Whether you’re actively looking for a job or not, you should be recruitment ready! I learned that the hard way this week. This episode is about what I wish I’d done ahead of time.

What is recruitment ready?

• Up-to-date CV/resumé that is written with the type of job you want in mind. So if you’re transitioning from another career to being a developer, your old CV won’t do!
• Up-to-date LinkedIn profile, again with programmer-relevant skills highlighted.
• Bonus: online portfolio website to introduce yourself and show off your skills

While this might seem like obvious advice, I wish I had taken it a lot earlier! These things have a way of not being prioritized if you’re not actively looking for a job. Why? Well it’s hard! How do you write about programming experience when you don’t have any? What on earth can you write about that will make someone want to hire you? For these reasons and more, I never quite got around to preparing these things with dev opportunities in mind.

AND THEN…randomly out of the blue I was introduced to the hiring manager at a company I would love to work for, and they are searching for a junior developer! We had a great conversation that made me even more excited about the opportunity to work there. And what was the first thing she asked for? A relevant CV!

So I spent the weekend getting this together—not ideal on a short deadline, without time to finesse it and get others’ feedback. This was my approach.

This episode was originally published 30 January, 2018.