How do you actually get a job?
- This assumes you know what job you want. I don’t, fully, not yet. This is why you should write, but also why you might want to check out 80000 hours and in general for any career related thinking.
- Think like the recruiter, not like the applicant. What do they actually need to see, for the specific field you want? Then reverse it: what’s the fastest way to go get exactly that experience, and who’s already in the rooms where that field’s people meet.
- Theory isn’t practice. It never fully is; theory is practice sanded down to what’s true for everyone, and that’s not quite true for anyone. Reading about a thing in your head means nothing to someone deciding whether to trust you with it. Doing it does. Especially in this age of AI, and as always, doing something ourselves is the best way to learn.
Beyond this I believe the CV and experience everyone told you and you think to first as mattering - does not really. Networking is what gets you through. Not the grades of your studies. Now, there may be certain things that are well recognized within your field more than others, those will matter, but having them alone does not guarantee anything. You could use an Europa CV. But once you know what you want to shoot for (or just try out) you can go to the next step with purpose:
Go DO the thing, before you’re asked to. Hackathons. Nonprofits. Open source experience, trying your own projects, meeting people. Motor controls - whatever hands-on thing is in front of you. Nobody hands out permission to start, you just start, and then you have something to point at instead of something to explain.
Big categories, not a checklist:
- go where the field’s people already gather — networking events, communities, competitions
- build one visible thing in public, however small
- offer to help in places where you’re happy to do it for free, before you’re paid to
- you can’t aim for everything. Freelance or a job? Which kind of job? Choose.
If you want to be a consultant: