Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job, Second Edition

1.3. Develop Marketable Skills

The appendix covers how your résumé is primarily a marketing tool to get you job interviews. This assumes, of course, that you have marketable skills to offer a prospective employer. You can only stretch the truth so far, and if even you exaggerate or outright lie about your skills and what you've accomplished in the past, you probably won't make it through technical interviews designed specifically to weed out the liars and exaggerators of this world. What you need to do, then, is develop skills and accomplishments that will make you stand out from the crowd both on paper and in the interviews, especially if you're entering the job market for the first time. Here are some approaches you can take:

• Upgrade your credentials — Companies such as Google are well known for favoring job applicants with graduate degrees. Getting a master's or doctorate degree is one way to upgrade your credentials. Although pursuing a graduate degree is a large commitment on your part, you can upgrade your credentials in other ways, such as taking university or professional development courses or participating in programming contests.

• Get certified — Certification is a touchy issue in the software development profession, but there's no doubt that some jobs either prefer or require candidates to be certified in specific technologies, especially IT jobs.

• Work on a side project — A great way to expand your skill set is to work on a project that is not directly related to your ...