If you check out my personal blog over at Jordan Carter you will see that I quickly jumped to the front page of Google in the .co.nz index. You could easily do the same if you use the widget described in that post. Now if a potential employer is looking for me before an interview they won’t have to look for long and I can control what they do find, making it all positive stuff and stopping them looking for too long which could lead to finding stuff I would rather not have on the Internet. I don’t think there is anything out there that shouldn’t be found but you never know. Increasing more and more of what we do ends up on the net, this is good, and bad.
We are becoming our own Big Brother, always watching.
Create yourself a blog. There is no reason you shouldn’t create one. There is a lifetime worth of reasons to create one.
The biggest reason for creating a blog is simple, you get found. If you are looking for a job in IT, I will put money on your name going into Google before that interview. It has happened to me and everyone I know. Especially if you are going in the summer of code programme. What will they find? Continue Reading »
I was lucky. I had an obscene obsession with computers since I have been little. This lead me to programming at an early age and set me up for my career. You are probably not as lucky. Maybe only just starting your programming skills at University. Not much time to do anything but party and study, the washing a couple times in the weekend, repeat.
Well if you want to succeed, and you do, and you want to succeed quickly, you also want that, then you are going to have to do more than everyone else. I suggest first on focusing on something outside of your University studies. Get a taste and some experience in a technology that they aren’t teaching you at Uni. Learn something that the industry isn’t saturated with. One that I learnt from an early age is Flash and Actionscript. Continue Reading »
If you are studying in Wellington and need a job over summer I suggest quickly signing up to Summer of Code ([business:Summer of Code]). I have been in the programme twice now with my final envolvement landing me a job with [business:Made From New Zealand]. [person:John Clegg] is a great guy, very compassionate and extremly willing to help (don’t be afraid of his large stature). I have had many chats with him regarding my career and I can not stress enough how valuable it was. He has been hiring in the IT industry for a while and knows what to look for and how to look like it. Go sign up for the programme, you will get a job, a chance to meet John and some get work experience.