Jack just secured his first job as a software developer in New Zealand, and we couldn’t be more proud of him! Before he went off to start his new career, we sat down with him to talk about his time here with us at Industry Connect.
First of all Jack, huge congratulations on your first job as a software developer in New Zealand. Tell us, before coming to Industry Connect, what was your background both here and overseas?
I came to Industry Connect from the University of Auckland. After graduation I found it hard for me to get a job with no experience in the industry, especially no experience in doing interviews. Then I heard from my friend that Industry Connect is a good place, somewhere you can gain industry experience as a developer or tester.
So yeah, I applied for the course to be a developer and I found that I really learned a lot. It really is a good place Industry Connect. I really get a lot of support and guidance from people, right up to the senior developers.
In terms of the help that you gain, would you say that it would benefit you in terms of learning your technical skills?
Yeah, but not only technical skills, but also soft skills. I still remember the first day I came to Industry Connect, they gave me guidance on what I would learn over the next 3 months of study, like the C# tutorial. And the tutors are quite patient, especially when it comes to reviewing our code and also give us guidance on our materials; what you need to learn, and how to learn it faster.
After finishing the basic skills, we then did our internship at AimyPlus. At Aimy we had an international coach, who give me a lot of guidance – how you can get along with people, how to motivate people, or how to make people happy.
We also had a coach who taught me how to develop speaking. We had the Toastmasters speech, trying to help us on how to speak in front of people and not feel nervous. Yeah, for the techno skills I’ve learned a lot with senior developers. They taught me how to write clean code, how to write code professionally, how follow the template and how to use the framework.
I also learned a lot on how to behave on an interview and there were a lot of suggestions when it comes to job seeking.
So you’d say that from the skills that you learned here at Industry Connect, in terms of both technical and soft skills, and also for the interviewing process, would you say that it helped you in finding a job a lot more than beforehand?
Yeah, definitely, because before I didn’t know how to deal in interviewers with strangers in front of me. I didn’t know what point they were making with their questions, and so didn’t know how to answer properly. I also didn’t know how to prepare for an interview, and with my CV, I didn’t know what to put on it.
I think that’s very important to know why your application is being rejected, because you’ll just end up applying again, and being rejected again, because you don’t know what they are rejecting you for, and you don’t know which part you need to improve.
So for anyone who is considering doing Industry Connect, maybe someone who is in the same boat as you and they were trying to look for a job, what would your advice to them be if they were considering to do the course?
Based on my experience, if you really are a job seeker and are looking for job as a test developer or if you have stopped with your skills, or you don’t know how to get started, or you’re worried about your career development, just join Industry Connect. They will give you clear guidance and clear blueprint.
Industry Connect really helps a lot of people, and a lot of people get a lot of value from that, there is no doubt.
Well, again Jack, huge congratulations on your first job as a software developer in New Zealand and we wish you the best in the future.
What is Industry Connect?
We have been helping career changers, recent IT graduates and people with career gap to start their IT/software careers.
Over the years, we have helped hundreds kick-start an IT/software career. (Verifiable evidences are available on this website)
OUR CORE
We are an innovative software training school backed by global/local software companies. Our ecosystem is an incubation process that supports our participants until they launch a tech career.
OUR PROGRAMMES
Our Job-Ready training programmes focus on,
- Software Development
- Business Intelligence (or Data Analyst)
- Test Analyst
PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
- Six Weeks Training Classes (Practical Tech Skills)
- Three Months (or more) Structured Internship on Large Commercial-Scale Projects (Learning enhanced, flexible Hours)
- Employer Network (job analysis and internal referral if goals are met)
You can join us via Zoom (live face-to-face meeting) remotely from anywhere and "download" the valuable knowledge & experiences from our tech experts across different tech centres.
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