Frequently Asked Questions 📄

Here are some FAQs about Skyrocket. I hope you find the answers you are looking for. If not, no worries! Just send me your question through the "Contact" link in the navigation bar.

What is Skyrocket?

In case you missed the description in the homepage, Skyrocket is a free compendium of resources, tips, and techniques, for students and professionals alike, to skyrocket their technology careers by discovering their full potential during the pursuit of their dream job.

Why is Skyrocket necessary?

Would you agree when I say changing jobs is an exhausting process? Many people would. It involves hours and hours each of job search, interview preparation, connecting with recruiters, giving interviews, negotiating the offers, evaluating the offers, accepting or rejecting the offers, and contemplating rejections.

During your job search, you may have a hard time dealing with questions like:

• How do I get more callbacks from recruiters?

• How to prepare for behavioral questions?

• What's the best way to prepare for technical interviews?

• How to land multiple job offers at once?

• How to negotiate with the recruiter for better compensation?

At every step of the job change process, whenever you face these kinds of questions, you would usually Google them and probably read dozens of articles and guides to understand the correct way of doing something. While it's okay to find things on your own, bear in mind that time is ticking away. For every hour you spend trying to find the right answer or trying to get started, other candidates are making progress on their job applications and getting closer to accepting their offers. Also, do you know that it's an extremely competitive market out there?

So, instead of spending all your valuable time trying to find resources from all over the internet, Skyrocket will serve as a go-to place to find answers to all your questions related to job search, interview preparation, interviewing tips, offer negotiation, and many more!

How does Skyrocket help me?

Although the process of switching jobs can be daunting and exhausting, one thing that will calm your mind during the process is an assurance that you are on the right track. The tips and techniques shown in Skyrocket are neither invented by me nor are they a figment of my imagination. During my job search, I had to go through hundreds of online resources—like YouTube videos, blogs, guides, tutorials, etc.—to find the answers I was looking for. At that time, I wished there was a single go-to place to learn the dos and don'ts of job search and interviewing; which is exactly what Skyrocket is.

How Skyrocket came to be, and what it offers.

Is Skyrocket useful to me, particularly?

Skyrocket works best for you if you are in one of the following boats:

• You are a working professional who's looking to switch jobs.

• You are a student who's looking for internships, co-ops, or full-time opportunities.

• You are a working professional in a different domain but are looking to switch careers to technology.

• You are in one of the boats above but are not keen on a job search just yet: you might be interested to begin a job search in the future but want to make sure you understand the process.

• You are in none of the boats above but are just interested to improve your marketability, and want to casually learn the dos and don'ts of the job search process.

What are technology careers?

A career in technology is any job that specializes in planning, analyzing, designing, architecting, implementing, testing, integrating, deploying, maintaining, securing, monitoring, and managing software, computer systems, computer networks, infrastructure, and data systems. Some of the frequent domains and job titles you see in technology are:

• Software development: Software Developer, Software Engineer, Software Development Engineer, Programmer, <Language> Developer (like Java Developer or Python Developer).

• Quality Assurance (QA): Manual Tester, Automation Tester, QA Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET), Product Specialist, Quality Analyst.

• Project/Product Management: Product Manager, Program Manager, Technical Product Manager, Scrum Master, Agile Coach.

• DevSecOps: DevOps Engineer, Security Engineer, Build Engineer, Automation Engineer, Release Engineer, Site Reliability Engineer.

• Web development: Frontend Engineer, Backend Engineer, Full-Stack Engineer, Web Developer, Web Designer.

• Systems: Systems Development Engineer, Computer Systems Analyst, Software Architect, Systems Architect, Systems Administrator, IT Manager, Computer Hardware Engineer.

• Database: Database Engineer, Database Administrator, Database Architect, SQL Developer.

• Networks: Network Engineer, Network Architect, Network Administrator.

• CyberSecurity: Information Security Analyst, CybserSecurity Analyst, Penetration Tester, Security Administrator, Security Architect, Cryptographer, Data Security Analyst, Security Operations Center (SOC) Analyst.

• Data science: Data Scientist, Data Analyst, Machine Learning Engineer, Data Engineer, Business Intelligence Developer, Statistician.

Who is the author of Skyrocket?

My name is Sai Maddikonda. I am a Software Development Engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS).

At the time of writing this, I had recently switched jobs and joined one of my dream companies to work for (Amazon). So, even I had put myself through this exhausting job change process. Even I had faced many questions like the ones I listed above. Even I had to read hundreds of tutorials, guides, and blogs, and watch dozens of YouTube videos to navigate myself through the process.

But after I had came out successfully from the other end, I began to think: it's not just me; there must be many other people out there who face the same problems and have the same questions while doing their job search. I wanted to share the resources I had come across with the people who are struggling with changing their jobs. Essentially, I wanted to give back to the community for earning some good karma! These resources immensely helped me through my process; I hope they will be helpful in yours too.

How do I get started?

Awesome, let's get started.

• Explore the Table of contents below to get a sense of what topics are covered in this compendium.

• Feel free to skip to a specific section of your interest, but I strongly recommend you to start with Getting Started.

• You can also find more questions and answers about Skyrocket in Frequently Asked Questions.

• You can learn about the recent content additions and updates on the Recent Updates page.

• At the bottom of each page, you will see a mechanism to give your feedback, like shown in the image below: Please give your honest feedback, as it will help me to improve the content.

• If you have more specific feedback—other than just 'happy', 'meh', or 'sad' smileys—please feel free to reach out to me on my Contact page.

• You can also follow Skyrocket's Facebook page to know the latest updates and to contact me there using the page's Facebook Messenger.

Cheers and good luck with your job search!