How to Land Your First Software Engineering Role - April 22, 2021

Any say sorry about that just got distracted I have something on my screen sorry yeah if you have if you’re part of any organization try to put that information you know if you have taken any classes or if you are part of say GitHub or stack overflow if you have some projects outside of your school that you worked on that is something that we would like to see and that’s the most important thing and list not the names but I would say information about the classes that you have taken it could be anything related to say algorithms or data structures or anything of that sort as much information as possible that’s what that’s exactly what the recruiters are trying to see on your resume I can add to that as well I would also on top of exactly what she’s saying we realize that a lot of you are kind of early in your like professional career from the academic space and so really highlighting any time you’ve taken a role also helps right are you part of any clubs if you’re part of the clubs are you are you a treasurer of the clubs like what are the extracurricular activities that you have also participated in that can kind of show that you’re maybe a vested person well-rounded engaged again these aren’t requirements but if you’re looking for ways to kind of fill out some of that resume real estate I think those are absolutely things that you can consider adding to your resume on top of the classes the project work you’ve done and using that as another opportunity to again fill out some more space on that resume thank you jen do you have anything you want to add no I think those are really great points that were covered I mean the key thing right is if it’s okay if you don’t have an internship I mean it’s kind of the chicken before the egg you know people always think you have to have an internship to get an internship but the reality is where the whole point of the internship is to give you that experience and so really what we’re looking for is just showing or demonstrating your passion for technology and whether that is through you know online courses or your GitHub account or whatever it may be just showing that in in other ways is definitely advantageous and definitely something that we look at as recruiters wonderful thank you another question that was very common in regards to resumes is whether or not students should put their gpa and I’ve definitely heard different companies have different stances on the on this question so I would love to hear from our panelists how important is the gpa in terms of technical internships and if a student has a lower gpa is there is there anything they can do to demonstrate their value as an intern in other ways I can jump in from at least microsoft’s perspective you know it it’s something that we look at but it’s not necessarily something that defines or will either guarantee you move forward or guarantee that you don’t move forward so I think you know it’s very typical and from my experience abroad in europe no no gpas are ever put on there because it’s very different for every country how they kind of you know measure students or measure your grades in university but I know in the us there’s a more standard approach here so it’s very common to have the gp on there but again it’s not something that will either move you forward or keep you back so I think put it on there especially if it’s something that you’re proud of and you’ve worked hard for but don’t be scared to put it on there you know you have a gpa that you don’t consider high because I think again it’s just one one piece of information that we look at as we’re reviewing applications yeah and and that’s that’s a great point jen and also from from veraske’s standpoint you know good great good gp a great gp is you know always great right but that’s not going to be the deal breaker you know the most important thing is your aptitude for learning how positive you are in terms of you know taking on new challenges how much of an interest you have in the technical field right if the manager sees two profiles one has 3.6 gp and the other has 3.0 it’s possible that the manager will take a look at the the resume with 3.6 gpa but that doesn’t mean the one with 3.0 is going to be discounted it’s just that you know you just have to prove yourself in terms of how much of an interest you have technically and you might have some additional background additional experience and additional projects that you might have worked on you know so it’s not a deal breaker honestly but if you have a less less gpa than 3.0 it’s advisable not to put anything on the resume yeah I would definitely echo both things that jen and meg said it we do look holistically at candidates at capital one it is not just one thing that could make or break you so yeah if it’s below 3.0 I would lean also to possibly deciding not to put that on there and just highlighting some of the other things that you’ve done that are exceptional for the the companies to be able to make their determination about moving forward with you but it can be so many more things like what clubs are you in what extracurriculars are you doing are you showing leadership experience it’s definitely not just gpa and speaking from sap’s point of view we’re actually finding that to be less and less important so for a large program that I recruit for we don’t look at gpa what I would say is that if you are including it in your resume anything you include on your resume you should be prepared to speak to it so if you do include a number that maybe is lower just be prepared to explain because we realize one that not everyone has the ability they may be juggling a lot in their personal life that doesn’t lend itself well to being able to dedicate you know working on your grades 24 7 right maybe you’re taking care of family members maybe there’s a lot going on and also I realize there’s a lot of people from later grad dates so maybe you’re freshman and sophomore I mean some of these are gen ed class classes so they don’t necessarily speak to the track that you’re going to in terms of your what you’re going to graduate with so again I I’m finding companies are sometimes doing away with gpas or really weighing that in and maybe looking more at the skill sets and there’s still a handful of companies as we heard that are including that but again be prepared to kind of speak to it if someone does bring up like oh I saw this you know and or you can even bring it up on your own accord but again anything on your resume I feel like should be prepared to speak about excellent thank you thank you ladies another anxiety that I hear a lot from students and and that was submitted as a question through this event but also just from my time at CodePath is about this perception of there being target schools that companies want to see can you all talk from from your experience or from your maybe your company policy about you know are there certain schools that students will have a better time of getting a job from rather than not how do you all evaluate school selection when you’re looking at candidates I can start on this one so I mean I know speaking just from factset’s perspective I think yes we do have target schools that we recruit from but they are target schools because someone or some candidates several candidates travel trailblazed for their school and whether or not that was just you know successful alumni or candidates that were able to kind of get in front of factset at an event that we hosted we host hackathons or tech reviews or LinkedIn and resume reviews you know fairly often throughout the year you know pre-covered we would go to campus and do these and that’s where we would kind of generate some prospective candidates and students but I would say I mean involvement with CodePath is huge we we love working with the CodePath students at factset and I think that’s a really great way to get in front of any company if you feel like you’re not from a target school but I also would say you know definitely don’t count yourself out as a as a qualified applicant if you feel like you want to apply to a company that you might not be from their you know target school because honestly as as companies you know I know facset is always looking to add schools to our list of schools that we recruit at and and find candidates from and I’ll take you back off kai and to say you know it is important to show up at events like this one to to be able to go to places like the co-path and be able to connect with universities and I know zoom fatigue is a real thing we’ve all been in quarantine for too long but this is the time right we’re going into the season where you’re starting to really engage with people and this is when you do want to show up while other students are ghosting while other students aren’t being engaged in events like this choose to be different choose to show up choose to engage choose to be in the chat choose to be a person who’s making us pay attention to you so that we get excited about you as as candidates and and try to definitely even consider like I know some people my other videos down today but the next time you’re an event like this consider having your video up and consider being prepared in that way too because there are so many people who aren’t doing that but that could be the edge that really helps you to stand out to that interviewer or that company and really want to to get to know more about you I do feel like this is kind of the silver lining of the pandemic is that I’ve worked at a lot of large recruiting firms or companies in the past as a recruiter and we always had set target schools we’d always have like our a group that we would send off forces to sap we don’t do that so much but I have found more and more companies because everything had to move virtual that they have learned that they could actually cast wider nets and it changes the dynamic of needing to have set target schools so the playing fields becoming more open and level there’s a flip side right now there’s a lot more candidates at our fingertips but I’m finding more and more companies and recruiters shifting their mindset in terms of how they’re innovating in the college space and that may be away from having all the investment against six schools but instead investing in things like CodePath or different activities that were referenced by kiara so again one of the highlights of the pandemic amazing thank you all right so now we’re gonna move on to talking about networking and so first question that I get a lot is should students be reaching out to recruiters through LinkedIn and if so what what should they be saying that kind of demonstrates their dedication and their value against other candidates I think reaching out to recruiters on LinkedIn is absolutely fine some recruiters are more active on LinkedIn than others so if a recruiter doesn’t get back to you right away but you’re able to connect with them they most likely will be marketing and showing you events and things that their company is doing and we’ll probably reach back out to you if you do reach up to them I would say initial conversation just letting them know that you are a student that you’re in CodePath telling them just a little bit about yourself so they can get excited about you maybe even linking to your GitHub or a project that you’re working on that you’re really excited about to help stand out to that recruiter but it definitely varies based on recruiter and I’d say when they when you do do that make sure your LinkedIn profile is definitely up to date you want to make sure that you’ve got a great profile picture that you’re talking about some of your projects maybe linking your resume there so that they have an ability to be able to learn more about you when they do click through to you consider including things like your job overviews skills and endorsements to others just really leaning in on that so that they can see a robust person some recruiters who might not be recruiting directly on LinkedIn will still go on LinkedIn to look at a person and to look at their resume and to see like what their overview is so if they go there and they don’t see anything I might just move on to the next candidate so to keep that from happening definitely make sure you take some time to update that LinkedIn account absolutely and if I may just add make sure it’s a professional photo which is so so important because that’s what we look for and also if you’re reaching out and if you’re interested in any particular position make sure that you list the name of the position and the reference id if that’s possible and if the recruiter does not have is not working on that position then you know he or she will definitely make sure to put you in the right contact because you know we’re always looking for entry-level candidates and candidates that are looking to join our company and grow so that’s the most important thing instead of just sending out a very generic email asking about how to apply or where to apply my recommendation would be look on our website on the careers page and if there is something of interest you know make sure that you provide as much detail as possible so that it’ll just make our communication easier and one last thing all that I’ll add is leverage your networks I mean I feel that a lot of companies really weigh into referrals and while you may be trying to reach out to a recruiter this that’s maybe getting reached out you know a lot of people are reaching out to on LinkedIn as well you can find people that work at the company like there’s other ways you can leverage the tool to identify people the company who can then submit you as a referral and then you come in with an added edge of someone backing your skill sets as opposed to just a random person reaching out so I think being very mindful and strategic and how you’re using LinkedIn can also be quite fruitful thank you danielle that’s actually the perfect santa segway to my next question which was what are the roles of referrals in the hiring process maybe one or two more of you could share about how you all view referrals versus how you view online applications I can speak a little bit to how at least fact that does this so I think referrals as danielle said are a really great way in and a great way to get your profile on the on the radar of the recruiter that being said I think they also can be kind of a double-edged sword just because you know your referral really you really represent your referral and vice versa so I think you know in best case scenario it works out very well but I think when asking for referrals especially if it’s someone on LinkedIn who you maybe don’t know super well it’s always great to start just by saying hey like I’m super interested in xyz role at this company I saw that you worked there and was wondering if you could put a referral in from me or at least tell me a little bit about more about your role I think sometimes it can get a little dicey if a internal employee will submit a referral of a candidate that they don’t really know and can’t really speak to their their skill set just because you know say you make it through the interview round and the recruiter is pitching you to the hiring manager and saying hey I think they’d be really great on your team and here’s why also they were referred you know we don’t want the hiring manager to go back to the referrer and say okay well can you speak to xyz and have the person say oh well I actually don’t don’t really know or I had a class with them in college they seem good and kind of go down down that that path but so overall I would say I think referrals do play a bit of an important role in a decision but that being said I think it’s kind of like best case scenario when a referral works out over someone who just applied and kind of made it through their their way on through the process on their own at least at factset is from what I’ve noticed I’m happy to jump on that as well I think similar similar at microsoft too we we do get a lot of referrals and we definitely will review the referrals but what’s key is you know having having a well put together resume and being able to show off your skills so it might help you get in front of a recruiter a little bit faster but then you still need to have the demonstrated skill set to move forward so I don’t know I’m kind of you know unsure if it’s really advantageous I think instead of maybe instead of reaching out to random people on LinkedIn and trying to get that you know referral focus on creating a really great resume a really great LinkedIn profile and kind of continuing to build your skill set because I think in the end that’s going to be what helps you land land an opportunity versus you know maybe having someone you know kind of push your application forward leon just add that like oh I was just going to say when you do reach out to people on LinkedIn if they aren’t familiar you know it is a good idea to ask them a little bit about the job and about the position and they might even tell you some of some tips about the interview process or what they went through so that might be a good way to think about it too when you’re starting to network with people within an organization thank you thank you for those insights okay so now let’s move on to talking a bit about interviewing so first for those non-technical portions of the interview what is the recruiter evaluating what should the student be sharing during that phone screen or the behavioral interview that helps them that helps you identify them as a strong candidate so happy to hop in here we definitely use behavioral interviews at capital one and if you go through our interview process we also do some prep for that as well we we are looking for people who have can show ways that they’ve influenced others that they’ve assumed leadership that they’ve worked on a team it is important that you give very specific answers and targeted answers when you do answer behavioral interview questions you want to speak about what you did even if you were working on a team that is really important and also give tangible results so if you say something like for example that you increase sales you want to know by how much so so don’t just leave it at I I fixed bugs and this app you want to be able to expand expand upon that you also want to try to be concise and give examples of short and and targeted examples not something that’s too long-winded and trying to avoid fluff and definitely be honest it can be it can be a little tricky when you’re in an interview and you feel nervous but you can feel like you want to exaggerate on your experience but if you do that and a recruiter I mean like we are we are lie detectors right that’s kind of our job is to see if somebody’s telling the truth if we feel like you aren’t being honest and truthful that could definitely play against you but it’s better to just be honest about that and if you haven’t already definitely look up the star method that situation task action and result and try and get your stories to be in that way so it’s easy for somebody to follow through so just a couple of tips no I absolutely I completely agree with you and also honesty is the best policy because trust me we will find out one way or the other and most importantly research about the company which is so important whenever you talk to a recruiter it’s very important because the recruiter wants to know how much do you know about the company you know what’s what spiked your interest in this role what is about the job description that excites you to apply to our or you know for this company so it’s very important that you research get you get your thoughts organized which is so important rather than provide some long awaited answers you know it’s very important to make sure that you know you’re asking the right questions research the company get your thoughts organized which is so important and then thinking about the technical side of the interview a lot of students find themselves in the position where they have an interview coming up and then they try to cram on leak code and sometimes that can work and sometimes it doesn’t for the times where a student is maybe weaker on the data structures and algorithm side are there ways that they can make up for that lack of experience in other areas of the interview process I can again speak to it from a microsoft perspective so I think it depends on the the level of the role that you’re applying for you know we have various programs and so if you’re exploring if you’re interviewing for an explorer program which is our intern program for those that are in their freshman or sophomore years we definitely don’t expect you to come in with you know years of knowledge and experience behind you but if you are applying for a full-time role and you’re graduating from university then we would want you to have a pretty in-depth understanding of data structures and algorithms it’s very core to the software engineering role so I think if you find that that’s an area of opportunity for you now you know at least at microsoft we don’t start interviewing until the fall so take the summer and start taking advantage and slowly build up your skill set there really it’s just key being able to demonstrate that you have the fundamentals and we’re not always looking for you to have the right answer it’s okay if you come to our interview process and you don’t know how to solve a problem we spoke a lot about honesty being honest that you don’t know how to solve it but what we’d love to see is an attempt you know say okay I don’t know what you know I don’t know where to don’t know the correct answer here but this is where I’d start or this is how I would strategize because in reality you’re going to come up across many problems you know at work that you don’t really know the answer to but you have to start somewhere so kind of demonstrating that ability to you know persevere and push through when you don’t know the answer demonstrating your ability to collaborate communicate with the interviewer is really important so yes it’s definitely your technical skills that we’re looking for but there is more that you can showcase as well to demonstrate that you’re a strong candidate and you have the ability to learn and grow yep and just to piggyback off that when we’re prepping because we do take quite a bit of time to prep candidates to go into our interview process we do let them know that if you don’t know something to ask ask for clarification clarifying questions are key interviews aren’t made to be super easy because then anybody could just walk in and get into the company so you might run into some more difficult questions in there and when you do take that time to clarify it can help you to better understand how to position yourself and really at least get closer to the answer and sometimes it is okay to make an assumption right if you’re in the interview because your assumption might be close and your interviewer might be able to lean in and help you know like that you were close and what you could do to get to that the correct answer to thank you for those really insightful answers so my last question before we hand it over to the students to ask theirs what is the typical timeline for finding these internships or entry-level engineering jobs well capital one we actually post on the fall I heard jen say that too that they post their positions in the fall we engage with you guys throughout the year though I know there’s a couple events that we plan on inviting you to to be able to get to know our company better and to be able to get some some additional prep from from capital one so you’ll see that kind of stuff from us but it won’t be until the fall that you’ll actually get our applications open we’ll let you know that yes microsoft we will post our applications in august generally and we do a lot of our hiring between september and december sap often has we have a year-round internship program so you could find roles posted at any point so if you join our talent community you can be notified if something’s popped up that maybe fit your qualifications factset also posts our internship and full-time opportunities in the fall and various kids all year round so if there’s anything that comes up you know feel free to check our website and positions are always up there amazing thank you all right we’re right on time so for the second half of our event tonight I would love to hear from some students and give you all an opportunity to ask your questions to this amazing group of panelists so when I call on you I would like you to to turn on your mic say your name where you go to school and what class year you’re in and then go ahead and ask your question okay so the first person I see they’re on an iphone but they don’t have their name listed can you come off and say your name hi good afternoon sorry good evening my name is michael paul I am currently enrolled at the university of maryland baltimore county I’m a graduate student with a strong interest in mobile development specifically iOS and one question yes I I just have a question in regards to the hiring process at sap is it required that candidates have a strong knowledge of data structures and or algorithms for sap it’s very team or hiring manager dependent so I would say most teams do but it totally depends on that team and really what they’re looking for in terms of like the particular person and what they’re going to bring to the table I always tell people be prepared for any sort of interview any sort of question and again be able to speak to your resume but there’s no we’re not as structured as some other companies in terms of having really formalized interviews that happen at each stage so it really is the discretion of how that hiring manager and what they’re looking for in their candidate thank you thank you all right so next we have ogochukwu so I’m an international student in houston community college I just recently changed my major to software engineering and I did that in my second year so that means I haven’t completed a lot of classes so I mean I don’t have any I don’t really have an idea of coding so I just want but I want to start my internships from next year so I just wanted to know if there’s an advice someone can give me what programs to use during the summer just things to start with because I mean I have friends that already have already backed like two internships and yeah so can I feel behind if that makes any sense and then I also wanted to ask if you all have advices for international students because I’m also an international student and it’s it’s kind of it’s kind of hard getting trying to look jobs for an international student so I just needed some advice and all thank you hey there so I would say that for an international student when you’re applying all companies are supposed to put on their requirements whether or not they can work with people who would be international students I know unfortunately for capital one and our internships that isn’t something that we’re at liberty to work with but I think that that’s something to definitely look for so then you’re not applying to positions that you wouldn’t be able to move forward with you can really focus on those roles that you would have the best opportunity with and as far as technologies I’d say really look at the companies that you’re most interested in look at the tech positions that they have posted because they will have the technology stack that they work with within those within those job descriptions and then you can really focus on those because that obviously is where you would like to go thank you okay all right I’m not on the panel but I’ll jump in as well so for the first part of your question as far as what you should be practicing over the summer CodePath actually offers a technical interview prep class that is intended to help you catch up on your skills and improve your skills and data structures and algorithms so that you can perform better during those technical or white boarding interviews for internships and entry-level jobs all of the panelists or at least the companies that our panelists represent participated in the virtual career fair that comes at the end of that summer program and almost 50 percent of the students that participated got at least one offer from a com from a company that participated in that career fair so definitely go to CodePath.org and check out the website there it sounds like that class would be perfect for for what you’re trying to accomplish this summer and then for your second piece on how to find companies that sponsor the advice that I always give to international students at CodePath is to go to myvisajobs.com because you can search by job title and it’ll give you a list of companies in the us that have sponsored candidates with that same job title and you can filter by like the last 30 days or what have you so that’s a really helpful resource as well okay next we have angel hello my name is angel I’m from cu boulder so colorado and I’m a junior this year so this is super generic but I’m just wondering what kind of things are recruiters looking for when they ask tell me a little about yourself oh you know that’s one of the it’s it can be a tricky question right tell me about yourself well what I would say is you want to know the job that you’re interviewing for and then you want to tailor the information you’re providing to that to that interviewer about your work history as it relates to that we’re not looking for you to tell us that you like long walks on the beach and that your favorite color is blue but we would like to know more about the projects that you’re working on or the things that you’ve accomplished that you’re really proud about that reflect what we’re looking for so do your research before you go into the interview and then be sure like I said to just tailor it to really fit that job that you’re talking about and I think that will really help to answer that question sure I think that was a great response I think the only thing I would add is make sure you practice it so you can be concise I know sometimes when we get a little flustered in interviews we can ramble and you can end up you know coming out with information that you weren’t planning on sharing or that’s not really relevant and especially in those first interviews you might not have a whole bunch of time so just being really intentional with the information that you’re sharing and making sure you’re you’re speaking to why you’re interested in that company and why you’re interested in that role and how your skills align is a great way to kind of attack that question thank you so much thank you angel next we have benson hi my name is benjamin I’m currently I’m a senior at the pennsylvania state university I have two questions that I was hoping that could be get answered and one of them is specific to sap when applying to a job such as support engineer at acsb how well should you know the products that they do offers and my other question was change from most of the job descriptions one of the key skills that you look for is in the personal skills how would you say you would go just training with interpersonal skills during an interview thank you all right so the first question I heard was with regards to a rolex support engineer and now I’ve already just blanked on what the question was hold on remind me what the first question was oh yeah sorry no problem no problem the first question was how well should you know every product that sap does offer I mean let’s be real that is gonna take a lot of studying I mean there’s so much that sap does there’s so many products we have I I would not feel like you need to know that I would think you would you should be familiar with high-level stuff stuff that’s currently in the news stuff that’s maybe relevant to that particular team I feel like those are the things you should zero in on they’re not gonna we’re not a company that’s gonna test you on something that’s like really looking for the needle in the haystack of things we want authenticity we want passion we want a lot of that stuff so I would again focus on maybe what’s relevant in the news if it’s interesting maybe what that particular team does do a little research on that particular team do a LinkedIn research on you know what that person does etc and have some familiarization but don’t feel like you have to exhaust yourself by having everything fully wrapped up in terms of your second question I think you mentioned something around interpersonal skills and and how to answer that for an interviewer is that what the question was around yeah how would you go about explaining some interpersonal skill steering and interview interpersonal skills wow I mean I am a firm believer of just being yourself being authentic like I I am not someone who likes when people sell themselves over sell themselves I think that you should make sure that you are representing yourself as best possible because we really want a good match we want someone that’s a good fit for us and someone that feels that we are a good fit for them interpersonal skills I mean I’m trying to think of an example that would be in terms of maybe a behavioral interview I think that you just need to represent who you are there’s so much talk right now about culture fit better pose maybe it’s culture ad and I think that’s it’s really being challenged companies at least at sap on really what we’re looking for we’re looking for someone that looks like just like everyone else on the team maybe not maybe we want someone to shake things up and I think that’s where we’re starting to reevaluate what is what is a culture a culture a culture qualifier for us in some of these behavioral or situational interviews so again I think you got to come being who you are you don’t want to come in a company who’s kind of bought into you because you fit what we thought you are and then you’re kind of in the situation where you’re not really feeling your authentic self at work I think that’s the beauty of the company it’s super down to earth people are pretty like work life balance is great the the the cultural dynamics great and I think that just resonates with the fact that you know bring who you are and represent but don’t try to fit into a mold that you think we’re trying to cater to I hope that answers your question yeah thank you very much daniella yeah all right great questions next we have aldo hi can you yes we can awesome hey my name is aldo cicaras I’m a student at florida international university and the expected graduation date is 2023. This question is a bit specific to my case but I have industry experience in systems engineering as well as project management and I would like to transition into software engineering what would be in your opinions the best way to make this transition and would it be probable to land a full-time lead while still in school or should I focus my efforts on my current position and maybe try to leverage an internal transfer into that sort of field well I mean I can tell you that capital and we have a program called our coda program and that is for people who are looking to get into software engineering that is a full-time position and we would be interviewing for it this fall for next year as far as your current situation I think I have to talk with you a little bit more to understand really what the internal dynamics are of your organization to see if it would be a best move for you to try to look internal but it’s not bad to research it and to find out what that would be and how that would look so that you could understand that so they look for a company that has a bridge that would help you to be able to to do that continue to work with CodePath and organizations like this that can expose you to organ to companies and really be able to look at your skills as a software developer versus your previous experience so that that would be my my advice and just to add something to that you know it all depends on what software development work your or engineering work you’re looking to get into so it could be you know net you know java what have you so we are currently interviewing for something called software delivery and engineering position where you’re basically an I.t generalist you know assisting a director or a program leader with various you know core I.t related job responsibilities so you know just like how kiera said it’s important for us to know what exactly you’re looking to do when it comes to software engineering because software engineering is very broad so that is something that I would recommend you know try to try to look at a broader job responsibility and then see what exactly what you want to do versus you know being fixated in one aspect of software engineering all right thank you thank you aldo sorry all right next we have samuel hello everyone my name is samuel j I’m a second year computer science student from the university of ghana so I have two questions the first is that does code parts have like plans of extending their technical interview prep outside of the us I feel like candidates from africa will benefit greatly from that and the second question is and diversity recruiting in africa so I know there’s a program called africa to redmond which is for microsoft students basically recruit talent from africa and I want to ask jennifer travis if and that program still exists because I had was done in 2018 I don’t know if it still exists and also like to other recruiters was that take on recruiting from africa and like relocation and like yeah so that’s basically it I’ll just jump in real quick on your first question about CodePath currently yeah we’re only scoped to the us we’re trying to take over the u.s before we expand to other countries but that’s definitely something that could be possible in the future we have run pilot programs in haiti taiwan and and a couple of other countries in the past so I think once we you know have reached all of the the universities that we’re trying to reach in the us we could consider expanding to other countries and then I’ll hand over to jen to answer the question about microsoft thank you yeah that’s a great question samuel so I can tell you the program is not not finished I actually had the opportunity to work with all the students last year so we hired the last kind of cohort from africa in the end or the beginning of 2020 and then when covet hit it did kind of make it more challenging for us to bring international students into the u.s so we did have to change the scope of how we recruited internationally for for all of for all countries outside of the united states that being said what also happened is we opened up two development centers in africa so we have sites in kenya and in nigeria and so we were really looking at growing those sites there so I can’t really speak to what our plans were our plans are for next year but I definitely know we will be hiring into those two sites so if you are interested we’re posting and those roles will be posted at the same time as kind of all of our other opportunities in the fall so I’d highly recommend you know checking them out if you’re interested in either of those locations and then depending upon you know the the state of things here in the united states hopefully we’ll be able to kind of ramp up our international recruiting again as well thank you very much all right next we have josh hi can you hear me yes we can cool thank you I’m josh chao I’m a third year computer science major from university california san diego and I just want to say thank you guys all for answering our questions it’s been super insightful and my question is that all of your companies have some sort of large software project and I’m curious as a junior developer or a new hire into your companies what kind of roles would a junior developer play on those projects and if they don’t work directly with the larger sites what kind of projects are given to the junior devs you can hop in and talk about capital and you would work directly on projects that go into production whether you’re an intern or you are a full-time hire that’s one of the things that I think is really cool about our our entry-level role so as an intern you spend 10 weeks working on a project you would actually present that project to leadership and they like I said they do go into production and then for our full-time folks that’s a two-year rotational program so you actually spend one year with one team and the second year with a different team but within that time you do work on on the projects that are most critical to the company and so if they’re funny because the email just went out to our full-time folks that said just that that you’ll be working on a critical position for the company so so that’s that’s kind of how we roll at capital one cool I can say for sap it’s here’s my chance for a plug at least the program I recruit for developers that come in maybe that are like bachelor’s level students come into an 18 month rotational program or you rotate across three different teams and you basically get to work on those teams doing real product or maybe it’s a startup type team or a large enterprise team like you you really can stay on the gamut so you’d be coming on board as a member of that program but actually dotted line to those different rotation teams over the course of the 18 months for microsoft similar enough so we’ll be part of our two-year aspire program which is an on-boarding program essentially for the first two years that you’re at microsoft and all of our students that join internationally are part of it and so it gives you an opportunity to you know grow in your careers and grow professionally but also you know understand more about microsoft culture and meet colleagues from across the globe and you come straight into a project so you have the ability to have impact pretty quickly you have a manager and you have a mentor and there’s tons of support that you receive but you you know are you hit the ground running which is a really awesome opportunity to kind of get up to speed but you do have the resources to you know help you get there as well same for verisk you know should you get hired as a junior developer you know you’re right into it you will have a a manager who will be helping you in terms of coaching providing all sorts of mentorship and whatnot but you will definitely they’ll put you right in coding obviously not at the level where you’re actually at a senior level but something that that is manageable and you know I think it’s a great great opportunity for someone because I know one of our business units they they are very keen on hiring entry-level developers and we’ve had a lot of students from you know rutgers university and jit more so from the new jersey side because our office is based in jersey city but you know you’re more than welcome to check our website we have a bunch of dev one positions all over the united states mainly in dot-net technology full-stack development and also some are also junior cloud positions so you know I’ll be more than happy to share the website link and you can you can check it out all right thank you all for your responses next we have maria hello we can hear you maria hi I’m maria I’m a graduate student like arizona state and like I graduated like 2022 like I think summer and my question was like well like I have some job experience but I was only there for like like less than two years in like a consulting role and I don’t really have any references like because I was mostly isolated in there so I was wondering should I include it when I look for a role like I want to be like a software engineer like how would I do that should I just like leave it off my resume or like what if I heard you correctly you were there for two years no like less than two years oh I mean I would say put it on your resume be prepared to talk about it even if I have no reference like the reference checks might come at the point of getting an offer and the reference checks might just be that where you employ I mean companies do differently but maybe it’s where you employ there at the date you said your employee so I think that I feel like you absolutely should talk up anything that you can bring to the table that would be representative of yourself and actually would benefit you know the team knowing in terms of like your background your experience and it doesn’t have to always be directly related to software development if you need consultant roles I would say great and you can totally spin that in a way that would be advantageous look it you know how to actually consult you know how to work maybe teams you know how to break things down and solve it like you can always find ways to spin what you bring to the table to make you sound unique and make it kind of glow so that would be my two cents absolutely and I totally agree with danielle that’s that’s almost two years of experience you really don’t want to let that go to waste so anything that you can talk in regards to what you did your experience and what have you should definitely talk about it okay so I should like still try to like find like a reference is that what you guys mean like I think I was talking more in reference to including it as maybe experience that you have on your resume the reference can come later I think that you definitely I mean the point of the whole resume is getting your foot in the door the references is something that you know is downstream but if you’re wanting to even get your foot in the door having that sort of stuff can set you apart from the many other applicants that might come in okay and then I had another question like like what’s the difference between LinkedIn and resume like we we’re not supposed to just like copy resume like resume onto LinkedIn or like I don’t like I’m just confused well lincoln is is go ahead okay I’m sure we’ll end up kind of saying the same thing but your your resume should kind of just be like a short summary of your work experience and your university experience and definitely try and keep it to one page sometimes I see you know students submit a five or a ten page resume and you know it’s tons of great experience but it’s definitely important to keep it targeted and intentional whereas on your LinkedIn profile there’s opportunity to kind of showcase more more I mean you have more space you can definitely include more experience you can also include organizations that you’re part of partnerships that you work with you can include certifications so there’s just a lot more that you can showcase on there you can get recommendations from people too give recommendations and so I think it’s more of just it’s like a you know more of a profile type thing where your resume is kind of that one pager just showcasing your job related skills here I don’t know if you want to add on to that I thought that that was great jen and I would completely agree I would also say think about when you’re on LinkedIn the things that you like and share because that shows a little bit about your personality about what you what you care about what you’re into being able to post things with the volunteer work that you’re doing be able to show projects that you’re working on is another thing I see that I really enjoy when I look at candidates LinkedIn profiles or you can actually even link your resume into your LinkedIn profile as well so it can be a reflection of both but yeah you should definitely definitely think about how you’re presenting yourself as part of your brand right because we all have a brand whether we want to admit to it or not and LinkedIn is your brand to companies and to the rest of the world from a professional standpoint so you definitely want to think about how you want that to be presented and curated to reflect what you want others to see okay I was just copying it like word for word like the position on LinkedIn and then it’s just like on the resume okay okay sorry I gotta we’re coming up at the end of time so I’m gonna have to politely cut you off but thank you so much for the great questions maria thank you all so much for your time this evening I really appreciate the time of our panelists and I thank you for all of the hundreds of students that joined us this evening for your amazing engagement all of your great questions CodePath does have a technical interview prep course coming up this summer that will help you on your pathway to launching your technical career we’ve had amazing success with this program this is the fourth year that we’re running it thousands of students have successfully gone into internships and technical full-time positions after taking this course so I definitely encourage you to go on to our website and check it out we’ll also be running an info session about this program this next week the same time as right now so you can definitely go to our website and rsvp for that info session so that you can come and learn more after today’s call we are going to share the recording of the session as well as the career pages for all of our panelist companies and then if you have any additional follow-up questions you can always send us a message at support CodePath.org all right thank you all so much and I hope you have a great rest of your evening