Abdullah Shirzoi

Interview with: Veysel Cetiner

Career Path Interview

For my professional development assignment, I interviewed Veysel Cetiner, who has a master’s degree in computer science from University of Maryland College Park. I did an internship in cyber security with Mr. Cetiner from September 2022 – January 2023. Mr. Cetiner is a suitable person for the interview because he has extensive knowledge of computer science with more than 20 years’ experience in software engineering.

My interview with Mr. Cetiner was heavily focused on getting my first entry-level job as a software engineer. Mr. Cetiner walked me through his approach to getting his first ever software engineering job. Since there are so many programming languages Mr. Cetiner advised me to learn one to the best of my knowledge and have a basic understanding of other languages in programming. For example, he told me to learn Java (a programming language) extensively and have a basic understanding of C++ (a programming language). Meanwhile, he advised me to build my projects and publish them online. Mr. Cetiner advised me to focus on improving my soft skills and technical skills in order to be successful in getting my first job and throughout my career as a software engineer.

Software engineering can be tedious and stressful. Mr. Cetiner and I talked about work-life balance, and he advised me not to overwork myself with writing software’s. He emphasized on health and personal happiness should be my priority in life. Software engineering jobs are sedentary jobs, which can cause physical inactivity because of sitting for too long behind a computer-- that emits blue lights which are harmful to eyes and even skin. Mr. Cetiner gave me a list of things that I need to work on and improve for the next six months that increases my chance of getting a job as a software engineer. The list is as follows:

1. Mindset: He emphasized on being committed to self-learning most and making sure to ask questions from professionals.

2. Career research: He asked me to do good research on the tech industry and I must make sure if this is what I want to do as a career.

3. Resume: He discussed the importance of having a professional looking resume is crucial in getting a job.

4. Personal projects: He advised me to write a website and put my personal side projects on the website and publish it. (Note: My website will be similar to the e-portfolio)

5. Job Description: He asked me to look over the job description and align myself with the job description in terms of soft skills and technical skills. 

6. Actively applying: He told me to keep applying for software engineering jobs.

7. Connection: He asked me to improve my LinkedIn account so it can attract employees.

My interview with Mr. Cetiner was great, he gives me a clear insight into what a software engineer career might be like. Two key things that I learned from Mr. Cetiner are:

1. Improving my communication skills and making good connections. 

2. Being happy whatever I do and having the patience to achieve my goal.

During my interview, Mr. Cetiner emphasized on the importance of clear and concise communication on getting a job. He advised me to practice in front of the mirror and record myself and find my mistakes. The reason he talked about the communication skills is because I was kind of stressed while interviewing him and I was stuttering. I also told him how I get rejected from some job interviews because I struggled speaking clearly and I sounded stressed out.

 To improve my speaking skills in interviews he advised me to search up interview questions online and practice them and write my answers to the questions. Then, record me saying the answers or doing a mock interview. Doing so, I believe, will help me in my professional life, in making good connections with people and increasing my chances of passing the interviews.

The second thing I learned from Mr. Cetiner is to be happy and patient in achieving my goals in life. For the past couple months, I have been stressing out about getting a job as a software engineer and trying to get one. Unfortunately, for the most part I was focusing on the wrong things and getting rejected all the time. Mr. Cetiner advised me to enjoy the process and stay consistent in my approach to success as a software engineer and in life in general. This advice relieved me and helped me to focus on improving myself every day, rather than stressing out about things that do not matter. Letting myself being happy and enjoying the process also increases my productivity throughout the day, as a result I can hyper focus on my daily studies of computer science.