This text is crossposted from IEEE Spectrum’s careers publication. Enroll now to get insider ideas, skilled recommendation, and sensible methods, written in partnership with tech profession growth firm Taro and delivered to your inbox without spending a dime!
There are numerous applied sciences, instruments, and frameworks to be taught as an engineer. As a job seeker, this makes it extraordinarily troublesome to resolve the place to speculate. You don’t wish to spend a bunch of time studying one thing that employers don’t care about. So, how will you decide what to be taught along with your worthwhile time?
The reply to this comes from the conclusion that your aim is to seek out precisely one job. In the end, you’ll settle for one job provide; you can not maintain a number of full-time jobs concurrently. As an alternative of interesting to all potential employers, your aim is to be an distinctive match for one particular job.
Mentioned in a different way, it’s best to purpose to be polarizing. A hiring supervisor ought to have a look at your resume or LinkedIn profile and have one in every of two reactions:
This particular person is a good match (“I don’t see many builders who know Rust so deeply. We must always positively interview them”)This particular person is clearly not match (“We use Python, which they don’t point out in any respect”)
You wish to keep away from the “possibly” bucket, which is sadly the place the vast majority of job seekers find yourself. These borderline engineers dilute their resumes by mentioning too many buzzwords and applied sciences. In the event that they adopted a 2-hour YouTube tutorial, they’ll listing that know-how on their resume. These resumes don’t strongly attraction to anybody as a result of they attempt to attraction to everybody. The logic of the hiring supervisor is, “They’ve listed Python together with 10 different programming languages, in order that they’re in all probability not good at any of them.” In a troublesome job market, this ends in poor outcomes.
As you turn into more and more senior in your profession, it’s best to turn into more and more polarizing. When you might have readability in regards to the applied sciences, individuals, and firms you wish to work with, you dramatically enhance your possibilities of touchdown a job that meets your standards.
So how ought to we resolve which know-how to spend money on? The reply is that it doesn’t matter, so long as you choose one thing and decide to it. After we embrace the thought of polarization, we are able to take away the second-guessing that plagues many job seekers. Too many engineers agonize over which JavaScript framework to be taught or which AutoCAD toolset to grasp.
As an alternative of getting caught in determination paralysis, merely decide to a know-how for a number of months primarily based on what you or your pals discover attention-grabbing. You possibly can all the time change course later, however the studying begins solely while you commit. Once you go deep sufficient in a single space, you’ll discover it considerably simpler to translate that experience into adjoining areas. Your confidence will develop, and also you’ll have extra enjoyable.
Depth in a single area will considerably enhance your possibilities of touchdown a job that matches your background.
-Rahul
Fewer firms within the semiconductor trade have been publicly dedicated to equal alternative measures in 2024 than the 12 months prior, although main workforce shortages are anticipated. On this Q&A, Andrea Mohamed, COO and co-founder of the skilled growth firm QuantumBloom, speaks about supporting ladies in semiconductor jobs, and why a retreat from these initiatives is at odds with the wants of the trade.
Tech layoffs have continued in 2025, with greater than 22,000 employees being lower since January. Up to date 17 June, TechCrunch is compiling a complete listing of the layoffs, together with month-to-month totals and notable occasions from particular person firms. Microsoft, Airtime, Playtika, and Intel all lowered their workforce in June.
Mayra Yucely Beb Caal has overcome obstacles to forge a profitable profession in engineering. Raised in a rural Guatemalan village, Caal obtained her Ph.D. with assist from an IEEE scholarship and now makes use of AI to enhance most cancers detection. “I don’t wish to create know-how only for the sake of it,” she says. “I need it to imply one thing—to assist remedy actual issues in society, like those I confronted early on.”
