Gettin' the Job - OIT Prepares its Students for Jobs!

Hey, everyone. This is the first of, hopefully, a series of blogs about OIT students who score jobs related to their major. I'm trying to meet up with people I know who have been offered jobs, and ask them some questions about their experience through the whole "job search" ordeal.

Just recently, I interviewed a close friend of mine by the name of Clint Moran. I'll go ahead and show the transcript, then I'll talk some more about it.

M: I'm here with Clint Moran, a graduating senior here at OIT. Clint recently acquired a job at HP, Hewlett-Packard up in Boise, Idaho. So, I've got some questions for him.

You got this job at HP, you got the job offer, but before all of this happened, were you even thinking about HP as a potential employer?

C: No. Not at all.

M: Ah, so when HP came school, what did you think your chances of getting a job there were?

C: Slim to none. Just, yeah, because of the competition. Like, the other students that were interviewing for the initial interview on campus... I had a perception that they were smarter than me, and more capable, and would do better in interviews. But apparently I did pretty good, because I was one of the four or five that got to go to Boise. So, yeah, I didn't see them as an employer, or I didn't see my chances as being very high. I guess I was kind of... not setting my goals very high, so I wouldn't be disappointed. [laugh]


M: [chuckle] Okay, so how did you find out about the whole HP opportunity?

C: One of the instructors in our program [CSET].

M: So, you were told about this, and obviously you were interested because you went after it. But what kind of things did you have to do in order to get that initial invitation to Boise for the interviews?

C: I had to impress the two recruiters that came, I guess, by showing my technical competence, and somewhat my people skills by giving a decent interview without acting too skiddish or awkward.

M: Right, so did you meet them before or after the interview at all?

C: They had a little meet and greet in Purvine the day before the week of the interviews. So they had just a a really informal, kind of, "ask about Boise," "ask about HP," "ask about the job that they're offering" [sort of thing].

M: Were you really interested, at that point, in moving to Boise? Or was that just something that would happen if you got the job?

C: Yeah, it was just up in the air. I wasn't set on anything yet, at that point, because I wasn't sure if I would even like Boise, or like the campus, or like the people there... but it all turned out for the best.

M: Cool. So, the first couple of interviews [in Boise]; did you actually do anything to prepare yourself for them?

C: Yes, actually. I was mostly concerned about the programming competency questions like basic data structure questions, and stuff that we'd been taught - you know, just the fundamentals of our [software] program. And so I just went and created a project on my computer, and I just went over all the basic things like string manipulation, and stuff that I had just assumed I'd be asked. The basics of our program are what I practiced before the interview.

M: You said four or five people went to Boise for the rest of the interview process. Were they all from OIT, or were there more from other schools?

C: Actually, the only people from OIT were me and three other guys, and then there were like 20 other people from other schools. So there was about 25 people at the interviews. They were from all over the country.

M: Okay, you got invited to Boise, but did they give you any sort of itinerary of things you were going to do when you went to Boise?

C: They had a whole planned out event. When we arrived, they'd check us into our hotel, then they were going to give us a tour of the city on some bus, you know, just take us around to the major sites around Boise. Then after that, there was going to be a big dinner where they discuss what was going to happen the next day - the interviews and stuff. At dinner were all the hiring managers at HP so we could get to know the people who would be interviewing us, or people we could be potentially working with. But, unfortunately, all of the OIT guys missed that because our flight from Klamath Falls was delayed.

M: Oh that's a bummer! Was this all scheduled for a weekend?

C: It was for a Sunday and a Monday. So the tour and the dinner were on Sunday, and the interviews were on the Monday morning.

M: You had three interviews scheduled up in Boise, right?

C: Yeah. The Monday morning of the interviews, there were three interviews scheduled for all of the applicants. [They] went in different orders, but each interview had, kind of, its own theme. One of them was a kind of a HR interview, like, "what would you do in this situation, if this employee was doing this," or "how would you deal with a customer if x, y, and z." You know, just general questions to see if you would be able to handle difficulties in the workplace.

One of the other interviews was a technical interview, and that was about the basics of our program, so like, C/C++, different problem solving like "write a linked-list append function" and I think another one was "write i to a," so converting from an integer to a string or a string to an integer. Then just basic data structure questions.

Then the last interview was a problem-solving, like a logical interview. For example, the question I was asked was "given 8 balls [one of which is heavier than the others], find the heavier of the 8 using only two tests on a tip-scale". So, just stuff like that.

M: Cool. Going into the interviews, how were you feeling? Were you nervous, did you feel prepared?

C: I did a little bit of studying the night before, but I didn't want to over-exert myself because I didn't want to psyche myself out. But before the interviews, I was real nervous, because that [introduction interview] was the only other interview I've ever had for this type of situation. After the first interview I kind of loosened up a little bit, and then I was relaxed for the next two, so they went really smooth. I think that helped a lot.

M: Sweet, so after that first interview, you pretty much had a load off your shoulders.

C: Oh yeah. Big time. Because I knew what to expect, well, I didn't know exactly what to expect, but I knew the flow of the interview, how things would go. And everybody was really nice, so I wasn't expecting to get some drill sergeant kind of guy asking me really tough questions I had no idea the answers to.

M: So this all worked out, and now that you have the job, how much would you say your education at OIT helped you?

C: 100%. [laugh] Just talking to some of the people from different schools, I felt like they were up to snuff on most of the things that we were. So, I don't know if it's just basic programming language skills, like knowing the C++ language front and back like we do (because they [instructors] hammer it into our heads the first two years here), or just the problem solving skills (because our classes are all practical, they're not just theory). But the practical knowledge is what actually helped me through the interviews, because most of the questions I was asked, I had already been asked before and I knew the answers to them.

M: Those are all the questions I have for you right now. So, thanks a lot, Clint, for coming in and answering my questions.

C: No problem.


M: It was really enlightening and, I don't know, AWESOME!

First of all, congratulations to Clint. He's a great guy, and it sounds like he's got a great job waiting for him when he graduates. Really proud of him.

One thing that I should probably mention is that he was pulled aside before leaving Boise, along with a couple other guys, and was given an informal job offer on the spot. After that, it was all about just waiting for the official job offer email. He got it while we were in our networks lab. Needless to say it was hard for us to do any work after that.

We talked for a bit about some random things after his interview with me. One of the funnier things we talked about is how intimidated he was when he saw all of the interviewees in the same room. Some were dressed "heavily" while others limited themselves to shirt and tie. He talked about how his first impressions of the other interviewees made him feel pretty inadequate and unprepared, but his interviewing skills pulled him through.

Clint knows his stuff. Despite rocking only a shirt and tie, he got the job, so he must have impressed in the interview process. And a tough one at that. Early in the morning on a Monday, three interviews in a row...

What I think is really great is how much he attributes his success to his OIT education. 100%. Anyone can study programming. Anyone can study computers. Anyone can pay tuition at a school to assist in studying, and obviously at least 20 others on site at Boise had. But Clint chose to pay tuition at OIT, and he's 100% sure that what he was taught at OIT is what got him the job.

It isn't just about what you learn at OIT, though. It's about the relationships you make. Clint has made relationships with most of his instructors over the years, and I'm sure each of them have great things to say about him. This is how he found out about the HP recruiters coming to OIT. If you haven't already, make friends with your program's instructors! Their help, in addition to Career Services' help, can really get you somewhere!

Stay tuned. I think I have another person lined up to be interviewed. And if you happen to know someone that has been offered a job related to their major, drop us an email at career at oit dot edu. Thanks for reading!

I've made my own luck.

Some time ago, I was reading an article that discusses what makes "lucky" people so lucky. At the time, I was in a life-rut, but I knew it would pass soon enough. It always does. I never stay in a funk for any unbearable amount of time, and I like to think it's because I have "lucky" streaks that put me back on top. So reading this article was exactly what I needed to facilitate the occurrence of that "lucky" streak.

Unfortunately, I don't remember what website I read the original article on. But I've found an appropriate substitute. I can look back on all the times I'd jump right out of a rut, and apply most, if not all of the points they make in this article. It really does seem valid in retrospect, of course, just like most other ideas, but I recently had another "lucky" experience that really has me believing that I can make my own luck.

I have this aspiration to do freelance webdesign and webdevelopment in addition to whatever full time job I score after school. I've been practicing both of these things since I was in my early teens, and it's a great passion of mine. Unfortunately, to really have any credibility in the freelance field, you need to have had clients. And to get clients, you usually need to have some sort of credibility. It's the typical chicken-or-the-egg problem. But just recently, I caught a good break.

I was hanging out at a classy location killing time just before spring break had hit. Over the past month or two, I'd been frequenting this location, and I had gotten to know the owners pretty well. I knew the location needed a website, but I wasn't going to bring it up to them without anything to show. They always seem to comment on how bored I look when I'm there, and so generally some conversation starts up, especially when business is pretty slow. At some point, I asked what the special of the day was, and it happened to be Mojito Monday. I wasn't too keen on having a drink just yet, nor could I really afford one, so I asked the bartender to give me a minute.

Anyway, the bartender left and returned with a couple of tacos-gratis and some more conversation. He learned pretty quickly that I'm a software engineering technology major with freelance webdesign ambitions. At that point, he all but shoved a couple of webdesign job offers in my face. I was a little awestruck by how quickly a bit of smalltalk had evolved into something just short of job offers, but eventually it hit me that I had just been lucky.

See, I put myself in a position where I was exposed to new people. New people mean new opportunities, which means a better chance for a "lucky" event to happen. Being in the right place, with the right people around me, at the right time, with the right mindset got me almost-job-offers, which I then pursued.

One of them turned into a real job offer, and the other one is still pending a meeting between the interested parties. Needless to say, I'm really stoked. My motivation to pursue this has skyrocketed only from the onset of a project. I'm currently working on the website for the location, I've started a personal blog for my exploits in the web industry, and I've started putting together a resume website to showcase my work.

It's funny that one of these "lucky" events can completely brighten up someone's short-term or even long-term outlook. And because a person is so lighthearted and optimistic, more of these "lucky" events are likely to happen. It really is possible to make your own luck. The article I mentioned earlier, "How to Make Your Own Luck" lists attributes that are common amongst the "lucky" people who were studied, and those are a great place to start! Observe the wonders it has done for me!