Deep dive into the "How to" of different aspects of a Job search + Your Q&A + Reflect on Takeaways + Opportunities + Discuss an Action Plan
Hello everyone,
I recently got a new employment job as a Senior Software Developer. Prior to that I got a freelancing role earlier this year. Both of these were while I was in Germany and its amidst the current times surrounding AI where the job market is all the more competitive than ever.
Background behind 'Why' of this meetup:
The journey that eventually led to my new job was was mentally, emotionally, psychologically and even physically very challenging and you are hearing this from a Senior developer who has 12+ years of experience in tech, so I can only try to imagine how much more difficult it might be for those who are just starting their careers and with having lesser experience and others at various stages in their career & facing various challenges with their job search on the above aspects.
From not getting shortlisted for interviews to not getting sufficient feedback and also having to navigate all related challenges psychologically, financially, physically & mentally and also trying to handle things with one's family including managing oneself can actually be a lot.
I also realised I had to be strategic and have proper planning and also be proactive about one's job search and also deal with what people started referring to as AI overwhelm.
Some questions I ended up asking myself in the process include:
What should be my most important focus areas that could help me land my next role given there are a plethora of options out there ?
There's so much to constantly learn and keep up with - what should I learn now and what can I park for later ?
How do I learn how to learn faster ?
How do I balance the physical, mental, emotional, financial, family and other aspects of one's job search and stay positive, calm and continue to believe in oneself through each rejection
How do I scale myself the way AI systems are scaling how they approach learning and getting better ?
How do I stand out in my job interviews?
Additionally, its also not easy to stay calm, continue to believe in onesef, stay positive and focused through each job rejection and also maintain a never-give-up attitude and persevere until one eventually finds a job.
This is what I had to go through in my recent job search and I'm observing that there are hardly people who are talking about the "How to" with regards to all of the above in one's job search journey especially when its all the more challenging in the era of AI and other surrounding challenges.
What the meetup is about:
This online meetup(in English) is a talk about the How To's of how I had to adapt myself to the constantly changing times surrounding AI in the context of the various aspects mentioned above and what did I learn in these constantly changes times that led me to eventually land a job after 1+ year of trying to find stable employment in Germany.
P.S:
I'm no expert to cover all the above aspects professionally, however I can definitely share what worked for me and this meetup is primarily about all of the above aspects + discussing creative and concrete ways to actually land one's next role.
I'm also doing this meetup since my observation is very few people talk about all these other aspects of one's job search.
I'm using the free version of Google meet for this meetup, towards the end of every hour I will share a new meetup link(as the free Google meet link works only for 1 hour before it auto ends the call) & I will also try to update the page here(mostly in the body of this post - somewhere around this section of 'P.S.') with the newer links so that people can join each subsequent hour with the new link
Meetup Agenda
[1 hour] Share a presentation of what worked for me
[5 mins] Break & Connect with other fellow attendees(if you wish)
[1 - 1 hr 15 mins] Answer your Questions & Answers about Job Search in general whether you are in Germany or in any other part of the world, that doesn't matter.
Please take max 30s-1min to ask your question
My goal is to try to answer each person's question within 1-2 mins so that we can cover as many q's as possible and also have multiple rounds of questions
Everyone gets at least one chance to ask their question
[10 mins] Break & Connect with other fellow attendees(if you wish)
[15-30 mins] Reflect on Takeaways, Gratitude(about possible positives about our situation) & Concrete Next Steps for an Action Plan: Let's intentionally ask ourselves What could be possibly be right/positive for me about my current situation as its more easier to build on things from that mindset:
In my last year of the job search, among other things that shifted my perspective and gave me more confidence to pursue my job search was: 'Process = Present, Present = Future and thereby by the law of Transitivity Process = Future'
Reflection [5 mins] : Let's spend 5 mins to Reflect on lessons learnt as a group. Any volunteer(s) can share.
Gratitude & What's positive about our current situation [5 mins]: Let's intentionally ask ourselves this. Any volunteer(s) can share.
Action Plan covering Next Steps [5 mins]: Let's have some Cadence of Accountability for ourselves(me included :)) with some concrete next steps. Any volunteer(s) can share.
This get together meetup is intended for you and is an attempt to provide a safe space to be seen, listened to, & be understood and also answer your questions on any of the above topics.
Sharing Experiences is welcome & encouraged: As a fellow human, I'm one among you & I might not have answers to all of your questions. I'm also a big believer in Bill Nye's quote: "Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't.". Everyone is encouraged to also share their experiences as well so that more people could help each other out in general.
Meetup related code of conduct guidelines
Please register for this meetup only if you agree to act in accordance to the below meetup guidelines:
People come first
Each participant has an equal chance to participate
Only exception: If they choose to skip their turn
As a meetup host, If time allows, I plan to make a blog post/save details of the key meetup discussions so that it can be useful to more people, especially those that can't attend it & so we can also revisit key learnings at a later point.
If you want me to mention you in an anonymous way with regards to the above, please do let me know separately via emailing me about this on: connectforsp@gmail.com - I fully respect that and I'd be happy to factor that in.
We all listen to understand first than to be understood
You agree to follow the Berlin Code of Conduct