MAAHAAHMAD

Navigating my career

"Getting your first job is difficult, but it gets easier after that."

I hear this phrase often, and it never bothered me when I was still at university, with plenty of time before the job hunt would begin. But now that I've graduated, those words are starting to feel... different. I knew job hunting would be challenging, but I didn’t anticipate it would be this tough. Despite the many job listings on LinkedIn, the competition is overwhelming, with countless applicants vying for each position.

I used to think my struggle to find a job was due to a lack of formal corporate work experience. However, seeing my classmates — many with 2-3 years of experience — facing similar challenges made me realize just how saturated the UK’s tech market is. According to data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), there were 54,370 students pursuing postgraduate taught degrees in Computing in the UK during 2022/23. Based on trends from previous years, this number is likely to have increased in 2023/24.

I thought earning a master's degree would set me apart, but it wasn’t until I arrived in the UK that I realized how many others had the same idea. It quickly became clear that in order to stand out in this competitive job market, I needed to improve my skills — whether by creating personal projects or working as an unpaid research intern. Anything to enhance my CV and strengthen my portfolio. That’s where this personal website comes in: a place to showcase my projects and share my learnings as I navigate my career.

After diving into countless YouTube videos of creators sharing tips on landing a first job and scrolling through subreddits where people explain how they stood out, I’ve curated a list of actions I need to take:

  • Practice LeetCode to prepare for coding interviews and tests.
  • Build a personal project that solves a real-world problem or is genuinely useful to me — something interesting and original, not just a copy of a YouTube tutorial.
  • Attend career fairs and network with recruiters.
  • Explore job boards beyond LinkedIn.
  • Keep my options open, including the possibility of pursuing a PhD if I don’t land a job.

Leetcoding

Leetcode is one of the most popular platforms for students and job seekers to develop their coding skills by practicing data structures and algorithms. It offers a wide range of coding questions categorized as easy, medium, and hard, and allows users to solve them in their preferred programming language.

Many creators have curated lists of essential questions to practice for coding interviews, but two of the most well-known are:

  • NeetCode 150: A comprehensive list of 150 questions on data structures and algorithms, ideal for those who have time to dive deep
  • Blind 75: A shorter list of 75 questions for quick and targeted practice

Since I’m not very confident yet with data structures and algorithm problems, I’ve been following the NeetCode 150 list to improve my skills. Before tackling questions on a specific topic, like Arrays, I review the learning materials listed on this resourceful GitHub page. Compiled by an Amazon Software Developer, the resources on this page were what he used to secure a job at Amazon.

I’ve learned that the best way to practice is to keep track of the questions I’ve attempted, take notes on optimizing solutions, and revisit questions that took me more than 20 minutes to figure out.

Personal Project

This is one I haven't cracked yet. I have too many ideas but I want to incorporate my software engineering skills with machine learning and that seems a bit difficult.

Career Fairs

Since Sheffield doesn’t host many career fairs beyond those organized by the university, I had to look for opportunities nearby. That’s when I discovered STEM Women, an organization that hosts career fairs specifically for women in STEM fields seeking graduate roles, placements, and internships. They hold events across the UK, Europe, and Australia.

I’ve attended two of their events in London, where I had the chance to network with recruiters, understand their selection processes, and learn how to confidently introduce myself to industry professionals. These experiences also helped me overcome my fear of speaking with people working in the tech industry.

What helped me communicate effectively with recruiters was preparing a list of questions beforehand. These questions covered topics like the application process, expectations for graduates, and company culture. A full list of questions is available to download here

Job boards (that are not LinkedIn)

PhD?

For the longest time, finding a job was my top priority. However, soon after graduating, I realized I couldn’t limit myself to just one path. To move forward, I needed to keep my options open and take any opportunity that would make me feel productive, rather than falling into a rut. Job hunting can become depressing very quickly, and I don’t want to spend months searching for a role only to have my post-study work visa expire, leaving me with nothing to do.

My dissertation and research internship gave me experience in reading research papers, extracting key information, and discussing plans with my supervisor. While this is just scratching the surface of what a PhD entails, it’s a solid starting point for understanding the process. So far, I’ve enjoyed the research experience - it's taught me far more than my university classes ever did. I think the key difference was the independence I had to explore, experiment, fail, and then learn even more along the way.

As an international student, I have to put in extra effort when searching for a PhD, as most PhD programs aren’t fully funded for international students, and the ones that are tend to be highly competitive. To build my experience and strengthen my profile, I decided to work as a research intern for my lecturers. This role is giving me hands on experience and I'm hoping I would get to publish a paper in a reputable journal such as IEEE or InterSpeech.

While researching different domains of Machine Learning, I discovered my passion for applying ML in the healthcare field. Projects in this domain are particularly intriguing, with some even involving the use of robots—a field that fascinates me. Many of these projects combine speech and language processing with computer vision, both of which have significant industry applications. For instance, companies like Amazon and Apple are always seeking ML researchers to enhance their products.

In Europe, most PhD programs open applications in September, but some professors accept students for their labs throughout the year. My strategy involves researching professors at universities working in fields that interest me, reaching out to them via email to introduce my qualifications, and inquiring about their labs and the specific skills or expertise they’re looking for.

The European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) has PhD programs