I recently got asked for advice getting a job in tech and it caught me off guard a bit. I am by no means a guru. My current state of things (work - life - family) feels at times like a series of very lucky accidents.
The letter below was drafted for a kid who lives in my bldg. I live in the literal shadow of NYC. West bank of the Hudson River about 2 km from the West Village. The reason I mention this is a general attitude I have towards the young people in Hoboken (my city). I used to walk my (recently deceased) dog at night and see them smoking pot and doing teenagey things in the park and want to say to them - "Take the PATH across the river - the trouble you get into will be of a much more rarified and enlightening variety...".
NYC so close is like another world to these kids... They'd probably kick my ass - so I leave them be.
Anyway. This kid recently out of college looks like a decent kid. His mom approached me to ask me to help him find a job. He studied somekind of website design program at a local Catholic college.
I typed the following and gave it to the doorman to give the kid whan he sees him next. Thi is what I thought was decent advice for cracking into a tough job market for entry level folks.
It has nagged me for the past few hours as I wonder if it is good advice. It is based upon hiring folks for a techops dept for an adtech company in NYC.
I am in my 40s so feel a generational gap. There is also this insular Hoboken thing at work... Also, the fact that his moms asked me probably makes all that follows null and void.
For future iterations - what would you all change/ delete / add?
https://gist.github.com/mbubb/7471197
