What are your options when you graduate? Would it be best to work in a start up or in a multinational company? Which new technologies are the ones that you would be best advised to learn?
RecWorks and the Graduate Developer Community are asked questions like these every day. We understand how overwhelming it can be to set off on a career and how impossible it can be to know if you are making the right decisions.
Time and again we’ve seen the positive impact that meeting the right people has on developers’ careers. We know that experienced people can help you hack your career by increasing your understanding of the choices that are available to you and which choices might be best for you. We believe that career hacking is an important concept to follow throughout your career, but it’s especially important as you start your life as a developer. Without mentoring, graduates and career entrants usually have to rely on luck as they set out on their career, and even more luck as they develop their careers over time.
RecWorks has created a presentation that explains more about Career Hacking and it’s available in our blog: please do take a look, as it perfectly illustrates the purpose of the Meet a Mentor (MaM) events the GDC run every year.
At these events, experienced developers who have established satisfying careers act as mentors, meet students and graduates to tell them about their own career choices and about the industry they work in, and to answer the students’ questions. The atmosphere is friendly and informal and, to make sure everyone gets a chance to ask all their questions, they are run in a speed-dating style event where each mentor meets each small group of students.
The events are open to undergraduate and postgraduate students and graduates of computer science and related degrees from any university or college. All you have to do is join the GDC so you hear about the dates as they are confirmed, sign up to the event that is most convenient for you, and get your questions ready!
Do you represent a Central London university/college that would like to host a Meet a Mentor event? Email Maggie Cranford and we’ll do our best to help.