When you are in college, as you do well in the subjects. As you become good at coding, you look at your college final year batch and see which companies they are selected. Based on this majority of students set their goal to work in a company.
In your college, your seniors are placed in TCS, Wipro, Infosys, you also dream of getting placed in one of these companies. When you see some people on your campus get placed in Microsoft, Google, Amazon, like companies. You also want to work in such companies because the pay is good. These companies are also referred to as FAANG companies. Google the word FAANG to know more about it.
This is the scope, what you will have when you are in engineering college. Some people will choose an MBA and other streams just because they find it difficult to code. They somehow hate Engineering subjects. But they decently with marks.
When you are still in college, what to work on is more important than where to work? So deciding on what to work on. The best would be to explore as many areas as possible, instead of settling for the first technology that you become comfortable at. These days the tooling and availability for developing many applications have become very easy. To develop a mobile app or to build WebApp or a website. There are a variety of things available. You have to get your hands on whatever technology is needed to get the problem you want to solve.
There are times when you know some technology and are interested in that. Then you need to see where you could apply this and start creating anything that excites you. For that, you can find out local companies that have such requirements for developing using technology. Nowadays, there are many remote options, where there are many startups that need work done. If you aim for it, you can surely find a way to reach the startup which needs such work to be done. Solving your own interesting ideas and problems. Working with companies or people who have problems is one thing. To make this work people around. Have timelines and commitments. When you start working with a startup (so-called) who don’t have clarity what needs to be done. Just run away from their reach. Don’t waste your life. Have some committed time, say 3 months or 6 months. See if you can get the work done. If yes, you can contribute then keep working with them.
As you work with other people and solve their problems with your coding skills, they will give you references to other work opportunities. Here is the truth. There is work available for sure in many startups and companies looking for people like. Just don’t stop searching and trying to reach them.
One of the ways to reach out to them is. Go to meet-ups of the local startups and find out what are the best companies that are there in your locality. Next, try to list all the companies in your area and figure out what they are doing. With your relatives and friend, you can reach out to the company in your locality for sure. Checkout and let them know that you are available to work.
Another approach is to find our on the internet and looks for different hot spots in the country where there are a lot of startups. There will a few key locations where there are a decent amount of startups are concentrated. Try to get connected to some people working in the area, through LinkedIn or Facebook or any other means. Keep exploring the search from there. Surely you will find.
Another approach is to reach out to your alumni, they will surely have some clarity over these things and could help you in this regard. Another is to reach out to your friends in other engineering colleges and find out the opportunities they know.
As you keep exploring all these possible paths, you will surely stumble upon some excellent collections of work opportunities.
Now coming to where to work. When the work is good and the pay is good. Go for it. When you don’t know which is best, aim for the company which really pay top salaries. Surely they will make you work on things that need to work at scale and have some good, hard problems. One important thing to remember is if you miss getting into your dream company, let us say into Tesla or Apple. For whatever reasons, either your college is not recognized or you good not clear the interview. Don’t stop. It does not end for your life like this. If your dream is such companies, don’t join TCS or Wipro or big services companies. They might pull the energy out of you and make you settle for their patterns. Join some startup that is working on the latest technology and which is working on a scalable problem.
As you keep working, you will know what good companies are and what right technologies to work on. You may join your dream company after 3-5 years after graduating. But don’t settle for other companies which you don’t like to work in. Assess your appetite and your capabilities and be realistic, for which companies you would like to work for. Keep working towards, and you will surely reach to that place.
Another advice is as you start working, keep attending interviews every weekend. This will tell you where you are lacking and where you need to improve and how the market is changing. Keep focusing on the company and the technology you want to work for.
Delay joining other companies if that does not allow you to practice and work in your dream company. Another best option is to work with capable people for free in startups, which offer you excellent work rather than working in the services companies. This is all true only when you have the appetite for coding. You are reading this book means you have the appetite and desire to know more, and you are open-minded. Don’t drop your exploration, keep working till you settle in your dream company.