How to Prepare for a Career and Land a Job at Apple_1

Getting in the Door 49 Need to reach out to someone at Company X? Want to talk to someone who does Y? Mehdi knows just the guy—or at least knows how to track him down. Not only do people feel like they owe him, but they want to help him. And how do you help Mehdi? You introduce him to people. And everyone wants to know Medhi, because he knows everyone. People with friends attract friends. That’s how the game is played. Where to Network Your network is an outgrowth of your friend circle, your pro-fessional circle, and also your online identity. To expand your network, you should be actively cultivating those relationships. Get to know people. Talk to them about what they do and what they’re interested in. And find ways that you can add value to their lives. There are countless places you can network—alumni clubs, sports teams, even bars! But here are some of the most productive. Immerse Yourself in Start-ups In many cities, the start-up community is one of the most active and engaging and—lucky for you—often centers around technology. And because many of these people are or wish to be entrepreneurs, they want to build a relationship with you. Immerse yourself in this community. Go to happy hours, meet-ups, and lunches. Listen to tech talks by local start-ups. If you’re an engineer, attend hackathons. Simply by showing your face regularly and talking to people about their jobs, you’ll start to build an identity in the community—and a network. And remember, Kwok says, “If you’re working so much that you can’t network, you better make sure that your work is really good.” You’ll need it to push your way ahead of all the candidates who can network their way into a job. 50 The Google Résumé Social Networking Though many people lump Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn into the same general category of “networking tools,” they serve sub-stantially different functions. Facebook and LinkedIn help you maintain existing relationships. Generally speaking, you don’t start conversations with strangers on Facebook—and if you do, you probably don’t expect such connec-tions to develop into professional contacts. Twitter, however, can help you communicate with existing friends, but it’s also extremely effective as a tool to expand your network. Here’s how to make the most of these connections. LinkedIn LinkedIn can be used to connect with both friends and professional contacts. One venture capitalist encourages his entrepreneurs to “add everyone they meet with—and add them immediately.” To get additional value out of LinkedIn, encourage your connec-tions to write recommendations for you by writing recommendations for them. Finally, you should search out groups that are relevant to your interests and get involved in the discussions. Recruiters sure do love to hang out in them! Facebook Because Facebook is so good at truly “social” networking, many people overlook its professional value. In reality, Facebook’s value to professional networking is expressly because it’s a social service. Virtually all of my Facebook contacts are people with whom I have some sort of social relationship, ranging from childhood friends to coworkers with whom I was friendly at work, to friends of friends I’ve seen on occasion. By and large, all of these people like me (or so I hope). Getting in the Door 51 When I need advice or someone to help me, the fi rst and often only place I turn is Facebook. A single status message is usually all it takes. Now that is the value of a social network. Twitter If you’re willing to put in the effort, Twitter can be an extremely effective tool to connect with people or join in on conversations. Most people fail to use Twitter successfully because they can’t expend the sustained, daily effort. If you think you can do this, I would encourage you to set up a Twitter account and start tweeting relevant thoughts and interest-ing articles. If you don’t have an engineering background, tweeting about technology news (and your reaction to it) can be a great way to demonstrate your interest, as well as to learn more. If you can maintain a steady flow of posts, then it’s time to start building up your “following.” Follow interesting and relevant people—they may follow you back. Put a link to your Twitter pro-file on your e-mail signature, on Facebook, and on LinkedIn. And start connecting with the people you most want to meet by respond-ing to their tweets with your own opinions. Contributing Online To truly establish your online profile, you’ll want to go beyond the basic social networking tools and become an online contributor: Create a web site, with at least basic information about you. Include your résumé, a picture of yourself, and a list of projects. Start a blog about technology, or whatever you’re interested in. Create a web site, and include your résumé and examples of your work. Write guest blog posts. Many bloggers are happy to let people write a guest post—less work for them! Guest blog posts are still written under your name and will allow you to link back to your own web site. 52 The Google Résumé Answer questions. When you come across questions on forums (especially field-specific ones) that you know the answer to, respond! Recruiters actually look through people’s profiles. Get involved with GitHub, if you’re an engineer. Download interesting software and tools, and see if you can improve them or customize them. If you find bugs, report them back to the original developer. Taking these actions will allow you to demonstrate your skills even before a recruiter talks to you. Many recruiters source candi-dates based on their online profile. This is a great way to make a recruiter chase you. Your Questions Answered Applying from Afar Dear Gayle, I currently live in Chicago, but I will be relocating in two months to San Jose when my wife finishes up her resi-dency. The problem I’m facing is that the smaller start-ups I’m applying to won’t even consider me since I don’t live in the area. They don’t like to pay for relocation, interview travel expenses, etc. How do I explain to them that I’m relocating? ,Y. M. Dear Y. M., I wouldn’t necessarily tell them that you’re relocating—I would just act like you’re already in San Jose. You should never lie, of course, but you can just tell them on a “need-to-know” Getting in the Door 53 basis. As long as you’re willing to pay for all travel and relocation expenses, this should not present an issue. Rather than listing your full address on your résumé, list just “San Jose, CA.” Employers don’t really need your address for anything anyway until they send out offer paperwork. They will likely just assume your lack of street address is a privacy issue and will just shrug their shoulders. Why not just list no location at all? Because they’ll then see “Chicago, IL” for your most recent company and assume that you’re still there. When they call you to schedule an interview, that’s when you should tell them the truth: that you’re actually not moving to San Jose for another two months at most, but you’ll be mak-ing a trip there in two weeks. Will there be a time then that can work? You’ll make your life much easier if you can batch your interviewers into the same week. Because you’re applying to start-ups, there’s a very good chance that they can’t wait two months. They needed you, well, yesterday. You may need to be a bit more flexible with your move, and spend a few lonely weeks away from your wife. ,Gayle Distant Relations Dear Gayle, Over dinner the other night, my mother mentioned that her friend Eliza had a friend Eric who worked at Facebook. I know it’s not exactly a close connection, but I’ve been trying to get an interview there for months. What’s the best way to make this introduction? ,V. R. ... - tailieumienphi.vn