I know, what to do if you just graduated school and are just trying to get in the game? First, realize that you need patience. Ask anyone who has worked in the industry for long enough and they will tell you patience and rejection are apart of the process. 10 years in and I still get rejected like a balding, fat guy who lives in his parents basement.

Second, do not wait until you are about to graduate to start looking for jobs. If you are in college you should be working in your field no later than your incoming junior year. If you are in code school you should be finding a way to volunteer your time towards non-profits.

Getting into the game initial is probably going to be the biggest hurdle in your career. You will have to jump through all types of hoops (e.g. interviews, take home tests, timed tests, etc.) all before you get to the final interview. Some times you don’t get a response back from the company you applied. Sometimes you get a response back weeks after. It is all apart of the hiring process. I still get treated like a newbie during the interview process in most cases. There have been a few times where this hasn’t happened to me and it was due to my network.

After 3 wonderful years of CIBER I can say that is where I took off. I had more confidence in myself to do interviews, architect some solutions, provide technical analysis on business use cases and even on hiring. What was that process to get all of that confidence? Admittedly, a lot of failure.

Yes, I failed. I failed miserably after I left CIBER and I still fail today. I’m human so it shouldn’t be a surprise. When I say fail I mean fail. I’ve architect a few solutions that were not that great. I’ve definitely crashed and burned on interview questions that I know I should know as a software developer. I’ve made a few bad decisions on not doing enough research on a company before I accepted an offer. I will say the biggest mistake I’ve made is not networking enough.

Everyone hates networking, because it’s fake. And yes networking is fake. Everyone puts on their little mask and pretends we are here to help other people. When in all actuality 95% of the people you meet don’t pan out for various reasons.

Let me be clear about how I think about networking. We as people are very selfish in nature. We have our own ideas about people and things, but at the same time we are too afraid to show our true intentions. It isn’t until we get comfortable or trust the other person where we can slowly let out our true intentions. This isn’t just in networking this is a true fact of life. You can apply this theory in finding a job, dating, negotiating and making friends. Get comfortable with sorting through people’s crap to determine whether they are a good match for you.

You have to look at networking as shopping. Whenever you are shopping in a store it contains thousands of products. All of these products represent people in our networking analogy. You do not have enough resources to purchase each item in the store. You are there for a select few items and then your gone.

With networking you have to look at each person as an item on your shopping list. Do they fit your criteria or do they have the potential to fit your criteria? I’m not saying blow off people who don’t fit in a specific bucket, but try not to waste your time when you are seeking a specific type of person.

Do not be general in networking either. Having a broad criteria in networking nets in a lot of wasted time. You should be more specific than general. When you are specific in finding like minded people you are more prone to missing out on great people, but you are also able to determine what traits you like or didn’t like in a person. Being specific allows you to see these traits more accurately.

Also do not be afraid of other people. Especially at networking events. Everyone who is in attendance is wanting, begging, pleading to meet someone who can help them. So go out, meet them and show them what you can do.