Career Priorities

Your first is a big deal. Like huge. Finally, you can focus on something other than school. But most importantly, you finally have the financial freeddom to stop eating top ramen for every meal . Just like every other “first”, it’s a big deal. But unlike your first car, where you accept any p.o.s. you can find your first job you should be super picky about.

At least, I was. I just barely started at my first job in my career. I am not at a point to know if my job search priorities were good or bad. I can’t recommend anything to anyone. Alternatively, I will share what I looked for in a job, and together we can cry about or cheer about these priorities as my career unfolds.

But I do recommend to anyone else who is about to graduate.. Truly consider what is important to you. Don’t just pick the highest paying gig, unless money is the most important thing to you. Figure out what you want in your career and take control your life.

Diversity

Living in Utah, there isn’t much diversity. I didn’t realize just how white and male the workforce was, until working in New York City. In NYC, the workforce was very diverse in age and background ethnicity. (Gender still had a long way to go.) It became clear to me just how much value can be added by all types of people from different backgrounds! That a diverse workforce is a better workforce. A diverse team is a better team. We need everyone .

Company Impact

This should probably state Importance as the header, but I don't want to sound vain, so let's go with "Company Impact"

As an entry-level job, it is hard to find a position where you are capable of having a huge impact on a company. Where you can use creativity, ambition, and the kind of energy that only a young newly graduated has, to solve problems and build solutions.

I don’t want to be a cog in the wheel, churning along with everyone else. Where I am disposable, and higher-ups are too “important” to talk to me.

I know this is a lot to ask. I also know that corporate responsibility can take time (pun intended). You can slowly climb up the corporate ladder and become the person who makes decisions and is “important.” There is safety, comfort, and a big paycheck that comes with this organizational model. Starting from the bottom .

That isn’t me. I want to be at a place where I can make important decisions from the beginning. Where my job makes a significant impact on a company and is one of the reasons the company succeeds (or fails). I want this responsibility from the beginning.

Outside work is encouraged

I was shocked to learn that so many companies have stringent anti-outisde-work policies! Like strict, “If you work outside of your job, then we own whatever you create!!!” vibes going on.

In my experience, working on outside projects only ever benefitted my work. I would face a problem at home building a website, or game, or whatever, spent hours of my free time, struggling and solving this problem. I would then run into a similar problem at work (There is so much overlap in computer science). Because I had already spent the time solving the problem at home, I would be able to write the code in no time. I would use my own time to get better at my trade when I wasn’t on the clock .

(Granted, the opposite would happen too. I would learn something at work, and then implement something similar into my home projects. But is this a bad thing?)

Wouldn’t an employer see outside work as a cost-effective way to have employees become better engineers?

Personally, I feel like I am the least likely threat to the company, for 2 reasons:

1. I’m not passionate enough about creating survey tools, or a restaurant point of sale system to try and start a company about this.
2. If a company doesn’t incentive its employees enough to want the company (which is paying their salary and providing their livelihood) to succeed instead of competing with it… then the company is using its employees as a liability instead of an asset.

During the interview process, when I should have been asking about company culture, I was instead asking about the outside work policy. “No outside work,” was the typical response. My typical response was, “I am no longer interested in this employment opportunity.”

Mentorship

I mentioned earlier that I wanted to have impact and real responsibility. Let’s clarify that this is different than leadership. I hope to lead a team of engineers one day. But I am not ready for that. To be a good leader, I need to learn how to lead from a great mentor. Being surrounded by a team of brilliant individuals, with a manager who is very smart, but not too “important” to answer my questions and mentor me, was a must. I don’t know a better way to become a better engineer.

Luckily, there are places to work that meet all of these criteria, while also offering a competitive paycheck. Most happened to be a growing company or startup. That is exactly where I turned my job search, to the startup realm, and where I landed upon a company that checked all these boxes and more, SimpleCitizen.