Sometimes when you're applying for a job
and you've read through the position description,
and that's a document usually created by the employer
given to perspective applicants,
you might read through that and think, wow,
what they're asking for is way over my capabilities
and you might sort of self-eliminate yourself
from the process.
What I want to do is talk about that today
because there's often ways
that you can still make yourself available
and that you'll be able to actually apply for that job.
So let's talk about that in today's video.
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(bright music)
Welcome back.
My name is Tim Buchalka
with another programming tip of the day
and we're talking about applying for jobs in general
and how it's vital to really read that position description
about that perspective job
that you're applying for really carefully.
Now the reason is it's the use of words
given by the employer that topped up on the employer
when they're looking for someone.
So let's start off by talking about something
that typically comes up.
You need to have a university degree,
college degree or equivalent.
Now you often look at that and go,
oh, I haven't got a degree and you'll self-eliminate
and you won't read anymore.
Well the keywords there are or equivalent at the end,
so or equivalent may well mean online programming course.
So they're looking for someone
who has actually done some sort of training.
Now, of course, it may not be in there,
then you might find that now it's mandatory,
but read that sentence really carefully
and don't just eliminate yourself from the process
purely because you assume something.
It's definitely still worth applying
in that particular case.
Now another key requirement is that
or is something that may come up in the position description
is a list of all these technologies and seemingly, you know,
insurmountable list of things that they're asking for,
even sometimes for junior programming positions.
But again, it's the choice of words here.
Is the word used mandatory?
Is it essential?
Or is it desirable?
Now the words of that nature are saying
it would be nice if you have those skills
or are they saying is it mandatory to have them
because often that's not the case
because particularly with a junior programming position,
I mean it's not practical, is it,
for you to have all these years
of experience of technologies
if you haven't got your first programming job,
and employees area aware of that,
but what they tend to do is boot up a list
of the ideal candidate in their eyes,
and let's be honest here,
the employer's looking to pay the least amount of money
for someone with the most skills.
So if they found someone who had all this experience
and hadn't had a programming job before,
they would probably get the position for that reason,
but the reality is,
particularly for junior programming jobs,
that every applicant won't have any experience,
won't know a lot of technologies, and you know,
what I'm making here is don't eliminate yourself and think,
oh, I can't apply for that
purely because of what they've said
and really focus on whether they're saying
it's mandatory to have that experience,
it's essential to have those skills or is it desirable,
highly desirable, you know,
it would be an advantage if as opposed to like mandatory
because I see so programming descriptions
for programming roles these days where it's those words,
they're just basically putting an open ended list of things
that they would like to find in an applicant.
It's unlikely, you know, it's a high probability
they won't find someone with all those skills,
and if you haven't applied for the job
purely because of that, well,
you're not gonna get look in where you might actually find,
if you do actually apply for that based on that criteria
that you'll still get to the interview stage.
So what I'm talking about here
is just the tips to get to that first interview stage
and another video well later on,
I'll actually create a video
and talk more about interview processes,
but here, the most essential thing
is for you to get to that first level.
Now I've got another video I've talked about,
basic details about getting to the first interview,
so check that video up here for more information,
but again, my tip for today,
make sure you read the position description really carefully
and focus on whether they're mandatory things
they're looking for or they're just desirable
and what would be an advantage if you had them,
and if you think that they're not actually mandatory
to have those skills,
if you've got something with at least some of those skills,
you know, you can take a couple boxes there
that you should probably go for that job.
Now as an example,
they might say just before I finish the video,
two years programming experience with Java or equivalent.
Now again, it's probably unlikely
that you've had two years programming experience
if you're going for your first programming job.
The or equivalent might be another online programming course
and you've done some programming yourself,
maybe you've worked on an open source project
or you've got a couple of projects,
really basic things you can show yourself
that you've actually done.
So don't self-eliminate yourself
from any potential programming description.
Read the position descriptions really carefully
and you might well be surprised at what you find.
Alright, so I hope that helped.
If you've got any questions,
feel free to leave a comment and I'll get back to you.
If you're ready to look at the next tip,
click on up here and you can check that out.
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