2013 CRA-W
Graduate Cohort Workshop
M.S. Career
Opportunities
Dilma Da Silva (Qualcomm Research)
Prasanna Pilla (VMware)
Fernanda Viégas (Google)
Agenda
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Introductions
Career Options
Evaluate yourself
How to present yourself
Interviewing
Negotiating a job offer
Career growth
Prasanna Pilla
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Member of Technical Staff, VMware
Masters in Computer Science
Thesis: Sentiment Analysis of Political Documents
Journey
• Skiing, biking, hiking, rock climbing, ski diving, cooking
and travelling
Dilma Da Silva
Fernanda Viégas
• Staff Research Scientist at Google
• M.S. and Ph.D. from MIT Media Lab
• Research interests: data visualization,
crowdsourcing, social web
• Married with two little girls
Fernanda Viégas
Agenda
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Introductions
Career Options
Evaluate yourself
How to present yourself
Interviewing
Negotiating a job offer
Career growth
Career Options
Career Options – What?
Define scope
Project Manager
Manager
Business Analyst
manages
manages
manages
manages
Deployment
Developer
DBA
Tester
Support
Tech Ops
Career Options – Where?
Research
Industry
Established
Companies
Startups
Government
Universities
Career Options – How & Whom?
–LinkedIn
–University Career services and career fairs
–Networking groups like ‘MassTLC’
–Clubs and meet-up groups like ‘Bar Camp Boston’
–Solving puzzles
–Company websites
–Professors
–Friends
It’s a lot about networking
Career Options – When?
Evaluate yourself
Agenda
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Introductions
Career Options
Evaluate yourself
How to present yourself
Interviewing
Negotiating a job offer
Career growth
How do I present myself?
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Be the best version of yourself
– Resume
– LinkedIn
– Personal webpage
Interview – job search
• Be proactive: target skills for your dream
job(s) and assess gaps
– internships: real-world experience is valued
– network
• Know your resume inside-out
– What did you do?
– Why was it important?
– Technical challenges?
• Why are you interested in this particular
company?
– What is its story?
– Where is it going?
Interview – get ready
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Review fundamentals: algorithms, data structures
Practice coding on a whiteboard; it is not easy or intuitive!
Use a collaborative editor
Find sample questions online
Get tips from books, blogs, your peers
Do mock interviews
Question might be vague: ask!
Talk through your solutions
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show your thought process
solution doesn't have to be "the" answer
highlight trade-offs and issues with performance, security, robustness, usability,
portability, scalability, libraries, etc
• For each one: people, project, current news
You are the interviewer too!
• Evaluate the organization as much as they are evaluating you
– Guage culture through lunches and any informal conversations
– Can you see yourself working there?
– Get information you need to make a decision if you get an offer
• Think through timelines and be flexible
• Prepare to negotiate
Agenda
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Introductions
Career Options
Evaluate yourself
How to present yourself
Interviewing
Negotiating a job offer
Career growth
Negotiating a job offer
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By not negotiating a first salary, an individual stands to lose more
than $500,000 by age 60.
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You can negotiate for things other than salary
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Men are more than four times as likely as women to
negotiate a first salary.
Stock grants, vacation time, job description, etc.
Know what you are worth
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Don't discount experience
Research online
Talk to peers and mentors
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Know how much you are willing to compromise
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Use other job offers as leverage
Career Growth
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Define clear goals and set expectations of performance
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Document your joint understanding of goals/metrics to move to the
next level
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Proactively meet regularly and make team and manager aware of
progress and performance
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Participate well at meetings (and sit at the table)
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Balance between being nice and making a point
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Be visible to your manager’s manager
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Meet other people in the company over lunch/coffee
Career Growth: promotion
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Be pro-active
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Ask for feedback (from manager, peers)
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Tell others (potential reviewers) that you’re aiming at a promotion
before your case goes up
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Talk to folks at the next level about what is expected and how you
can narrow the gap
Questions