--- title: "Stop Sending CVs: How to Get a Job After Graduation" description: "244 applications per job, new-grad hiring down 50%. What I told FIT ČVUT students on 5 November: 12 steps for the last year before the diploma, no CV." url: "https://www.marian.coach/blog/first-tech-job-after-graduation/" lang: "en" image: "https://www.marian.coach/images/blog/first-tech-job-after-graduation/infographic.webp" --- ![Stop Sending CVs: How to Get a Job After Graduation](https://www.marian.coach/images/blog/first-tech-job-after-graduation/infographic.webp) “Who here is Adam?” I asked a room of FIT ČVUT students on 5 November. Adam is one year before his master’s, has good grades, and his plan is to finish school and then look for a job. The average job got [244 applications in 2025](https://www.rectechmedia.com/blog/2026/5/9/greenhouse-report-more-applications-fewer-recruiters), double what it got in 2022, and new-grad hiring at Big Tech is down [more than 50% since 2019](https://www.signalfire.com/blog/signalfire-state-of-talent-report-2025). Adam’s plan is a lottery ticket. The workshop was at [COFIT](https://fit.cvut.cz/cs/spoluprace/pro-studenty/veletrh-cofit), the career fair of the Faculty of Information Technology at [ČVUT](https://fit.cvut.cz/en) in Prague, room 364, 10:00. The title was “Land a top job right after your diploma: 12 steps for students”. I run the [Engineering Leaders Community](https://www.engineeringleaders.io/), 3,640 engineering leaders across Central Europe, and I was VP of Engineering at [Mews](https://www.mews.com/) before that, so I have sat on the hiring side of this for 15 years. My advice to Adam was simple: stop sending CVs. Adam is made up, by the way. I built him from the students I meet, and I say so at the end of every talk. The numbers around him are real. ![COFIT 2026 programme card for the workshop: Marian Kamenistak's photo, the title 'Land a top job right after your diploma: 12 steps for students', room 364, 10:00.](https://www.marian.coach/images/blog/first-tech-job-after-graduation/cofit-card.webp) The programme card for my workshop at COFIT, FIT ČVUT, 5 November 2026. ## The junior door is closing, and it isn’t your fault Adam reads that AI now solves [open maths problems](https://the-decoder.com/terence-tao-says-gpt-5-2-pro-cracked-an-erdos-problem-but-warns-the-win-says-more-about-speed-than-difficulty/) and asks what is left for a junior. The answer is in the hiring data, not in the maths. New grads were [7% of Big Tech hires](https://www.signalfire.com/blog/signalfire-state-of-talent-report-2025) in 2025, and the net growth in software postings went [71% to senior roles](https://hiringlab.indeed.com/2026/07/08/ai-and-job-postings-from-destruction-to-creation/). | What moved | Number | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | New grads’ share of Big Tech hires, 2025 | 7%, down more than 50% from 2019 | [SignalFire](https://www.signalfire.com/blog/signalfire-state-of-talent-report-2025) | | Employment of 22 to 25 year olds in AI-exposed jobs | down 13% relative to older workers | [Stanford SIEPR](https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/working-paper/canaries-coal-mine-six-facts-about-recent-employment-effects-artificial) | | Software postings vs February 2020 | 27.5% below | [Indeed Hiring Lab](https://hiringlab.indeed.com/2026/07/08/ai-and-job-postings-from-destruction-to-creation/) | | Larger Czech tech firms that did not grow dev teams in 2025 | 9 in 10 | [Lupa.cz](https://www.lupa.cz/clanky/firmy-v-cesku-uz-kvuli-ai-nenabiraji-nebo-rovnou-propousteji-prestoze-chapou-ze-juniori-dojdou/) | | Tech layoffs tracked by Layoffs.fyi | 122,606 in 2025, 139,004 so far in 2026 | [Computerworld](https://www.computerworld.com/article/3816579/tech-layoffs-this-year-a-timeline.html) | Mews is the company Adam dreams about. I helped grow it from 8 to 80 teams, and this week Lupa.cz has it [cutting around 15% of its 1,350 people](https://www.lupa.cz/clanky/firmy-v-cesku-uz-kvuli-ai-nenabiraji-nebo-rovnou-propousteji-prestoze-chapou-ze-juniori-dojdou/), with Czech firms in general not replacing the juniors who leave. Mews stopped hiring juniors. I know that from my own conversations there, not from the press. I expect the layoffs to continue through 2027; that is my view, not anyone’s forecast. So the laid-off senior with 8 years of experience is now applying for the same roles as Adam. Adam does not compete only with his classmates any more. The counter-argument from the same Lupa.cz piece is that companies understand juniors will run out and will have to hire them again. True, and useless for Adam. The shortage lands around 2029. Adam needs a job in June 2027. ## A CV in a pile of 244 is a lottery ticket Adam sends 40 CVs through job boards and gets 0 replies. The companies got hundreds of AI-written CVs for each role, and “tailor your CV to the job description” stopped being a differentiator the day everyone’s CV got tailored by the same model. An interview that starts with a referral is [35% more likely to end in an offer](https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/2026/01/12/cold-applying-is-still-the-no-1-way-to-get-a-new-job-but-this-method-is-quickly-getting-more-common.html), in Glassdoor’s data reported by CNBC in January. Cold applications still produce most offers, 60% in the same data, down from 73% in 2023. That 60% goes to people with a track record; a junior with none sits at the bottom of the pile. I see it from the other side every month. By our own count, partner companies hire [2.7 engineering leaders a month](https://www.engineeringleaders.io/statistics/) from people they met at an ELC meetup, on a boat or in a mentoring session. The CV arrives after the handshake, as a formality. I wrote it two years ago for leaders and it holds for students: [you need the right 10 people who will vouch for you](https://www.marian.coach/blog/10x-your-market-value-tech-leader-8-steps/), not 100 applications. > A CV in a pile of 244 is a lottery ticket. A person who vouches for you is a key. | Route to the first job | What it costs Adam | Who sees him | Odds | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 40 CVs on job boards | 40 evenings | A screening tool, maybe a recruiter | 1 of 244 per role | [Greenhouse via RecTech](https://www.rectechmedia.com/blog/2026/5/9/greenhouse-report-more-applications-fewer-recruiters) | | A referral from someone he knows | 12 coffees over a year | The hiring manager, before the role is posted | About 18% of all hires, from a pool far smaller than 244 | [Ashby, ~250,000 hires](https://www.ashbyhq.com/talent-trends-report/reports/inbound) | | 2 months of work for a founder he met | 2 months unpaid | The person who signs the offer, every day | No public data | this route has no survey; the manager watches you work | So here is what Adam did with his last year. Twelve steps, in four blocks, none of them a CV. ## Know yourself: domain, differentiator, portfolio (steps 1 to 3) ### 1\. Pick a domain outside IT Adam finds out he likes money and numbers, so he picks fintech. Almost anyone can write code with AI. Few people understand the business, and that is where a junior can still be rare. Finance, health, logistics, community, agriculture, whatever you already know from the inside. ### 2\. Find your differentiator Adam grew up in his mom’s accounting office, so he understands accounting from the inside, and almost nobody in his year does. What do you know that nobody else in your year knows? Hobbies, family business, the job you did during school, the town you come from. NACE found that [fewer than 40% of employers](https://naceweb.org/research/reports/job-outlook/2025/spring-update) screen candidates by GPA and nearly two thirds hire on skills, so the thing nobody else has beats the grade everybody has. ### 3\. Think in skills, not jobs Adam stops thinking “I will be a Java developer” and starts thinking “code plus accounting plus I can explain it to people”. You are a portfolio of skills, not an employee. One role is one risk; a portfolio is more doors when one closes. Write your own three on one line and say it to the person next to you; if they can’t repeat it back, it isn’t a portfolio yet. ## Build what someone uses (steps 4 and 5) ### 4\. Build a pet project with real users Adam builds an app that tracks spending, posts it in his year’s group chat, and 30 classmates use it. A project 30 people use says more than a grade, and the first 30 users are the people who already have your phone number. The part I like most about this step is the VAT rounding. AI writes Adam’s rounding code, it’s wrong by a cent on every tenth invoice, and Adam spots it because he grew up next to an accountant. Knowing when the AI output is wrong, and why, is the skill that stays. ### 5\. Start a small business of your own Adam automates invoice matching for his mom’s office, for money. Your first paying customer teaches you more than a semester: how to sell, how to deliver, and how to hear “this does not work” without arguing. The rule for money: charge for a product you own; give your time away only to buy access to a person who signs offers (step 12). If you want a gate for the idea before you build it, I wrote down [how I validate a business idea](https://www.marian.coach/blog/how-to-validate-a-business-idea-before-building/) with 25 checks; a student needs maybe 5 of them. ## Get seen: footprint, coffees, meetups, a talk (steps 6 to 9) ### 6\. Fix your digital footprint Adam puts the project on GitHub with a README, posts about it on LinkedIn, and builds a one-page personal site. Google yourself on your phone right now and look at what comes up first. If the answer is a 2019 Facebook photo, that is what the hiring manager sees too. A [digital footprint check](https://www.marian.coach/blog/digital-footprint-check/) takes ten minutes by hand. ### 7\. One coffee a month Every month Adam has coffee with one person from the industry. He asks for 20 minutes and one question, never for a job. Twelve coffees in a year is twelve people who know his name when a role opens on their team. ![A full room of engineering leaders at ELC meetup #43 in the Apify office in Prague, seated at long tables and on benches, watching a talk on the screen at the far end.](https://www.marian.coach/_astro/meetup-43-apify-room-wide.BPnk1jZ5_2cjROo.webp) ELC meetup #43 at the Apify office in Prague. Median 125 registrations per meetup, 12 meetups a year. Photo: ELC. ### 8\. Go to meetups with a quota Adam came to COFIT. Then to an ELC meetup, then to the next one. The goal for every event is 3 new contacts and 1 follow-up within 24 hours. ELC runs [12 meetups a year](https://www.engineeringleaders.io/events/) with a median of 125 registrations each. The [ELC Conference](https://www.elc-conference.io/) in Prague on 22 April 2027 takes [student helpers](https://www.elc-conference.io/student); it is the cheapest way I know to spend a day next to 500 engineering leaders. ### 9\. Speak before you are invited Adam writes to the organiser of the next student meetup and asks for 10 minutes to show his app. Do not wait to be invited, sign up yourself. I run 12 meetups a year and I am short of speakers far more often than I am short of seats; most organisers will say yes to a student who has built something. Few people in the room expect a student to be good; being clear is enough. ## Sell yourself: pitch, money, internship (steps 10 to 12) ### 10\. Write the 30-second pitch “I’m Adam. I build tools for accountants. My automation saves my mom’s office 6 hours a week. I’m looking for a fintech where I can do this at scale.” Who you are, what you can do, what you are looking for. In the room I gave them one minute to write it down, and two volunteers said theirs out loud. ### 11\. Talk money and impact, not outputs Adam does not say “I wrote a Python script”. He says “I saved the office 6 hours a week”. Hiring managers hear outputs all day; the junior who talks in hours saved and invoices matched sounds like someone who has already worked. When the offer comes, the [junior bands in Europe](https://www.marian.coach/blog/engineering-salary-bands-europe-2026/) tell you what the number should be. ![Wide shot of a 1:1 community mentoring session in an atrium, two people in armchairs at a round table.](https://www.marian.coach/_astro/mentoring-05.BrINwYEC_NSrD2.webp) A 1:1 at an ELC community mentoring session. The job offer usually comes from a conversation like this one, not from a form. Photo: ELC. ### 12\. Take the internship, even unpaid Adam meets a fintech founder at a meetup and offers 2 months of work for free. I still work for free sometimes, because it buys access to people, and access is what a junior lacks most. Two unpaid months next to the person who signs offers beat a year of rejected applications. ## What ELC does with FIT ČVUT and VŠE This workshop was the first thing the [Engineering Leaders Community and FIT ČVUT](https://www.engineeringleaders.io/cs/partner/cvut/) do together, with thanks to Khrystyna Verbytska and Jakub Novák at the faculty for making it happen. We already work with [VŠE](https://www.vse.cz/english/) the same way. Next come an ELC meetup at the faculty, free mentoring sessions for students, and student helper seats at the conference. If you teach at a university in Central Europe and want this workshop in your room, [invite me](https://www.marian.coach/speaker/). ## June 2027: Adam has an offer and sent zero CVs Adam defends his thesis in June 2027 with a job offer in his pocket, from the startup where he did the internship. He did not send a single CV. He is made up, but each of the twelve steps is something you can start this week, without a diploma. My personal advice on top of the twelve steps is to choose your close circle on purpose: who you meet, who you drink with, and what you read, for work and for fun. Beer is fine; who you drink it with matters. Pick two of the twelve steps and start this week. Before you close this page, write down the first three people you will have coffee with. \[Writing time: 6h\] ## Frequently asked ### How do I get my first software developer job after graduation with no experience? + Spend the last year of school building things people use and meeting the people who hire. Pick a domain outside IT you understand (finance, health, logistics), build one project that 30 real users run, put it on GitHub and LinkedIn, have one coffee a month with someone from the industry, and offer a 2-month internship to a founder you met at a meetup. Referrals were about 18% of hires in Ashby's data; a cold CV competes with 244 others. ### Are job boards worth it for junior developers? + As a backup, yes; as the plan, no. Greenhouse's 2025 data shows the average job gets 244 applications, and Glassdoor data shows interviews that start with a referral are 35% more likely to end in an offer. A junior CV in that pile waits for luck. Spend the hours on people who can vouch for you. ### Is it hard to get a junior developer job in 2026? + Harder than in 2019. SignalFire found new grads were 7% of Big Tech hires in 2025, down more than 50% from 2019; Indeed counts software postings 27.5% below February 2020 with senior roles taking 71% of the net growth. In Czechia, 9 of 10 larger tech firms did not grow their developer teams in 2025. The door is narrower, so you need someone inside to open it. ### How do I get a junior developer job in Prague or the Czech Republic? + Prague tech is small enough that one introduction reaches most companies. Go to meetups (the Engineering Leaders Community runs 12 a year), register as a student helper at the ELC Conference, pick a domain, build one project with real users, and tell every leader you meet in 30 seconds who you are, what you can do and what you are looking for. ### How do I network to get a job in tech as a student? + One coffee a month with someone from the industry, 3 new contacts per event and 1 follow-up within 24 hours, and a 10-minute talk about your own project at a student meetup. Ask people for 20 minutes and one question; the job comes up by itself around the third coffee. [1:1 mentoring](https://www.marian.coach/engineering-manager-mentor/) ## Ready to move this from advice to action? 1:1 mentoring for engineering leaders. 317 mentees since 2019. Rate a session under 8/10 and you don't pay for it. First intro is free. [Book a free 30-min intro →](https://www.marian.coach/meet) ELC community ## Hiring engineering leaders in Czechia? ELC gets you about 10 vetted intros for one role within 2 weeks, from a community of 3,500+ engineering leaders in Czechia, Slovakia and Poland. [Send me the role →](https://www.engineeringleaders.io/hire-engineers-czech-republic/?utm_source=marian-coach&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=cross-property&utm_content=fallback-en-hire#start) ## Read next - [![6 proven strategies to hit a 90% candidate conversion rate and build a top startup team](https://www.marian.coach/images/blog-covers/6-strategies-for-high-candidate-conversion.webp) ### 6 proven strategies to hit a 90% candidate conversion rate and build a top startup team Boost your candidate conversion rate to 90%+ with these 6 proven hiring strategies. Learn how to attract, engage, and secure top engineering talent. 14 March 2025 · By Marian Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/blog/6-strategies-for-high-candidate-conversion/) - [![Hand-drawn sketch of two boxes: on the left, under "What you tune", one small CV; on the right, under "What they find", three bigger blocks for LinkedIn, GitHub, and talks and posts, with arrows running from the CV to each of them](https://www.marian.coach/images/blog/digital-footprint-check/infographic.webp) ### Digital Footprint Check: Hidden Gem or Hard to Ignore? A free digital footprint check for developers and engineering managers: one number from 0.4 to 1.7 and nine names for it, from Hidden gem to Magnet. 12 November 2026 · By Marian Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/blog/digital-footprint-check/) - [![How to Use AI at Work: 5 Levels, Kindergarten to Professor](https://www.marian.coach/images/blog/how-to-use-ai-at-work/infographic.webp) ### How to Use AI at Work: 5 Levels, Kindergarten to Professor Five levels of using AI at work, from kindergarten to professor, with examples for developers, helpdesk and admins, and how to move one level up. 11 November 2026 · By Marian Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/blog/how-to-use-ai-at-work/) ### New posts, straight to your inbox. Your emailSubscribe You're on it. New posts will come to your inbox. Unsubscribe in one click. [Connect on LinkedIn →](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariankamenistak/)[See the free tools →](https://www.marian.coach/ai-coaching-tools/) ## Structured data ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ProfessionalService","name":"Marian Kamenistak | Engineering Leadership Mentoring","url":"https://www.marian.coach/blog/first-tech-job-after-graduation/","image":"https://www.marian.coach/images/blog/first-tech-job-after-graduation/infographic.webp","description":"244 applications per job, new-grad hiring down 50%. What I told FIT ČVUT students on 5 November: 12 steps for the last year before the diploma, no CV.","serviceType":["Engineering leadership mentoring","Engineering manager coaching","CTO coaching","Fractional CTO","Leadership development for software engineers"],"hasOfferCatalog":{"@type":"OfferCatalog","name":"Engineering leadership mentoring and advisory","itemListElement":[{"@type":"Offer","itemOffered":{"@type":"Service","name":"1:1 engineering leadership mentoring","description":"One-to-one mentoring for engineering leaders from Staff Engineer to CTO. 60-minute sessions, weekly or bi-weekly.","url":"https://www.marian.coach/pricing/"}},{"@type":"Offer","itemOffered":{"@type":"Service","name":"Engineering manager coaching","description":"Coaching for first-time and experienced engineering managers: delegation, performance, hiring, team scaling.","url":"https://www.marian.coach/engineering-manager-mentor/"}},{"@type":"Offer","itemOffered":{"@type":"Service","name":"CTO and VP Engineering mentoring","description":"Mentoring for CTOs, VPs of Engineering and Heads of Engineering running 30-200 person organisations.","url":"https://www.marian.coach/cto-mentor/"}},{"@type":"Offer","itemOffered":{"@type":"Service","name":"Mentor in Residence","description":"A dedicated onsite mentor for your engineering organisation, booked by the quarter.","url":"https://www.marian.coach/mentor-in-residence/"}},{"@type":"Offer","itemOffered":{"@type":"Service","name":"Fractional CTO","description":"Part-time CTO engagements for companies without a full-time technology leader.","url":"https://www.marian.coach/fractional-cto/"}}]},"telephone":"+420 736 519 879","email":"marian@marian.coach","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariankamenistak/","https://www.youtube.com/@engineeringleaders","https://github.com/marian-kamenistak","https://www.engineeringleaders.io/","https://www.elc-conference.io/","https://www.marianslist.com/","https://www.mentoringhub.io/"],"address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"Varšavská 715/36, Vinohrady","addressLocality":"Praha 2","postalCode":"12000","addressCountry":"CZ"},"geo":{"@type":"GeoCoordinates","latitude":50.0734418,"longitude":14.4385757},"openingHoursSpecification":[{"@type":"OpeningHoursSpecification","dayOfWeek":["Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday"],"opens":"09:00","closes":"17:00"}],"priceRange":"329–395 EUR","areaServed":[{"@type":"Place","name":"Europe"},{"@type":"Country","name":"Czechia"},{"@type":"Country","name":"Slovakia"},{"@type":"Country","name":"Poland"},{"@type":"Place","name":"North America"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Person","@id":"https://www.marian.coach/#person","name":"Marian Kamenistak","url":"https://www.marian.coach/","image":"https://www.marian.coach/images/blog/first-tech-job-after-graduation/infographic.webp","jobTitle":["Engineering Leadership Mentor","Fractional CTO & Chief AI Officer","Founder, Engineering Leaders Community","Engineering Manager Coach","CTO Coach","Keynote Speaker"],"hasOccupation":[{"@type":"Occupation","name":"Engineering Leadership Mentor"},{"@type":"Occupation","name":"Fractional CTO & Chief AI Officer"}],"worksFor":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Engineering Leaders Community","url":"https://www.engineeringleaders.io/"},"alumniOf":[{"@type":"Organization","name":"Mews"},{"@type":"Organization","name":"Databricks"}],"knowsLanguage":["English","Czech","Slovak"],"knowsAbout":["Engineering leadership","Engineering management","Scaling engineering teams","CTO mentoring","Engineering org design","VP of Engineering role","Engineering director role","CTPO role","Team lead development","Staff engineer career path","Fractional CTO engagements","AI-assisted engineering leadership","Conference keynotes on engineering leadership","Panel moderation","Podcast guest — engineering leadership"],"homeLocation":{"@type":"Place","name":"Prague, Czechia"},"sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariankamenistak/","https://www.youtube.com/@engineeringleaders","https://github.com/marian-kamenistak","https://www.engineeringleaders.io/","https://www.elc-conference.io/","https://www.marianslist.com/","https://www.mentoringhub.io/","https://www.crunchbase.com/person/marian-kamenistak","https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q140488098","https://developers.mews.com/author/marian/","https://startupdisrupt.com/speakers/marian-kamenistak/","https://theorg.com/org/engineering-leaders-community/org-chart/marian-kamenistak"]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","url":"https://www.marian.coach/blog/first-tech-job-after-graduation/","name":"Stop Sending CVs: How to Get a Job After Graduation","inLanguage":"en","dateModified":"2026-11-05T00:00:00.000Z"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","inLanguage":"en","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I get my first software developer job after graduation with no experience?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Spend the last year of school building things people use and meeting the people who hire. Pick a domain outside IT you understand (finance, health, logistics), build one project that 30 real users run, put it on GitHub and LinkedIn, have one coffee a month with someone from the industry, and offer a 2-month internship to a founder you met at a meetup. Referrals were about 18% of hires in Ashby's data; a cold CV competes with 244 others."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Are job boards worth it for junior developers?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"As a backup, yes; as the plan, no. Greenhouse's 2025 data shows the average job gets 244 applications, and Glassdoor data shows interviews that start with a referral are 35% more likely to end in an offer. A junior CV in that pile waits for luck. Spend the hours on people who can vouch for you."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Is it hard to get a junior developer job in 2026?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Harder than in 2019. SignalFire found new grads were 7% of Big Tech hires in 2025, down more than 50% from 2019; Indeed counts software postings 27.5% below February 2020 with senior roles taking 71% of the net growth. In Czechia, 9 of 10 larger tech firms did not grow their developer teams in 2025. The door is narrower, so you need someone inside to open it."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I get a junior developer job in Prague or the Czech Republic?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Prague tech is small enough that one introduction reaches most companies. Go to meetups (the Engineering Leaders Community runs 12 a year), register as a student helper at the ELC Conference, pick a domain, build one project with real users, and tell every leader you meet in 30 seconds who you are, what you can do and what you are looking for."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I network to get a job in tech as a student?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"One coffee a month with someone from the industry, 3 new contacts per event and 1 follow-up within 24 hours, and a 10-minute talk about your own project at a student meetup. Ask people for 20 minutes and one question; the job comes up by itself around the third coffee."}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BlogPosting","headline":"Stop Sending CVs: How to Get a Job After Graduation","description":"244 applications per job, new-grad hiring down 50%. What I told FIT ČVUT students on 5 November: 12 steps for the last year before the diploma, no CV.","inLanguage":"en","articleSection":"career","datePublished":"2026-11-05T00:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-11-05T00:00:00.000Z","author":{"@id":"https://www.marian.coach/#person"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Marian Kamenistak","url":"https://www.marian.coach/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.marian.coach/favicon-192x192.webp","width":192,"height":192}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.marian.coach/images/blog/first-tech-job-after-graduation/infographic.webp","width":1600,"height":894},"mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://www.marian.coach/blog/first-tech-job-after-graduation/"},"keywords":"career, hiring, learning","wordCount":2142,"timeRequired":"PT10M","isAccessibleForFree":true,"speakable":{"@type":"SpeakableSpecification","cssSelector":["article h1","#faq details p"]}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://www.marian.coach/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Blog","item":"https://www.marian.coach/blog/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Stop Sending CVs: How to Get a Job After Graduation","item":"https://www.marian.coach/blog/first-tech-job-after-graduation/"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"HowTo","name":"Stop Sending CVs: How to Get a Job After Graduation","description":"244 applications per job, new-grad hiring down 50%. What I told FIT ČVUT students on 5 November: 12 steps for the last year before the diploma, no CV.","inLanguage":"en","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https://www.marian.coach/blog/first-tech-job-after-graduation/"},"step":[{"@type":"HowToStep","position":1,"name":"Pick a domain outside IT","text":"Adam finds out he likes money and numbers, so he picks fintech. Almost anyone can write code with AI. Few people understand the business, and that is where a junior can still be rare. Finance, health, logistics, community, agriculture, whatever you already know from the inside."},{"@type":"HowToStep","position":2,"name":"Find your differentiator","text":"Adam grew up in his mom's accounting office, so he understands accounting from the inside, and almost nobody in his year does. What do you know that nobody else in your year knows? Hobbies, family business, the job you did during school, the town you come from."},{"@type":"HowToStep","position":3,"name":"Think in skills, not jobs","text":"Adam stops thinking \"I will be a Java developer\" and starts thinking \"code plus accounting plus I can explain it to people\". You are a portfolio of skills, not an employee. One role is one risk; a portfolio is more doors when one closes. Write your own three on one line and say it to the person next to you; if they can't repeat it back, it isn't a portfolio yet."},{"@type":"HowToStep","position":4,"name":"Build a pet project with real users","text":"Adam builds an app that tracks spending, posts it in his year's group chat, and 30 classmates use it. A project 30 people use says more than a grade, and the first 30 users are the people who already have your phone number."},{"@type":"HowToStep","position":5,"name":"Start a small business of your own","text":"Adam automates invoice matching for his mom's office, for money. Your first paying customer teaches you more than a semester: how to sell, how to deliver, and how to hear \"this does not work\" without arguing. The rule for money: charge for a product you own; give your time away only to buy access to a person who signs offers (step 12)."},{"@type":"HowToStep","position":6,"name":"Fix your digital footprint","text":"Adam puts the project on GitHub with a README, posts about it on LinkedIn, and builds a one-page personal site. Google yourself on your phone right now and look at what comes up first. If the answer is a 2019 Facebook photo, that is what the hiring manager sees too. A digital footprint check takes ten minutes by hand."},{"@type":"HowToStep","position":7,"name":"One coffee a month","text":"Every month Adam has coffee with one person from the industry. He asks for 20 minutes and one question, never for a job. Twelve coffees in a year is twelve people who know his name when a role opens on their team."},{"@type":"HowToStep","position":8,"name":"Go to meetups with a quota","text":"Adam came to COFIT. Then to an ELC meetup, then to the next one. The goal for every event is 3 new contacts and 1 follow-up within 24 hours. ELC runs 12 meetups a year with a median of 125 registrations each. The ELC Conference in Prague on 22 April 2027 takes student helpers; it is the cheapest way I know to spend a day next to 500 engineering leaders."},{"@type":"HowToStep","position":9,"name":"Speak before you are invited","text":"Adam writes to the organiser of the next student meetup and asks for 10 minutes to show his app. Do not wait to be invited, sign up yourself. I run 12 meetups a year and I am short of speakers far more often than I am short of seats; most organisers will say yes to a student who has built something. Few people in the room expect a student to be good; being clear is enough."},{"@type":"HowToStep","position":10,"name":"Write the 30-second pitch","text":"\"I'm Adam. I build tools for accountants. My automation saves my mom's office 6 hours a week. I'm looking for a fintech where I can do this at scale.\" Who you are, what you can do, what you are looking for."},{"@type":"HowToStep","position":11,"name":"Talk money and impact, not outputs","text":"Adam does not say \"I wrote a Python script\". He says \"I saved the office 6 hours a week\". Hiring managers hear outputs all day; the junior who talks in hours saved and invoices matched sounds like someone who has already worked. When the offer comes, the junior bands in Europe tell you what the number should be."},{"@type":"HowToStep","position":12,"name":"Take the internship, even unpaid","text":"Adam meets a fintech founder at a meetup and offers 2 months of work for free. I still work for free sometimes, because it buys access to people, and access is what a junior lacks most. Two unpaid months next to the person who signs offers beat a year of rejected applications."}]} ```