Find solution
How hard is it to get a job at victoria's secret?

How hard is it to get a web/mobile developer job at Silicon Valley?

  • Will be graduating in about 7 months from now. I am planning to just move out to the Bay Area and find a job as a web/mobile developer/ Preferably as an iPhone developer. I have a BS in CS and will be completing my MS MIS this December. How hard would it be to get a job in Silicon Valley? Do I have a chance? I am planning to use this summer to work on my projects to build up my github profile and add presence of my self online by blogging regularly. My plan is that after moving in to SV, I will try to network as hard as hell to help me get that job I want. I'd really like to work in a startup, but after seeing , it's kind of scary because all of those people are graduating from top tier university (most of them are from CMU). I am not from one of those Ivy League schools.

  • Answer:

    With a BS in CS and an MS in MIS and the current demand for developers, you definitely have a chance. However, even though demand for software engineers, especially web/mobile developers, is sky high right now, it doesn't make it a given that you'll get a job even if you have the skills. In fact, getting a great job at a great company is arguably as difficult as it has always been. The short version of my advice is: if you want to get a job as an iPhone developer, build an app and have it in the App Store. Nothing speaks louder about your abilities than a working example. Also, a hack that my friend has successfully pulled off if you're worried you don't have enough credentials/experience is to intern first and let it be a trial period for you and the company. It's lower risk for them and it lets you prove yourself. Here's the long version: Getting a job consists of 2 main parts: Getting an interview Doing well in the interview and getting an offer. To get an interview, you need to stand out in some way. Here are a few: You know someone at the company and they think you're worth referring You're from a good CS school You have a great GPA You have products/projects to show. E.g. if you're an iPhone developer you really should have an app in the App Store You're pretty famous in the developer community--from blogging or contributing to open source or smart comments on Hacker News--to the extent that someone from that company is likely to have heard of you before To do well in an interview and get an offer, you have to: Know your basic algorithms really well Know the field you're interviewing for well. E.g. for an iPhone developer you should be able to answer questions like "When you autorelease an NSObject, when are they actually released?" Be pretty damn smart at answering technical questions and great at coding on a whiteboard Show you're a great person to work with--passionate about the company's product, great at communicating your ideas, low ego, not an asshole, responsible

JianWei Gan at Quora Visit the source

Was this solution helpful to you?

Other answers

If you're good, it's not very hard. In fact, it'll probably be difficult to keep the recruiters off of you. I wouldn't worry about the schools listed in that thread, keep in mind the sample is rather self selected, and that a single person from CMU added most of the CMU people to the Answer wiki. Silicon Valley is one of the most meritocratic places on the planet, and talent, no matter what background, will be hired. If you don't have the ivy league resume, you still have same kind of opportunities that top tier students have. You just might have to work harder to get noticed. Smart people exist at every school, and companies with excellent recruiting organizations, (Google, FB, etc), know this. College admissions and selections are a crapshoot; smart recruiters and good managers understand this. They know that bright students don't always head off towards the highest ranked school; and that other factors come into play. If you don't have Stanford or MIT on your resume, you'll have to do a bit more work to get that to initial phone screen, but if you're good enough to get there, then you'll be on the same footing as anybody else. My point is this - that, no matter where you come from, if you're good, and can demonstrate it, either through prior internships, extracurricular projects, coding contests, or something else, you will have no issues finding a job, especially in today's rather heated recruiting environment.

Li Pi

1. Build a couple of good apps,  (things that are nice/useful). It is better if they are less trivial and more impressive. 2. Talk to people. The problem is that you don't have anything to show off yet.  In the Valley, if you build really cool/nice apps/products doors just start opening for you.  School would be a differentator if you don't have anything to show off yet, but if you have already build a couple of cool applications, then people wont care much where you went to school. A couple of the best engineers I worked with never went to college, so don't worry about it.

Ardit Bajraktari

If you build some apps yourself, that you can point to as examples of your work, you'll have ZERO problems getting a job, almost certainly with a $100K+ starting salary and possibly even higher. Your strategy of building out your GitHub account and doing some blog posts about your personal app development projects, challenges you faced, how you overcame them, etc. will make you incredibly marketable in the Bay Area. iOS/Mobile Developers are the most in-demand skillset right now, if you have two or three years of experience under your belt, I'm seeing offers of $130K-$140K base + signing bonuses of $5000 - $20,000 .

Matt Mickiewicz

Related Q & A:

Just Added Q & A:

Find solution

For every problem there is a solution! Proved by Solucija.

  • Got an issue and looking for advice?

  • Ask Solucija to search every corner of the Web for help.

  • Get workable solutions and helpful tips in a moment.

Just ask Solucija about an issue you face and immediately get a list of ready solutions, answers and tips from other Internet users. We always provide the most suitable and complete answer to your question at the top, along with a few good alternatives below.