell your book as an ebook on websites including Amazon and Barnes & Noble as well as publish printed copies to give to people and sell on Amazon. The wikiHow website shown in Figure 15-5 (www.wikihow.com/Self-Publish-a-Book
) gives you step-by-step instructions about how to write and publish your own book.
A book can make you a little bit of money, especially if you take the time to study successful self-published authors — for example, look at Andy Weir, who self-published the novel The Martian. More important, the book serves as an advertisement for your services that shows interviewers that:
You may not have thought about speaking at events, or maybe you don’t want to think of it because the fear of public speaking, or glossophobia, is considered by some (perhaps including you) to be worse than death.
If you want to get up the courage to speak but don’t know where to get training, go to the Toastmasters International website (www.toastmasters.org
) and find a club in your area by clicking the Find a Club button in the upper-right corner of the screen. Then search for your nearest club in the Find a Club web page shown in Figure 15-6.
Toastmasters International is considered the premier organization for professionals to learn how to speak effectively and become better leaders. After you select your club, you can attend a meeting for free if there are no current restrictions to joining a club. (Some clubs have restrictions and the website will tell you if that’s so.) Once you decide to join, you can sign up as a new member for only $65 as of this writing; renewals cost $45 per year.
It may take you some time to get yourself where you want to be as a speaker, but once you gain enough confidence, you can start looking for speaking opportunities at local or regional events.
Check with Meetup events for software developers in your local area and ask the event coordinator about speaking opportunities. The same goes for local chamber of commerce and/or Rotary club meetings, though you’ll probably have to produce a different presentation for those business-oriented audiences.