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8.2. Searching for Full-Time Jobs

There are many similarities between searching for a full-time job and searching for an internship, but there are also some key differences.

A good chunk of the advice in chapter 7 applies to full-time job searching as well, but there are some additional things to keep in mind.

Unlike internships, which are often tied to specific academic terms, full-time job searching is more flexible.

For new grad and junior level roles, you will see an increase in postings around the end of the academic year, typically in April and May as that is when most students graduate.

For all other roles, companies are hiring year-round, so you can apply whenever you feel ready.

The Length of the Process​

Full-time job searching can take significantly longer than internship searching.

This is because companies are more rigorous when hiring non-temporary employees, and they want to ensure that the candidate is a good fit for the company culture and the team.

To end to end receive an offer, it can take anywhere from 4-10 interviews. If you're doing one interview a week, that means it can take anywhere from 1-3 months to get an offer.

Focus on Value, Not Just Skills​

When you're searching for a full-time job, your resume and interviews should focus more on the value you can bring to the company rather than just listing skills or technologies you know.

When you're a student, you likely focus heavily showing buzzwords and skills.

Instead, you're full-time resume needs to focus more on showing delivered value and impact.

It's great that you know how to use React, but so will everyone else who puts React on their resume. What sets you apart is how you used React to deliver value in your previous roles.

Do you know how everyone says you need to include empirical data on your resume? That emperical data is the value you delivered.

With your projects trying to land your first internship, you might not have had any good numbers to show, but now that you have internships under your belt, you should have more data to show.

Focus on Leadership and Ownership​

As a student, you haven't owned anything yet. But after a few internships, you'll likely have owned the delivery of a feature or a project.

On your resume, highlight this. Say you "owned the delivery of X feature" or "led the implementation of Y project" or "championed the migration of Z system".

Demonstrate you can work independently and take ownership of tasks.

Highlight Domain Expertise​

When applying for full-time roles, you'll quickly notice that many companies are hiring for speicific teams.

You'll see positions like "Software Engineer - Payments Team" or "Software Engineer - Authentication Team".

Having completed internships, you will have also worked on specific teams, and you need to make sure to highlight that experience on your resume.

You need to show that you have experience in the technical domain that the company is hiring for.

This is why using your internships to explore different technical domains is so important. It gives you more leverage for a wider range of full-time roles.

Learn To Shape Your Story​

When you're a student, you can get away with saying "I learned X" or "I studied Y" to describe your experience.

But when you're a full-time job candidate, you need to talk like a professional.

There's a lot of great videos online that can help you with this, but the key is to focus on what you did, not what you learned.

Here's one I've found helpful: