Sunday, February 14, 2016

I got the job in 6 weeks

This message is for Portnov Computer School students!
I am very thankful to Mikhail and his team in helping me to find my dream job!!!

1.) How I was studying. I took this course very serious and made some changes in my life style. I did canceled half of meetings with my friends. First of all I devoted my whole day to study, watched video lectures and re-watch them. I did watched all the videos from Video library page and nearly all from the Data page. When I was learning what is a BUG, I printed out nearly all of postings under BUG reports in Forum. So I practiced hours to understand what is this new profession about. 24 hours I was thinking about my Software class. The more I was involved the more I liked the profession. I did all of the Quizes (except one) and lots of notes in my notepad from Mikhails videos.

2.)  After the class finished I went out to job market in 1.5 month. I started On December and the first day when I posted my resume on Dice I got around 25 calls from recruiters. I was confident from the day 1. I do not feel I wasn’t since I know the exact questions that they ask you. Typical questions are: 1.) Location 2) Your visa status 3) How long are you at the market 4) Tell me about your professional experience 5) ok, now they will tell you a little about the company and the project and ask you to fill out the standard form. Usually they ask for last 4 digits of your SSN. If they ask me to provide reference or Green card copy, I tell them - schedule for me an interview and I will provide.
The second call from the company is to schedule my technical interview with one of QA manager or account manager. Usually it is by phone or by Skype. I had around 2 phone technical interviews (1 hour -There were around 10-12 technical questions) and 3 Skype interviews and 5 QA manager technical interviews (20 minutes ). in 98% they never called back which was  making me feel so sad and desperate and I wanted to stop answering the calls. For technical interviews I did answered all the questions correctly and no call back. So be ready, guys, not to give up in this place. Continue your search.
SQL (JOINS - is a must, what is inner join, outer join, and all the types we learned with Marina), Mikhail’s QUIZ questions they ask in nearly all technical interviews!!! What did you do when the developer fixes the bug? What is Test Case (write down 4 test cases - they give requirements), what is Test suite?  I had a similar question as Test BUY button.

I did wake up at 6 AM to refresh my Dice resume and apply to new Dice jobs. They call. If I do not apply they do not call. Then I figured out there is no new jobs I didn’t apply on Dice. Then I went to EXTRA class discussion and one graduate with job advised me to update my resume daily in CareerBuilder, Indeed, Monster. Beside I was applying for job at least 4 hours a day. Some of the days I had only 3 calls but usually more than 10 calls and lots of email. It was seeming to me like I have full time job answering my phone and scheduling interview. Actually I was my own secretary. Only depend on me what I am and what I want to become. I was very confident professional. Some of recruiters are not confident themselves so I took initiative asking them some questions.

On December I was just upset honestly. My belief was not there. 2 weeks of holidays - all the managers are on vacation. We contact you after 4th January!  But I knew I will find job on January, February or March. It was anymore aim achieving. Sport competition. Can I ? Others find, Can I?Why do  they not take me if i answer all the questions correctly ( I made lots of notes from Mikhail’s videos and Marina’s SQL presentation)? Everybody has his/her own situation - family, home, rental, kids, car. I had lots of difficulties too! But there was no give up anymore! I contacted Mikhail several times and he suggested me to continue the search. I did all of my best. I subscribed on Glassdoor and Dice of new job postings and was getting emails daily as soon as a new vacancy comes out to the market. I applied directly to the companies a lot!

I had my own story of my career and my career change. So be consistent. Tell me about yourself video I know by heart. I copied intonation, smile, everything to practice in some interviews. I was very self confident by phone and Recruiters behaves me respectively. I am still enjoying to communicate with them.

I got the job in 6 weeks (2 weeks of Christmas and New Year holidays included).