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Want to Stand Out to Employers? Follow These Three Techy Tips

Want to Stand Out to Employers? Follow These Three Techy Tips
1/17/2012
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Suada Kolovic

Despite our name, we’re more than just scholarships here at Scholarships.com: We strive to keep students in the know on pretty much anything and everything college related, from figuring where you’ll spend the next four years and how you’ll pay for it to picking the major that’s right for you and finding employment once you’ve finished. And when it comes to the latter, recent college graduates are faced with one of the toughest job markets in recent years. What can you do to place yourself in the best position for employment after you graduate? Consider taking courses that will help you stand out from the crowd like those that deal with coding, design and analytics. Here are three tips U.S. News and World Report compiled to help you entice employers:

  • Get your code on: Regardless of your background, understanding even basic coding is a huge differentiator for job seekers in nearly every field, says Keith Cline, founder of the recruiting firm Dissero. Before you graduate, squeeze in a basic computer science class or, if you just don’t have room in your schedule, join New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and pledge to learn computer code by the end of 2012 via Codeacademy, a free tutorial website.
  • Socialize, virtually: If you think knowing your way around Facebook will suffice, you’re in for a rude awakening. Instead, Cline suggests students build and maintain blogs focused on target fields and use Twitter to engage with industry influencers. "Out of 10 applicants … that one person who has a personal blog and a social media presence, that's the person they'll hire," Cline says.
  • Take stats...STAT: Companies need people who can break down data and interpret the information with a business mindset, says Vijay Subramanian, chief analytics officer for Rent the Runway, a website where customers rent high-end designer fashions. Taking statistical analysis is a great way to get an understanding of programming language and getting into the weeds of Google Analytics and the power of what it can tell you, advises Cline.
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