Domain-Wise Tips to Start your Career Fresh | A Guaranteed Approach
Recently, I came across a question from a Reddit user, where he asked, “What are some extra projects I can do during my free time to market myself better to future employers?”
Putting myself under his shoes, I knew what he was expecting as I was exactly at the same spot two years back. I was happy that he found my comment helpful, and he dropped a beautiful reply in the thread. Please take a look.
His reply was overwhelming, which got me thinking why shouldn’t I write an article on the same topic to help more people benefit.
Here I did!
If you’re on the verge of making career progress or looking to land a new job or do a job switch, you will find this article helpful too.
So here it goes,
To market yourself better to your future employers, the first and the foremost thing is to make them understand how valuable an asset you can be for their team and the organisation. So it’s important to let your work speak for itself rather than trying to convince them that you can be a great fit.
Here’re certain things that I would suggest from my experience, which have high chances of working.
- Start writing. Add value to your readers and be consistent with it.
- Understand your desired role in the future organisation and how you can contribute to their growth.
- Try to understand what your future employers are up to. Keep checking out their LinkedIn to understand the topics that they engage with.
Knowing all these, you can easily start your networking game.
From now, I would like to keep it specific as your future employers’ expectation of projects might differ from every role. Let’s dive deep into it one by one.
Marketing/Content Writing/Technical Writing
For any Marketing related roles, you definitely need something to showcase in the first place. Your future employers appreciate it more if you can impress them with
- Your writing skills
- Your ability to produce growth.
- Your analytical skills
I would advise you to show them an increase in the metrics. Be it your Blogs/Videos/Social Media/Website traffic, so on and so forth. Show them from where you started to where you are right now. It’s important to speak with numbers.
It’s okay if you haven’t executed all these in an organisation. But be sure of starting your personal blog or a YouTube channel where you add more value to your followers/subscribers.
Things that you can consider doing:
- Start blogging on Medium or Substack or any blogging platforms.
- Create videos — It can be you explaining a topic or creating a Whiteboard animated video or any videos for that matter. But put efforts. Check out Doodly or Animaker, as these platforms let you create some kickass videos.
Sales/Business Development
If it is a Sales role, be sure to jot down your sales perspectives as a LinkedIn post or an article. Writing down your views allows your future employer to know who you are and what you’re aspiring to.
Your article should precisely explain what it takes to close a deal, how to build relationships with your prospects, how to manage time efficiently, how to prioritize your work, and so on. Also, don’t forget to add the Tools/Software you prefer and how it can make Sales people’s lives easier. In today’s technological world, it’s tools and software that people hugely rely on.
Things that you can start doing:
- Write down your perspectives as a LinkedIn post or article.
- Develop your communication and convincing skills.
- Explore Multiple Tools/Software that will increase your Sales Productivity.
Before applying to any Sales/BDE/BDA roles, learn something about the product, company, and the hiring manager (If possible). All these are supercritical and plays a significant role when your profile is shortlisted.
Data Science/Data Analyst/Business Analyst
For any role that involves data, it’s time that you start a project that involves precisely analysing data or solving a problem with data insights or any experimental data-related tasks.
“How do I find projects?”
Is that what you’re asking yourself?
The answer is straightforward.
If you’re aspiring to get into Data Science/Analyst roles, you should definitely be good at Math, MS Excel, a good grasp of programming languages. Start applying for Internships. If you’re not to able convince recruiters for Internships, reach out to people on LinkedIn and start working for FREE. Reach out to 100, 10 might reply back, 1 will give you an opportunity.
It shouldn’t be just working on projects, you should also suggest actions items that drive value to your project.
Things that you can consider doing:
- Sharpen your Machine Learning Techniques.
- Develop your programming skills.
- Master your MS Excel skills.
That’s it! You’re good to go. I’m pretty sure that these things will take you to places if you consistently focus and add value.
Web Development/App Development
If it’s a Web/App Development role, build websites/apps that solve a real-life problem. Your project should essentially reimagine a pain point or reinvent a better way to do the same.
In early March, I got an opportunity to organise a Virtual Hackathon for young engineering students in college. To be honest, I was absolutely thrilled with the ideas they presented and the approach they took to solve a problem.
After the event, I talked to some of the participants to share tips for freshers who are pretty new to the field.
And here they shared:
- Learn different approaches to solve a problem.
- Keep learning and be updated with new programming languages.
- Master your logical thinking skills.
I honestly feel everyone is talented in some way or the other. But if your goal is to land a Development job, you should be too good at logical thinking. You should know in and out of the problem that you’re going to solve. There are no short-cuts, but only smart work.
Product/Project Management
If it’s a Project/Product Management related role, the first thing that you need to work on is your problem-solving skill. As someone owning a product/project, you’re bound to face different problems each day, deal with multiple use-cases, tasks that are hard to prioritise, confusion on what to take first, and it only goes, but never stops.
So it’s big time to learn the easiest and quickest approach to solve problems. However it comes only with practise. As a starting point, you can try to solve problems that are already on your plate. For example, if you’re finding it tough to manage your financial expenses, learn how to solve it first. If you feel there’s a mess happening in the system, learn to solve it.
The more problems you solve, the better you suit for the role.
Since I personally have interacted with product managers, these are the things which I learnt from them.
- Learn tactical and strategical approaches to solve a problem.
- Learn to prioritise your work and manage time efficiently.
- You don’t need to master but focus on improving your Design, Marketing, Coding, and communication skills. This is super important as you’ll get to work with all these teams if you a product/project manager.
You can also do a blog that explains your project/product management experience. Share it with aspiring managers who love to get a foothold in this field. Also, impress your future employers with the work that you shared.
Conclusion
Regardless of whatever role it is, the below formula works anyways if you have the desired passion for shining well in your career.
So it’s important to build a strong personal brand and do a proper networking. Though it takes effort and time, it’s a guaranteed trick that puts you ahead in the journey.
I wish you all the best!
Feel free to drop a comment if this article has helped you in someway.
See you in the next one :)
