How do you get your first job?
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I've been programming since I was in middle school nine years (almost 10) ago. I've known since then that this was the career for me. The only problem is, I can't find my first job. It doesn't help that I'm in a small town with no programming jobs. I'm slowly working towards a degree but due to two bad years, I feel I'm falling behind. I'm 22... I should have graduated by now but I haven't even earned my associates degree. I don't know if I can make it through 3 more years of college. It's very tempting to save up some money and just move to a big city with lots of jobs (like Seattle) but I'd have no guarantee that I'd get a job. I'm so bored with my life. I want to earn a living programming. How do you get your first programming job? <.>
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I've been programming since I was in middle school nine years (almost 10) ago. I've known since then that this was the career for me. The only problem is, I can't find my first job. It doesn't help that I'm in a small town with no programming jobs. I'm slowly working towards a degree but due to two bad years, I feel I'm falling behind. I'm 22... I should have graduated by now but I haven't even earned my associates degree. I don't know if I can make it through 3 more years of college. It's very tempting to save up some money and just move to a big city with lots of jobs (like Seattle) but I'd have no guarantee that I'd get a job. I'm so bored with my life. I want to earn a living programming. How do you get your first programming job? <.>
Stephen Dycus wrote:
two bad years
Stephen Dycus wrote:
I haven't even earned my associates degree
Stephen Dycus wrote:
I don't know if I can make it through 3 more years of college
Stephen Dycus wrote:
I'm so bored with my life
Stephen Dycus wrote:
How do you get your first programming job?
Hmm...
"the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "But you probably have the smoothest scrotum of any grown man" - Pete O'Hanlon (2012) -
I've been programming since I was in middle school nine years (almost 10) ago. I've known since then that this was the career for me. The only problem is, I can't find my first job. It doesn't help that I'm in a small town with no programming jobs. I'm slowly working towards a degree but due to two bad years, I feel I'm falling behind. I'm 22... I should have graduated by now but I haven't even earned my associates degree. I don't know if I can make it through 3 more years of college. It's very tempting to save up some money and just move to a big city with lots of jobs (like Seattle) but I'd have no guarantee that I'd get a job. I'm so bored with my life. I want to earn a living programming. How do you get your first programming job? <.>
Stephen, as pointless as it may be, I still recommend getting some degree. I won't hire someone without one. I will also confirm they graduated. You might be able to impress with pure talent, but it shows you have the commitment to see something through. I really wouldn't care if it took you 7 years just to get an Associates; I spent 6 years on my B.S. working alongside classes. I was 24 when I graduated, and it didn't really matter how old I was when I finished or how long it took me. Don't move before you get a job though.
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Stephen Dycus wrote:
two bad years
Stephen Dycus wrote:
I haven't even earned my associates degree
Stephen Dycus wrote:
I don't know if I can make it through 3 more years of college
Stephen Dycus wrote:
I'm so bored with my life
Stephen Dycus wrote:
How do you get your first programming job?
Hmm...
"the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "But you probably have the smoothest scrotum of any grown man" - Pete O'Hanlon (2012)Two Bad Years: I got stressed out trying to keep an apartment my first year at a university so I flunked out (aced Java at least lol). Then the next year I wasted a year of my life working two part time jobs trying to keep the apartment but eventually was evicted. Don't really understand why you quoted the rest... I don't have an associates degree but I have far more experience than the guys that do. (like the one's I tutor at my current community college). I've almost finished my android 2D engine while the students here are still struggling on OOP concepts. : / I *don't* know if I can make it three more years. I suppose the two years earning my bachelors degree will be fun. I'd love to take an algorithms class or an ASM class. But I'm not looking forward to finishing up my fluff classes to get to that point. I AM bored with my life. I feel stuck. I don't have a job, I live with my mom, and frankly I feel pathetic. I'm ready to grow up and move on to the next stage of my life... Question still stands.
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I've been programming since I was in middle school nine years (almost 10) ago. I've known since then that this was the career for me. The only problem is, I can't find my first job. It doesn't help that I'm in a small town with no programming jobs. I'm slowly working towards a degree but due to two bad years, I feel I'm falling behind. I'm 22... I should have graduated by now but I haven't even earned my associates degree. I don't know if I can make it through 3 more years of college. It's very tempting to save up some money and just move to a big city with lots of jobs (like Seattle) but I'd have no guarantee that I'd get a job. I'm so bored with my life. I want to earn a living programming. How do you get your first programming job? <.>
Stephen Dycus wrote:
How do you get your first programming job?
Nepotism. Pure and simple. I was lucky enough to be friends with somebody who used to play golf with a guy called Peter Vardy who ran a car company called Reg Vardy's (at that stage, they were the largest independent car dealer in the UK). PV mentioned he was looking for someone to write software for them, and Des mentioned me. This was back in the 80s, and I was lucky enough to work from their Specialist Car Division (i.e. where the Ferrari, Aston Martin, Jags, etc, were sold). My office looked out onto a car lot that contained roughly £30M worth of cars.
*pre-emptive celebratory nipple tassle jiggle* - Sean Ewington
"Mind bleach! Send me mind bleach!" - Nagy Vilmos
CodeStash - Online Snippet Management | My blog | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier
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Two Bad Years: I got stressed out trying to keep an apartment my first year at a university so I flunked out (aced Java at least lol). Then the next year I wasted a year of my life working two part time jobs trying to keep the apartment but eventually was evicted. Don't really understand why you quoted the rest... I don't have an associates degree but I have far more experience than the guys that do. (like the one's I tutor at my current community college). I've almost finished my android 2D engine while the students here are still struggling on OOP concepts. : / I *don't* know if I can make it three more years. I suppose the two years earning my bachelors degree will be fun. I'd love to take an algorithms class or an ASM class. But I'm not looking forward to finishing up my fluff classes to get to that point. I AM bored with my life. I feel stuck. I don't have a job, I live with my mom, and frankly I feel pathetic. I'm ready to grow up and move on to the next stage of my life... Question still stands.
Stephen Dycus wrote:
I'm ready to grow up and move on to the next stage of my life
work your f'n ass off and do what needs to get done, even if you don't like it. Focusing on how boring your life is and how you feel pathetic is a great start in the wrong direction.
Stephen Dycus wrote:
Don't really understand why you quoted the rest.
Hmmm...
"the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "But you probably have the smoothest scrotum of any grown man" - Pete O'Hanlon (2012) -
Stephen, as pointless as it may be, I still recommend getting some degree. I won't hire someone without one. I will also confirm they graduated. You might be able to impress with pure talent, but it shows you have the commitment to see something through. I really wouldn't care if it took you 7 years just to get an Associates; I spent 6 years on my B.S. working alongside classes. I was 24 when I graduated, and it didn't really matter how old I was when I finished or how long it took me. Don't move before you get a job though.
wizardzz wrote:
I won't hire someone without one
So you wouldn't hire Bill Gates or Paul Allen or Larry Ellison? Quite myopic to preclude people simply on the basis that they didn't complete an education that you happen to approve of.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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Stephen Dycus wrote:
How do you get your first programming job?
Nepotism. Pure and simple. I was lucky enough to be friends with somebody who used to play golf with a guy called Peter Vardy who ran a car company called Reg Vardy's (at that stage, they were the largest independent car dealer in the UK). PV mentioned he was looking for someone to write software for them, and Des mentioned me. This was back in the 80s, and I was lucky enough to work from their Specialist Car Division (i.e. where the Ferrari, Aston Martin, Jags, etc, were sold). My office looked out onto a car lot that contained roughly £30M worth of cars.
*pre-emptive celebratory nipple tassle jiggle* - Sean Ewington
"Mind bleach! Send me mind bleach!" - Nagy Vilmos
CodeStash - Online Snippet Management | My blog | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier
Wasn't he the driver in 'On The Buses'? :-)
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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I've been programming since I was in middle school nine years (almost 10) ago. I've known since then that this was the career for me. The only problem is, I can't find my first job. It doesn't help that I'm in a small town with no programming jobs. I'm slowly working towards a degree but due to two bad years, I feel I'm falling behind. I'm 22... I should have graduated by now but I haven't even earned my associates degree. I don't know if I can make it through 3 more years of college. It's very tempting to save up some money and just move to a big city with lots of jobs (like Seattle) but I'd have no guarantee that I'd get a job. I'm so bored with my life. I want to earn a living programming. How do you get your first programming job? <.>
I didn't get my degree until I was 25. But from personal experience here in the UK I found that 99.9% of job adverts that I read require programmers to have a degree of some kind but preferably in a maths or computing background.
Lobster Thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce, served in a Provençale manner with shallots and aubergines, garnished with truffle pate, brandy and a fried egg on top and Spam - Monty Python Spam Sketch
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Wasn't he the driver in 'On The Buses'? :-)
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
That was Varney, and you didn't make that joke around PV. He didn't have much of a sense of humour.
*pre-emptive celebratory nipple tassle jiggle* - Sean Ewington
"Mind bleach! Send me mind bleach!" - Nagy Vilmos
CodeStash - Online Snippet Management | My blog | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier
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I've been programming since I was in middle school nine years (almost 10) ago. I've known since then that this was the career for me. The only problem is, I can't find my first job. It doesn't help that I'm in a small town with no programming jobs. I'm slowly working towards a degree but due to two bad years, I feel I'm falling behind. I'm 22... I should have graduated by now but I haven't even earned my associates degree. I don't know if I can make it through 3 more years of college. It's very tempting to save up some money and just move to a big city with lots of jobs (like Seattle) but I'd have no guarantee that I'd get a job. I'm so bored with my life. I want to earn a living programming. How do you get your first programming job? <.>
My first real job - as opposed to part time when I was at school, or industrial training periods while I was at University ("thin sandwich" course, six months college, six months industry, repeat for four years), was with the company I did my final industrial training with. They liked what I did during the six months so they offered me a job for when I left Uni. I ended up there for ten years, and 5 or 6 promotions, multiplying my original salary by about 8 by the time I left.
Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water
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wizardzz wrote:
I won't hire someone without one
So you wouldn't hire Bill Gates or Paul Allen or Larry Ellison? Quite myopic to preclude people simply on the basis that they didn't complete an education that you happen to approve of.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
mark merrens wrote:
So you wouldn't hire Bill Gates or Paul Allen or Larry Ellison?
Who?
*pre-emptive celebratory nipple tassle jiggle* - Sean Ewington
"Mind bleach! Send me mind bleach!" - Nagy Vilmos
CodeStash - Online Snippet Management | My blog | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier
-
wizardzz wrote:
I won't hire someone without one
So you wouldn't hire Bill Gates or Paul Allen or Larry Ellison? Quite myopic to preclude people simply on the basis that they didn't complete an education that you happen to approve of.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
There are exceptions to every rule, except taxes and death. The point is, until Bill, Larry, or Paul made something of themself, they were no different than the guy with no college education.
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"Show me a community that obeys the Ten Commandments and I'll show you a less crowded prison system." - Anonymous
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Stephen Dycus wrote:
I'm ready to grow up and move on to the next stage of my life
work your f'n ass off and do what needs to get done, even if you don't like it. Focusing on how boring your life is and how you feel pathetic is a great start in the wrong direction.
Stephen Dycus wrote:
Don't really understand why you quoted the rest.
Hmmm...
"the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "But you probably have the smoothest scrotum of any grown man" - Pete O'Hanlon (2012)I *am* working hard. I took calc 2, Britsh Lit 2, Psy 1, and Mus Appr this semester. I'll be taking Astronomy, Biology, and Calc based Physics next semester... I just feel like 3 years is a looong time to wait to earn even a chance at a job. I'll be 25 at that point <.>
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I've been programming since I was in middle school nine years (almost 10) ago. I've known since then that this was the career for me. The only problem is, I can't find my first job. It doesn't help that I'm in a small town with no programming jobs. I'm slowly working towards a degree but due to two bad years, I feel I'm falling behind. I'm 22... I should have graduated by now but I haven't even earned my associates degree. I don't know if I can make it through 3 more years of college. It's very tempting to save up some money and just move to a big city with lots of jobs (like Seattle) but I'd have no guarantee that I'd get a job. I'm so bored with my life. I want to earn a living programming. How do you get your first programming job? <.>
My first IT interview went something along the lines of: "Can you start tomorrow?" "Yes" "Okay: you can work from home, I'll see that everything you need is delivered tomorrow." and I only went in on a Friday morning to get my time-sheet signed. Ah, happy days!
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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I've been programming since I was in middle school nine years (almost 10) ago. I've known since then that this was the career for me. The only problem is, I can't find my first job. It doesn't help that I'm in a small town with no programming jobs. I'm slowly working towards a degree but due to two bad years, I feel I'm falling behind. I'm 22... I should have graduated by now but I haven't even earned my associates degree. I don't know if I can make it through 3 more years of college. It's very tempting to save up some money and just move to a big city with lots of jobs (like Seattle) but I'd have no guarantee that I'd get a job. I'm so bored with my life. I want to earn a living programming. How do you get your first programming job? <.>
My first job was federal work study for a teacher at my college my freshman year. My second was an internship over summer. My third was another internship. My first job out of college was for a startup; I forget how I came across them, but it may have been a job board (e.g., Monster). I should note that my first couple jobs paid only $8/hour and one of them was doing QA ( X| ). If I were you, I wouldn't be too picky at first. I've never landed a job in a remote city, so I can't give you any advice in that area.
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wizardzz wrote:
I won't hire someone without one
So you wouldn't hire Bill Gates or Paul Allen or Larry Ellison? Quite myopic to preclude people simply on the basis that they didn't complete an education that you happen to approve of.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
Those are examples of people that left school to pursue their own companies. They wouldn't be applying for an entry level job. And if they did, they probably would not have been good employees. So yeah, I wouldn't hire someone without a degree that is expecting to walk into an entry level dev job, I'd assume they wouldn't last. Even Ellison, who worked odd jobs as a developer after dropping out, bounced around so much he would've been a bad hire.
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That was Varney, and you didn't make that joke around PV. He didn't have much of a sense of humour.
*pre-emptive celebratory nipple tassle jiggle* - Sean Ewington
"Mind bleach! Send me mind bleach!" - Nagy Vilmos
CodeStash - Online Snippet Management | My blog | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier
Pete O'Hanlon wrote:
That was Varney
Yes, I knew that: I was trying to be funny; plainly, failing miserably! :)
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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There are exceptions to every rule, except taxes and death. The point is, until Bill, Larry, or Paul made something of themself, they were no different than the guy with no college education.
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"Show me a community that obeys the Ten Commandments and I'll show you a less crowded prison system." - Anonymous
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My first real job - as opposed to part time when I was at school, or industrial training periods while I was at University ("thin sandwich" course, six months college, six months industry, repeat for four years), was with the company I did my final industrial training with. They liked what I did during the six months so they offered me a job for when I left Uni. I ended up there for ten years, and 5 or 6 promotions, multiplying my original salary by about 8 by the time I left.
Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water
