Will My Own Project Help Me Land a Job? | JobSearchTV.com

Will My Own Project Help Me Land a Job?

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter answers this question from Quora about whether a person will have an advantage in finding a job by doing a special project.

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I have a question that someone posed on Quora that I will answer for you. “I’m about to graduate in months.  Will my own project help when I’m seeking a job?”  Then he or she goes on to describe the nature of the project.  They are computer professionals or planning on becoming 1 after graduation , but I think the question could be applied to any field or any situation where someone is graduating and you think about whether or not to do something beyond the coursework.

Will that be helpful in finding a job?  Absolutely!

That’s true, not simply in IT but in other fields as well.  The key to this isn’t that you did the project, but how you talk about the project and how you explain the decisions that you have made in the course of doing this work. 

In the example of internships, you have some basic work experience.  Great.  If you need to look for a job outside of that particular employer where you interned, they want to know more than just simply what were the tasks that you performed if the role, if they were little more than doing grunt work, unless you are going to be doing that same grunt work, they don’t care.

For you who are doing the special project that is a special situation.  Again, it’s not just simply that you did the project.  It’s the decisions that you made that delivered the outcome.

So, for example, this is an IT person.  Why did you choose that particular database?  Why did you do this?  Why did you do that?  Give them an idea of what you accomplished and why in order to demonstrate that you have a thought process beyond simply the typical rookie who is there to take orders, you may wind up taking orders if you go to work for them, but they will see that you have potential, too.

[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4uZO6a9n2c[/svp]

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ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2400 episodes.

Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? People hire me to provide No BS career advice whether that is about a job search, hiring better, leadership, management or support with a workplace issue. Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us 

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