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I can’t believe we’ve gone this long without a link to a Dilbert comic.

So, the more I look at external sites, a person who’s writing tells a lot about Silicon Valley type thinking is this Guy.  The dude has some great connections including Penelope Trunk, who is a career columnist.  Guy has a really cool interview with her on his site.  I think her answers are pretty reasonable.  I’ll add the Silicon Valley spin below, so come back after you read it. #7, 8 and 10 are highlights.

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Yahoo! Hotjobs had an article that was also printed in the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday about networking and how it helps during a job search.  Building your own personal network of contacts can be absolutely invaluable to finding a job and getting hired slightly easier.  As in some of our other posts, there are many things that having a strong network can do for you.  The best things are:

• Get your resume in front of the hiring manager without having to go through a recruiter
• Get you recommended vs. the job description before you even apply
• Give you an inside track on what the interview will be like and to whom you will be talking

“Building up a network of references is really an important currency, but it’s just as important to stay in contact with them. You can’t not talk to someone for three years and then just call them up out of the blue asking for a job.”

It’s hard to just start telling people how to network right.  You need to build relationships with your co-workers, peers and even people your associated with (I got a job offer from one of the guys I used to buy parts from when my startup was sinking).  It needs emphasis that networking is a two-way street.  You need to go out of your way to help others when you can.  If you constantly abuse your “network”, they will cease to be your advocates.  Silicon Valley is actually a relatively small place.  It used to be you always had one or two degrees of separation from someone who worked at Lockheed Martin.  Realize that typically, technical people stay in the same or relatively similar markets (in terms of products), you’ll run into people again and again.  Burning bridges never helped someone get a job.

When many young engineering graduates are starting on their job search, inevitably, they will be denied employment because “they do not have (appropriate) experience”. This usually brings up the proverbial “chicken and the egg” problem. For engineers, it’s “how do I get experience when no one will give me a job?” The feeling of hopelessness or insecurity can easily derail the world beating confidence of a young engineer, who aspires to be a part (or create) the next great thing.

If you’re in college, many people think that experience is a tough thing to obtain. That you need to do the intership / co-op route to gain proper experience for the workplace. However, given the massive amount of access to technology now via the internet there are many things you can do independently. Read on for 10 ways that you can build your resume in spite of not having an internship before graduation. The big investment is time and desire. Most of these are software based, as the cost barrier to entry is typically lower (assuming you have something that resembles a modern computer).

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The preparation of the resume is usually the first step in any job hunt. The resume should be setup to make sure that you 1) get past the recruiter and 2) convey to the hiring manager that he / she should want to learn more about you. There are some general rules:

• TLAs – don’t use these unless you know what they mean… (oh yeah, TLA = three letter acronyms. These tend to be rampant in tech)
• Format – Don’t be a slave to format. The resume is to convey information. If you are a “creative” graphics person, it’s probably best to have printed versions of your resume be a little different than black and white. If you are an XML / CSS / AJAX expert, the web version of your resume, should be crazy creative.
• Know the audience – Make sure you
• Let others proof it – spelling, grammar, weird / redundant sentences. Getting another set of eyes will always make sure things just flow.
• Prep other collateral -If you’re a graphics / web designs, you better have a portfolio ready online and the link in your resume.
• Know the bounds of intellectual property. If you are applying to a competitor, it’s nice to show in your resume that you don’t leak secrets to everyone…
• Be descriptive, yet succinct – Words need to highlight your qualifications, but too many words muddy the message
• 1 Page or more: If you’re just coming out of school: 1 page. If you’ve got 15+ years of experience: maybe more, but you should still try to keep it to a page. Remember, the resume is intended for people to initiate contact and ask you more, not to sell yourself all in one shot.  Plus, it saves paper and staples. 

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Name and contact info

Make sure your name is at the top of the piece of paper. Do not misspell it (seriously). Only put one address, email address and phone number. Any more than that and Murphy’s law will guarantee that they will try to contact you at the one that you ware NOT at.

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It is so sad that I actually owned everything on this list at one point in time. (well… technically, the Compaq portable was my fathers, but still…)

File this under common sense.  This could also be called: how to be professional.  This article is a bit light on the details, but it’s accurate in a general sense.  The two points that people should look as real personal drivers are #7 and 8.

7. Fearing Risk or Failure

If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will. Have a can-do attitude and take risks. Instead of saying, “I’ve never done that,” say, “I’ll learn how.” Don’t be afraid to fail or make mistakes. If you do mess up, admit it and move on. Above all, find the learning opportunities in every situation. Remember, over time, risk-aversion can be more hazardous to your career than error.

8. Having No Goals

Failure doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal, but in not having a goal to reach. Set objectives and plan your daily activities around achieving them. Eighty percent of your effectiveness comes from 20 percent of your activities. Manage your priorities and focus on those tasks that support your goals.

I note these two in particular because to many people they aren’t intuitive.  Fear of failure is a very conservative and often negative approach to working.  In many startups, fear of failure dooms you to mediocrity and ensures your part of the work will not be great.  Mediocre ideas are often not polarizing either.  For many startups, you will find that the idea is either a fantastic idea or the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard.  The polarization is what many people want.  Having a conservative opinion leaves you with the choice between Kerry and Bush.

Having goals is a bit selfish, but if you’re competing in the Valley (which you are sure to be), you will be the only one who can really look out for your own ambitions.   You really need to believe in your work to enjoy it, and if you have clear goals, this comes much easier.

Guy Kawasaki writes “Everything You Wanted to Know About Getting a Job in Silicon Valley But Didn’t Know Who to Ask“. This is tailored a little more to a more experienced engineer. Taken with a grain of salt (as just about everything you read on the Internet, including this site), this is a wonderful way to frame your thinking about finding a job in the Valley.

The comments are worth reading because it highlights those who value resumes vs. the interview process, etc. You can also see some people who don’t understand that you need to see the hiring process with some amount of humor. You can also tell those who recently interviewed and weren’t hired.

For the most part, I agree with Guy’s assessment in terms of finding a tech job (meaning semis, internet-based companies, consumer electronics companies and networking companies), since I have more direct experience with them.

As time goes on, we’ll continue to add things to help you find a job.

An article from the Wall Street Journal is saying that Silicon Valley is (again) the place for “High Skilled” workers.  It’s a bit of a fluff piece, but there are some good bits of information.

Silicon Valley’s changing employment makeup does have its downside. Wages are once again creeping up, making it more expensive to do business in the already pricey area. Average annual pay in Silicon Valley hit $69,455 in 2005, up 2.7% from 2004, though it remains below the heights of the average $80,000-plus that the region’s workers earned in 2000, according to Joint Venture Silicon Valley.

It’s a bit of a mishmash covering companies from Google (hot) to Palm (turbulent) to HP (were great).  This is great news for job seekers, but it does not that “lower skilled” jobs including entry level type positions are being moved out of the area.  I have seen this trend a bit, and it is troublesome.

Companies get into the loop of thinking “gotta hire good, experienced people to get to market faster.”  However, in today’s environment (where you’re lucky if you get 5 years out of someone) you need to make sure you are reloading your engineers with young guns.

There are tens of thousands of people who come to Silicon Valley looking for jobs.  It’s a lot like the 21st century gold rush.  “New money” places like Google and Yahoo attract engineers just the same as Valley stalwart Intel does.  I want to help those who are just starting on their job search here get off on the right foot.  I’ll also help out those of you looking to move jobs.  My advice is based on 10-years of working here in the valley, having most of my best friends also in various areas of technology and having been in an engineering management positions for the better part of 5 years.

Please get in queue, your cube awaits.