Welcome to EYC!

Course Description

This course will prepare you to apply and interview for internships and full-time positions in the software engineering industry.

You will refine your personal brand and craft effective resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and portfolios. You will learn to communicate effectively in behavioral interviews, including how to conduct company and role research and how to answer questions and share their background succinctly. You will learn to prepare for technical interviews.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, you will:

• Craft an effective professional presence including resume, portfolio and online website
• Apply academic knowledge and skills in new professional settings
• Demonstrate the ability to cope effectively with ambiguous and unfamiliar situations
• Develop interpersonal and professional skills to successfully transition to work
• Reflect on your personal skills, and identify opportunities for further development
• Demonstrate professional and ethical behaviour, and ability to maintain accountability for your commitments

Enduring Understandings

By the end of this course and your subsequent internships and career experiences at Kibo, we hope you will agree with four key claims.

• Career success is a journey, not a single destination
• Knowing yourself is the beginning of career wisdom
• Your professional network will power future opportunities
• Experience is the best teacher

Instructors

• Ope Bukola, ope@kibo.school
• Keno Omu, keno@kibo.school

Teaching Assistants

• Jacque Kariuki, jacqueline@kibo.school
• Oyin Adediji, oyinloluwa@kibo.school

Live Classes

This course has two types of mandatory live sessions:

• Live workshops with course instructors
• Meeting with a professional mentor

More information is available on the live classes page

Office Hours

Optional office hours will be held weekly. Office hours times will be posted in the course help channel in Discord.

Core Reading List

• Personal Brand Workbook (2015). PricewhaterhouseCoopers
• Northeastern University (2020). Job Search Guide
• Bolton, G. and Delderfield, R. (2018). Reflective practice: writing and professional development (5th edition). London: SAGE.
• Rollag, K. (2015) Succeed in New Situations. Harvard Business Review

Supplemental Reading List

• Yancy, G. B., Clarkson, C. P., Baxa, J. D., & Clarkson, R. N., (2003). Examples of good and bad interpersonal skills at work. Eye on Psi Chi, 7
• Rollag, K. (2015) What to Do When You’re New. AMACOM

Topics

Live Classes

You are expected to attend all scheduled live events. This course has two types of live sessions: (1) workshops, and (2) mentor meetings. You must attend at least two live sessions to earn credit for the course.

Workshops

The course will have two live workshops which will take place during Community Fridays. The workshop times are:

• Friday January 19, from 5pm - 7pm GMT
• Friday March 8, from 5pm - 7pm GMT

Video recordings and resources will be posted after each workshop. If you have technical difficulties or are occasionally unable to attend, please be sure to watch the recording as quickly as possible so that you do not fall behind.

Mentor Meetings

You will meet regularly with a professional mentor during the course. You will have the following mentor meetings:

• 3 group meetings with your mentor and peers
• 1 individual meeting with your mentor

You will be introduced to your mentor during the first two weeks of the term, and your mentor will schedule meetings directly.

Assessment and Grading

This course requires you to work independently to achieve your goals. Your overall course grade will consist of:

• Assignments: 50%
• Final mock interview and essay: 20%
• Participation in live sessions: 30%

Assessment List

Late Policy

You are expected to submit your work by the deadline. Each assignment page will include instructions and a link to submit.

The table above specifies the assignments for which late submission is possible. Any work submitted late will incur penalties in accordance with Kibo's Late Work Policy.

Getting Help

If you have any trouble understanding the concepts or are stuck on a problem, reach out for help!

Below are the different ways to get help in this class.

Discord Channel

The first place to go is always the course's help channel on Discord. Share your question there so that your Instructor and your peers can help as soon as we can. Peers should jump in and help answer questions (see the Getting and Giving Help sections for some guidelines).

Message your Instructor via Email

If your question doesn't get resolved within 24 hours on Discord, you can reach out to your instructors directly. Email is the preferred method for reaching out, and should include both instructors.

Office Hours

There will be weekly office hours with your Instructor and your TA. Please make use of them!

Tips on Asking Good Questions

Asking effective questions is a crucial skill for any computer science student. Here are some guidelines to help structure questions effectively:

1. Be Specific:

   • Clearly state the problem or concept you're struggling with.
   • Avoid vague or broad questions. The more specific you are, the easier it is for others to help.

2. Provide Context:

   • Include relevant details about your environment, programming language, tools, and any error messages you're encountering.
   • Explain what you're trying to achieve and any steps you've already taken to solve the problem.

3. Show Your Work:

   • If your question involves code, provide a minimal, complete, verifiable, and reproducible example (a "MCVE") that demonstrates the issue.
   • Highlight the specific lines or sections where you believe the problem lies.

4. Highlight Error Messages:

   • If you're getting error messages, include them in your question. Understanding the error is often crucial to finding a solution.

5. Research First:

   • Demonstrate that you've made an effort to solve the problem on your own. Share what you've found in your research and explain why it didn't fully solve your issue.

6. Use Clear Language:

   • Clearly articulate your question. Avoid jargon or overly technical terms if you're unsure of their meaning.
   • Proofread your question to ensure it's grammatically correct and easy to understand.

7. Be Patient and Respectful:

   • Be patient while waiting for a response.
   • Show gratitude when someone helps you, and be open to feedback.

8. Ask for Understanding, Not Just Solutions:

   • Instead of just asking for the solution, try to understand the underlying concepts. This will help you learn and become more self-sufficient in problem-solving.

9. Provide Updates:

   • If you make progress or find a solution on your own, share it with those who are helping you. It not only shows gratitude but also helps others who might have a similar issue.

Remember, effective communication is key to getting the help you need both in school and professionally. Following these guidelines will not only help you in receiving quality assistance but will also contribute to a positive and collaborative community experience.

Screenshots

It’s often helpful to include a screenshot with your question. Here’s how:

• Windows: press the Windows key + Print Screen key
  • the screenshot will be saved to the Pictures > Screenshots folder
  • alternatively: press the Windows key + Shift + S to open the snipping tool
• Mac: press the Command key + Shift key + 4
  • it will save to your desktop, and show as a thumbnail

Academic Integrity

When you turn in any work that is graded, you are representing that the work is your own. Copying work from another student or from an online resource and submitting it is plagiarism. Using generative AI tools such as ChatGPT to help you understand concepts (i.e., as though it is your own personal tutor) is valuable. However, you should not submit work generated by these tools as though it is your own work. Remember, the activities we assign are your opportunity to prove to yourself (and to us) that you understand the concepts. Using these tools to generate answers to assignments may help you in the short-term, but not in the long-term.

As a reminder of Kibo's academic honesty and integrity policy: Any student found to be committing academic misconduct will be subject to disciplinary action including dismissal.

Disciplinary action may include:

• Failing the assignment
• Failing the course
• Dismissal from Kibo

For more information about what counts as plagiarism and tips for working with integrity, review the "What is Plagiarism?" Video and Slides.

The full Kibo policy on Academic Honesty and Integrity Policy is available here.

Building a Career You Love

📺 Instructor Ope Bukola introduces the lesson (2:08)

Learning Outcomes

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Understand Kibo’s career development framework and why career development is a lifelong cycle
• Identify your strengths, weaknesses, and purpose
• Articulate your career goals, and an action plan to prepare for industry experience

Community Words of Wisdom

📺 Watch Adesola, Chief of Staff at Okra, explain how her career has turned out differently from expected when she started studying computer science (1:55)

Career Coach: Meet Victor

💡 Victor is a final year student studying computer science at the University of Lagos. It’s three months to graduation, and Victor is focused on landing a full-time software developer role. His search is not going as well as he hoped, so he makes an appointment with Fatima, a career counselor, to talk through his experience. Read the conversation below between Victor and Fatima.

Fatima: Hello Victor, it's great to see you. What brings you to the career office today?

Victor: Hello Fatima, thanks for meeting with me. To be honest with you, I’m very very frustrated right now. I've been applying to so many software developer jobs, over 200 actually, and I haven't gotten any interviews. I'm graduating in three months, and I'm starting to panic. My family has spent so much money on this degree. I don’t want to graduate and be back home sitting around doing nothing.

Fatima: It sounds like you’ve put a lot of effort into your job search. I can imagine how frustrating it must be not to get the results you want and how it might be causing you some stress. I’d like to better understand your job search process. Can you share more about how you approach your applications?

Victor: Well, I made a resume and cover letter last month. I had someone review it, and they said it was good. So a few days a week, I search on LinkedIn, Jobberman, and Tech Cabal, and I drop my resume and cover letter to all the software development roles. I don’t really understand why I’m not getting interviews. I followed the resume template your office provided. Are you sure it was a good template? Because I don’t see how it could be if students like me aren’t getting jobs.

Fatima: I understand that you may have concerns about the resume template. Before we discuss that, can you walk me through your decision-making process when it comes to applying for jobs? How do you decide which positions to target?

Victor: I basically apply to any software development job I come across, whether it's in healthcare, finance, or tech. I’m really trying to increase my chances of finding something. I can’t be too picky.

Fatima: I see. That's a broad approach. How do you decide which locations to apply to?

Victor: I've been applying everywhere. I figure I can move for the right opportunity.

Fatima: Being open to relocation is good, but you may want to focus on remote roles or locations where you can realistically move. Some employers may not be able to support relocation.

Victor: Well, if there aren’t jobs here and I want a job, what other option do I have? You guys told us to spend time applying, and so that’s what I’m doing. I’m just following instructions here. If the companies won’t give me a chance, maybe there’s something wrong with what the career service is advising or the companies process themselves. I’m really doing everything I can here.

Fatima: I understand you are trying. How do you go about matching your skills and experiences with a given job? Are you making your application align with what the employer is looking for?

Victor: Honestly, I haven't been doing that much. I just figure they'll see my experience and know I'm a good fit. My skills will speak for themself.

Fatima: I see. Tell me, for most of the applications, how have you felt about your qualifications? Do you believe you’ve been a good fit?

Victor: If I’m being honest, almost all the jobs want you to have 2 years or more of experience, even the junior developer ones. So I’ve just applied to everything that’s junior or mid-level. I haven’t had the experience, but I built some cool projects for my portfolio. So I’m shooting my shot. I can do great in an interview and show someone it’s worth taking a chance on me.

Coach Victor

❓ Why do you think Victor is not getting responses from companies? Is there anything in his approach that may be contributing to this?

Why Engineering Your Career?

Making Your Career Count

As children, many of us are asked: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

This suggests that, even at a young age, we should be ready to commit to a career path. For most people, their first companies or jobs are not what they will pursue for most of their career. In fact, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, most people hold an average of 12 jobs in a lifetime.

So, as you go through this course, it’s important to remember that the aim is not to find the perfect internship or job you will have forever. Instead, the aim is to build skills, experiences, and a network that will help you thrive in the long term.

💡 The purpose of this course is to support your career development cycle and give you the skills to "engineer" or craft a meaningful career.

You’re More Ready Than You Think

📺 How does one craft a meaningful career? Read or listen to the tome below for a perspective from Reid Hoffman, serial entrepreneur/investor and founder of LinkedIn

Click this link to access the tome

Reflect: You’re More Ready Than You Think

What is Career Development?

Hoffman describes a common experience that many people have after university. He thought he wanted to study philosophy, began a graduate program, then realized it was not the right path. This experience — of one’s first job not being the right fit — is quite common. When it happens, the first instinct is fear or worry about having made the wrong career choice. But, as we’ll learn throughout this course, choosing one’s career is not a one-time decision. Having many jobs roles or functions is a normal part of career development.

Before defining what career development is, let’s start with what it is not. There are a lot of misconceptions about what it takes to craft a rewarding career. For starters, career development is not:

• Deciding what you want to do for the rest of your life
• Applying for or getting a job
• Creating a rigid timeline and/or defined job progression for your career

💡 Career development is a lifelong, intentional process of managing one’s work and learning experiences. It involves continuously exploring, experiencing, and evaluating professional opportunities.

The illustration above breaks the career development cycle into four parts. Before we delve into each part, note that the image is cyclical. As the definition states, career development is a lifelong process that involves continuous action. The career development cycle includes:

• Know yourself: developing self-awareness and honestly assessing your interests, skills and values
• Explore options: understanding the workforce, market realities, and your opportunities to contribute
• Get focused: selecting specific goals to drive your action
• Take action: gaining experience and reflecting on that experience so that you can deepen your self-awareness

Four Ideas to Guide Career Development

By the end of this course and your subsequent internships and career experiences at Kibo, we hope you will agree with four key claims.

1️⃣ Career success is a journey, not a single destination

Getting a job is a step towards building a career, not the ultimate goal. A successful career is an ongoing process marked by continuous adaptation.

2️⃣ Knowing yourself is the beginning of career wisdom

To achieve career wisdom, you must first know yourself. A fulfilling career is informed by a deep understanding of your values, interests, strengths, and weaknesses.

3️⃣ Your professional network will power future opportunities

Building and nurturing a strong professional network is crucial. Your network will be a source of opportunities, collaboration, and knowledge sharing. The connections you cultivate, starting with your peers, will significantly influence your professional growth and success.

3️⃣ Experience is the best teacher

In the early stages of your career, prioritize gaining diverse and relevant experiences. Actively seek opportunities that allow you to develop skills, explore different roles, and build a strong foundation for future career growth. As Hoffman notes, “In the world of work, you don’t know what the best plan is until you try.”

In the next lesson, we'll learn more about the career journey and why the "career ladder," a term you may have heard in the past, is the wrong way to think about your career.

The Rocky Road Ahead

🤔 Take a moment and think about your career. What is the destination you envision? What job(s) do you expect to have along the way?

The Rocky Road Ahead

The phrase "Career Ladder" is used frequently when discussing career paths. You may envision your career as a series of steps up a ladder, with progressively more challenging and senior roles. But, reality rarely works out as planned, and many rewarding careers are non-linear.

📺 Watch the video below to understand why your career is not a ladder, and why there is no one correct path (6:57)

Test Your Understanding

Complete the quiz below to confirm you understand the key ideas from the video

In the next few lessons, we'll discuss how to craft or "engineer" your career and begin crafting a career you will love.

Ownership Mindset

Getting Your First Job is Hard

Image source: Gagan Khatri

Getting an entry-level job can be tough. Many entry-level jobs require experience and so early job seekers feel like they are caught in a bind: without being given an opportunity to start, how does one gain experience? Situations like this can leave job seekers feeling frustrated and at the mercy of an impossible system.

🤔 So, what’s an entry-level job seeker to do?

One approach to navigating modern career development is to think like an engineer. Whether they are designing new buildings, electrical circuits, or software systems, engineers focus on solving problems. They use their technical knowledge, collaboration skills, and creativity to find solutions to complex problems. Navigating a career is a complex problem. One that calls for “career engineering.”

Getting Your First Job is Up to You

Becoming an effective career engineer requires taking an analytical and proactive approach to career development. While academic institutions, mentors, or others may provide support, you and you alone are responsible for your success.

📢📢 Let’s say it again louder for the people in the back: You and you alone are responsible for your success!

Reflect: What is extreme ownership?

Finding Your I: Strengths and Weaknesses

Taking responsibility for your career development starts with knowing yourself and having a realistic view of your abilities and potential. Self-awareness forms the foundation for informed decision-making and intentional career development. But what exactly is self-awareness?

💡 "Self-awareness" is the conscious understanding of oneself, including one's personality, emotions, values, strengths, weaknesses, and motivations.

Self-awareness is the foundation of personal and emotional intelligence. A self-aware individual can look at their own behavior, recognize patterns, understand how they impact others, and identify areas for personal goals. Being self-aware means engaging in continuous introspection in order to:

• Understand your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
• Have a realistic and accurate perception of yourself
• Remain in tune with your emotions and reactions

Case Study: Kwame and Ama

Kwame and Ama, two ambitious computer science students at Kibo School, are interns at a tech tech startup. Both have excelled in their studies, possessing impressive technical skills and outstanding grades. However, the difference between them lies in their levels of self-awareness.

During the first week, they are each assigned a coding task to complete.

After reading the issue, Kwame realizes he doesn't fully understand the task. He seeks clarification from one of his colleagues, who then offers to walk him through the codebase on a Zoom call. With a strong understanding of what's needed, Kwame is able to fix the issue, and submit a pull request by the end of the week. He receives feedback from his supervisor with suggestions on improving his code. Kwame quickly implements these suggestions, and his pull request is merged into the codebase.

Ama takes a different approach. Though she also struggles to understand the task, she's determined to show that she can work independently. She spends a few days reading documentation and googling. She eventually starts writing code, though she still has gaps in her understanding. After submitting pull request, Ama receives a calendar invitation to speak with her team lead. She points out that Amas completely misinterpreted the task, and will have to redo the code. Ama is visibly upset, and doesn't understand why her supervisor is not praising her tenacity and time she spent figuring this out.

Throughout the internship, Kwame recognizesareas for improvement and invests time in continuous learning. Each week, he meets with a different colleague to share his questions, and learn from them. Kwame's internship experience is marked by steady progression, and he is quickly recognized for his contributions.

Ama, however, is determined to show her technical prowess. She works on all her tasks on her own, without "bothering" others with her questions. Though she is sometimes successful, she often submits work that misses the mark, which leads to frustrations from both colleagues and supervisors. Ama struggles to ask for and adapt to feedback, often dismissing it as unnecessary. As a result, she faces setbacks in her early projects, and her colleagues find it difficult to work with her.

Why Self-Awareness Matters in Career Development

As a university student navigating the job search, self-awareness is critical. Understanding yourself will give you clarity in the job search process and enable you to:

• Target your job search: with a solid understanding of yourself, you can tailor your job search and hone in on opportunities that resonate with your skills and aspirations. Instead of submitting a generic application, you can make a strong case for why a particular job or company fits into your future vision. You can also look for companies whose culture aligns with your personality and work style
• Tailor your application: with a deep understanding of yourself, you can tailor your application materials (e.g., resumes, cover letter, and interview responses) to showcase how you can uniquely and meaningfully contribute to potential employers

We’ll focus the rest of the lesson on building self-awareness by finding your strengths and weaknesses.

Your “I”: Understanding Your Strengths

📺 Watch the video below for an introduction to Strengths Finders (6:39)

Do: Take the Strengths Finders Test

📝 Register on the VIA website and take the strengths finder test here Share your top 5 signature strengths in the padlet below.

How to Find Your Weaknesses

Understanding your strengths, what you offer, and what energizes you is critical to career development. In a similar manner, having a realistic view of your weaknesses will help you grow as a professional.

To identify your top 3-5 weaknesses, you can:

1. Learn: Review this list** of common weaknesses. As you skim the list, take note if any resonate with you.
2. Reflect: Take dedicated time for introspection. Reflect on your experiences, challenges, and areas where you feel less confident. Consider your performance in various situations and identify patterns of difficulty. Questions to ask yourself
   • What tasks do you leave until last on your to-do list?
   • What drains your energy?
   • When do you have to ask for help?
3. Get Feedback from Others: Ask someone you trust, e.g., a friend, family member or classmate, for constructive feedback. Others may provide valuable insights into areas where you can improve or where they've observed challenges in your performance. If you ask someone for their opinion, be open to constructive criticism.
4. Analyze past goals: Review personal, professional, and educational goals you’ve set in the past. Identify if there are particular areas (e.g., skills, habits, mindsets) where you consistently face challenges or fall short

Keep a list of your top strengths and weaknesses. You’ll revisit them in the assignment for this unit.

Finding Your Why: Articulate Your Purpose

🚧 This lesson may look familiar as it includes exercises from the Kibo Challenge. If you can answer the 5 "Purposeful Questions," then you do not need to rewatch the videos. However, if you struggle to craft answers to the questions, watch the videos and complete the reflections to help you write stronger responses.

Purposeful Questions

In a document, answer the following 5 questions

1. Who are you?
2. What do you do?
3. Who do you do it for?
4. What do those people want and need?
5. How are they changed as a result?

📺 Watch the video to learn how to find your purpose (10:33)

The first step towards purpose: Finding your PEAK!

P is for Passion

📺 Watch the following talk by Noeline Karibo to learn more about uncovering your passions and turning them into a career. (11 mins)

Reflect

🤔 If you had all the time and money in the world, what would you spend your time doing? What makes you happy, or gives you the deepest sense of fulfilment?

E is for Energy

📺 Watch one of the following talks by Wanuri Kahiu about finding fun in what you do (5 mins) OR Ingrid Fetell Lee about how to find joy in life (14 mins)

Reflect

🤔 What do you love doing? What gives you joy? What feeds your soul?

A is for Aim

📺 Watch one of the following talks by ‘Gbenga Sesan on youth empowerment through skills training and support (10 mins) OR Christian Benimana on the next generation of African architects and designers. (12 mins)

Reflect

🤔 What local or global problems keep you up at night? Are there any that you would dedicate your life to solving?

K is for Know-How

📺 Watch one of the following talks by Joy Buolamwini on using her programming skills to fight algorithmic bias (8 mins) OR Bright Simons on the power and global relevance of African ideas (10 mins)

Reflect

🤔 What do you do really well? Is there something that people routinely seek your help for? What impact do you have when you use your know-how to help others?

The 5 Questions Revisited

❓ Now that you have had some time to think about your PEAK, take another shot at answering the 5 questions for finding purpose. Edit or update the answers you wrote at the beginning of the lesson.

1. Who are you?
2. What do you do?
3. Who do you do it for?
4. What do those people want and need?
5. How are they changed as a result?

Wrap Up

What We’ve Learned

This unit was an introduction to career development and knowing yourself. In the unit, we learned:

• Career development is a lifelong cycle which requires adaptability, experimentation, and building a strong network
• Careers are non-linear. Instead of a series of well-defined steps on a ladder, most career journeys will resemble climbing a rock wall and require agility
• You are the owner of your career. Successful career engineering requires taking an ownership mindset and focusing on one’s individual actions, even in the midst of challenging circumstances
• Career development starts with knowing yourself, and having a realistic sense of your strengths, weaknesses and purpose

Case Study Revisited: Advise Victor

Assignment 1: Personal SWOT

In this assignment, you will create a personal SWOT analysis and set goals to guide your industry experience.

A Personal SWOT Analysis

📺 Watch the video to learn how to conduct a personal SWOT analysis (2:20)

📖 Read: Using a SWOT Analysis in Your Career Planning

Step 1: Create your personal SWOT analysis

You’ve already considered your strengths, weaknesses, and purpose. To finish your SWOT analysis, you will need to consider opportunities and threats, as described in the resources above.

To complete this assignment, make a copy of this template and add your SWOT analysis on page 1

Step 2: Action Plan

The final step of this assignment is creating some goals for your industry experience period. The goals you set should be related to your SWOT, and the things that matter to you.

As you complete the action items, ensure that your goals are SMART i.e.

• Specific: What do I want to learn?
• Measurable: How will I know you have achieved my goal?
• Attainable: How will I do it?
• Realistic: How will I do it given my current responsibilities, needs, etc.?
• Time-Bound: When is the deadline to achieve my goal?

Submission

1. Submit a link to your document on Gradescope. Ensure the document is set to enable anyone at Kibo to comment. See below for a demo of how to change sharing settings.
2. Download a PDF, and upload to Anchor.
   • To download a PDF from Google Docs, select File then Download then PDF

Introduction

📺 Watch the following video from your instructor to learn what you will study in unit 2.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Develop a career narrative to effectively frame your skills and experiences
• Craft a resume that stands out to employers
• Provide thoughtful critique of your own resume and that of a peer
• Craft a LinkedIn profile to build your professional network and connect to opportunities
• Create a portfolio to share examples of your work

Do You Have a Career Narrative?

Case Study: Chinwe and Chijioke

Chinwe and Chijioke, two first-year computer science students at Kibo School, are kicking off the challenging and often frustrating journey of securing their first internships. The two of them have a similar skill set and background, but differ in their approach to securing an internship. In particular, they disagree on the importance of communication skills when trying to land a role.

Chinwe, a brilliant coder, leans heavily on her technical prowess. She believes that her coding skills should speak for themselves, dismissing the importance of storytelling in the job application process.

Chijioke, on the other hand, is meticulous in his approach to securing a role. Early in the process, he realized the need for a strong career narrative and dedicated time to crafting one that he then weaved into his cover letter, resume, LinkedIn profile, and portfolio.

As the first university career fair approached, Chinwe and Chijioke's differing strategies became more evident:

• Chijioke confidently approached company representatives armed with a well-rehearsed elevator pitch that was supported by an eye-catching resume. He engaged recruiters with interesting stories about his passion for using technology to solve social problems and his prior experience leading teams to do so in his community. Recruiters were not only impressed by his technical skills but also by his ability to articulate his experiences, contributions, and motivations. They could already picture him as one of their employees and were quick to offer him the chance to interview.
• Chinwe, however, hesitated to approach recruiters because she didn’t know what to say to them. When she did approach them, she struggled to frame her skills, past experiences, and future aspirations coherently and clearly. While recruiters could identify hints of her technical skills, they found it challenging to understand the true depth of her skills and how she could fit into their teams. Given the limited interview spots, offering her a chance to move to the next stage of the application process felt like a big risk, so Chinwe didn’t receive any interview offers.

The next week, when Chinwe and Chijioke met to discuss their career fair experiences and outcomes, the gap in their approaches became very clear. Chijioke shared his positive interactions, noting how recruiters responded positively to his ability to convey not just what he could do but who he was as a potential team member. Chinwe, still skeptical, continued to question the need for storytelling in a field dominated by technical skills.

Discuss

❓ Are you on Team Chinwe or Team Chijioke? Who do you agree with and why? Post your answer and reasoning in the padlet below.

Regardless of the field you want to enter, the ability to effectively communicate with potential employers is critical. This is true even in technical fields, where it may not seem like communication skills are as important as technical skills. Effective communication during the hiring process helps to:

1. Showcase that you have the strong communication skills required for the job. (Skill Demonstration)
2. Give context for the depth of your technical skills, including the different ways they have been developed and utilized, as well as the impact and value you have created through using your skills. (Skill Contextualization and Value Creation)
3. Showcase who you are as an individual and how your unique set of motivations, interests, and aspirations make you best suited for the role and company culture. (Culture Fit)
4. Create a memorable narrative to allow hiring managers and recruiters to remember you out of the hundreds or thousands of other applicants who may have similar technical skills. (Unique Value Proposition)

A powerful way to demonstrate effective communication during the hiring process is through the use of a career narrative. A career narrative is a short explanation of your career so far that describes some combination of who you are (values), what you can do (skills), what you have done before (experiences), and why you do all this (motivation and purpose).

You may think that as a university student looking for your first job, you don’t have “a career so far” to describe. This is the wrong mindset. Everything you have done during your studies (e.g., coursework, personal projects, volunteering, part-time work) and even your lived experiences (e.g., challenges overcome, experiences that have motivated your actions) are part of the career that you are building. By taking the time to figure out how to tie all these threads together into a strong and cohesive picture of yourself, and then presenting this picture to potential employers, you are making it easier for them to see that you are the best candidate for the role.

What is a Career Narrative?

There are numerous templates you can use to create your career narrative. In this section, you can see one approach in the video below and another approach in the linked article.

📺 Watch the following video for an introduction to career narratives.

📖 Read the following article on how to craft a career story/narrative.

In the next section, we will learn more about storytelling and why it is important in the job search, and you will start to work on creating an effective narrative that creates a compelling, cohesive, and consistent picture of who you are and why people should hire you.

The Power of Storytelling

Into the Mind of Employers

Recall this lesson from your Communicating for Success course:

A job application is simply a communication between you and representatives of your target company (e.g., recruiters, HR managers, hiring managers), with the purpose of convincing them that you 1) possess all the technical and non-technical skills required to succeed in the role, 2) you are a good fit for the culture of their company, and 3) you are their best (read: least risky) option out of all the other people that have applied for the same role. This is a pretty tall order, so you will need to pull out all the communication tools in your toolkit to succeed. However, most people fail at the very first step of the communication process (i.e., the planning step) because they don’t have a clear understanding of the purpose of their communication, and they fail to analyze their audience. How can you make sure your “throw” is effective if you don’t know where you are supposed to be aiming?

So, with this in mind. Have you ever thought about what your potential employers are thinking when you post a job advertisement and review submissions? Have you taken a step to think about their context, their motivations, or their challenges?

Discuss

❓ Think about a skill that you want to learn.

Now imagine you post on LinkedIn looking for an expert in that skill who is willing to tutor you and help you to develop that skill within 6 months. You are willing to pay for the tutoring, but you only have a limited budget, so you can’t afford to waste money on someone who isn’t good.

Within the first week, your post gets flooded with 500 responses from people saying that they have the skill and can teach you. Some of them even have the skill listed on their LinkedIn profile.

• How would you go about deciding who to follow up with?
• Are there any things that would disqualify someone?
• How would you verify the claims people are making about their skills?
• What emotions would you feel when reviewing all the applications?

Post your thoughts in the padlet below.

When you are trying to hire a tutor, you are behaving like an employer who is looking to hire someone for a role. You are only looking to hire for one role. However, most employers are trying to hire multiple roles at a time across different teams, and the pressures that they face are immense. Let’s think about this: What is on the mind of employers when they are hiring? What are they dealing with?

1. Employers are risk-averse

   1. Recruitment is expensive, so employers are looking for people who are likely to succeed.
   2. Few employees are willing to take a bet on “potential”, they often want to see evidence of skills through previous demonstration of these skills.

2. Employers are overwhelmed

   1. Your application is only one of hundreds or thousands of applications that they have to review. If you don’t stand out from the crowd, you don’t stand a chance.
   2. Make it easy for them to see that you have demonstrated the skills required to succeed in the role. Do not ask them to connect the dots for you.
   3. Small mistakes (e.g., poor grammar, typos) can get you screened out before someone even takes a close look at your application.
   4. Go to where they are. Attend events and build your network so that you can meet people connected to these employers. This could mean attending conferences, participating in hackathons, attending meet-ups, etc. Employers don’t have time to seek you out, so you must work to put yourself within their sphere of awareness.

Now that you have a little insight into the mind of the employer, it’s time to think about what this means for the way you should approach your job search. Throughout the hiring process, you have numerous opportunities to connect with (risk-averse and overwhelmed) potential employers and demonstrate that you are the candidate they are looking for. These channels include:

• When you apply:
  • Your resume
  • Your cover letter
  • Your LinkedIn or web presence
  • Your portfolio or website
• When you interview:
  • Your interview skills
  • Your performance on any recruitment tasks

Some candidates see the above channels as tedious things that they have to complete in order to land a job. Sort of like pointless hoops they have to jump through. This is why a lot of people are now using tools like ChatGPT to help them craft generic resumes and cover letters.

However, this is the wrong mindset. Each of the above channels is a valuable interaction with the employer and a powerful opportunity for you to tell your unique story. Most employers have an idea of the skills, mindsets, and experiences they are looking for when they post a job. The job description often includes details of the required and recommended skills, and an understanding of the company’s work culture and values can give you hints about the desired mindsets. To have a shot at landing a job, every interaction a representative of the company has with you needs to be a vote for the fact that you possess what they are looking for. You need to do the work to make it easy for them to see that you possess these skills. And you also need to do it in a way that is memorable and unique so that you stand out from the hundreds or thousands of other applicants. One of the most effective ways to do this is to use storytelling when crafting your resume, cover letter, etc.

The Power of Storytelling

One of the most powerful ways to use these channels to really connect with employers is through the medium of storytelling. Storytelling is a fundamental human activity that forms the basis of how we think, organize, and remember information. (source)

📖 Read this NPR article on the power of storytelling.

Discuss

❓ Do you agree with the theory that the narrative format improves the way our brains process information? Share your thoughts in the padlet below, and reference at least one piece of evidence from your life or from the article to support your stance.

Applying Storytelling in Your Job Search

📖 Read this Harvard Business Review article on the power of storytelling.

From the article, we learned 4 tips on how to use storytelling to help you land your next role:

Tip 1: Begin with your audience in mind.

Tip 2: Have a theme and promote it throughout your job hunt.

Tip 3: Give context to highlight your why.

Tip 4: End your stories with clearly stated resolutions.

Discuss

❓ Pick one of the tips from the article, and in the padlet below, discuss why you think implementing that tip would be a powerful tool for landing a job.

The Perils of Using AI to Tell Your Story

We’ve all been there. You are scrolling through the careers page of your dream company, and you see a role that is a perfect fit for your current skills and interests. You quickly click apply, and then you see a field that says: Upload Cover Letter (required).

😡 Your excitement vanishes. You feel betrayed. You think to yourself, “Why are they making me submit a cover letter? I don’t have time for this. This is too tedious. I’m just not going to apply.” Or you think to yourself, “Why are they making me submit a cover letter? I don’t have time for this. Let me just use ChatGPT, and it will write the letter for me. This will be good enough, and I will still be able to apply without going through the pain of having to write this stupid cover letter that no one is going to read anyway.”

Before you act on either of these thoughts, I want to caution you. If an employer is requiring that you upload a cover letter or they have included screening questions that require you to submit written responses to specific prompts, there is a reason these have been included in the application. The employer wants to get some valuable data from your responses to evaluate if you are a potential good fit for the role.

• If you see this as a deterrent, then the role and company probably aren’t a good fit for you because the actual job will require way more effort than answering a few questions or writing a cover letter. There is almost no job in the tech industry that doesn’t include a large amount of written communication. So if you are unwilling to demonstrate this minimal effort in the application stage, you are likely not going to keep up with the writing demands of the job.
• If you see this as an opportunity to use a Generative AI tool to do this writing task for you, be very careful. These writing tasks are a chance to showcase your unique experience and skills. Used poorly, the output of tools like ChatGPT is generic and easily recognizable, especially to someone who is reviewing tens, hundreds, or thousands of applications for a single role.

Let’s explore what can happen when a job applicant uses ChatGPT to answer screening questions.

Case Study: Using ChatGPT When Applying for an Operations Data Analyst Role at Kibo School

In mid-2023, Kibo School began recruiting for a new member to join the Data & Operations team. The initial application asked for basic demographic information, links to the candidate's LinkedIn and resume, and answers to a number of screening questions. The following two screening questions were specifically designed to assess 1) if the candidate might be a good culture fit, 2) if they have the relevant prior experience, and 3) if their written communication skills met our expectations:

• Why are you interested in working at Kibo?
• Please share details about a recent data project you've worked on. What were the most difficult challenges, and how did you handle them?

Hundreds of applications were submitted each day, and a single hiring manager was tasked with reviewing them and identifying a shortlist of <10 candidates to move on to the interview stage.

Below, you will see some submissions that attempted to use ChatGPT (or another AI tool) to answer the questions for them. As you read through these examples, reflect on the mistakes that these candidates made and how their submissions were received by the hiring manager. Also, reflect on if you are able to tell that an AI tool was used to generate these responses.

Here are some real submissions to the first question: Why are you interested in working at Kibo?

Here are some real submissions to the second question: Please share details about a recent data project you've worked on. What were the most difficult challenges, and how did you handle them?

Also, here is a real submission to the question: What is your first name?

Discuss

❓ Reflect on the submissions given above and answer the following questions in the padlet below.

• What mistakes did these candidates make in their submissions?
• Just by reading the submissions, could you confidently determine that each of these submissions was made using an AI tool?
• How do you think the submissions were received by the hiring manager?

Dear ChatGPT-Wiz, Proceed With Caution!

After reading through the above examples, it’s tempting to think that these candidates are just not very skilled and they used ChatGPT poorly. You might think that you can get away with using ChatGPT because you are more skilled at using it. However, unless you have the correct mindset around AI use (see below for more on this), it will be very easy to know that you have used it, and you will be severely disadvantaged. In fact, AI isn’t actually the issue. It has just worsened a job application issue that has been around for a long time: the need to stand out in an ocean of applications.

Top companies receive thousands of applications for each job posting that they put up. Back in 2019, Google received over 125,000 applications for its internship program (source). Back in 2019, there was no ChatGPT to help applicants write resumes, cover letters, or other application materials. Yet, the need to stand out from the crowd, be seen, and (most importantly) be remembered was critical.

Today, the number of people applying for each job or internship role is probably much higher than it was back in 2019. And worse still, a large majority are using the same AI-powered arsenal to spray and pray their applications across multitudes of roles and big and small companies. The result is that all candidates look the same. If you also employ AI tools, you will just blend into the vast applicant ocean with the rest of the candidates.

Worse still, if you use AI tools poorly, it sends a strong negative signal to employers that either your written communication skills are weak and you have to rely on AI written material, or you don’t have enough initiative or care enough about the role to write your own application materials yourself. This will make you stand out for the wrong reason and will result in instant disqualification from the hiring process.

Recognizing when AI has been used to write job application materials is surprisingly obvious. Especially to hiring managers who have been exposed to large numbers of these materials over their careers. Here are some tell-tale signs of AI use (in this case, we are focusing on cover letters). Full disclosure: this list was generated by ChatGPT 😉.

1. Generic or Overused Phrases: If the cover letter contains generic phrases or clichés commonly found in template-based writing, it could suggest the use of automated assistance.
2. Inconsistent Tone or Style: If there are abrupt shifts in tone or writing style throughout the cover letter, it might indicate the integration of different suggestions or paragraphs generated by an AI.
3. Unusual or Excessive Jargon: The use of complex or industry-specific jargon that doesn't align with the candidate's background or the job description may be a red flag.
4. Lack of Personalization: If the cover letter lacks personalization and doesn't address specific details about the company or job position, it might indicate a template-based approach, including AI-generated content.
5. Unrealistic or Hyperbolic Claims: The presence of overly ambitious or exaggerated claims that seem out of place for the candidate's experience may suggest the influence of AI-generated content.
6. Incoherent or Irrelevant Content: If the cover letter includes sections that are irrelevant to the job or industry, or if there's a lack of logical flow, it could indicate the incorporation of AI-generated text.

Even if you adapt the output of an AI tool so that your final document doesn’t suffer from the above tell-tale signs, remember that while you only see your submission, remember that a hiring manager or recruiter is viewing hundreds or thousands of submissions. Therefore, they can see patterns that emerge, indicating the wide use of AI tools by job applicants. Standing out is one of your key goals when applying for a job, and telling your story in a unique and authentic way is the greatest weapon you have to stand out. Don’t waste this opportunity to stand out and showcase yourself by relying on generic AI-written content. It will not help you land the job (or even an interview), and it will waste everyone’s time.

Powerful Introductions

Meet John

John, a 1st-year computer science undergrad from Nairobi, nervously settled into his study space for his first Zoom interview. His heart pounded as he checked the lighting, tested the audio, and adjusted the angle of his webcam. He wanted to make sure he looked and sounded his best for the interview. He joined the call and came face to face with his interviewer, Peter.

Peter greeted him with a friendly smile and gave him context about the structure of the interview before diving into the inevitable opener: "Tell me about yourself."

John felt a mixture of anxiety and excitement. It was the kind of question he'd rehearsed countless times in front of the mirror, but now, facing a real interview, the words seemed to slip away. Taking a deep breath, he leaned forward and began to speak.

"Well, I'm a first-year computer science student at Kibo School of Technology. I've always been fascinated by how technology can solve real-world problems. Growing up, I spent hours tinkering with computers, trying to understand how they worked. That curiosity led me to pursue computer science as my major."

As he spoke, John could feel the tension easing. He continued, "During high school, I participated in coding competitions and even developed a simple app that helped local businesses keep track of their inventory. It wasn't anything groundbreaking, but it taught me the value of practical solutions." The interviewer nodded, encouraging him to go on.

"On campus, I've been involved in a few coding projects with my peers, and I've also taken on a role in a student tech club. It's been a great learning experience, collaborating with others who share my passion for technology. I believe that this combination of hands-on projects and teamwork has honed my problem-solving skills."

John paused, briefly reflecting on his journey so far. He then concluded, "In essence, I'm a driven and curious individual, eager to contribute my skills and learn from the industry. I'm here to absorb as much as I can and make a meaningful impact."

The interviewer appreciated John's candid response. "That's great to hear," they said, genuinely impressed. "Tell me about a specific project or challenge you've faced and how you tackled it."

As the conversation flowed into more technical details, John felt a sense of confidence building. The nerves of the initial question had faded, replaced by the enthusiasm to share his experiences and knowledge. The interview became a genuine exchange, and by the end, John couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment. The simple, honest approach to "tell me about yourself" had set the tone for a successful interview, showcasing both his passion for computer science and his ability to articulate it under pressure.

When searching for a job, there are numerous situations that will require you to introduce yourself to people. These range from very formal situations like Job Interviews to more informal contexts such as Career Fairs, Networking Events, or Informational Interviews with industry professionals. This question can come in a variety of formats, such as:

1. "Can you tell me a bit about yourself?"
   • This is the most straightforward and commonly used variation of the question. It invites you to provide a brief overview of your background.
2. "Walk me through your resume."
   • This request prompts you to discuss your professional journey chronologically, starting from your education to your current position.
3. "Share a little about your background and what brought you here."
   • This phrasing invites a more narrative and personal touch, encouraging you to discuss not only your professional journey but also the factors that led you to the present situation.

Or there might be no question at all, and instead, you are trying to capture the attention and interest of a potential professional contact unprompted. These unprompted introductions often take the form of Elevator Pitches, which you were introduced to in Lesson 1 of the Communicating for Success - Speaking course.

However the situation arises, it is important for you to use your introduction to spark interest in who you are. While John was able to do this successfully, most students struggle with this. Here is an example of the experience of one of John’s classmates, Sarah.

Meet Sarah

As Sarah sat down for her Zoom interview with Peter, she fidgeted with her hair, a clear sign of her nervousness. Peter began with the same question: "Tell me about yourself."

Sarah's mind raced, and for a moment, she drew a blank. The weight of the question pressed on her, and her initial attempt at an answer felt disjointed. "Uh, well, I'm Sarah. I'm a computer science student, and, um, I've always liked computers and stuff." Peter raised an eyebrow, awaiting a more substantial response.

Sarah's discomfort grew, and she stumbled through a brief overview of her academic background. "I graduated from high school last year and joined the computer science program at Kibo School because, you know, I thought it would be interesting."

The interviewer, sensing Sarah's struggle, tried to guide her with a follow-up question, "Can you share a bit about any projects or experiences that have shaped your interest in computer science?" Caught off guard, Sarah hesitated. "Um, well, not really. I mean, I've done some coding assignments for class, but nothing major. I guess I'm still figuring things out." The uncomfortable silence hung in the air as the interviewer waited for more substance. Sarah's anxiety intensified, and her attempt to articulate her journey in computer science felt forced and unconvincing.

Discuss

❓ Think back to your interview for the Kibo Degree program. The first question that we ask all candidates is: Tell me about yourself and your interests. Reflect on your experience answering that question by responding to the following question in the padlet below.

• Was your experience positive like John’s or negative like Sarah's?
• How well do you think you answered the question? What did you do well? What could you have improved?
• Did you specifically prepare to answer that question?

If your experience was not positive, that’s ok. Most people struggle to introduce themselves, especially in high-stakes situations like interviews. While a lot of things can go wrong when trying to introduce yourself, here are the top 10 errors that people make:

1. Lack of Focus: It's easy to veer off-topic and provide irrelevant details, especially when individuals are unsure about what aspects of their background to emphasize.
2. Overwhelming Nervousness: The pressure of the interview setting can make individuals nervous, leading to stumbling over words, forgetting key details, or providing vague responses.
3. Balancing Personal and Professional Information: Striking the right balance between sharing personal anecdotes and professional achievements can be challenging. Some people may struggle to decide how much personal information is appropriate in a professional setting.
4. Difficulty Prioritizing Information: Deciding which aspects of one's background, skills, or experiences to highlight can be a struggle. This is especially true when individuals have varied experiences and are unsure about what the interviewer is looking for.
5. Underestimating the Question: Some may underestimate the importance of the question and provide overly brief or generic answers, missing the opportunity to create a positive first impression.
6. Lack of Preparation: Not having a well-thought-out response can result in a rambling, disorganized answer. Adequate preparation is crucial to ensuring a concise and impactful reply.
7. Fear of Oversharing or Undersharing: Striking the right level of detail is crucial. People might fear sharing too much personal information or, conversely, not providing enough context to make their response compelling.
8. Difficulty Connecting Past Experiences to the Role: Linking past experiences to the requirements of the job can be challenging, especially if the person hasn't thoroughly researched the position beforehand.
9. Cultural Differences: In some cultures, there may be different expectations regarding how much personal information is appropriate to share in a professional context, leading to potential discomfort.
10. Not Tailoring the Response: Failing to tailor the response to the specific job or industry can make the answer seem generic and less compelling. Customizing the information to match the requirements of the position is crucial.

Structuring Your Introduction

📺 Watch the following video for some tips on how to approach self-introductions in interviews, specifically for first-year university students.

Here is a structure that you can use when crafting and practicing your introduction:

1. Start with a Concise Introduction: Begin with a brief introduction that includes your name and current professional status or role.
2. Express Your Interest and Motivation: Convey your genuine interest in the position or field. Share what motivates you and why you are excited about the opportunity.
3. Provide a Snapshot of Your Professional Background: Offer a concise overview of your professional background. Mention your education, relevant work experience, and any key milestones or achievements.
4. Highlight Key Skills and Strengths: Transition to highlighting your key skills and strengths. Focus on qualities that are directly relevant to the role you are applying for or the context of the introduction.
5. Connect Your Experiences to the Role: Articulate how your past experiences have prepared you for the current opportunity. Emphasize specific achievements or projects that demonstrate your capabilities.
6. Wrap Up with a Future-oriented Statement: Conclude by expressing your enthusiasm for the future and how you see your skills and experiences contributing to the success of the team or organization.

Your career narrative is a great starting point for creating your self-introduction or elevator pitch. It will help you determine your overall message, as well as the main themes that you want to touch on. Utilizing your career narrative as a starting point will also ensure that your self-introduction is consistent with the way you present yourself on your resume, LinkedIn, and other hiring artifacts.

Discuss

❓ Imagine you are in the first round of interviews for a Software Engineering internship at the company of your dreams. The interviewer asks you: “Tell me about yourself”. Using what you have learned in this section, create one or more of the following and post it in the appropriate column of the padlet below.

• A 150-300 word career narrative. Note: You can use the guidance provided in the "Do You Have a Career Narrative?" lesson.
• A 150 - 300 word written introduction to answer the "Tell me about yourself" question.
• A 30 - 60 second video of yourself giving your introduction.

Crafting a Killer Resume

This lesson will help you craft a resume that effectively describes your skills, experience, education, and fit for a job.

Why Does Your Resume Matter?

📺 Watch this video on how to write a resume for software engineering (10 mins)

As we learn in the video:

• The goal of a resume is to stand out to a recruiter. As you craft your resume, consider the perspective of the recruiter, what they are looking for, and how many applicants they are reviewing
• Beyond what's written, the most important thing in a resume is readability
• Your resume should be one page

The Risks of a Bad Resume

A bad resume is poisonous to your internship or job search. Here is why:

• Missed Opportunities: A bad resume may fail to capture the attention of hiring managers, causing you to miss out on potential job opportunities.
• Elimination from Consideration: Many employers receive numerous resumes for a single position. If your resume doesn't stand out or is riddled with errors, it may be quickly eliminated from consideration.
• Negative Impression: A poorly written or formatted resume can create a negative impression of your professionalism and attention to detail. Employers may assume that if you can't present yourself well on paper, you may not be diligent in your work.
• Overlooked Skills and Achievements: If your resume lacks clarity and fails to effectively communicate your skills, experience, and accomplishments, employers may struggle to understand your potential value to their organization. Additionally, a bad resume may not effectively highlight your relevant skills and achievements. This can lead employers to overlook important qualifications that could make you a strong candidate.

Meet Jane

Meet Jane, a 2nd-year Kibo student in Accra with a passion for technology and a desire to secure a data science internship. Unfortunately, Jane has a poorly crafted resume that is getting in the way of her even getting an interview from the companies she applies to. Let’s look through a critique of her resume and discuss the issues with her current version.

Objective Statement: Jane's resume begins with a vague and generic objective statement. It reads: "To obtain an internship in the field of computer science to enhance my skills and contribute to the growth of a dynamic company."

Risk: The lack of specificity in the objective statement fails to communicate Jane's unique skills and goals, making it less appealing to potential employers. Instead of an objective statement, Jane could use a summary or tagline to showcase her career narrative and give context to the rest of the information on her resume.

Educational Background: Jane's educational background is listed, but she has not highlighted any relevant coursework, projects, or achievements during her studies.

Risk: The resume does not showcase Jane's academic strengths or provide any evidence of her practical skills, leaving employers uncertain about her qualifications.

Work Experience: The work experience section is limited to a part-time job unrelated to computer science, and it lacks details about responsibilities and achievements.

Risk: Employers may question the relevance of Jane's work experience and wonder if she has the practical skills needed for a computer science internship.

Skills Section: Jane has a generic list of skills without providing any context or evidence of proficiency. She includes vague terms like "good communication skills" without specifying how these skills were applied.

Risk: The lack of specificity in the skills section makes it challenging for employers to assess Jane's actual capabilities, and it raises doubts about the depth of her technical skills.

Formatting Issues: Jane's resume has inconsistent formatting, with varying font sizes, inconsistent spacing, and random bolding of text.

Risk: The poor formatting makes the resume difficult to read and suggests a lack of attention to detail, potentially reflecting on Jane's work habits.

Grammar and Spelling Errors: The resume contains multiple spelling and grammatical errors, such as typos and incorrect verb tenses.

Risk: These errors convey a lack of professionalism and attention to detail, raising concerns about the quality of Jane's work.

Lack of Tailoring: Jane uses the same resume for every internship application without customizing it for each position. The resume lacks specific details about how her skills align with the requirements of the job.

Risk: Employers may perceive Jane as disinterested or unaware of the specific needs of their organization, reducing her chances of being considered for the internship.

Length Jane’s resume is 4 pages long.

Risk: Employers aren’t going to read through a 4-page resume, especially not for an internship role. More information isn’t better because it means that the important details are hidden among the irrelevant. Jane needs to cut her resume down to just one page.

Read on to learn how Jane should have gone about creating her resume. One of your assignments for this lesson will be to create (or update) your resume using the template and process outlined below.

Sections of a Resume

Sections in a resume can vary, but a strong resume generally includes a summary of your work experience, education, and skills. For this class, you will create a resume with:

• Contact Information (name, email, city/state, links to GitHub, LinkedIn, and a portfolio)
• Summary or tagline
• Skills: programming languages, technologies, tools
• Experience
• Education
• Additional: Languages, Certifications & Training, Awards

General Resume Tips

• Keep it concise: A student resume should be one page long. In the middle of your career, you might have enough important information to extend to two pages.
• Use keywords. When you're applying for jobs online, your resume will likely be scanned by an applicant tracking system (ATS) for keywords that match the job description. To make sure your resume makes it past the ATS, include relevant keywords throughout your resume, such as in your work experience, education, and skills sections.
• Integrate your career narrative: Think about how you can integrate your career narrative into your resume. It might show up as part of your summary or tagline. The skills and experiences that you include on your resume may be in support of your career narrative.
• Proofread your resume: Typos and grammatical errors hurt your chances of getting the job. Don't knock yourself out.
• Get feedback: Ask a friend, family member, or career counselor to review your resume and give you feedback. They might catch errors you missed or suggest improvements.

How to Create Your Resume

The first step to creating your resume is refining the content. At this stage, you should not focus on formatting. As you update the information, the formatting will get thrown off -- that's ok. Do not spend time trying to fix the formatting. Formatting is a distraction!

Step 1: Download the resume template document

Make a copy of the template by clicking the blue "Use Template" button. You are then going to complete the sections in the following order:

• Basics and contact information
• Education
• Experience
• Additional
• Summary

Step 2: Update name and contact information

Replace the name, phone number, location, LinkedIn, and GitHub address. If you have a separate portfolio website, add that as well.

Step 3: Add your education experience

Add your 2-3 most recent education experiences. You should not add anything before secondary school.

Step 4: Complete your professional experience

The experience section shows potential employers what you have done in the past and what you are capable of. Like all parts of your resume, it should be clear, concise, and to the point. The goal of the experience section is to show your value. The title or role you held matters far less than demonstrating the impact you had. When writing about your experience, you want to answer the questions:

• What did you do?
• How did you do it?
• What impact did it have?

Keep the following in mind when writing bullet points for your experience:

Use strong action verbs and explain how you did the work.

The video calls these "power verbs." They help convey what you accomplished and are easier to read and more concise.

Show impact and quantify your results

Explain why your work matters. Whenever possible, quantify the results of your work.

Step 5: Include additional information

• Add a list of relevant technical skills (e.g., programming languages) and tools you are comfortable with
• If you have relevant certifications and training, add them
• Optionally, you may add languages you speak and your interests/hobbies

Step 6: Add your summary

Once you have finished adding all of the sections, update the summary.

Step 7: Trim as needed

Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile

A professional web presence is critical for job searching. This lesson will focus on LinkedIn because it is the largest professional networking site. I routinely look for people to hire or share opportunities with, and their LinkedIn profile is the first place I go.

Why Does LinkedIn Matter?

With over 740 million members in over 200 countries, LinkedIn is a powerful tool to build your professional network, and connect to potential employers and industry professionals. A LinkedIn profile helps you showcase your skills, experience, and accomplishments. According to LinkedIn:

• Job seekers who are "open to new opportunities" on the platform are 40% more likely to receive messages from recruiters
• 90% of recruiters use LinkedIn to find potential candidates

LinkedIn profile examples

Below are some examples of LinkedIn profiles from Kibo staff and mentors

• Akin, a Kibo mentor and Software Engineer
• Bidemi, Operations Data Analyst at Kibo
• Cami, Kibo mentor and Engineering Manager at Meta
• Robb, Kibo co-founder and Head of Curriculum
• Ope, Kibo co-founder and CEO

Discuss

❓ Do you notice any common features of the LinkedIn profiles of the Kibo staff and mentors listed above? Share your thoughts in the padlet below.

How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

This section walks you through updating your LinkedIn profile. If the content in a particular section does not apply to you, i.e., if that section of your profile does not need to be updated, then you can skip it.

To begin, if you don't already have a LinkedIn account, sign up for one here: https://www.linkedin.com/signup

1. Update your name

Your display name should be listed as First Name, Last Name. In many African countries, it is customary to write your surname first. But, since the most common global pattern is first then last, please update your profile to match this pattern and prevent confusion with potential employers.

2. Update your profile photo

Add a profile photo. The photo should be professional, clearly show your face and be high resolution.

Professional doesn't mean formal. You don't need to wear a suit (unless you want to!) and it's perfectly fine to show your personality! But you should make sure that

• Your face is visible (it helps for interviewers to recognize you!)
• The photo is of high quality
• There are no inappropriate or distracting images or logos

3. Update your URL

Your LinkedIn profile URL appears in the navigation bar when someone is looking at your profile.

The url for Ope's profile is linkedin.com/in/opebukola

You should customize this URL so that it's easier to deduce your first and last name. To do so, follow the steps on this page to find and customize your profile URL.

4. Write a professional headline

Your LinkedIn headline is a brief description that is shown at the top of your profile page. It also appears next to your name in the search results. Your professional headline can be:

• Your current position or title, e.g., "Computer science student at Kibo School" or "Aspiring software developer and computer science student", similar to Ebun or Victor
• A description of your skills and interests, e.g., Funmi has: "IoT and TinyML Developer | Program Manager | C/C++ * Pythonista | Creating Opportunities with Artificial Intelligence"

5. Update your experience and education Update this section to include jobs, volunteer, and work experience you've had recently. Use similar language to your resume.

6. Make sure your profile is publicly visible

You can view and customize your public profile settings here. You should ensure that your photo and headline are visible to all LinkedIn members, even if they are not connected to you. You may want to control the rest of your profile's visibility based on your personal preferences.

Growing Your Network by Asking for Connections

Once you have created a solid profile, you should seek relevant connections. According the Hubspot, 85% of jobs are filled through networking and 75% of jobs are never publically listed on a site. So, building and cultivating a strong professional network is vital to finding opportunities. LinkedIn is one (but not the only) way to cultivate and sustain your professional network. The first step to using LinkedIn for this is to connect with those in your network.

Tips for asking for LinkedIn connections

• Ask people you know: you should connect to your Kibo classmates, staff, mentors and others you know
• Don't ask people you don't know: while you may want to connect with well-known people, you should only request connections from people you actually know. I get many connection requests and say no to the majority of them because I want my network to be meaningful. I consider connection requests from people I've never interacted with and who have no meaningful connection to me to be rude. Don't be that person!
• Ask wisely: don't assume everyone you interact with remembers you. When making a connection request to a weak tie (someone you do not know well), include a brief reminder message on why you want to be connected. For example:
  • "Thank you for speaking at the fireside chat. I appreciated your insight on building soft skills. I'd like to be added to your network."
  • "It was a pleasure to meet you at XYZ conference and chat briefly about education in Africa. I'd like to stay in touch."

There are situations where you may want to make a "cold outreach" via LinkedIn. We will cover how to do that well in a future lesson on informational interviews.

LinkedIn Questions 🤔

(Optional) Making Your Profile Stand Out

If you follow the steps above, your profile will be in solid shape. That said, LinkedIn has many additional features that you can use to optimize your profile and grow your brand. You should only do these once you finish the rest of the lessons in this section and submit your assignment.

📺 Watch this video on making your LinkedIn profile stand out (10:03)

(Optional) What Makes a Good LinkedIn Profile?

📖 Read the following article from LinkedIn on what makes a good LinkedIn profile.

Here is a summary of the relevant tips from the article, separated into profile format and LinkedIn behavior.

Profile format

1. Choose the right profile picture
2. Add a background photo
3. Make your headline more than just a job title
4. Turn your summary into your story
5. Declare war on buzzwords
6. List your relevant skills

LinkedIn behavior

1. Grow your network
2. Take a skills assessments
3. Share relevant content from your LinkedIn feed
4. Add comments
5. Follow relevant influencers in your industry
6. Publish long-form content - and use it to start conversations

Building Your Portfolio

Your portfolio is a chance to show the world concrete examples of your work. What have you built? What are your creative superpowers?

An impressive portfolio provides hard evidence for the points in your resume, and can serve as a jumping off point for conversations in interviews.

A great portfolio requires that you've built interesting projects, and clear and well-designed presentation.

Portfolio Examples

Check out these examples of portfolio sites for a sense of what a great portfolio site can look like:

As you look, take note of what elements you'd like to incorporate into your own portfolio. Add your notes to the padlet below.

• https://lolaodelola.dev/
• https://afolabibakare.netlify.app/
• https://ezekielekunola.com/
• https://olaolu.dev/
• https://www.sarasoueidan.com/
• https://slim.computer/
• https://www.swyx.io/
• https://safiyaunoble.com/bio-cv/
• https://jacky.wtf/about
• https://www.tatianamac.com/about
• http://deniseyu.io/

For more, see this collection of developer portfolio sites.

Elements of an Effective Portfolio

Portfolio Checklist

On any portfolio, there are some features that need to be there:

✅ Your Name

✅ About you: A brief description of who you are and your photo

✅ Projects, with names, links, and descriptions. On many sites, these are shown as a grid of hoverable cards

✅ Links to social, LinkedIn, GitHub, blog, or anything else you want people to see

✅ How to get in touch

You should confirm that there are no errors:

• Check that your links work
• Check your spelling
• Check that the formatting and presentation look the way you intend

How to Build Your Portfolio

There are several options for building a portfolio. You should start by writing a Github Readme, then if you have time, add a personal site, potentially using a portfolio template or portfolio tool.

Github Readme

Github lets you create a Readme page for your profile, which serves as a mini-portfolio built into Github.

You can create a personal portfolio very quickly by writing a markdown file. It has the benefit of creating a landing page for your GitHub profile, which you can keep even if you end up building a separate personal site.

Github Readme Examples

See these examples of Github Readme portfolios:

• https://github.com/PluckyPrecious
• https://github.com/lauragift21
• https://github.com/lizheming
• https://github.com/mmphego
• https://github.com/stephenajulu
• https://github.com/Nanra
• https://github.com/garimasingh128

Here's a resource with more creative examples of Github profile Readmes.

Follow this tutorial on How to create a Github profile Readme or watch this alternative tutorial on Youtube

Personal Website

Once have completed your Github profile Readme, you can consider making a personal website.

Refer back to the web development fundamentals course for tips on how to design with HTML and CSS, and for how to purchase and configure a domain.

Content

A personal website should have all the content you included on your GitHub Readme: About you, links to projects, and links to social.

Some personal sites also host blogs, which can be great -- if you have content already. If you don't have a developer blog, you are encouraged to start one, but don't include the section on your portfolio site if you don't have any content yet!

Some personal sites also have interactive elements or more designs. You are welcome to add more to your site once you have the basics in place.

Design

Portfolio sites are often minimalist and beautiful. They don't need to have a lot of functionality.

Simple designs are often quite effective! You don't need lots of fancy JavaScript.

You might review the Web Foundations lessons on Web Design or look back at the PMD lesson on UI Design Basics for more on how to think about your design choices.

Domain

As you probably noticed, most of the personal sites used a custom domain! You can follow the content on Publishing to learn more about purchasing and deploying to a domain.

As a default, you can publish using Github pages, which comes with a free domain associated with your Github handle. (If you aren't happy about your Github username, you can change it in the settings panel).

Tip: Timebox

It's easy to spend tons of time on your portfolio! But you only have so many hours. One effective technique for managing time on projects like this is to timebox your work on your portfolio. Set a fixed amount of time to spend on your portfolio, and only spend that time!

It may help to list the most important things you need to do before you publish and share your portfolio, then get those things done (instead of sinking time into nice-to-have but ultimately unnecessary features).

Assignment - Resume

Instructions

1. Create a draft of your resume by following the instructions in the Crafting a Killer Resume lesson. (Task 1)
2. Complete your resume self-evaluation. (Task 2)
3. Complete peer evaluation for a classmate. (Task 3)
4. Update your resume based on the feedback you have received. (Task 4)
5. Submit your final resume, as well as your self-evaluation and the peer evaluation that you gave.

More details on each task are given below.

Task 1 - Create Your Resume

• Use the Kibo resume template to create your resume: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_1sLGzqr3EeurYhiy_yknZkDD7CsxRHzKqZ-TQlSUU8/template/preview
• You will need to update the following sections:
  • Basics and contact information
  • Education
  • Experience
  • Additional information
  • Summary
• More details on how to update each section are found in the Crafting a Killer Resume lesson.

Task 2: Complete Your Self-Evaluation

• Once you have completed your resume, you will need to complete a self-evaluation to ensure that it meets all expected criteria.
• Make a copy of this evaluation form template: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bT-8sxXQnfcNacE30bH1luNz5vz5OFCYjFKy81UarvY/template/preview
• Complete all parts of the evaluation form.
• If you realize that your resume does not meet some of the expectations, update your resume to correct these issues.

Task 3: Complete a Peer-Evaluation

• The next step is to conduct a peer review. This is an opportunity to get #BetterTogether and provide thoughtful and honest feedback to your classmates. Giving useful and constructive feedback is a critical workplace skill, so this will also help you grow as a professional.
• When you are ready for the peer evaluation, open up this spreadsheet: Peer Evaluation Database
  • Find the row with your name, and add a link to your resume column C (Resume Link). Ensure that the document is set so that anyone at Kibo School with the link can comment
  • Look for a row with a resume link in column C but without a value in Column D (Peer Reviewer Name)
  • Add your first and last name to Column D. You will be conducting a review of this resume.
  • Open the link in Column C.
  • Make another copy of the evaluation form template: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bT-8sxXQnfcNacE30bH1luNz5vz5OFCYjFKy81UarvY/template/preview
  • Evaluate your classmate’s resume. Please be as detailed as possible. Remember that feedback is a gift.
  • When you are finished, share the evaluation with the person
    • Click the "Share" button
    • Type the name of the person whose resume you reviewed
    • Share the evaluation with your classmate via email

📺 Watch the video below for instructions on conducting peer evaluations

Task 4: Update Your Resume

• Once your resume has received feedback from a peer, review the feedback and update your resume accordingly.
  • If you have questions or need clarification, you can drop a comment in the document for the reviewer or reach out to them on Discord.
• Feel free to ask additional peers to give you feedback or attend office hours to get feedback from your instructors.
• Keep updating your resume until you are satisfied with the final version.

Submission

• Once you are happy with the final version of your resume, you are ready to submit it to the instructor.
• Make sure that you submit the following 3 documents, first on Gradescope and then as a PDF here on Anchor:
  1. The final draft of your resume.
  2. Your self-evaluation.
  3. The peer evaluation that you gave to a classmate.

Assignment - LinkedIn Profile

Instructions

• Create or update your LinkedIn profile by following the instructions in the Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile lesson.
• Your updated profile should include:
  1. Your name
  2. A profile photo
  3. A professional headline
  4. A customized URL
  5. Your professional background
  6. Your educational background

Submission

• Submit the link to your updated profile in Gradescope.
• Take a screenshot of your profile, or download your profile page as a PDF and submit this on Anchor.

Assignment - Portfolio

Instructions

• Create a mini-portfolio by updating your Github profile readme.
• (Optionally) Create a personal portfolio website.
  • Details on how to do this can be found in the Building Your Portfolio lesson.

Submission

• Submit the link to your updated profile in Gradescope.
• Take a screenshot of your portfolio, or download your profile page as a PDF and submit this on Anchor.

Introduction

📺 Watch the following video from your instructor to learn what you will study in unit 3.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Make plans for before, during, and after an interview
• Use the STAR method to respond effectively to behavioral interview questions
• Prepare and deliver strong answers to common interview questions
• Reflect on and continuously improve your interview performance

Into the Mind of the Interviewer

Tunde is an intern hiring manager at SpaceG, a leading satellite communications company. It is intern hiring season, and after spending a week interviewing hundreds of candidates with exceptional resumes and cover letters, it is time for him to take a breath and reflect on his experience.

As an aspiring intern, it is easy to forget that hiring managers are people too. As frustrating and tiring as you find the hiring process, it is also not easy for interviewers like Tunde to navigate. It may seem like these interviewers hold all the power to make or break your future, and they wield this power carelessly. But truthfully, before every interview, Tunde sincerely wishes that the person he is about to interview is “the one” and that they are able to clearly give him the data to back up this belief. Some do so exceptionally, and others give him concrete evidence that they are not the one. However, most students just don’t seem to have understood the assignment.

The job of an interviewer is to uncover data

At a very high level, an employer is interviewing you to find historical data that can be used to predict if you will be able to help this company as a high performer in the future. Your job is to be the master of your own historical data, and to share that data to help make their decision to hire you as easy as possible.

Source

If you are like most students and are struggling to “understand the assignment,” you are in luck. Tunde is an introspective type. Each Friday, he writes in his journal to reflect on the major things that have happened in his life that week to see if he can draw any learnings for himself or others. Below is a journal entry at the end of his busy week of interviewing.

Let’s go into the mind of the interviewer!

Journal Entry: What It Means to Understand the Assignment (Interview Edition) Date: December 1, 2023

Today marks the end of the software engineering internship interviews at SpaceG. Man! It has been a rollercoaster ride! Some candidates left me thoroughly impressed, and others fell so short of expectations that it was downright painful. However, the majority occupied the vast middle ground of indistinguishable mediocrity.

This has left me thinking. Why do so few people “understand the assignment” when it comes to interviews? Was I like this back then? Maybe. But I guess I was lucky enough to have some really good mentors who whipped me into shape quickly. In the spirit of paying it forward, here is what I wish young people knew about interviews. Maybe if I can help more people understand things from the interviewer's point of view, I can reduce the number of cringe interviews and increase the number of outstanding candidates that I get to interact with!

Firstly, nailing the interview process isn't rocket science, but it takes effort and time. One thing I really wish everyone understood is that technical chops are non-negotiable. If you can't solve problems on the spot and explain your thinking, you're in a tough spot. It's not just about knowing your stuff. It's about being able to show it. The ability to solve problems live and articulate the thought process behind your code is critical. I wish every candidate realized that a solid grasp of fundamental concepts and practical problem-solving skills are the pillars of success in our interviews. The best way to get to this level of fluency is to do lots and lots of practice. Practice until this way of thinking becomes automatic.

Then there's the communication piece. The ones who stood out weren't just technically skilled. They were also able to explain their ideas and approaches clearly and ask clarifying questions without stumbling over their words. It's a skill often underestimated but hugely important.

The above is kind of table stakes. It is what is expected as a minimum. Not having these skills will leave you out in the cold, but having just these skills may not be enough to help you stand out.

However, there are some things that make exceptional candidates exceptional. Shockingly, It's more than just coding skills. Those who did their homework and came in knowing about SpaceG and the internship role left a mark. This was evident when a candidate took the time to research SpaceG’s products, culture, and recent achievements. It's like they understood that showing interest isn't just a formality. It's a sign of someone who might actually care about what we do here and be motivated to align with our company goals and contribute to our success in some small way.

Adaptability is another thing that set the rock stars apart. They didn't just stick to what they knew. They demonstrated that they were eager to learn and adapt. They approached new problems and unusual questions with a kind of curiosity that made me hopeful about their potential in our dynamic industry. Even if they didn’t understand what was initially being asked of them, they didn’t panic. They took their time, explained their current understanding, asked clarifying questions, explained their assumptions, and showed enthusiasm when confronted with the unfamiliar. I could already imagine how they would behave if dumped into the deep end on their first day of the internship. Instead of looking for someone to save them or getting angry about how unfair it was while letting themself drown, I can see them treading water and using their current skills to figure out how to get out of the situation. This is the type of person that I want on my team!

Unfortunately, there were also some interviews that made me cringe. I think a lack of preparation was a big culprit in why these interviews went so poorly. It's disheartening when someone looks great on paper, but in the interview, it's clear they didn't bother to get ready. It's like they thought they could wing it. In some situations, students who had straight As on paper and fantastic portfolios were so poorly prepared that it felt disrespectful. It doesn’t matter how great you look on paper. I’m not hiring you on paper. If your live performance fails to live up to the quality of your background and you stumble through basic technical and behavioral questions, I’m not hiring you. It’s just not worth the risk.

I hope future candidates take away the essence of what these interviews taught me. It's not just about being a tech whiz; it's about showing it, communicating it clearly, being genuinely interested, staying curious, and being ready to adapt. And most of all, it's about preparation. Lots and lots of preparation!

Discussion

❓ Answer the following questions in the padlet below.

• Which parts of Tunde's reflection surprised you?
• Now that you have a better idea of how interviewers think, what is one thing you want to do differently as you prepare for your next interview?

Post your answer and reasoning in the padlet below.

Planning for Success

Before focusing on different types of interviews, let's begin by reviewing some basics that apply to behavioral and technical interviews.

📺 Watch the video below for tips on acing an entry-level interview

As explained in the video:

• Be confident and show genuine interest in the role
• Be specific and concise
• Communicate your relevant experiences and transferable skills

Before the Interview

Three key steps to take before the interview are:

1. Research the company and role
2. Plan for logistics
3. Master your emotions

Let's explore each in more detail.

1 - Research

Before an interview, research the company and the role. To do so:

• Read the job description thoroughly and note the skills and attributes required
• Visit the company's website and read their blog and social media pages
• Look for news articles about the company
• Use online resources like Glassdoor, Indeed, and LinkedIn to read about the company

Your aim is to understand, as much as possible, the company's milestones, priorities, mission, and values.

2 - Plan the Logistics

Arrange all the details of the experience. If you are traveling to a physical location, plan how you will get there and leave ample time for diversions. For a Zoom meeting, decide where you will conduct the interview, which machine you will use, identify and practice with your headphones, determine what you will wear, and which, if any, background you will use. Also, make sure you have a backup source of internet data.

📺 Watch this short video for some tips on setting up a virtual interview.

Planning the logistics will make your interview process run more smoothly, freeing up more energy to focus on your career goals.

3 - Master Your Emotions

Anticipating a job interview can be stressful. The best way to alleviate this stress is to prepare throughly. The more prepared you are for your interview, the less anxious you will feel. Even with thorough preparation, you may still feel anxious and that's ok. To build emotional confidence for your interview:

• Review your preparation notes. Knowledge is power! Having the details about the organization and role can help you feel in control of the situation.
• Get a good night's sleep. Lack of sleep can make you feel more anxious and stressed. Make sure you get a good night's sleep before your interview so that you can be well-rested and alert.
• Dress for success. Dressing for success can help you feel more confident and prepared for your interview. Choose clothes that make you feel good about yourself and that are appropriate for the company culture.
• Arrive early. Arriving early to your interview will give you time to relax and collect your thoughts. It will also show the interviewer that you are punctual and reliable.
• Breathe deeply. If you start to feel anxious during your interview, take a few deep breaths. This will help to calm your nerves and center yourself.
• Focus on the positive. Try to focus on the positive aspects of the interview and the opportunity. Remind yourself of your strengths and qualifications and why you would be a good fit for the job.
• Be yourself. The most important thing is to be yourself during your interview. The interviewer wants to get to know the real you, so don't try to be someone you're not.

During the Interview

Introduce Yourself Well

The beginning of the interview is critical, and a well-crafted introduction can set a positive tone for the rest of the interview. At the beginning of your interview, you should:

• Greet the interviewer
  • Clearly say your name. This is especially important in the African context! Your interviewers may not be familiar with your name.
  • Share your first name only. While it's common in some cultures to share first and last name, it's often easier to share just your first name.
• Have a strong elevator pitch. Be able to answer the most common introduction questions such as:
  • "Tell me about yourself"
  • "Why do you want to work at our company?"

You can review the EYC Unit 2 lesson on Powerful Introductions and the C4S lesson on Preparing Elevator Pitches for guidance on preparing your self-introduction.

Speak Confidently, Calmly, and Clearly

The tweet above is by Mark Essien, a software engineer and founder of Hotels.ng, Nigeria's leading hotel booking website. The reality is that how you say it matters as much as what you say.

📺 Watch the video below for tips on how to speak with confidence and authority. You notice that a lot of these tips are related to concepts that you were introduced to in the C4S Speaking class.

As the video says:

• Stop making your statements sound like questions! Speak with conviction, and drop your tonality.
• Drop the truth bomb! Speak with conviction and believe in yourself and your message.
• Use the power of the pause! It's ok to take a break, which lets you think about what you'll say next and allows the audience to think about what you just said.

Be Sure to Listen

An interview is a conversation, not a monologue. Ensure you are listening carefully to the interviewer. Make eye contact and nod to signal you are following along. Jot down notes and ask clarification questions. If you don't listen well, you might give the perfect response to a question that the interviewer didn't ask. Remember, the interviewer is trying to collect data, so make sure you understand what they are asking you and respond appropriately.

After the Interview

Follow-Up

A few hours after or the next day, write a brief follow-up to the interview. The follow-up should:

• Thank them for the conversation
• Reiterate your qualifications and enthusiasm for the position

The follow-up should be brief, no more than a few sentences max. Remember that your interviewers are busy, and be respectful of their time.

Hello Ope,

Thank you for taking the time to interview me for the Software Engineering intern position. I enjoyed learning more about Kibo's engineering practices and the way you use pair programming to ensure code quality and team cohesion.

My extensive experience building software in teams makes me a great fit for Kibo. I look forward to continuing the conversation and showing you what I can offer. Please let me know if there is anything else I can send to enhance my application. Otherwise, I am looking forward to hearing from you in the coming week.

Regards, Seun

Behavioral Interviews and Leveraging STAR Stories

A behavioral interview is a type of interview where the interviewer asks you questions about your past behavior. They are trying to assess your skills and abilities by asking you to provide specific examples of times when you have used those skills in the past.

📺 Watch the video below for an introduction to behavioral interviews and the STAR method

Practice is key!

The rest of this lesson walks you through tips for practicing. In particular, we will be using the STAR method.

The STAR method is a helpful way to structure your answers to behavioral interview questions. STAR stands for:

• Situation: Describe the situation you were in.
• Task: What was your role in the situation?
• Action: What steps did you take to address the situation?
• Result: What was the outcome of your actions?

Acing the Behavioral Interview

Research the company

Like all interviews, the first step is to research the company. Take some time to research the company and the position you are interviewing for. This will help you to identify the skills and abilities that are important for the job.

Gather anecdotes

Think about your past experiences, and create some anecdotes. While each job is unique, there are certain skills and traits that employers will look for. You will want to reflect on your past experiences and find experiences that demonstrate these skills, including communication, teamwork, conflict management, decision-making, and self-improvement.

Fill out the document with example situations for each scenario. This document is yours to keep, so feel free to include additional scenarios or questions.

Practice Answers

Once you have a list of experiences, practice answering common interview questions. This will help you to feel more confident and prepared when you are asked these questions in your interview. You can find many lists of interview questions on the internet. Focus on the ones below.

Below are some common interview questions that you should have an answer to. You can practice answering each one to yourself.

• Start a Zoom call and record.
• For each question, look into the camera and practice answering.

Practice answering these 10 questions:

1. Tell me about a time when you experienced a conflict with a coworker or teammate. What strategies did you use to resolve the situation?
2. Describe a time when you had to work under pressure to meet a deadline. How did you manage your time and prioritize?
3. Give me an example of a project you worked on that required you to collaborate with others. What was your role in the project, and how did you contribute to its success?
4. Describe a time when you had to give constructive feedback to a coworker or team member. How did you approach the conversation, and what was the outcome?
5. Tell me about a time when you had to overcome a challenge.
6. Describe a time when you had to make a difficult decision.
7. Give me an example of a time when you had to go above and beyond your job duties.
8. Tell me about a time when you made a bad decision. What did you learn from the situation?
9. Give me an example of a time when you had to learn something new.
10. Tell me about a time when you had to improve your performance.

The questions above point to common skills for professional success: communication, teamwork, conflict management, decision-making, and self-improvement.

Scaling Technical Interviews with Confidence

A technical interview for software engineering is a type of interview where the interviewer asks you questions about your technical skills and knowledge. The interviewer is trying to assess your ability to do the job and your potential for growth.

The interviewer may ask you to write code, solve problems, or design systems. They may also ask you questions about your experience and knowledge. The interviewer may ask you to write code on a whiteboard or computer, discuss your portfolio or previous projects, or complete a coding challenge.

📺 Watch the video below for one engineer's perspective on preparing for coding interviews.

Some helpful advice from the video:

• Practice in a simple language like Python. Try to understand the standards library and syntax well.
• Learn the fundamentals of Data Structures & Algorithms.
• Start with easy problems.
• Don't spend too much time on one problem. If you can't solve a problem within 30 minutes, look at the solution, try to understand it then try to implement it yourself.
• Follow a well-structured plan, and aim to solve 2-3 coding interview questions per day.

Acing the Coding Interview

Research the Company

Like all interviews, the first step is to research the company. Take some time to research the company and the position you are interviewing for. This will help you to identify the skills and abilities that are important for the job.

Practice

The best way to prepare for technical interviews is to practice! You will be practicing in your Data Structures & Algorithms class, as well as through the code practice channel in Discord.

Portfolio and Personal Experience

As part of your technical interview, you may be asked questions about your past experience and projects you've built. This is where having a strong portfolio comes in handy. Providing your interviewer with a first-hand look at the programs you’ve created (or are currently working on) gives them insight into your skills, passions, and creative visions.

Before a technical interview, ensure that you have the link to your portfolio accessible so you can share it with your interviewer. You should also be prepared to speak briefly about one or more of your projects. This will come about through a question like: “Walk me through something you’ve built?” or "Explain a project you are proud of."

This question is not a license to ramble about your work in an unstructured manner. It is an opportunity to showcase: the depth of your technical skills, the quality of your verbal communication skills, and your mastery of other important non-technical skills (e.g., collaboration). One of the key parts of any job is presenting your ongoing or completed work to a variety of stakeholders. So this question is a chance for you to showcase that you have the ability to do so well. Many promising technical careers stall because people are unable to communicate their work effectively to others. Don't fall into this trap. And be sure to prepare effectively, so that you can showcase your effective communication skills right from the interview time.

📖 Read this article to learn how to explain a project in an interview.

The main structure presented in the article is:

• Introduce the project: Discuss its purpose, benefits, and user needs.
• Discuss main functionality: what does your project do.
• Explain tools, technologies, and platforms.
• Describe your personal contribution and the project team.

Remember, the goal of talking about a project is to provide the interview with evidence of your technical and non-technical skills and your ability to use those skills to create value and drive impact.

Crafting Exceptional Interview Answers

Crafting exceptional interview answers is not a natural-born talent but rather a skill that is honed through awareness and practice. Here is a recap of some tips mentioned throughout this unit to help you prepare so that your interview responses work for you instead of against you.

1. Research Thoroughly: Understand the company and the role you're applying for to tailor your responses effectively.

2. Use the STAR Method: Structure your responses using the Situation, Task, Action, Result method for behavioral questions.

3. Connect Past Experiences: Illustrate how your past experiences prepare you for success in the new role.

4. Listen Actively: Pay close attention to the interviewer's questions and respond directly. Make sure you are responding to the question they asked. An excellent response to the wrong question is actually a bad response.

5. Quantify Achievements: To build credibility, use numbers and metrics to quantify your accomplishments.

6. Express Enthusiasm: Show genuine excitement for the job and how it aligns with your career goals.

7. Be Concise and Clear: Keep your answers focused and articulate, and avoid unnecessary details. Remember that the goal of the interviewer is to gather data on your suitability for the role. If you ramble in your answers, it will be easy for them to miss the key data points that they are looking for.

8. Practice Common Questions: Familiarize yourself with common interview questions and rehearse your answers. But remember, don't memorize your answers. Memorizing your responses word for word, can lead you to be very unnatural during the interview.

Here are some examples of strong and weak answers to a few common interview questions.

Discuss

❓ Review the common interview questions above and compare the strong and weak responses. Now identify one thing that you think the strong response did better when compared to the weak response. Post your thoughts in the padlet below.

Optimizing Delivery

It might not be obvious from the list at the top of the page, but exceptional answers are about both what you say and how you say it. Most of the provided tips are focused on getting the content of your responses to be exceptional. But it is also important that your delivery is exceptional as well (tips 6 and 7 are more geared towards delivery). To ensure this, remember the 7Cs of communication. And think about how they apply to speaking.

Clarity: Keep it simple

Conciseness: Get to the point

Concreteness: Be specific

Correctness: Be accurate and error-free

Coherence: Make it logical

Completeness: Include all necessary information

Courtesy: See things from the audience's point of view

Practice and Reflection

Number 8 on the above list is really critical: "Practice Common Questions: Familiarize yourself with common interview questions and rehearse your answers." Practicing your response to common interview questions will allow you to feel more confident in real interview situations. The assignments for this unit will allow you to get lots of practice using both automated mock interviews and peer mock interviews. Near the end of the course, you will also hold mock interviews with your mentor to practice what it feels like to be interviewed by an industry professional.

As you practice by yourself and with your peers, it is important that you mimic real interview contexts. Dress as if you are doing a real interview. Make sure you are in an appropriate location for an interview. Go through all the steps as if it was a real interview. This is the best way to prepare for the real deal.

After every mock interview experience, sit down and do a self-reflection on how it went. Remember to think about 1) What you did well, 2) What you didn't do well, and 3) What you could improve next time. Remember to think about both the content of what you said, as well as your delivery.

If you are doing an interview with someone else, ask them for feedback on your performance. Do this after you have done your own self-evaluation so that you can compare how you think you did to what they observed. This will help you improve your self-evaluation skills.

Assignment - STAR Stories

Instructions

Step 1: Pick two questions from the following list of 10 common behavioral interview questions:

1. Tell me about a time when you experienced a conflict with a coworker or teammate. What strategies did you use to resolve the situation?
2. Describe a time when you had to work under pressure to meet a deadline. How did you manage your time and prioritize?
3. Give me an example of a project you worked on that required you to collaborate with others. What was your role in the project, and how did you contribute to its success?
4. Describe a time when you had to give constructive feedback to a coworker or team member. How did you approach the conversation, and what was the outcome?
5. Tell me about a time when you had to overcome a challenge.
6. Describe a time when you had to make a difficult decision.
7. Give me an example of a time when you had to go above and beyond your job duties.
8. Tell me about a time when you made a bad decision. What did you learn from the situation?
9. Give me an example of a time when you had to learn something new.
10. Tell me about a time when you had to improve your performance.

Step 2: Make a copy of the assignment template: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dr24rUjrQy3wiOnLkIydyx4tptcfZu7W3MIo2DSBz0k/template/preview

Step 3: Craft 2 STAR stories for each of the questions you selected above.

Submission

• On Gradescope: Save your assignment document that contains all 4 of your STAR stories as a PDF and upload it to Gradescope.
• Then submit the PDF on Anchor.

Assignment - Automated Behavioral Interviews

Instructions

We have purchased a subscription to Talk Hiring, an automated mock interviewing tool that helps you become more effective. Talk Hiring generates instant feedback after every mock interview. This tool is 100% automated, which means that you can interview whenever you want and as much as you want!

• You are required to conduct 2 interviews with Talk Hiring.
• To start a mock interview with Talk Hiring, go to talkhiring.com/practice and enter our class code which is h9pj
  • When you get to the screen to "Start Your Interview," you should do at least one practice with "General Interview Questions" and another one with "Tech" (either Frontend Engineer or Software Engineer."
• Each Talk Hiring interview takes about 10 minutes. You will be able to view written feedback and an interview score on the TalkHiring page a few minutes after your interview.
  • You can always view all of your feedback by going to talkhiring.com/interviewee and entering your email address.

Submission

For the 2 interviews that you complete, please download or screenshot the Talk Hiring written feedback and submit this on Gradescope and Anchor as proof of your completion of the automated interviews.

Assignment - Peer Behavioral Interview

For this assignment, you will conduct several mock (or practice) interviews. Mock interviews help you practice, receive feedback, and improve your skills. With adequate practice, you will:

• Better understand yourself, and your strengths and weaknesses
• Develop greater comfort and confidence speaking with unfamiliar people

Peer interviews

Use the class Discord channel to find classmates to conduct the interviews with.

• Set aside one hour (30 minutes to interview, 30 minutes to debrief) to conduct the interview.
• When you are the Interviewer (”Hiring Manager”), you should do the following:
  • Select 5 - 10 interview questions. You can choose the questions listed in the Lesson: Behavioral Interviews and Leveraging STAR Stories, or you can use the Interview Question Generator Tool to generate some additional questions.
  • Make a copy of the Peer Behavioral Interview Guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o0xHMDrCZL9z5v77aod_UGDmDlFWnCllQV2QOrRFvho/template/preview
  • Before the interview, fill out the interview guide by adding your selected questions in the Questions column. Your peer interview should last 30 minutes, so you will need 5 - 10 questions.
  • Conduct the interview. (Note: It might be worth recording the interview so that you can review it later. You don’t need to submit the recording, but it can be useful for your practice and improvement)
    • During the interview, you should note down how your interviewee is performing when answering each of your questions.
  • After the interview:
    • Debrief with your interviewee. Ask them how they felt, and give them some feedback on what they did well and areas of improvement.
    • Submit an evaluation of how your interviewee performed using the interviewer evaluation form: https://forms.gle/ektZESiVp3dMYNi66
    • Remind the classmate you interviewed that they need to complete the interviewee self-evaluation evaluation form: https://forms.gle/UfWRKdCK1qjvjrba6

Submission

• For each peer behavioral interview, you must submit the following document on Gradescope and Anchor.
  • When you were the Interviewer: The filled out Peer Interview Guide. This must include the questions you asked and the notes you took on your interviewee’s performance.
• Ensure you have submitted your interviewer evaluation Google forms for the 2 interviews where you were the interviewer and your interviewee evaluation form for the 2 interviews where you were the interviewee.

Assignment - Peer Technical Interviews

For this assignment, you will conduct several mock (or practice) interviews. Mock interviews help you practice, receive feedback, and improve your skills. With adequate practice, you will:

• Better understand yourself, and your strengths and weaknesses
• Develop greater comfort and confidence speaking with unfamiliar people

Peer Technical Portfolio interviews

Use the class Discord channel to find a classmate to conduct the interview with.

• Set aside one hour (30 minutes to interview, 30 minutes to debrief) to conduct the interview.
• When you are the Interviewer (”Hiring Manager”), you should do the following:
  • Make a copy of the Peer Technical Interview Guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EzUger1NIBArlmsE6jvEg7fRJhFNCwf5eP5fV3lxwKc/template/preview
  • Conduct the interview. (Note: It might be worth recording the interview so that you can review it later. You don’t need to submit the recording, but it can be useful for your practice and improvement)
    • During the interview, you should note down how your interviewee is performing when answering each of your questions.
  • After the interview:
    • Debrief with your interviewee. Ask them how they felt, and give them some feedback on what they did well and areas of improvement.
    • Submit an evaluation of how your interviewee performed using the interviewer evaluation form: https://forms.gle/ektZESiVp3dMYNi66
    • Remind the classmate you interviewed that they need to complete the interviewee self-evaluation evaluation form: https://forms.gle/UfWRKdCK1qjvjrba6

Submission

• For your peer technical interview, you must submit the following document on Gradescope and Anchor.
  • When you were the Interviewer: The filled out Peer Technical Interview Guide. This must include the notes you took on your interviewee’s performance.
• Ensure you have submitted your interviewer evaluation Google forms for the interview where you were the interviewer and your interviewee evaluation form for the interview where you were the interviewee.

Introduction to Networking

📺 Instructor Ope Bukola introduces the lesson (2:48)

Learning Outcomes

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Articulate why and how building a professional network contributes to long-term career success
• Implement strategies for building your professional network
• Engage industry professionals through referrals and cold outreach
• Conduct informational interviews, and effectively ask questions of professionals

Career Coach: Meet Nia

💡 Meet Nia. She’s a 3rd-year student at Moi University studying computer science. She is interested in joining a healthtech company, and wants to find a mentor in the industry. Nia decides to reach out to potential mentors, starting with the CEOs of 5 big healthtech startups in Kenya and Uganda. Below is an email to one of them.

Subject: Seeking Guidance and Mentorship to Transform Healthcare in Rural Kenya

Dear Ms. Karabangi,

I hope this message finds you in good health and high spirits. My name is Nia Mwangi, a final-year student at Moi University, pursuing a degree in Computer Science, with a passion for leveraging technology to address healthcare challenges in underserved communities. As I approach the threshold of my academic journey, I am reaching out to you with a deep-seated desire to learn, grow, and contribute to the transformative landscape of healthcare.

My interest in healthcare comes from my family. My mother is a dedicated nurse who has spent her career serving communities in need. I see how challenging her work is, and I believe there is a lot more that can be done to help healthcare providers like her.

Your company has stood out to me as a beacon of innovation and commitment to improving health outcomes. Your team's dedication to creating software solutions that bridge the gap between urban and rural healthcare resonates deeply with my aspirations. I believe that under the guidance of a seasoned mentor like you, I can contribute significantly to your mission while gaining invaluable insights and skills to shape my own journey.

My academic background in Computer Science, combined with hands-on experiences in community health outreach programs, has equipped me with a solid foundation. However, I am eager to delve deeper into the world of software development and its applications in healthcare. I am a fast learner, adaptable, and possess a keen understanding of the unique challenges faced by rural communities in Kenya.

What sets me apart is not just my technical skills, but the genuine passion that fuels my desire to make a lasting impact. Growing up in a household where healthcare challenges were a daily topic of discussion has given me a unique perspective—one that understands the complexities and nuances of providing healthcare in resource-constrained environments.

I am confident that I can channel this passion into innovative solutions that will positively affect the lives of those who need it most.

I would be honored to have the CEO of a notable company like you as my mentor. A mentorship under your guidance would not only be a tremendous privilege but a pivotal moment in my journey toward making a meaningful impact in healthcare.

Thank you for considering my request. I eagerly anticipate speaking with you, beginning this mentorship journey, and contributing to the positive change we can bring to healthcare.

Warm regards,

Nia Mwangi
nia.mwangi@example.com
+254 712 999999

Coach Nia

❓ Do you believe Nia is taking the right approach by sending an email to seek a professional mentor? Do you think her email above will receive a positive response? Why or why not?

Connections Matter

Networking is an important, yet often misunderstood, aspect of career development. In this lesson, we’ll discuss why and how to build a professional network for the long-term.

🤔 What do you imagine when you hear the word “networking?” How does the thought of networking make you feel?

Many people have a negative association with networking. Personally, my networking nightmare is being in a room full of strangers, awkwardly trying to figure out how to insert myself into a conversation. Or, after chatting with someone for a few minutes, figuring out just how to end the conversation while secretly wishing I were home watching YouTube. Networking can be a challenge! But it doesn’t have to be.

Even though many experience networking was uncomfortable or slimy, there is a way to network authentically and joyfully, even if you are an introvert! We need to reframe our understanding of networking. Networking is not about attending fancy events, chatting up strangers, or being the life of the party. Networking is about building genuine connections.

Reframing Networking

As the video explains, it is not about “doing networking” but instead becoming part of a network. Many of us find networking uncomfortable because we view it as a bit exploitative, like manipulating or being manipulated for another person’s purpose. But it doesn’t have to be this way!

As noted in the video, people are often happy to do small things to help others, especially when it benefits the larger network or community.

Why Connections Matter

People are willing to invest in creating stronger networks or communities. Rather than a transaction exchange of favors, networking is about building genuine connections. Connecting is at the heart of what makes us human.

Human beings have an innate desire for relationships and connections. Various studies in psychology and sociology have shown that connecting to others is vital for well-being and growth. One example is the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which began in the 1930s and is one of the longest-running studies of adult life. The study finds that, more than wealth or fame, the most important thing that keeps people happy throughout their lives is close relationships.

Discuss: Being Genuine

A genuine connection is one that derives from real interest in building a lasting relationship. A genuine connection is not:

• Transactional, and designed to only help you get what you want
• Shallow, and lacking in intellectual or emotional depth
• Fake, and showing an overly polished or overly-contrived facade

Instead, genuine connections require building relationships that extend beyond immediate needs. These connections contribute to a sense of belonging, shared purpose, and success.

Why Professional Networking Matters

Connections to other people matter for our well-being. But what role do professional networks play, and what makes genuine professional networks vital?

• Enhanced job opportunities: job market competition is fierce and referrals can be key to learning about or obtaining an interview for a job. According to CNBC, 70% of all jobs are not published publically on job sites. In my experience at Google, given the high number of job applications, one of the most critical ways to stand out was through a referral from an existing employee. This would often get your application flagged for a recruiter to review, and avoid the fate of 99% of application materials which are automatically rejected by an automated system
• Increased credibility: your network can be a strong signal of your credibility in an industry. If you are connected to experts or relevant professionals, you are more likely to be perceived as credible, especially if those professionals are willing to recommend or vouch for you
• Guidance and mentorship: a strong network can provide access to peers and experienced professionals who can give you advice, encouragement, and support.
• Development of human skills: learning to build and maintain relationships is a necessary skill for career success. Building your network is an opportunity to practice communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills that are sought after by employers and useful in the workplace.

Overall, just as genuine connection leads to emotional well-being, having strong professional connections contributes to job satisfaction.

Optional Resources

If you want to hear more about why your network matters beyond your career, Listen to Your Network is About Friendship (34min)

How to Network Naturally

In this lesson, we’ll discuss tactical tips for cultivating your network as a university student or early career professional.

As previously stated, the goal of making connections is not to “do networking,” but become part of a network. As you build your professional connections, you are not looking to create one network but rather become part of many diverse networks. But how do you choose who to connect with? The answer lies in understanding the power of both strong ties and weak ties.

Why strong and weak ties matter

Imagine your professional network as a sturdy bridge, connecting you to opportunities. To reach your destination, you need both the strong pillars of close connections and the flexible cables of more distant ties.

Strong ties are your close connections – colleagues you work with daily, classmates you study with, family members, or mentors with whom you’ve had a long relationship. With your strong ties, you have a long history, trust, and deep understanding.

Weak ties are your casual acquaintances — the classmate you met once during an event, someone you met a conference, or a friend of a friend. With your weak ties, you have some familiarity, but the connection might be less frequent or deep.

Strong ties are the emotional bedrock of your network; they offer much needed support, stability, and insider knowledge within your field. It’s vital to have strong ties with whom you can share openly and honestly.

But strong ties are not enough! Weak ties serve an important purpose too. Research by Mark Granovetter in 1973 and a recent 2022 study by MIT using LinkedIn data describe the “paradox of weak ties,” which is the idea that weak ties are better for finding new job opportunities. That’s because the people you are closest to are more likely to have networks that most resemble your own, and may not add much new information. Casual acquaintances are more likely to have greater reach to people and informational outside of your own networks. Building a diverse network takes time and effort, and requires tapping into both the strength of close connections and the bridge-building potential of weak ties.

Start Where You Are: Building Peer Networks

One misconception about building a network is that a strong network requires having a lot of “important” contacts or that connections with experienced professionals are the most valuable. This could not be further from the truth! Your peers are among the most important connections you will have. Many notable companies, from Google and Facebook to Snapchat, Paystack, and PiggyVest, were founded by people who met during university.

So, investing in cultivating strong peer relationships at school and work is paramount. According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, of all relationships in university, the ones with peers are likely to be the most significant. Peers provide more than long-term career support. They can be immediate partners in working through emotional periods, studying, and navigating university.

Better Together

🤲🏿 One of Kibo's core values is #BetterTogether. Being better together expands beyond your time at Kibo. As you develop your career, your university classmates and fellow alumni will be among your strongest advocates. That's why some of the most well-known universities in the world (Stanford, Harvard, etc.) are so powerful. As their alumni head into the world and make impact, they serve as advocates for their brand, encouraging employers and influencers to offer opportunities to those at or coming from their institution. Over time, this virtuous cycle makes their degrees and networks even more durable and valuable.

Reflect: Your Relationships at Kibo

❓ Consider your relationships at Kibo. How have you cultivated or expanded your peer network?

• Can you name a peer you admire? What are the qualities you respect?
• Do you have diverse friendships, i.e., with people from a different geography, gender, cohorts or different interests?
• Have you maintained relationships, e.g., if you worked well with someone in a prior term or project, have you checked in with them recently?
• How could you extend relationships beyond required classwork (e.g., form study groups, set up a class group WhatsApp, attend a networking event together)?

Go Online: Tips for Cultivating a Network on LinkedIn

One way to build your weak ties is via online networking sites, e.g., Github, LinkedIn, X (formerly known as Twitter), and more. Thoughtful engagement on these websites can help you build a diverse network that goes beyond those you know well.

Discuss: How to Reach Out

Go Outside: How to Succeed at Networking Events

We previously discussed how to build your network online. While building a network online is important, it is not sufficient! In an era where online connections come cheaply, in-person networking still offers many benefits including:

• Memorability: Putting "a face to the name" matters. We are more likely to remember people and experiences we have in-person. An in-person meeting can be a great primer to a relationship that continues online, or a way to strengthen a relationship that begins online.
• Attention: most posts online are missed or ignored. When you speak to someone in person, they can respond 'in real time' and you greatly increase your chances of being heard and understood.
• Chemistry: human relationships involve an intangible element. Sometimes people just click! While it's sometimes possible to have this spark online, it is much more likely in-person.

💡 In-person networking still matters in a digital age!

Networking events are some of the most fraught part of networking, and a big reason that many people hate networking. Whether you are introverted or extroverted, speaking with strangers can be a source of apprehension.

• Tips for Networking Events

Discuss: Thriving at Networking Events

Networking with Professionals

As previously discussed, peers are a critical part of one’s network, and networking is not about finding important people. Still, there are many good reasons to cultivate relationships with experienced professionals who may be a bit (or a lot) further ahead so that you can learn from their experiences.

Preparing to Connect with Professionals

Step 1: Define your goals and target individuals

Before you start looking for professionals to add to your network, you should define 1-3 concrete goals for adding professionals to your network. For example, the goal might be to find an internship or a job or to better understand the opportunities in a certain function or industry for someone with your background.

Having concrete goals will also help you target the right experts. While it may be tempting to reach out to the CEO of a company you’re interested in, you should match your target professionals to your goals. For example, it’s unlikely that a C-Suite leader is involved in hiring interns, so it may be better to try to find an early career professional who may be able to share more relevant information for landing an internship and may also be more accessible to you.

Step 2: Do your research

Once you have a list of professionals with whom you’d like to connect, research their backgrounds, interests, and work. In your research, aim to get a general understanding of the person’s career journey. If they’ve published professional content (e.g., blog posts), read or skim them so that you understand what they are interested in. Your research may also help uncover mutual interests and opportunities for you to add value to the professional.

⛔ Beware! A lot of people have public personal social profiles (e.g., Instagram). In general, if you are looking for a professional connection, refrain from following/friending people on personal social accounts.

Step 3: Make a connection

The best way to connect to someone is via a warm introduction, i.e., reaching out through a mutual connection. If that is not possible, you may also seek to make a digital connection. Many professionals publish publicly (e.g., LinkedIn, blogs, Twitter). Connecting with them online might be a great place to start, when done thoughtfully. For example, you might leave a thoughtful comment on something they’ve written or participate in a conversation they are having.

⛔ Beware! Many people post spammy or irrelevant comments to influential people. This almost always backfires and makes them less likely to want to connect with you. Don’t post a comment saying, “I’d like to have a chat with you” on a random Twitter thread or blog post. DO NOT be that person.

A cold outreach via LinkedIn or email might be worth a shot. But, the chances of a reply are low, and if you go this route, you need to be respectful and avoid spamming or messaging too frequently. When reaching out to someone cold, the maximum number of attempts should be 2: your initial outreach and a follow-up within 1-2 weeks if you don’t hear back.

Evaluating Cold Outreach

Below are three examples of real cold outreach that Ope received on LinkedIn.

Outreach 1

Outreach 2

Outreach 3

Evaluate

Informational Interview

An informational interview is a conversation with someone who is working in an industry or company that interests you. It is a chance to learn more about the industry, the company, and the person's career path. Informational interviews are not job interviews, so there is no pressure to sell yourself or to get a job offer. That said, informational interviews can be a powerful interaction for building your network and finding opportunities.

As the video explains, informational interviews can be helpful to build and strengthen your professional network, and get valuable information. The video describes 5 steps to conducing informational interviews:

Step 1: Identify a professional to interview

Ask for introductions

Reach out to friends, family, former classmates, or former colleagues. Ask your mentors or professors for introductions to people in their network. When asking for introductions, remember that professionals are busy and most people will not get back to you -- that's ok!

Do cold outreach

Use online resources (e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter) to find people to interview.

The video suggests including possible times. Instead of specific times, I recommend you include a link to a booking website (try free version of Calendly) or leave out times entirely and ask when they are free. For example:

Step 2: Prepare the questions to ask

Like all interviews, the first step is research!

• Research the person you are interviewing
• Research the company the individual currently works for, and their past companies
• Ask specific questions that provide insight, but keep it professional. Some good questions include:
  • What led you to your current role?
  • What has been a favorite project you work on?
  • What's something you wish you could change about your role or job?

Step 3: Conduct the interview

• Show up early
• Thank the professional, briefly re-introduce yourself, and what you hope to gain from the interview
• Listen carefully, and take notes
• Stay on topic
• Wrap up, and express gratitude

⏰ Time is valuable! Professionals are busy, and doing you a favor. So, show up early, and do not go over time allotted for the interview.

Step 4: Follow up

• Send a follow up email to thank the interviewer
• Connect with the interviewee on a professional social platform (e.g. LinkedIn)

Step 5: Reflect on the conversation

Reflect on your learnings from the conversation, and how they relate to your career goals. Reflection questions you can consider include:

• What was the professional's career path? How did they advance from education to career?
• What obstacles did the professional face, and how did they overcome it?
• What did you learn about building your career? What tactical tips did you acquire?

Peer Reviewed Research: Importance of Networking

❓ Read the research paper from the Journal of Vocational Behavior examining the usage patterns and benefits of LinkedIn for professional networking. The research paper can be found here.

After reading, reflect on the implications for managers and professionals contained in the article, and summarize the implications below.

Wrap Up

What We’ve Learned

This unit delved into why professional networks matter for success, and provided tips for cultivating your network. In the unit, we learned:

• Professional connections matter. Your professional network provides opportunities, credibility and support.
• Peers are an important part of one’s network, and it is crucial to build strong relationships with peers at university or early in your career.
• The best way to meet professionals is via your existing network. However, when that is not possible, cold outreach may be effective, but requires careful research and thoughtful engagement.
• Informational interviews provide a good opportunity to speak with and learn from professionals.

Career Coach Revisited: Advise Nia

Assignment: Attend a Professional Event

For this assignment, you will attend an in-person professional networking event (e.g., conference, meetup, etc.). Some examples of networking events that Kibo students have attended and shared in the past include Google Devfest Lagos 2023, Ogun Tech Community Hangout, Devfest Nairoibi, and more.

💡 Attending events with others you know can be more fun! Find an event, post in your local channel in Discord and see if you can find someone to join you.

Submission

Write a public recap of the event and what you learned. Your recap may use a sharing medium of your choice, for example a LinkedIn post, blog article, Instagram Post, etc.

• Submit a link to your post in Gradescope
• Download a PDF or image copy of your post, and upload to Anchor

Assignment: Informational Interview

For this assignment, you will conduct an informational interview with a technology professional.

Tips for scheduling your interview:

• Begin outreach immediately as it may take a few weeks to secure an interview. Follow the steps in the lesson to find someone to interview.
• Consider asking your mentor or instructors for introductions to specific people in their network. To enable your mentor and/or instructions to easily make introductions, use one of the suggested interview templates.

Submission

Write a one page summary of the interview. It should include who you interviewed (with links to their LinkedIn profile), when, the questions you asked, and what you learned.

• Submit a PDF of your interview summary in Gradescope
• Upload a PDF of your interview to Anchor

Introduction to Applying

📺 Instructor Ope Bukola introduces the lesson (1:46)

Learning Outcomes

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Find relevant job opportunities
• Solicit your personal network for relevant job opportunities
• Submit applications that pass initial job filters
• Confirm your industry experience

Career Coach

💡 Meet Samuel and Aliko. They are first year students studying Data Science, and applying for internships. Below is their experience.

Samuel: The Overthinker

Samuel, a statistics whiz, yearns for an internship. Every listing feels like a perfect fit, aligning with his passion for uncovering insights from numbers. But applications? They petrify him. He spends hours dissecting descriptions, fixating on "preferred skills" like a specific machine learning library he hasn't touched. "What if they ask about that in the interview?" he worries, closing many draft applications. Fear of missteps and the pressure to present his "best" self make hitting submit feel paralyzing. As weeks go by, his impressive coding skills and analytical mind remain hidden, and applications gather dust in drafts.

Aliko: The Overconfident

Aliko, a self-proclaimed data guru, blazes through the data science internship hunt. Every listing sparks her excitement, and applications zoom out, each a quick copy-paste with minor tweaks. hile her enthusiasm is commendable, speed trumps accuracy. Typos pepper her cover letters, hastily written project descriptions lack specifics, and she occassionally puts the wrong company names in writing. She's proud of herself for having the courage to apply, and overlooks small typos or lack of polish. While sheer volume lands her a few interviews, inconsistencies raise red flags, sending her application to the rejection pile more often than she realizes.

Coach Samuel and Aliko

Samuel and Aliko are navigating the application process with different approaches, yet both face challenges. Reflect honestly on your own tendencies. When it comes to applying, are you more likely to behave like Samuel and Aliko? If you had to give each just one tip for success, what would it be?

Finding Good Opportunities

There are millions of job listings. Most of them aren't a match. The role isn't a fit for you, or you aren't a fit for the role.

A lot of the work in applying to roles is in filtering out bad opportunities, so that you spend your time applying to good opportunities.

What's a good opportunity?

Don't waste time applying to bad opportunities.

• If you would not take the internship if it was offered to you, don't apply.
• If you are not qualified for the internship, don't apply.

A good industry experience opportunity means:

You are interested

The company and the position are exciting to you.

You are qualified

Your skills make you a good fit. You have most of the skills listed in the job description, and are confident that you can learn the others.

The logistics will work

The role is near your location, or remote.

• For opportunties in your city: check that you can manage the commute
• For remote opportunities:
  • Check that your time zone will work, and you can be online when required
  • Check that the company will be able to employ you (many opportunities require specific citizenship or work authorization) You can commit to the role
• You've read the associated tasks and responsibilities, and expect to succeed
• You know the number of hours expected, and can commit to them

If you plan to continue with another full-time role or attend a school other than Kibo, do not apply for a full-time internship!

What opportunities qualify for industry experience?

Internships and jobs can have tons of different names: "Junior Developer" or "Quality Assurance Intern" might be roles that qualify, even though they aren't called "software developer intern". "IT Intern" might qualify or not, depending on the organization and the particular duties of the role.

To qualify for academic credit, your job or internship must:

• Use the technical skills you've learned in your coursework
  • Software development, data science, product management, UI design
• Be 300 hours of work or more
  • The work may be spread out over any number of weeks (e.g., 30 hours for 10 weeks or 40 hours for 8 weeks)
  • Your industry experience may be longer than the required minimum of 300 hours
• Occur between April and June 2024
  • Ideally, you should start after March 20 2024 (when the Jan-2024 term ends) and finish by June 16, 2024 (when the Jul-2024 term ends). If your internship will finish later, that is fine. But you must submit the evaluations and report for academic credit by June 16 in order to receive credit.
• Have a mentor or supervisor who will give you feedback and evaluation

If the qualifications above are met, then the role can qualify for your industry experience. If you aren't sure if a particular position qualifies, ask in Discord or email the course instructors.

Finding Opportunities

There are a few ways to find internships to apply to:

• Find a role at a company you've already identified
• Search on job platforms
• Get a referral from your network
• Do cold outreach

Finding jobs at a particular company

Make a list at least 10 companies that you were interested in working for, and that are a good fit.

When making this list, be realistic. While it's ok to want to work for Google, Amazon or Microsoft, most of these large companies have established internship programs for learners who are in their penultimate year of university. It is extremely unlikely to get one of these opportunities after year 1. For this first internship, aim for smaller companies where your skills and experiences may be a better match.

To find out if a company has open opportunities, you should:

• Look on their website (check if there is a 'jobs' or 'careers' link, or a dedicated page for internships)
• Search on Google for "[company name] internships" or "[company name] jobs"
• Search on LinkedIn or the job boards below for the company, or "[company name] internship"

If you find an opportunity this way, check if it is a good fit. If it is, move on to the next step: applying.

Search on job platforms

There are many job and internship search platforms. The key is to find a site that has lots of opportunities relevant to you.

The top site for job searching in general is LinkedIn. Not all jobs will be posted there, but it is often the first place companies will post their jobs. Be sure that your profile is set up and you've followed all the guidance in the lesson on setting up your profile.

Other job and internship search sites sometimes have roles that LinkedIn does not.

• Every week TechCabal shares job opportunities in the African tech ecosystem on its job board.

Google's search results for 'Software Internship [Location]' (e.g. Accra, Lagos, Nairobi) will also often have a result box where you can see specific job details.

Some internship-specific sites are specific to a single country, so check where the roles are based before you start searching.

Often, general job-search sites like Talent.com and Indeed have country-specific sites where you can find roles that are based near you.

• Talent.com has different sites in Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria.
• Indeed also has a country-specific site for Nigeria. You can also find listings for virtual internships on other job search sites, like these listings for Computer Science or Data Science from Internships.com.

Tips for searching on job platforms

• Try different combinations of keywords
  "Software internship" might show different results as "software engineer internship" or "developer intern". Try each of the combinations that might be relevant to you.
• Use the filtering tools
  Select your city or enter "Remote" for the location to filter for only positions that are near you. Depending on the platform, you can try other filters to only see jobs that are relevant to you.
• Keep a list
  Keep track of the links of the companies and roles you want to apply to
• Switch platforms
  If it feels like you have run out of options on one job search platform, you might find different positions on a different platform. Try switching to another tool and trying your luck there.

In the next lesson, we'll review finding opportunities through referrals and cold outreach.

Outreach and Referrals

Many jobs are not posted online, and can only be found through networking. You should do three things to secure an internship

• Ask your network
• Seek warm intros
• Do cold outreach

Ask your network

Many jobs and placements come through referrals. Even early in your career, you might have a contact who can connect you to an opportunity that would be a good fit.

You should:

• let your network know that you are looking for an internship
• message specific people in your network who could refer you

A good message is polite, direct, individualized, and to the point. Here's an example:

Hello {Name}

It was great to meet you at the event last week. I am currently looking for a software development internship, and I'm wondering if there are specific companies that you'd recommend I apply to. I am a strong python backend developer, and I'm also curious about data science. I'm open to different industries, though I have a special interest in healthtech given my experiences in volunteering at health clinics near my home. Thank you for your help!

Warm outreach

In addition to reaching out to your network broadly, you should seek referrals to specific companies or individuals.

If there is a company that you are interested in, you should see if you have any connections that might help you reach an individual at the company. You might have seen that LinkedIn displays "2nd degree" connections, and shows you who you know in common with someone else. You can ask for that person to connect you:

Hi [name], I am currently looking for an internship and I am curious to learn more about [company]. I saw that you are connected with [connection], who works there. Would you mind introducing me? Thank you!

Cold outreach

If you don't have a warm referral, you can still reach out to someone. "Cold" outreach is when you reach out to someone you don't know, and don't have a referral to connect with.

It's not always successful, since people are busy and might ignore you, but it can also work!

📖 Read about Cold outreach on the Handshake blog

When to cold email?

If there is no job listed, and you don't have a warm referral.

You can also do cold outreach if you want to try to set up an informational interview.

Who to cold email?

You should try to find the contact information for someone who is close to the program or position you are applying for. At a startup, that might be the CTO or CEO. At a mid-size company, it might be an engineer, engineering manager, or someone from the HR or people team. At a large company, there is likely someone in charge of internships, or in charge of specific internship programs.

For an informational interview, you can reach out to anyone at a company. It's usually more helpful the closer that person is to the position you are applying for (e.g. it's often more helpful to speak to someone on the engineering team than on the sales or marketing team, though either could be useful).

What to say?

Cold emails should be brief, polite, clear, and direct. You should have a clear ask, and you should offer value.

Here's an example:

From: rob.student@kibo.school To: ope.hiringmanager@example.com Subject: Informational Interview with Kibo Student

Hi Ope,

I'm Rob, a CS student at Kibo.

I came across your profile on LinkedIn when looking at companies for a potential internship.

I'm impressed by your team's product, and would love to hear more about how your engineering team works.

Would you be open to a 20-minute conversation in the next few weeks? If so, please suggest a few times that work for you. If it's easier for you, here is my availability.

Thanks,

Rob

See also:

• list of rules for cold email etiquette.
• informational interview templates

Getting Help

Sending cold emails can be intimidating! If you are worried about what to say, or just want another set of eyes to check your language, share your draft in the Discord help channel for feedback.

Should you send follow-up?

If someone does not respond to your cold email, they might not be interested in talking with you.

Still, sending one follow-up message a week can be effective. You should send it in the same thread as your initial message. Remember to send

Hi Ope,

I'd still love to hear more about your team. Do you have time for a quick (20 min) call this week?

Thanks, Rob

🛑 Beware of making a bad impression by spamming. Do not reach out too often or too frequently! A good rule of thumb for cold outreach is to send one followup, after one to two weeks of your initial outreach. It may be disapointing not to hear back, but do not send incessive notes. That will only harm your reputation, and likelihood of getting a role at the company.

Other Platforms

Email is universal, and if you can find an email address, that's usually the best platform for cold outreach. However, other platforms can also be effective.

If someone is open to messages on LinkedIn, you can try sending a direct message there. It is similar to the email message above.

Twitter (or other social media) can also be effective, especially if you have mutual connections. Social platforms tend to be informal, so you usually should leave out the greeting and sign-off.

Wrap Up

What We’ve Learned

This unit shared tactical tips for applying for internships. We learned:

• Don't waste time applying for bad opportunities. A good opportunity is one in which you are interested, qualified, and the logistics will work.
• Outreach is critical to finding jobs. Asking one's network for ideas, and reaching out for specific warm introductions is key.
• In cases where a warm introduction is not possible, a brief, polite and clear cold email may work.

Career Coach Revisited: Samuel and Aliko

📺 Watch your instructors' advice to Samuel and Aliko.

Assignment: Apply for opportunities

For this assignment, you will apply for internship roles. You are required to apply to at least 10 positions, but you should keep applying until you secure a position. You should begin searching for and applying for internships right away.

Application Tracker

You are required to track the positions you apply for, and submit a copy of your tracker. You are required to apply for at least 10 relevant internship positions, though we recommend you apply for as many relevant positions as you can find.

Pick one of the two options below to track your application:

Applimate

Applimate is an application that was built by Kibo's Google Student Developer Club to make tracking your job applications more efficient. Read more about the app development process.

• To start using applimate, go to: https://applimate.vercel.app/

For more information about the app, you can reach out to Ayomide Onifade in Discord or via email.

Google Sheet

You may also use a Google Sheet tracker. Make a copy of the job application tracker.

• Add your name to the document title
• Add the positions you want to apply to as you find them
• Update the status of the opportunities as you apply and hear back

Confirming industry experience

Once you find an internship, you should inform the course instructors for approval.

Submit this form: Industry Experience Confirmation

If you accept an approved industry experience opportunity before you finish all of the required applications, then you do not need to continue applying to additional positions.

Submission

• Upload a PDF of your job application tracker in Gradescope
• Upload a PDF of your job application tracker in Anchor

Introduction

Introduction

📺 Watch the following video from your instructor to learn what you will study in this lesson.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Understand the general structure of work and professional expectations.
• Articulate self-management behaviors that support and hinder success in the workplace.
• Understand how to effectively work with others in the workplace.
• Identify personal challenges and create a personal action plan for internship success.
• Understand how to receive and solicit feedback for professional growth.

Getting Hired is Just the Beginning

As you work to land that elusive internship role, it is easy to put all your energy and attention into securing a position. However, while landing a role is a great achievement, the reality is that it is only the first step in a series of milestones that will shape the trajectory of your career. Getting hired is just the beginning, and it is important for you to think about and prepare for what happens after you receive that coveted internship offer.

Meet Jane

Nairobi's vibrant tech scene welcomed Jane, a third-year computer science standout with remarkable grades and a passion for technology. Her academic brilliance did not go unnoticed, and Microsoft's Nairobi office extended an internship offer to her, marking the beginning of what she hoped would be a transformative professional journey.

As Jane stepped into the Microsoft office, she was met with a palpable buzz of innovation and collaboration. Eager to apply her theoretical knowledge to real-world projects, she dove headfirst into her assigned tasks. However, the transition from academic excellence to professional effectiveness proved to be more challenging than she had anticipated.

One of the significant hurdles Jane faced was the difference in the complexity of real-world projects compared to her academic endeavors. In the controlled environment of her university, problems were neatly defined, and solutions were within reach. At Microsoft, the projects presented challenges that demanded a level of problem-solving and creativity she hadn't encountered before. The real-world complexities left her searching for effective strategies to navigate the uncharted waters of professional problem-solving.

Setting up her development environment within Microsoft's specific ecosystem added another layer of difficulty. Despite her proficiency in programming languages, adapting to the company's tools and technologies was a steep learning curve. Jane found herself spending an inordinate amount of time troubleshooting and configuring her environment, detracting from her ability to contribute meaningfully to the projects at hand. Communication, a skill often taken for granted in academic settings, emerged as a significant obstacle. Jane had excelled in solo projects, but the collaborative nature of her work at Microsoft required her to articulate ideas clearly within a team setting. The nuances of effective communication, such as conciseness and clarity, were hard for her to master, leading to misunderstandings among team members.

Working alongside a diverse team introduced another set of challenges for Jane. Some team members presented unique perspectives and collaborative strengths, but others proved to be challenging to work with. Navigating these interpersonal dynamics tested her ability to collaborate and adapt, skills that weren't as emphasized in her academic journey.

The fast-paced nature of the industry introduced a new pressure – the pressure of deadlines. In academia, timelines were more flexible, allowing for thorough exploration and refinement of ideas. However, at Microsoft, quick turnarounds were the norm, and Jane struggled to meet the demands of tight schedules. Regrettably, Jane found herself occasionally being unreliable, failing to meet deadlines or delivering work that fell short of expectations. The weight of her commitments, coupled with the pressure to perform, led her to overcommit, setting unrealistic expectations for herself and, ultimately, setting the stage for disappointment.

As the challenges mounted, Jane unintentionally isolated herself from her team. The struggle to communicate effectively, coupled with feelings of inadequacy, led her to withdraw from team discussions and collaborative efforts. The isolation hindered her ability to seek guidance and support, exacerbating her difficulties.

Feedback from mentors and managers, though constructive, was sometimes met with resistance from Jane. In her pursuit of perfection, she occasionally ignored valuable insights and suggestions, hindering her growth and improvement.

As the internship drew to a close, her manager, appreciating Jane's potential but mindful of the observed challenges, made the decision not to extend a full-time employment offer. The realization hit Jane hard, serving as a humbling reminder that success in academia does not guarantee a seamless transition to the professional sphere.

Discussion

❓ What are some of the challenges that Jane faced during her internship? And which of these are things that you struggle with as well? Post your answer and reasoning in the padlet below.

How Work Works

If you've never had a formal job before, you might be wondering: How does work actually work?

Here's a quick summary of how formal employment works:

• Employment Structure: In professional employment, you'll work for an employer who hires you to perform specific tasks or roles within their organization. This relationship is typically governed by a contract or agreement outlining your responsibilities, compensation, benefits, and other terms of employment. Depending on the industry and employer, positions may have regular full-time hours (e.g., 9 to 5), part-time hours, or alternative schedules such as shift work, flextime, or remote work arrangements.

• Expectations and Conduct: You are expected to adhere to your agreed-upon work schedule and be punctual and reliable. You are expected to perform your job duties to the best of your ability, meeting quality and productivity standards set by your employer. You are also expected to conduct yourself in a manner that reflects positively on your employer and the profession as a whole. This includes treating colleagues, clients, and stakeholders with respect, maintaining confidentiality when appropriate, and adhering to ethical standards and codes of conduct relevant to your field.

• Expectation of Continuous Learning: Learning doesn't stop once you obtain your degree and secure your job. You're expected to stay current with developments in your field, update your skills and knowledge as needed, and pursue opportunities for professional development and continuing education. This may involve attending workshops, conferences, or training programs, earning certifications or advanced degrees, or seeking mentorship from more experienced professionals.

• Performance Management: Your performance will be regularly evaluated by your supervisor or manager through performance reviews, assessments, or feedback sessions. Your employer will assess factors such as your job performance, productivity, teamwork, communication skills, and adherence to company policies and procedures. Constructive feedback will be provided to help you improve and grow in your role.

• Opportunities for Career Advancement: Professional employment offers opportunities for career advancement and growth. This may involve taking on additional responsibilities, pursuing leadership roles, transitioning to higher-level positions within your organization, or seeking opportunities with other employers. Advancement often requires a combination of experience, skills development, networking, and a track record of success in your field.

❓ Review the following behaviors that a typical software engineering intern may exhibit. For each scenario, evaluate if the intern is meeting professional expectations or not.

Scenario 1: An intern consistently seeks feedback on their code from senior engineers and incorporates suggestions to improve their programming skills.

Scenario 2: An intern regularly takes extended breaks during work hours to browse social media, neglecting their assigned tasks.

Scenario 3: An intern takes the initiative to document their code thoroughly, including comments and explanations for future reference by themselves and their colleagues.

Scenario 4: An intern misses team meetings and fails to communicate their absence or provide updates on their progress to their supervisor, but ultimately accomplishes assigned tasks by their deadlines.

Scenario 5: An intern repeatedly makes the same coding mistakes, despite receiving feedback from their supervisor.

Scenario 6: An intern consistently arrives late to work but stays late to complete tasks, often exceeding expectations in terms of quality of work.

Scenario 7: An intern consistently submits documents with minor errors that require correction by their supervisor before distribution.

Scenario 8: Despite facing challenges in completing a project, an intern reaches out to their supervisor for guidance and collaborates with team members to find solutions.

Scenario 9: Due to a local power outage, an intern is unable to submit an assigned task by an agreed-upon deadline.

Scenario 10: During a team retrospective meeting, an intern provides thoughtful reflections on what went well, what could be improved, and actionable steps for enhancing team performance in future projects.

Scenario 11: When facing criticism on their code during a code review, an intern becomes defensive, arguing that the task instructions were unclear.

Scenario 12: Despite lacking experience in a particular programming language, an intern proactively learns it to contribute effectively to a project requiring that language.

🪞 Reflect on the intern behaviors provided above. Is there one that you were surprised to learn met or did not meet expectations? Share your thoughts in the padlet below, along with an explanation of why you were surprised.

An interesting thing to note is that none of the behaviors above would be described as "exceeding expectations." If you avoided doing the things that "don't meet expectations" and did all the things that "did meet expectations," you would probably still just be an average intern. In the tech industry, just being "not bad" often isn't enough to keep your job or grow your career. As you think about how to approach your role, your goal should be to strive for excellence in your performance and development.

📺 Watch the following video for a summary of how to succeed in a new job.

From the video, we learned that success in a new job can be built through:

• Competence: Showing people that you can do your job by "showing your homework" and giving others something to react to.

• Commitment: Showing people that you are dedicated by staying curious and asking questions.

• Compatibility: Understanding the team and company culture, and showing people that they can work with you to accomplish their goals.

Managing Yourself

Why Self-Management Matters

When approaching school or work, we often place a lot of focus on "who's in charge." At school, this might be the instructor or, at work, a manager. While it's important to understand what your supervisors expect of you, your first and most important manager is yourself. To succeed at work, you need to become an effective self-manager.

Self-management requires cultivating various skills and practices, including self-awareness, goal setting, task management, emotional regulation, effective decision-making, adaptability, self-discipline, and self-care. In this lesson, we'll focus on a few of those practices that will help you excel in the workplace.

Task Management

📺 Watch this video to understand how to be more organized and productive at work (5:34)

The video shares six habits of highly organized people:

1. Keep it simple: have a few steps in your plan; elaborate systems are hard to maintain, and most of the time, they are not worth the effort.
2. Develop routines: turn your important tasks into routines to save yourself the mental energy of constant planning.
3. Have a place for everything and put everything in place: take the time to put items where they belong to make it easier to track and save time trying to locate them.
4. Keep a current and detailed to-do list: work backward by determining your end goal and then decide the steps you will follow to get there.
5. Don't be a perfectionist: it's less about perfection and more about action and progress.
6. Toss things and purge routinely: continuously re-evaluate your tasks and only continue working on the relevant and important tasks.

Understanding Your Tasks

In school, you are evaluated through assessments that (hopefully) have clear instructions and maybe even a rubric that tells you exactly what you need to show to get points. At work, you will frequently be faced with tasks that are unclear and complex, and your manager probably won't be great at articulating their expectations...until you fail to meet them. This may seem unfair. How can someone evaluate your performance against expectations that they didn't share with you?! But this is the reality of the workplace. To counteract this, it is very important that you learn how to ensure that you have a complete understanding of the tasks that are assigned to you, as well as an understanding of the expectations (to whatever degree this is possible).

Therefore, when you don't understand an assigned task at work (or you have just been assigned a task and you are thinking about how to start), it's important to take proactive steps to clarify your understanding and seek the necessary support. Here's what you can do:

Review the task instructions: Start by carefully reviewing any instructions or documentation related to the task. Pay attention to specific requirements, deadlines, and expectations outlined in the task description. If you are lucky, there will be detailed instructions. If you are unlucky, you might just have a message from your manager to go on or a discussion from a meeting with some action items.

Break down the task: Break the task down into smaller, manageable steps to identify any areas where you're unclear. This can help you pinpoint specific aspects of the task that you need clarification on.

Ask for clarification: Before you start working, don't hesitate to reach out to your manager, supervisor, or colleagues for clarification if you're unsure about any aspect of the task. Approach them respectfully and explain the areas where you need clarification or additional guidance. Doing an amazing job on the wrong task is the same as doing a bad job on the correct task.

Seek examples or demonstrations: Sometimes, seeing examples or demonstrations of similar tasks can help clarify your understanding. Ask if there are any examples, templates, or previous projects you can refer to for guidance. This will also help you understand expectations more clearly while giving you something to benchmark the quality of your work.

Take notes: As you receive clarification or guidance, take notes to ensure you understand the task thoroughly. This can help prevent misunderstandings and serve as a reference as you work on the task.

Provide updates on your progress: Once you have a clearer understanding of the task, provide regular, concise updates on your progress to your manager or supervisor. This allows them to monitor your progress, provide feedback, and address any issues or concerns along the way. You should provide updates on both what is going well and what is not going well. You want to ensure that they always have an accurate picture of the status of the work. Updates can be in the form of active updates, where you send a summary of progress to them. Or passive updates, where you create a dashboard or other system that your manager can take a look at whenever they want to check on the progress of your work.

Getting Help

Part of understanding your tasks requires you to ask for help, so it is worth spending some time discussing how to ask for help more broadly. Getting help at work requires a balance of assertiveness, humility, and respect for your colleagues' time and expertise. Here's a step-by-step approach:

Assess the Situation: Take a moment to evaluate the situation and determine the specific help or support you need. Clarify your own understanding of the problem or task before seeking assistance.

Identify the Right Person: Consider who the best person is to help you with your specific issue. It could be your manager, a colleague with relevant expertise, a mentor, or someone from another department who has the necessary knowledge or resources.

Choose the Right Time: Respect your colleagues' time by choosing an appropriate time to approach them for help. Avoid interrupting them during busy periods or when they're clearly occupied with other tasks.

Be Clear and Specific: When requesting help, be clear and specific about what you need assistance with. Provide context, background information, and any relevant details to help the person understand the problem or task.

Ask Open-Ended Questions: Instead of simply asking for the solution, consider asking open-ended questions that encourage dialogue and collaboration. This can help you gain a deeper understanding of the issue and facilitate a more productive exchange of ideas.

Listen and Learn: Be receptive to the advice, feedback, or guidance you receive from your colleague. Listen actively, ask follow-up questions, and take notes if necessary. Learning from others' expertise is an invaluable opportunity for professional growth.

Express Gratitude: Remember to express gratitude to your colleague for their help and support. A simple "thank you" goes a long way in acknowledging their time and expertise.

Offer Assistance in Return: If appropriate, offer to return the favor by helping your colleague with something in the future. Building a culture of mutual support and collaboration fosters a positive work environment and strengthens professional relationships.

Check Your Understanding

❓ Answer the following questions to see how well you understand the appropriate ways to understand your tasks and ask for help.

Question 1: Which of the following actions demonstrates an effective approach to understanding a task as a software engineering intern?

a) Immediately starting to work on the task without seeking clarification.

b) Breaking down the task into smaller steps to identify areas of uncertainty.

c) Avoiding asking questions to prevent appearing incompetent.

d) Asking a colleague for help before attempting the task independently.

Question 2: When is the best time to approach a colleague for help with understanding a task?

a) During a busy period when they're occupied with their own tasks.

b) Right before a scheduled team meeting.

c) When they're taking a break or not engaged in a task.

d) After you've completed the task, to get validation on your approach.

Question 3: Which of the following is an effective way to ask for help when you don't understand a task?

a) Prefacing your request with an apology for not understanding.

b) Providing context and specific details about the task you're struggling with.

c) Simply stating, "I don't get it. I'm confused about everything."

d) Requesting assistance without explaining the nature of the problem.

Question 4: What is an appropriate response when seeking clarification from your manager about a task?

a) Agreeing to everything your manager says, even if you don't fully understand.

b) Providing updates on your progress without acknowledging any confusion.

c) Asking follow-up questions to ensure you have a clear understanding.

d) Avoiding contact with your manager until you figure it out on your own.

Question 5: How can you show gratitude to a colleague who has helped you understand a task?

a) Ignoring their assistance and moving on to the next task.

b) Offering to help them with a completely unrelated task.

c) Criticizing their approach even if it was helpful.

d) Thanking them sincerely for their time and expertise.

Adaptability and Resilience

Change is inevitable, and the ability to embrace it is critical at work. You may be asked to step into an unexpected role, a client might require substantial changes to something you're working on, or a colleague might leave your team. It's normal to feel uneasy during transitions, but by developing the ability to adjust your plans and strategy, you can transform uncertainty into possibility. Embracing change will not only help you thrive personally but also contribute to the success of your organization.

Here are a few things to remember when striving to be adaptable and flexible in the workplace:

Reframe Setbacks: When faced with challenges, start by reframing setbacks as temporary roadblocks rather than permanent failures. Take a moment to acknowledge your emotions, but don't dwell on them. Instead, focus on analyzing the situation, identifying lessons learned, and adapting your approach.

Cultivate Flexibility: Embrace flexibility and be willing to step outside your comfort zone and explore different ways of doing things. As you encounter unexpected situations, remain calm, and assess the best course of action. Ultimately, flexibility is not about compromising your values or goals but rather finding creative solutions to overcome obstacles.

Build a Support Network: No one succeeds alone. Surround yourself with positive and supportive individuals who can offer guidance, encouragement, and constructive feedback. Cultivate relationships with colleagues, mentors, and peers who inspire you to grow and develop.

Practice Self Care: Engage in activities that rejuvenate you, such as exercise, hobbies, and spending time with loved ones. Take breaks when needed and practice mindfulness to stay grounded. Taking care of yourself allows you to better adapt to challenges and bounce back stronger.

As you prepare for your industry experience, reflect on your own past experiences and consider how you can apply these concepts to your daily life. Developing adaptability and resilience is a lifelong journey, and by embracing change, navigating setbacks, cultivating flexibility, building a support network, and prioritizing self-care, you'll be well-equipped to thrive in any situation.

Managing Up

While it is important to be an effective self-manager, there is a similar technique called managing up, which can indirectly support self-management by providing clarity on expectations, feedback, resources, and opportunities for professional growth. It can enhance your ability to navigate the organizational hierarchy and advocate for your own needs, ultimately contributing to your effectiveness in managing yourself.

There are a couple of ways in which managing up supports self-management:

Clear Expectations: By effectively managing up, you can gain clarity on your manager's expectations, priorities, and preferences. This understanding allows you to align your own goals and tasks accordingly, helping you manage yourself more effectively.

Feedback and Guidance: When you have a good relationship with your manager, you're more likely to receive constructive feedback and guidance. This input can help you improve your performance and adjust your self-management strategies as needed.

Resource Allocation: Through managing up, you can advocate for the resources and support you need to effectively manage yourself. Whether it's additional training, tools, or time allocation, having a positive relationship with your manager can make it easier to negotiate for what you require to succeed.

Professional Development: Managing up can provide opportunities for professional development, such as mentorship or exposure to new projects and responsibilities. These experiences can enhance your skills and competencies, ultimately supporting your ability to manage yourself more effectively.

Recognition and Rewards: While it is often true that actions speak louder than words, in a busy workplace, if you are poor at managing up, it is easy for your accomplishments to go unnoticed. When you manage up effectively, you're more likely to receive recognition for your contributions and achievements. This acknowledgment can boost your confidence and motivation, reinforcing positive self-management behaviors.

📺 Watch this video to learn about managing up.

Here are five tips for managing up effectively:

Tip 1 - Understand your manager's preferences and communication style: Take the time to observe how your manager likes to communicate, their preferred communication channels, and their expectations for updates and feedback. Adjust your own communication style to align with theirs, whether it's providing concise email updates, scheduling regular check-ins, or seeking face-to-face meetings.

Tip 2 - Anticipate needs and provide solutions: Proactively anticipate your manager's needs and provide solutions before they're asked for. This can involve staying ahead of deadlines, identifying potential challenges, and offering suggestions or alternatives to address them. By demonstrating initiative and problem-solving skills, you can build trust and credibility with your manager.

Tip 3 - Seek feedback and act on it: Actively seek feedback from your manager on your performance, projects, and areas for improvement. Listen attentively to their feedback and take constructive criticism in stride. Use the feedback to adjust your approach, refine your skills, and demonstrate your commitment to continuous improvement.

Tip 4 - Manage expectations effectively: Be transparent with your manager about your workload, priorities, and capacity. Set realistic expectations for what you can accomplish and communicate any challenges or constraints you may be facing. By managing expectations effectively, you can avoid misunderstandings and ensure alignment on goals and timelines.

Tip 5 - Build a positive working relationship: Invest in building a positive and mutually respectful relationship with your manager. Take the time to get to know them as a person, show appreciation for their guidance and support, and demonstrate your commitment to the team's success. Building a strong rapport with your manager can make it easier to navigate challenges, collaborate effectively, and advocate for your needs.

Following these tips will help you become a "low-maintenance superstar," as mentioned in the video!

Advise Rachel

❓ Read the following scenario about the experience of a 2nd year Kibo student during their internship role. Then, based on what you now know about self-management and managing up, give Rachel some advice on what she could do to improve her situation and turn her internship experience around.

When Rachel joined GlobeTech for a summer software engineering internship 3-weeks ago, she was eager to learn and contribute to real-world projects. However, in her first few weeks, she dove into her assigned tasks without seeking clarification or guidance from her manager, Mark. She was hesitant to ask questions for fear of appearing incompetent, so she worked in isolation, often missing important details and deadlines. As a result, Rachel's work didn't meet the expected quality standards, and Mark started to notice issues with her performance.

Feeling bad about her performance, Rachel started to avoid interacting with Mark, hoping to figure things out on her own. When Mark finally reached out to check on Rachel's progress, he was surprised by the lack of clarity and organization in her work. He tried to provide constructive feedback and guidance, but Rachel seemed defensive and unwilling to accept help.

Now, a third of the way through her internship and despite being an A student with strong technical skills, Rachel is still struggling to prioritize tasks, communicate effectively, and collaborate with her manager and team members.

Working With Others

📺 Watch this video on the importance of cultivating quality relationships at work (2:23)

As the video explains, we often have to work with people we would not otherwise choose to spend time with. Interpersonal conflict is inevitable. In order to move through and learn from interpersonal conflict, you can focus on managing yourself and your reaction. In this lesson, we'll explore three key habits for working effectively with others:

• Be professional
• Be ethical
• Build relationships

Be Professional

Stepping into a professional environment may feel overwhelming. However, you can navigate work with confidence.

First impressions matter. From the moment you walk through the office doors (or join the first virtual meeting), remember that you are representing both yourself and the organization. Dress appropriately for the workplace, ensuring your attire is professional and aligns with the company's dress code. Remember, it's always better to be slightly overdressed than underdressed. Practice good hygiene and grooming habits to present yourself in a polished manner. A neat appearance will not only boost your confidence but also show that you take your role seriously. Your appearance matters, even in a virtual workplace. For video calls, you should be in a quiet place and test your audio and video connection. You should ensure your background is professional and does not distract from your work.

Time management and punctuality are key to demonstrating professionalism. Arrive at work and meetings on time, as this shows respect for other people's schedules. If you anticipate being late or unable to attend a meeting, notify the relevant parties in advance. Do what you say you will do, and meet deadlines. Refer to the previous lesson on staying organized.

Collaboration and teamwork are essential skills. You will likely work alongside a diverse group of individuals with varying expertise and backgrounds. Embrace the opportunity to collaborate and contribute to team projects. Remember to actively participate in meetings, share your ideas, and listen to the perspectives of others. Respect different viewpoints and be open to constructive feedback.

Lastly, maintain a positive and professional attitude. Be proactive and demonstrate a willingness to learn and take on new challenges. Show enthusiasm for your work and be receptive to feedback and guidance. Additionally, maintain a sense of professionalism in all your interactions, even in more casual settings. Avoid gossiping or engaging in negative conversations that can harm team dynamics. Treat everyone with kindness and respect, regardless of their position or role within the organization.

Professionalism is not just about following rules; it's about embodying values that contribute to a harmonious and productive work environment.

Be Ethical

Ethics serve as the moral compass in any professional setting. They shape how we conduct ourselves and make decisions. You'll encounter numerous situations where ethical judgment will be vital. Remember, acting ethically means doing what is right, even when it may be difficult or inconvenient. This involves treating colleagues, clients, and stakeholders with respect, honesty, and fairness. It is important to embody ethical principles, such as integrity, confidentiality, and transparency, which form the foundation of professional conduct.

Understanding the legal landscape in your industry is crucial to your success. Familiarize yourself with the laws and regulations relevant to your field, such as intellectual property rights, data privacy, and anti-discrimination laws. If you are uncertain about these, ask your supervisor. Ensure that you avoid conflicts of interest and the potential consequences they can have on your reputation and the organization as a whole.

It is important to recognize that ignorance of the law is not a defense if legal issues arise. Be mindful of your responsibilities when handling sensitive information. Acting in violation of ethical standards or laws not only damages your professional reputation but can also have severe legal repercussions for both you and the organization. This may include fines, legal penalties, loss of employment, and damage to personal and professional relationships.

By adhering to legal standards, you contribute to a safe and compliant work environment. Making ethical choices and complying with the law is not only the right thing to do but also protects your own future and the welfare of the organization you represent.

Build Relationships

Being an effective colleague is not only about getting work done. As you embark on industry experience, you should prioritize both doing good work and building strong relationships.

📺 Watch this video for ten tips on building healthy relationships at work(4:58)

In the video, John English reveals the 4 keys to creating healthy work relationships with an emphasis on communication and establishing psychological safety. The keys are:

1. Presence; each person has to be present in the interaction.
2. Clarity and understanding; we have to be clear about what we are saying/doing and the end goal.
3. Respect and appreciation for one another.

Building a strong professional network opens doors to new opportunities, helps you gain valuable insights, and enhances your personal growth. It's all about creating a community of individuals who can support and guide you throughout your career. So, don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone, introduce yourself to new people, and engage in conversations that go beyond the surface level.

When it comes to networking, quality trumps quantity. Take the time to understand other people's perspectives, listen actively, and show genuine interest in their work. Networking is a two-way street, so remember to offer your help and support whenever possible. Building trust and rapport takes time, but the connections you make can be invaluable throughout your professional journey.

During your industry experience, aim to network with your peers, supervisors, and colleagues. You can do this by:

• Participating in company-sponsored activities
• Reaching out to people you want to get to know and asking for a coffee chat or an informational interview

Networking is not just about exchanging business cards; it is a continuous process that requires effort and authenticity. By approaching it with a genuine desire to connect, learn, and support others, you'll build a strong network that can greatly contribute to your personal and professional growth.

While you should be getting to know your colleagues, remember that you will be evaluated first and foremost on the quality of your work. Cementing your reputation as someone who does high-quality work is critical. Your colleagues will be more open to building relationships and helping you connect with others in their network if they see you as someone who produces strong work.

Peer Reviewed Resource

❓ Read the following research paper Developing a Learning-Centred Framework for Feedback Literacy

Once you have read the article, complete the activity below.

Feedback Literacy Reflection Read through the feedback literacy categories provided in the padlet below, and use the "⭐️ Rate" button at the bottom of each post to rate how often you practice each category of feedback literacies.

Citation:: Elizabeth Molloy, David Boud & Michael Henderson (2020), Developing a learning-centred framework for feedback literacy, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 45:4, 527-540, DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2019.1667955

Feedback is a Gift

❓How do you feel about giving, receiving, and asking for feedback? Share your thoughts in the padlet below.

Imagine you're writing code for a program. You spend hours working on it, making sure everything runs smoothly. Now, when you show your code to someone else – maybe a professor, a colleague, or even a friend – they give you feedback. They point out areas where your code could be improved, suggest better ways to solve problems, or even find bugs you hadn't noticed. At first, it might feel like criticism, and it's natural to feel a bit defensive. However, if you think about it, that feedback is incredibly valuable. Here's why:

• Feedback helps you learn and grow. By understanding what you did well and where you can improve, you become a better programmer. Each piece of feedback is like a lesson that helps you become more proficient in coding.

• Others might see things in your code that you didn't notice. They might have different experiences or knowledge that allows them to offer insights you hadn't considered. This broadens your understanding and improves the quality of your work.

• Learning to accept feedback gracefully is an essential skill in any field, including computer science. It teaches you to separate your work from your self-worth and to see criticism as an opportunity for improvement rather than a personal attack.

• Feedback helps ensure that your code is of high quality. By having others review it, you can catch errors and improve efficiency before deploying it in a real-world scenario. This can save time and resources in the long run.

• In the professional world, coding is rarely a solo activity. You often work in teams where giving and receiving feedback is crucial for collaboration. Learning how to give and receive feedback effectively fosters better teamwork and communication skills.

Receiving Feedback

Advise John

❓ Read the scenario below, and give John advice on how he should respond to Mohammed's feedback.

It is Sunday afternoon, and Mohammed, an instructor at Kibo, is grading the latest set of assignments submitted by his students. Among them is John, a talented student known for his confidence in his coding abilities.

Mohammed begins to go through John's assignment, he notices several areas where improvement could be made. He meticulously jots down his feedback, highlighting potential errors and suggesting alternative approaches. Once he is finished grading all the assignments, he publishes the grades and feedback on Gradescope.

An hour later, Mohammed receives a DM from John in Discord, querying his assignment grade and requesting a meeting to clarify the feedback notes. Mohammed asks John to attend office hours the next day so that they can discuss.

At office hours: "John, I've looked over your assignment, and while there are some good aspects to it, there are also a few areas where you could improve," Mohammed begins, his tone gentle yet firm.

John leans back in his chair, crossing his arms defensively. "Really? I thought I nailed it. What seems to be the problem?"

"Well, for starters," Mohammed points to a section of John's code on the screen, "this algorithm could be optimized to run more efficiently. And here," he gestures to another part, "you've used a loop where a recursive function might be more elegant."

John's expression tightens as he listens to Mohammed's critique. "I don't know, Mohammed. I think my approach works just fine. Besides, I've already tested it extensively, and it's producing the correct outputs."

Mohammed nods patiently. "I understand that your code is functional, but as your instructor, it's my job to help you not just achieve functionality but also to improve your coding skills. Learning to write more efficient and elegant code will benefit you in the long run."

John lets out a sigh, feeling his pride bristle against the feedback. "I appreciate your input, Mohammed, but I think I'll stick with my current implementation for now. I've got a lot on my plate, and I don't want to spend too much time tweaking this assignment."

Mohammed raises an eyebrow, recognizing the familiar resistance. "John, I encourage you to take this feedback into consideration. Growth often comes from stepping out of our comfort zones and embracing constructive criticism."

With a reluctant nod, John acknowledges Mohammed's advice, though it's clear he's not entirely convinced. As he leaves the call, he mulls over the feedback, grappling with the decision to either accept it or not.

📺 Watch this video to learn how to receive feedback.

Tip 1: Be open to feedback.

Tip 2: Listen to understand, not to refute.

Tip 3: Ask clarifying questions.

Tip 4: Respond with grace, not defensively. Do not deflect or dismiss the feedback.

Tip 5: Ask for time to process the feedback.

Tip 6: Summarize what you've heard.

Tip 7: Show appreciation.

Tip 8: Corroborate the feedback.

While receiving feedback verbally is often preferred, since we now learn and work in virtual contexts, the majority of the feedback that you receive might be in written form. Strangely, this often makes it hard to receive. Even when the same message is being communicated.

Written feedback can sometimes be harder to receive than verbal feedback due to several factors. Firstly, it lacks the tone and context often conveyed through verbal communication, leading to potential misinterpretation and perceived harshness. Additionally, the immediacy and opportunity for real-time dialogue provided by verbal feedback are absent in written forms, leaving recipients with a sense of finality. The permanence of written feedback, often documented or saved electronically, can increase anxiety about its content and implications. Additionally, without the nonverbal cues present in verbal interactions, written feedback may seem impersonal and difficult to interpret accurately. Finally, the lack of opportunity for immediate clarification or follow-up questions in written feedback can leave recipients feeling uncertain about how to address or improve upon the feedback received.

So for these reasons, it is worth also learning more about how to receive written feedback specifically.

📺 Watch this video to learn how to receive critical written feedback.

The key to receiving written feedback is really separating the content of the feedback from your emotional reaction to the feedback. Firstly, approach the feedback with an open mind and a willingness to learn and improve. Take the time to read through the feedback, ensuring you understand the points being made. It can be helpful to read it multiple times to fully grasp the content and context. As the video demonstrated, reading the feedback multiple times with increasing levels of thoroughness can help "inoculate" you from the emotional response. When reading the feedback, try to remain objective and avoid taking the feedback personally, recognizing that it is meant to help you grow and develop. If you're uncertain about any aspects of the feedback, don't hesitate to seek clarification from the sender. Consider the feedback in relation to your goals and objectives, and identify specific actions you can take to address any areas for improvement.

Asking for Feedback

It is easy to think of feedback as a passive process. In other words, something that happens to you, whether you want it or not. This passive view of feedback involves receiving feedback without actively seeking it out or taking deliberate steps to engage with it. For example, receiving performance evaluations from your manager without actively soliciting input or reflecting on the feedback and taking action. This is a bad way to think about feedback. If you approach feedback passively, you ultimately won't get the most benefit from the feedback. because 1) you aren't using the feedback to improve your performance, and 2) you are waiting for someone else to do you the favor (and yes, it is a favor) of giving you feedback.

Alternatively, you can view feedback as an active process, where individuals take proactive steps to seek out feedback, reflect on it, and actively incorporate it into their work or behavior. This active approach to feedback will enable you to get the most out of feedback. The first step to having an active approach to feedback is to follow the tips and steps given above about how to receive feedback well. The second step, is to learn to proactively ask for feedback as well.

📺 Watch this video to learn how to ask for feedback.

Here is a summary of the tips from the video:

Tip 1a - Make sure you have a clear understanding of what kind of feedback you are looking for so you can be clear on what you are looking to improve.

Tip 1b - Use a framework when asking for feedback, e.g., The Continue, Stop, Start framework.

Tip 2 - Give the person permission to provide open and honest feedback, then honor that request.

Tip 3 - Listen without judgement.

Tip 4 - Write down everything they have to say.

Tip 5 - Thank the person for their feedback.

Tip 6 - Report back on how you used their feedback.

(Optional) Giving Feedback

In this lesson, we won't delve into how to give feedback, but below are two optional videos that deal with the topic.

📺 Watch this video to learn how to give feedback.

📺 Watch this video to learn how to give peer feedback.

Assignment - Mock Coaching Reflection

Instructions

Pick a scenario from the list below and write a 200-300 word message OR record a 2-3 minute video to the person in the scenario, giving them advice on how they can navigate the challenge that they are facing. Be sure to reference at least 2 things that you learned in this week's lesson in the advice that you give.

Scenarios

Scenario 1 As a first-year computer science intern at a tech startup, Amina found herself in her first team meeting feeling a mix of excitement and nervousness. She glanced around the table, noticing the confident expressions of her senior colleagues discussing the latest project requirements. Despite her enthusiasm, she felt a pang of insecurity creeping in. Would she be able to keep up with the fast-paced discussions? Would her ideas be taken seriously?

Scenario 2 When Kwame secured an internship at a software development company, he was thrilled at the opportunity to apply his computer science knowledge in a real-world setting. However, as he delved into his assigned projects, he quickly realized the extent of the technical skill gap between his university studies and the demands of the workplace.

Scenario 3 As Fatima juggled her internship at a software development firm with her academic coursework, she found herself grappling with the pressure of looming deadlines. With multiple projects on her plate and a limited amount of time, she often felt overwhelmed and unsure of where to focus her efforts.

Scenario 4 When Malik began his internship at a prestigious tech company, he couldn't shake the feeling that he didn't belong. Surrounded by brilliant minds and seasoned professionals, he couldn't help but doubt his own abilities. Thoughts of inadequacy plagued him, causing him to second-guess every line of code he wrote and every idea he proposed.

Scenario 5 When Adanna received feedback on her work during her internship at a software development firm, she initially struggled to handle criticism gracefully. Accustomed to the praise and validation she received in university, she found it challenging to accept that her work wasn't always perfect.

Submission

Please submit your coaching advice message (written or video) on Gradescope and then upload it to Anchor.

Introduction to Final Assessments

📺 Instructor Ope Bukola introduces the final module (2:45)

Learning Outcomes

After completing this module, you will:

• Confirm your industry experience, and ensure you have a position that is eligible for academic credit
• Reflect on your learnings throughout the course, and lessons for ongoing professional development

Confirm your industry experience

As we near the end of EYC, the next step is to confirm your industry experience.

Industry experience and academic credit

EYC is the preparation course for Industry Experience, which is the culmination of the Diploma in Computer Science. You must complete and pass Industry Experience to earn your Diploma and Bachelor's degree.

Remember that, to quality for academic credit, your industry experience must:

• Use the technical skills you've learned in your coursework
  • Software development, data science, product management, UI design
• Be 300 hours of work or more
  • The work may be spread out over any number of weeks (e.g., 30 hours for 10 weeks or 40 hours for 8 weeks)
  • Your industry experience may be longer than the required minimum of 300 hours
• Occur between April and June 2024
  • Ideally, you should start after March 20 2024 (when the Jan-2024 term ends) and finish by June 14, 2024 (when the Apr-2024 term ends). If your internship will finish after June 14, you must submit the evaluations and report for academic credit by June 16 in order to receive credit.
• Have a mentor or supervisor who will give you feedback and evaluation

If the qualifications above are met, then the role can qualify for your industry experience. If you aren't sure if a particular position qualifies, ask in Discord or email careerdev@kibo.school

Confirming your industry experience

Submit one of the two forms below:

• If you have found a qualifying internship, submit the confirmation form for approval. All internships must receive prior approval to quality for academic credit
• If you have not found a qualifying internship, submit the matching form and we will match you with an internship

🙋🏿 Questions

I have a qualifyng internships. What should I do?

Submit the confirmation form for approval. All internships must be approved in order to obtain academic credit.

I have applied, but don't have an internship yet. What should I do?

Don't worry. Internships are competitive and difficult to obtain as a first-year student. The time you've spent applying will benefit and prepare you for next year's industry experience. Most students will work on an open-source project with one of our partner organizations.

What if I'm waiting to hear back from an internship?

Submit the matching form. The form has a field for you to indicate that you are still waiting to hear back about an opportunity.

We still need the information so we can match you with an industry experience. If you get another internship later and are no longer able to complete your assigned industry experience, email careerdev@kibo.school to discuss.

When and where will industry experience take place?

Exact times and dates vary. Please note:

• The majority of students will be working on open source projects between April 8 - June 14.
• You should plan to finish your industry experience by June 14, 2024 which is the last official day of the term. Regular classes will resume on July 8, 2024.

When will I receive information about my match? What time should I plan on being available?

You will receive more information on your match via email by the end of March. You should be available for a minimum of 30 hours per week between April 8 - June 14 to meet the requirements for academic credit.

Action Required: Confirming your industry experience

• If you have found a qualifying internship, submit the confirmation form for approval. All internships must receive prior approval to quality for academic credit
• If you have not found a qualifying internship, submit the matching form and we will match you with an opportunity

Reflecting on EYC

Submit your course evaluation

We want your candid feedback on Engineering Your Career. After each term, we iterate on our courses and your feedback is essential to improving the next version. We want your feedback on:

(1) Your mentorship experience - this brief will take less than 5 mins to complete. Submit your feedback on the EYC mentorship experience: https://forms.gle/XFmLDf49jSpJbwVe8

(2) Your course experience - this evaluation will take 5-15 mins to complete. Submit your course evaluation: https://forms.gle/FFpH3Wwfgynzz2yN7

Reflect on your learnings

Congratulations on completing the Engineering Your Career course! We hope this course has increased your career confidence, and given you skills and experiences to craft a rewarding career. The final assessments will guide you in deeper self reflection on your learning and experiences.

Congratulations! 👏🏿👏🏿

Assignment: Live session reflection

Throughout this course, you attended a few live sessions, including:

• Getting Hired workshop
• Getting Fired workshop
• 3 group meetings with your mentor and peers
• 1 individual meeting with your mentor

In this assignment, you will reflect on your learnings from the live sessions. To complete this assignment

Make a copy of the reflection template and answer the questions

Please note

• To receive full credit, you must attend the session and submit this reflection. If you did not attend a session, you will receive zero credit
• Limit your response to each question to a paragraph of 100-200 words

Submission

• Upload a PDF of your reflection in Gradescope
• Upload a PDF of your reflection in Anchor

Assignment: Final interview

Throughout this course, you have practiced crafting a career narrative, and interviewing. Your final assessment is a mock behavioral interview with a professional.

Scheduling your mock interview

Your mock interview will be conducted by a professional who may or may not be your mentor during the EYC course. You will schedule an hour long session for the interview. You will conduct the interview for 25-30 minutes, then spend about 15 minutes having a feedback conversation.

Click here to schedule a mock interview session

A few notes about the interviews

• You should only schedule one slot. Do not book more than one slot
• You should schedule with a professional that is not your current mentor
• Block off your scheduled time on your calendar. Rescheduling is not possible

Tips for the interview

• Re-read the Ace the Interview lesson
• Reflect on the feedback you've received from your automated and peer mock interviews
• Review and practice your STAR stories
• Prepare the logistics
  • Ensure you are in a quiet place with good lighting (usually a light source in front of you) for the interview
  • Ensure your laptop is fully charged
  • Have a backup source of internet data
  • Login a few minutes early, and confirm that your microphone and camera are well set up

Submission

You will receive an email with a PDF copy of your interviewer's evaluation. You should read the evaluation, and reflect on your performance, then:

• Upload a PDF of the evaluation in Gradescope
• Upload a PDF of the evaluation in Anchor

Assignment: Final Essay

In the first lesson of the course, we described career development as a lifelong, intentional process that requires continous learning and action.

Self reflection is key to personal and career growth. So, to end EYC, you will reflect on your growth and learning in this course.

Instructions

• You will write one essay, between 400 - 600 words.
• Pick a prompts from the list below to answer.
• Draft the essays in a Google document. Your essay document should include: your full name, your Kibo ID, and the prompt you are responding to.
• Be specific. Use concrete examples from your experiences in answering these questions.

Prompts

• Before this class, what did you consider your core strengths and weaknesses in relation to your career? How has this class impacted your understanding of these qualities, and what steps will you take to further develop your strengths and improve upon your weaknesses?
• Choose a specific skill you practiced in this class (e.g., resume writing, networking, interviewing). Discuss how you approached learning this skill, challenges you faced, and your progress. How will you continue to hone this skill in the future?
• You crafted your career narrative, then practiced sharing that in your professional assets and interviews. Discuss how your narrative has evolved through the course, and what key experiences or insights informed these changes. How will you continue to refine your narrative moving forward?
• Reflect on a challenging activity or project you completed in this class. What specific skills did you hone while overcoming this challenge? Describe how you might utilize these skills in a future job interview or professional situation.
• Reflect on your interactions with professionals during this class. Identify one specific piece of advice, insight, or story shared by a professional that resonated deeply with you. Explain why this particular interaction was impactful and how it has shaped your perspective.
• Consider potential obstacles you might face in your career journey. How will you use the skills and knowledge gained in this class to overcome these hurdles?

Submission

• Upload a PDF of your essay in Gradescope
• Upload a PDF of your essay in Anchor