Tag: work experience

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How to deal with job rejection

Getting a job rejection sucks. It can absolutely ruin your mood and make you question yourself. And chances are you will receive more than one before you are finally able to secure a role. So how do you deal with constant job rejections and apply the loss to future success? 

Here are some tips: 

REFLECT 

After completing an interview, you might be tempted to immediately focus on what went wrong rather than what went well with intrusive thoughts like “Why didn’t I mention this?” or “I should have known a better answer to that last question.” It is easy to focus on the negatives, so next time you do an interview, try to focus on the positives first. Not only will it make you feel better, but it will give some insight into which areas you are doing well in. 

 A great approach to reflecting on interviews is to think about it from the perspective of the interviewer, both the good and bad parts. Don’t think about how you feel it went but go off the actual interview.  

What do I mean by this? 

During an interview, chances are the interviewer will be taking notes. You should do the same. While the interview is still fresh in your mind, write down the questions asked and what your responses were. Then, bring up the job specification and see where your responses hit the required criteria; highlighting them in green is a great way of visualizing the parts that went well. Following that use a red pen to annotate and add to your answers to see what you might have changed or improved if given a chance to do the interview again. Rather than churning all the thoughts over in your head, getting it written down as a way of reflecting will help you out a lot more in the future. 

FEEDBACK 

Sometimes the easiest way to improve is to ask where you went wrong.  

It is essential if you ever receive a job rejection that you ask for feedback on your application. While you are more likely to receive feedback at later stages of an application process, there is no harm in asking at any stage, from the initial submission of your CV and Cover Letter to the technical test and final interview. The reasons behind a rejection from a certain role can give critical insight into where you need to focus your efforts in the future. It could be something super small and easy to rectify that has been preventing you from moving further in application processes, but you won’t know until you ask. 

You can practice most stages of an application process with the Employability Team, and it is their job to give you feedback. This is less focused on the content you might have, such as your portfolio or experience, and more on how you might answer a question and present yourself. It also gives the added advantage of practice! 

OPTIONS AND MOMENTUM 

Getting rejected for a role that you have invested time into researching, applying and attending interviews for can really knock your confidence and make you apprehensive for any future roles you apply for. This is why it is so important to keep both your options open and the application momentum up as much as you possibly can. 

It can be tempting after you have applied for a job or reached the interview stage for a role to stall any other applications until you hear back from them.  

Don’t do this.  

While waiting for a certain company to respond back to you, you can use that time to apply for other roles so that you always have at least one on the go at any one time, regardless of if you get a rejection. This is also another great way to gain practice for all stages of an application process, which you can apply to the roles you might be more interested in. For example, you might apply for your dream role but also apply for another role that interests you as a backup. It might take a while for the dream company to get back to you but in that time, you get quite far in the application process for the other job, including a few interviews. You can draw on the experience gained during those interviews during the interview for the dream company.  

YOU AREN’T ALONE 

Another important thing to consider is something that probably seems obvious, but chances are you don’t think about it as much as you should after a job rejection. You are not alone in this. People get job rejections all the time, including other people who applied for the same job you got rejected for. It can be easy to take the rejection and any criticism you get to heart but there will be others who receive similar feedback. Securing a job is a competitive and lengthy process that you probably won’t nail the first time. And as I have mentioned in the article, there are people who are willing to help you achieve those goals. 

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Digital Edge Subsea – Video Software Engineer

Job Title: Video Software Engineer

Reports to: Engineering Manager

Location: Ulverston, Cumbria (Remote working possible)

Contract Type: Permanent Full Time

Salary: Competitive

Benefits: Private health insurance

Job Link: https://www.digitaledgesubsea.com/job-vancancies/video-software-engineer/

The Company

Located just to the south of The Lake District, Digital Edge Subsea is a world leader in digital video and inspection systems for offshore industries, such as renewables, decommissioning, oil and gas. With an enviable client list containing most of the major offshore companies, it is positioned to expand its capabilities and product portfolio to continue to drive forward the technology in this challenging sector.

The Role

A software engineer is required with the primary role of designing, maintaining and optimizing the video pipelines of the company’s products.

This job will suit an experienced software engineer or PhD student who is very familiar with video technology and software; particularly GStreamer, CUDA and NVIDIA GPUs. The ideal candidate will demonstrate specialized knowledge of streaming protocols, video formats and image process or machine vision techniques.

We need out engineers to be vertatile, enthusiastic to learn and keen to investigate new technologies. We also expect out software engineers to place a high emphasis on quality and reliability with a willingness and capability to test code.

Once a thorough understanding of the company’s products has been obtained, the Video Software Engineer will assist the technical support team with solving more advanced and unusual problems that they may face.

Essential Skills

  • C++
  • CUDA, GStreamer, OpenGL/Vulkan, OpenCV
  • Experience with video or camera technology

Desirable Skills

  • QT
  • SQL
  • Experience with profiling tools
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Learning LinkedIn

When it comes to searching for jobs and developing your employability, the biggest platform is LinkedIn. Chances are you have heard of it, and you might even have an account. But you may not know how to make the most of it. 

Do you need to have a LinkedIn account? No, it isn’t essential when applying for jobs. But when more than 9 in 10 companies use LinkedIn to hire new recruits it would be a mistake to not make use of it! Having a good LinkedIn profile is like having a resume that can be seen 24/7 by employers and gives you exposure to tons of great jobs. 

Profile Picture 

One of the most critical parts of your LinkedIn profile is your profile picture. You need to make sure you have an appropriate photo of yourself. Don’t use something you might have on Facebook or Instagram with a drink in hand or your dog! But there is something worse than having an unprofessional photo, and that would be no photo at all! Having a photo helps employers connect to you as a person and will give you 14x more views than not having one. 

If you don’t have a photo, worry not! The university regularly has LinkedIn photo sessions where you can get a professional photo taken to use for your account. 

Profile Headline 

Now you have a good photo, you need a snappy caption to give a succinct rundown of who you are and what your focus is. It should be something you want a recruiter to know about you. This could be as simple as something like “Graduate seeking cyber security role”. It is short and sweet but tells employers exactly who you are and what you want. If you are struggling to think of a good profile headline, look at other people’s summaries! Be them alumni in the industry you want to go in or just someone you admire; their headlines might give you the inspiration you need. Just try to avoid using overused phrases and words like “Code Ninja” or “Strategic” as they are extremely overused and will mean nothing to employers. 

Summary 

The profile headline is just a short sentence to introduce you and goes hand-in-hand with your profile picture. But where should you talk about yourself? This is where the summary comes in. It is a paragraph that helps portray your experiences and interests to those viewing your account. Think of it as the best couple of paragraphs in a cover letter. While writing this section, LinkedIn can help you by giving some prompts of what to write if you are struggling to get started. 

Like with your CV, you can list your experiences. But unlike a CV, you are not limited to one or two pages, so feel free to list as much of your work experience as you wish and go into some detail about what you did in the role. And it doesn’t just have to be paid experience. You can list volunteer work under “Volunteer Experience & Causes” which is a great way of telling employers something a bit more unique about you. 

Networking 

The best thing you can be using LinkedIn for is networking. It’s as simple as that.  

Connect, connect, connect.  

The more people you have in your network, the more exposure you will have to job opportunities. About 80% of jobs on LinkedIn are never actually advertised, they are sourced and found through the network of people a person knows. Just be cautious of building too broad a network that spreads into irrelevant fields (No point adding lots of people in physiotherapy when you are interested in a career in cyber security) as it will just make it hard for you to find the content you want. Start small, focussing on quality over quantity. Add your fellow students, lecturers, co-workers and other people met at events. Aim to reach around 50 people in your network (ideally from broad and separate circles) to give you some strength when connecting with more people. 

But how can I start to build an effective network?  

It’s a question asked by many starting out on LinkedIn (myself included). Thankfully though, LinkedIn has a handful of effective resources for students and recent graduates. One of those is the Alumni Tool… 

Alumni Tool 

The alumni tool gives insight into the careers and skills for many of the graduates from a given university, as well as where they might be working. This is an extremely useful tool that you should definitely make use of if you haven’t before. Furthermore, if you are considering doing a postgraduate degree, this might help inform the decision you make as it gives helpful information relating to that university like popular career paths, fields of work and key skills. Here you can also see what people have graduated from your university which opens a healthy pool of people you could connect with. 

Use LinkedIn! 

Making connections isn’t the only thing you use LinkedIn for. If that were the case, it would be a quite boring app. Engage and explore the content and posts shared by others. Not only does it let you see what interesting things people are up to, but it also helps you maintain healthy connections and keep up to date with certain industries. At the same time, you should also be making posts of your own! Saying you have certain skills and experience is all well and good, but it is even better to keep active on LinkedIn with updates about what projects you might be working on. Not using LinkedIn regularly makes it even harder to keep it up to date when you log in every other month! 

This is just a short rundown of how you can make use of LinkedIn to help you get a job. There are tons more features to explore and make use of. Some you may never use and that is okay, they aren’t essential. Just focus on setting up the basics of your account and start making more connections! 

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Assessments: Looking beyond the marks

With semester one over and assessments finally submitted, you might be tempted to just leave it all in the past and prepare for next semester with the exams and other assignments it has to offer. But it is worthwhile to take some time to reflect on your modules and what you have learned. 

This isn’t only so you get to see how you have developed, but gives you a stronger indication of what you can talk to employers about.  

A good grade is always something to be proud of and does at least give some indication of what you can do, but to an employer just saying you have a degree in computer science or listing modules you have done well in doesn’t actually tell them what you can do. By reflecting on your modules and the key things you’ve learned and done, it gives you things you can talk to directly during an application.  

Take for example the stage 2 team project module. If an employer were to see this on your CV, it would tell them that you worked on something as a team, but not much more. Take the time to think about what you contributed to the module and what you learned and then write about it in your cover letter to give more context to what you have one. In the example of the team project, you could say things like organisation or ability to stick to a schedule while also mentioning specific ways you contributed to a task. When it comes time for an interview, and they ask you for a time where you have used problem-solving, hopefully, you can use some experiences from certain modules (e.g., changing the theme of a dissertation due to issues finding sources) when you can’t draw on your other experiences. 

Reflecting won’t just help you when it comes to showing off your skills to employers but should also help guide you towards the right career for you. Marks do give an indication of what topics you do well with and which you do not. But just going off the marks doesn’t really explain why you did how you did. Not only should you check over and discuss feedback given, but reflect on what you thought went well and where you might improve next, as well as what you enjoyed. You may not have done as well in one module as another but if you enjoyed that module more and are willing to put the time in, it stands to reason you will be able to progress better with that topic in the long run. 

So next time you submit an assignment or receive a mark, rather than just forgetting about it and moving on, take some time to reflect on what you have learned and how you can apply your new skills towards your future career prospects. 

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How to write cover letters

A few months ago, I wrote an article about creating a CV, with the assistance of resources provided by the careers service. I learnt a great deal, but it was only one-half of the initial application process. This is a follow-up to that article, focusing on the other half: the cover letter. And thankfully, the careers service has resources to help again! 

When it comes to writing a cover letter to accompany your CV, there are several pitfalls you could run into. And the main reason is that many people don’t know exactly why they are writing a cover letter.  

Many make the mistake of just using it as an opportunity to rattle off their CV again.  

What you should be focusing on is you, what you are doing, why you want the role and why they should want you for the role.  

It is about linking the skills you have shown in your CV to the role you are applying for and why exactly they make you perfect for the role. 

What goes in my cover letter? 

In the past when I tried writing a cover letter, I didn’t really follow a set structure and just wrote until I filled a page. Not the best method to get the attention of a company. But through using the University’s resources, courtesy of the Careers Service, I have a much better understanding of how to approach this one-page conundrum.  

The main objective of a cover letter is to show the company you are applying for who you are.  

That personal touch makes you a person rather than another application in a dozen. The challenge is that you only have one page to do that. Sticking to that one-page limit is hard but here is a method of breaking it down: 

  1. Beginning  
  2. Introduction
  3. Why them?
  4. Why you?
  5. Ending

Let’s look at what each step asks for… 

Beginning 

Address who you are talking to, and make sure to get their name and job title correct! Try to do some research to find the name of the person who will read your application. 

Introduction 

First impressions matter, and this is where you do just that. So be sure to make it something strong, positive and confident. Explain what you are doing now and explain why you are writing. If applying for a specific role, state which role and where you saw the application.  

This part is especially important if you are applying speculatively for a role as you will need to be specific about what kind of role you are applying for and be sure to consider giving a range of options in case the role you want is not available. 

Why you 

Now that they have a rough idea of who you are and why you are writing, it is time to start selling yourself to them and explain why they should hire you for the role. Summarise what you have to offer by talking about the key selling points from your CV that demonstrate that you are what they are looking for. Don’t just repeat what is in your CV (that’s why you have one!), but rather give a concise summary with specific examples. Avoid talking about generic skills and qualities in isolation! 

Convey your enthusiasm for the role and what you can bring to the role by talking about what relevant experience you can bring to the role. This could come from your degree, an internship or other bit of extracurricular work.  

This is the most important part of your cover letter and chances are you might write more for this bit than you would other parts, so feel free to break it down into two paragraphs. 

Why them 

It can be a pain having to write a cover letter for every single company you apply for, and it can be very tempting to just use a generic one; but that will do you no favours. Each cover letter should be tailored to the organisation and role you are applying for. Otherwise, you won’t come across well to employers. 

Research the company to find out as much as possible about the field of work, the company and the role you are applying for. This will also give insight into their ethos, training and product/services which you should also talk about. Furthermore, it will help inform you as to whether this company is the right one for you. 

The orginisation’s website is a great place to start to research but don’t just repeat what is on there. Have a look around on LinkedIn at current employees and what they are up to. 

Ending 

End on a positive and friendly note asking when they would be able to have an interview before signing off with ‘Yours sincerely’ if the name of the person you are applying to is known but if not, put ‘Yours faithfully’ 

The Careers Service has many more resources and detail about what to write in each paragraph of your cover letter, so be sure to check them out here. 

How do I write my cover letter? 

Now that we have a rough idea of what we should include in a cover letter, it is good to get some practice at writing them. The only issue with this is that you need a job to apply for. 

If you want to practice early, you may not want to wait for a specific role to come available for you to practice on. Thankfully though, the university links a fantastic resource where you can find templated job descriptions for a range of different roles. You can find it here. 

By using these examples, you can create cover letters that specifically target the requirements of those roles without the pressure of deadlines.   

The careers service has example cover letters that you can also give some initial inspiration if you are struggling. 

How can I check if my cover letter is good? 

Now that you have practiced writing a cover letter, how do you check what is good and what areas to improve on?  

If you have read the CV article, it mentions an extremely useful AI-powered tool called CareerSet which analyses your CV and highlights what areas you should improve on. CareerSet also works for cover letters.  

Like the CV, you get an overall rating of your cover letter, giving an indication as if you should make changes or not. 

It gives clear examples of not only what you could improve on, but also what you did well! 

Not only does it evaluate the content and structure of your cover letter, but the relevance to the job description you are applying for. This is extremely important to help stop your applications from becoming generic, and are more tailored to the role itself! 

Of course, computer-based feedback may have some advantages, but at the end of the day, you want to make sure your cover letter appeals to an actual human. You can submit your cover letter to the Careers service, and they will give written feedback to you in around five working days. You can book a slot here. 

The career service can also help if you don’t have much work experience to include in your CV as you can book an information appointment to help develop your skills. Additionally, if you need any reasonable adjustments or have extenuating circumstances, the careers service can help you with how best to include this information in your cover letter. 

Cover letters may seem intimidating but at the end of the day, they are just a single page that you get to spend talking about how great you are. How bad can that be?