Many a times I have seen people looking for guidance on how to start their software career. Particularly those who have just passed out from college and get attracted with lucrative packages of their friends, family members who are working in the software industry. In this article, I am trying to provide guidance based on my experiences.
Introduction
Now a days almost every graduation/BE/B.Tech pass out want to become a software engineer, even if their Engineering subject is not software engineering. There are many reasons why they want to opt for software career, some of them are here
- Because their friends and family are in software industry so they also want to be in this industry
- To go to onsite like USA, UK and other countries
- To earn huge amount of money
- To get respect in the society
- People feel, its easy to get a job in software industry and start earning money
- Because they like software development
- People think that there are comparatively less amount of work and wages are more
- Very few land up in software development by chance, I am one of them
There might be many other reason but ultimately the reason is more money that gives almost everything now (that's what generally people think).
Objective
The objective of this article is to guide College pass outs on how to start their software career.
What are the pre-requisite to get a software job?
Generally following are asked by the software companies
- Very good educational background with good percentage of marks in school and college exams. In general 1st Division mark is mandatory.
- Good knowledge of English Language (Speaking and Writing)
- Good analytical skills
- Problem solving attitude / Can do attitude
To sum up, you should be knowing English language as almost all work like discussion/work is done in English in the software companies. Rest it depends on you how you are taking your job.
What are different ways to get into the software companies?
There are many ways which can give you a software job after graduation/B.Tech/BE
- By way of campus selection - The easiest way to get into the software job
- Walk-in drive in the software companies - Harder to get in this way as thousands of candidates appear in this kind of walk-ins for limited number of seats
- Start working in smaller companies for FREE or less money - get experience for couple of years and then look for better opportunity
Option 1 is the best way to get into the Software companies however its not possible for all.
If you failed to catch this opportunity, choose Option 2 but its going to be tougher and very competitive as thousands of candidate appears in the exam for very limited number of seats.
If you failed to get into any software company for 1 year even with Option 2 and still want to pursue software career you have only last option left ie. Option 3. Despite the fact that it is the last option, there are many software professionals who has become successful in their career by this way.
If you have chosen Option 3, you should focus on following things
- Dedicate yourself for couple of years (2-3) to the company (even with single person company or very small to small or medium size company) with honesty and dedication.
- Do not get deviated or distracted by seeing others (your friends and family working in MNCs). This will not give you anything except frustration and you might end up losing your current opportunity as well.
- Be satisfied with what you are getting in terms of money and facilities, remember your had no other option left to get into the Software job and your aim here is to get knowledge and experience for future.
What are the pros and cons of working in smaller and bigger/MNCs companies?
Working in the smaller companies have a lot of benefits
- You directly or nearly work with the owner of the company so if you are good the chances are you will be recognized easily.
- No politics, no back biting
- Flexibility in terms of everything
- A wide range of learning opportunity as you will be the person working on almost all types of work related with the projects. This knowledge will prove to be be priceless in future when you will go to bigger companies .
- Quicker promotion and in most cases more money
In bigger/MNCs companies, in general you get following
- Slower promotion.
- Politics, favourism as heard every now and then (my personal view backed by many of my friends views) .
- Less opportunity to learn as you are required to work only on restricted scope and technologies.
- In most cases people work in older technologies or maintenance projects and their knowledge become out dated in couple of years of working.
- Good money from starting itself.
I have seen many of my friends who resigned from bigger companies / MNCs and joined in smaller companies because of several other reasons apart from what are mentioned above.
I am having B.Tech/BE degree still I am not getting software job?
You are not alone, there are thousands of people having B.Tech/BE degrees still they are not getting software job. They fail inalmost all interviews.
Let us go to the root cause of what is expected from a candidate by the software companies. Software companies expect us
- To know English language to communicate within office and with the client.
- To be Quick learner so that you can be fit in any project and quickly settle down into project without much noise.
- To have problem solving / can do attitude so that if a problem is given you are not giving excuses or looking for others even before starting to work on the problem.
- To work with honesty and dedication
rest all comes automatically or can be learnt if you have above
The problem with generally most of the candidate who are not getting selected for the software jobs are below
- Some or most? candidates do not know the basics of how software companies work and why company need candidates. They just see others earning money and they want the same without knowing what quality, ability others had and how much effort others had put in their initial days of career to come to this level.
The basic principal of math applies here. Unless company earns more money than what they are paying to you they will not hire you or not keep you in the company. Ultimately the money that is paid to you is intern received from the clients. On top of your salary, company has to spend money on the infrastructure like computer, electricity, space etc. So for example if you are getting paid INR 10 thousands, take 4-5 thousands of infrastructure and other costs so ultimately a company spends 15 thousands on you. Unless company earns more than 15 thousands because of you how, can they keep or hire you? Companies can't pay money from their pocket else they will become bankrupt soon.
- Not even basic knowledge of English language, how you will be able to communicate and write code?
- Their expectation is high, they start expecting thousands of rupees salary and other benefits from the day 1 after college pass outs. Why someone will give you unless you are worth?
- They want to apply the same trick in the software companies interview they had applied in the college. Remember that you are out of college and now you are in the real world so your college tricks do not work here. Here you will have to be practical and really hard and smart worker. Only output/productivity/amount of work you are doing counts, nothing else.
- Someone thinks that they have certificates (Experience or educational) and they can get jobs easily. Remember that software companies do not give jobs because you have certificates (certificates doesn't do the work unless you have knowledge so focus more on getting knowledge rather than collecting certificates); if you do not have the knowledge that is going to benefit the company, hardly any company will give you job.
Conclusion
To sum up, its knowledge within you that attracts all. Just work on enhancing your knowledge and ability, things will follow your way. Once you have knowledge you do not require to go to software companies to get job, software companies will follow you to give you the job.
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Disclaimer: The opinion/views expressed here is personal, it may or may not be correct. Please feel free to respond to this article for any comment or suggestions.