27/08/2020 - 6 months course

hi its me

your shameless snail unemployed web dev wannabe

i applied for sg skills ignition squared online digital marketing 6months vocational training and managed to land a slot. so i be learning from sep to mar next year. until now i'm still unclear on whether there are any physical classes. i know some sessions are online live sessions.

no more excuses, snail, time to boost up your web site portfolio T-T

i have too much to learn

• front end components
• back end routing and express
• deployment
• seo and copywriting
• digital marketing
• data analytics with tableau
• data crunching with pandas, matplotlib, seaborn

at the same time, i am under this sg gov sponsored career coaching program. can't remember what i signed up for. so far:

- met my assigned coach, she asked me about my objectives and told me to try and land a part time or internship before the course ends

- she mentioned she did have some leads if i wanted to go into the marketing line.

- also signed me up for some career coaching related classes, i went for a zoom class today on interview skills

some insights with you from the session on interview prep

• body language
• eye contact, look at the nose and forehead
• no there's no need for handshake since its covid
• smile
• basics - dress simply, in muted or pastel colors. if management role, wear blazer. covered shoes
• post interview - write a thank you message
• pre interview 
• glassdoor - salary, culture, business model and competitors - in case you need to suggest some business strategies to them, it also conveys enthusiasm
• resume - skills - https://www.skillsfuture.sg/skills-framework
• if possible, know how many interviewers, what are their roles
• time and place,  be15 minutes early and have all your materials ready
• definitely check the job requirements to think of possible questions
• resume
• how to tailor the resume to fit job requirements
• if interview is zoom call
• please check your connection does not lag
• common questions for prep
• why you left you last job
• retrenchment - enough said
• voluntary
• caretaker
• health (get a doc to certify you are healthy)
• reskill/upskill - please show some results
• toxic environment - best to not badmouth
• tell me about the time when you..
• concrete example, need to let them know what was so difficult about it, how you managed to overcome, any wins, learning points
• projects you led
• you mentored anyone?
• transition period and how you coped?
• weaknesses
• must be unrelated to your job description and requirement
• unrelated to personality
• talk about some skillset you lack instead eg public speaking
• where do you see yourself in ... years?
• do not mention a job title
• e.g growing with company, or some ways you can value add to the company
• over skilled
• asset not liability as incoming can help to train and guide juniors
• salary
• try to not bring up on your own
• if asked, quote the market rate, or else say negotiable
• some roles might already let you know the salary
• job scope and quick summary of relevant experience
• less than 2 minutes, not too lengthy
• e.g past, present, future, past
• don't use experience that is too far back, it is considered obsolete
• end of interview
• further questions
• when can i hear from you?
• if you were referred by an agency, they may have some input from the interview about your performance

well i hope this helps. heard in the news there are still many unfilled slots. there's one weird guy i know on fb who took up nursing and now he's back to school (nursing school). lol.

zoom is the new normal

been getting used to using zoom. a bit suaku but still ok. actually i find zoom classes super convenient, very close to the real deal, and i wish all classes could be like that. you just save so much time. the downside is if someone decides to schedule the timing at some weird hour. like the class today was during lunch hours. i heard one of my friends has had fatigue from wfh because she has to be super in touch now and it's eating into her personal time.

you can feel things changing during covid

it's like during covid everything became much more digitalised and i think that's what sg gov wants. it kinda accelerated the whole thing.

there's so many openings for tech people but i am afraid to apply T-T hope i am not too late.