how to start preparing for your dream job from day one in grad school

Start working towards your Dream Job from Day One

SCHOLAR STRATEGY

Nistha Tripathi

My job stories

• UIUC– Internship through

career services and friends on Wall St

– 1 out of 7 people selected worldwide

– Converted to fulltime

• NYU– Targeted search for

startups– Organized

entrepreneurship conference, networked a lot

– Active in clubs– Blogged, cover letters– Got the dream job offer,

dropped out

Why this session?

First lap is over but not the race

Dream Job & H1B Visa

Typical Job Hunt• Career Fairs

Tips for Career Fairs

• Dress smart• Take a note of all the companies, shortlist the

ones you are interested in• Talk to at least 3-4 companies BEFORE

approaching the ones you are interested in

Typical Job Hunt• Career services website

Don’t restrict yourself

LET THE JOB QUEST BEGIN

Know what you want

• Looking for which princess?

• Job in your core field?• PhD?• Research job or industrial?• If MIS/MEM – consulting, pm, business

analyst…?

What excites you?

Example

• Choice for software folks-– Core Dev (Intel, Cisco)– Mobile Dev (Mobile startups)– Web App Dev– Enterprise Softwares– UI Design– Machine Learning, Big Data– TestingWhat do you want to be an expert at?

If we don’t know our destination, all paths would

take us NOWHERE

Begin

• Pick your stream• Find 10 dream companies in your field• Look at their career pages – do they offer

internships etc?• Note the timelines• Find connections to people working there

(alumni, friend of friends etc)• Prepare and apply

HURDLES

Insufficient knowledge

• Missing the right skill set for your dream job

• Insufficient experience

-> Course selection

• Choose courses that will help you build crucial skills esp in first semester

• Algorithm (if you are targeting Google)• Strategy, Statistics (if targeting consulting)• Do projects that you can talk about in

interviews• Leverage your prior work ex

• TIP: You can take courses outside your department as well!

• E.g. one of my batchmates (EE) took lot of economic and finance courses, got into Investment Banking Program on Wall St

Miss Opportunities aka carelessness

• Miss internship deadlines

• Not knowing about off campus options

• Starting too late

-> Explore Career Services

• Not only for interview scheduling• Career service offers lot of useful resources:– Putting in touch with alumni (their email may be

more effective than your cold email)– Resume critique– Cover letter help

USE THEM EFFECTIVELY and EARLY

• Roopa, RPI and MBA later from Univ of Chicago, got her dream internship at Goldman Sachs

• Recommends – researched early about a lot of companies, getting resume etc reviewed by career office

-> Begin to network

• Research your seniors• Research your alumni (from the school you are

going to)• Attend talks, seminars and talk to people• Meet people on coffee, exchange updates• Offer a helping hand – comes back • Build long term relationships

• Manish Maheshwari, IITK and UIUC, got his dream job at Motorola via his IIT senior (it was not even advertised on campus)

• Remember - focusing on your dream job and networking

• (full interview in my upcoming book)

• Bhavesh Sanghvi, Iowa State Univ, missed applying deadlines for many internships in Fall, did internship at a small company on campus and Google summer of code

• Learned the lesson, started early for fulltime• Got into Microsoft right before recession hit,

now in Amazon• (full interview in my upcoming book)

Lack of Time

• High Competition• Different jobs require

different skillsets• How to compete?

-> Apply selectively and meaningfully

• DEEP vs BROAD job hunt• Cover letters can take you far when correctly

used

Job is won even before you move into the Interview room

• Its about groundwork that you do – everyone prepares technically, how can you differentiate?

• Interviewing is an art• Either you steer the conversation or your

interviewer would• Prepare stories, bring the conversation to those

stories• Practice brings confidence and perfection

I have done it, so can you!