5 year Gap in dev career , how to recover it now ?
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In addition to what Richard (and others) said, I recommend building a non-trivial (start simple, then add complexity) web app that you can host at a cheap ASP .NET host in order to be able to demo to a potential employer. Nothing says "I can code" like demonstratable running code. Good luck! :thumbsup: /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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Other members already suggested enough ideas. Check this bunch for web related things Beginner's Walk - Web Development[^] and buy/rent few books from this bunch Useful Reference Books[^] That's it.
thatraja
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Other members already suggested enough ideas. Check this bunch for web related things Beginner's Walk - Web Development[^] and buy/rent few books from this bunch Useful Reference Books[^] That's it.
thatraja
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How to get back on track ? I know C#( worked for a year ), I was really good in C during student life (Computer science and engineering grad) as well. Now want to do MVC, very little knowledge of HTML and CSS. Can anyone give me some idea how to make myself fit for a job by Jan'2014 ?? its not a joke. (I am jobless at the moment ). by the way I am in UK.
At the end of the day, what hiring managers really care about are a) Can you get the job done b) Are you dependable, honest and a good guy to work with The advice here is solid. Get your skills brushed up, be honest and take any junior gig you can get. That gets you back in the game. Once you have a seat at the table and your tech skills are back where they should be, you can always look for another gig at a more realistic pay rate.
Christopher Duncan Author of Unite the Tribes: Leadership Skills for Technology Managers Have Fun, Get Paid: How to Make a Living with Your Creativity The Career Programmer
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At the end of the day, what hiring managers really care about are a) Can you get the job done b) Are you dependable, honest and a good guy to work with The advice here is solid. Get your skills brushed up, be honest and take any junior gig you can get. That gets you back in the game. Once you have a seat at the table and your tech skills are back where they should be, you can always look for another gig at a more realistic pay rate.
Christopher Duncan Author of Unite the Tribes: Leadership Skills for Technology Managers Have Fun, Get Paid: How to Make a Living with Your Creativity The Career Programmer
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How to get back on track ? I know C#( worked for a year ), I was really good in C during student life (Computer science and engineering grad) as well. Now want to do MVC, very little knowledge of HTML and CSS. Can anyone give me some idea how to make myself fit for a job by Jan'2014 ?? its not a joke. (I am jobless at the moment ). by the way I am in UK.
If you were out of work entirely, you'll need to be able to explain at some level why that happened and give potential employers reason to believe you're serious about returning to the workforce and won't end up bailing on them shortly after being hired. Local legislation may, and probably does, set limits beyond which a potential employer isn't allowed to ask; but I can't offer any guidance on what UK law says about the matter. If you were working in a different field, you'll similarly need to be able to answer questions about what drove your shifts.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
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If I were you, based on your description here, I'd apply for junior level development positions. However, as you have very little knowledge of HTML and CSS, I would recommend that you buy some good books and spend a lot of time catching up on MVC, HTML and CSS, as well as C#.
This is good advice, even low level computer jobs pay good compared to other options. Also, after you have a year or 2 under your belt with a new 'junior' job, don't stay satisfied at that position, start moving up, or move to another company. In just a few short years, everyone will forget about that 'missing' time period when your career had a false start. Edit: I learn the most new skills when I start a new job. Just getting the job is 90% of the work. At the new job, always ask to work on the project that uses the technology you most want to learn for your career.
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How to get back on track ? I know C#( worked for a year ), I was really good in C during student life (Computer science and engineering grad) as well. Now want to do MVC, very little knowledge of HTML and CSS. Can anyone give me some idea how to make myself fit for a job by Jan'2014 ?? its not a joke. (I am jobless at the moment ). by the way I am in UK.
Free of charge ebooks from Microsoft ... Plenty content to keep you busy including MVC http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mssmallbiz/archive/2012/07/27/large-collection-of-free-microsoft-ebooks-for-you-including-sharepoint-visual-studio-windows-phone-windows-8-office-365-office-2010-sql-server-2012-azure-and-more.aspx[^] and http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mssmallbiz/archive/2012/07/30/another-large-collection-of-free-microsoft-ebooks-and-resource-kits-for-you-including-sharepoint-2013-office-2013-office-365-duet-2-0-azure-cloud-windows-phone-lync-dynamics-crm-and-more.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0[^]
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your advice is solid, even for the junior roles interview technical skills that all companies care for. so no chance to get somethings unless I am really have skill that up and running.
fatema wrote:
even for the junior roles interview technical skills that all companies care for
Not necessarily. I have a job doing MVC, HTML, JQuery, C#, SQL. Of those, the only skills I brought in were C# and SQL (and I was 2 generations behind on those). I had 0 experience doing any web development at all. What matters is can you communicate with technical people in a technical way, and believe it or not... first impression (do they like you) matters a lot, even before you start the interview.
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How to get back on track ? I know C#( worked for a year ), I was really good in C during student life (Computer science and engineering grad) as well. Now want to do MVC, very little knowledge of HTML and CSS. Can anyone give me some idea how to make myself fit for a job by Jan'2014 ?? its not a joke. (I am jobless at the moment ). by the way I am in UK.
Good at C? Linux or AV company. As long as you're on the fortunate 0.1% understanding what an *(unsigned char *)buffer++ = '\0'; is, or how to revert a single linked list, you're good to go. The rest is experience - that won't come from a resume. Start checking a (beginner) position [^] on either C# or C, whatever fits you better. Best line from "Finding Forrester" when Sean Connery tells to the youngster how to write: "No thinking - that comes later. You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is… to write, not to think!" Seems pretty good when programming, too. (That if you'll not be too busy doing meetings instead of coding, of course).
Nuclear launch detected
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your advice is solid, even for the junior roles interview technical skills that all companies care for. so no chance to get somethings unless I am really have skill that up and running.
The bottom line for any job is that you have to be able to deliver the goods, so first on your list is getting your skills up to par. You might consider taking whatever kind of non tech job that you can get right now just to keep the bills paid. Above and beyond getting the money you need to survive, a priority would be making sure you can work 40 hours and be done, giving you the time you need after work to study, code and get your programming skills polished. You might also consider looking for a very small scale volunteer project as you study. Perhaps some non profit organization or local hobby / special interest group that needs a web site but has no technical capabilities. This gives you a real world app to work on as you learn (which I always find more educational than just doing book examples), but it also gives you something to put on your resume with that skill set. Once you're ready, update the resume and look for a junior level job to get you back into the game. When you find it, you give the temp job two weeks notice (always be a professional even if it's washing dishes), and off you go. It's not something you'll get done by January, but depending how hard you study, you could still be back in the coding biz in a matter of months.
Christopher Duncan Author of Unite the Tribes: Leadership Skills for Technology Managers Have Fun, Get Paid: How to Make a Living with Your Creativity The Career Programmer
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Good at C? Linux or AV company. As long as you're on the fortunate 0.1% understanding what an *(unsigned char *)buffer++ = '\0'; is, or how to revert a single linked list, you're good to go. The rest is experience - that won't come from a resume. Start checking a (beginner) position [^] on either C# or C, whatever fits you better. Best line from "Finding Forrester" when Sean Connery tells to the youngster how to write: "No thinking - that comes later. You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is… to write, not to think!" Seems pretty good when programming, too. (That if you'll not be too busy doing meetings instead of coding, of course).
Nuclear launch detected
Cristian Amarie wrote:
*(unsigned char *)buffer++ = '\0';
Man, I miss the days when C / C++ ruled the Earth. I miss the dinosaurs, too. Just not as much. They always made a mess of my front yard.
Christopher Duncan Author of Unite the Tribes: Leadership Skills for Technology Managers Have Fun, Get Paid: How to Make a Living with Your Creativity The Career Programmer
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How to get back on track ? I know C#( worked for a year ), I was really good in C during student life (Computer science and engineering grad) as well. Now want to do MVC, very little knowledge of HTML and CSS. Can anyone give me some idea how to make myself fit for a job by Jan'2014 ?? its not a joke. (I am jobless at the moment ). by the way I am in UK.
The big question is, what have you been doing for five years? Is it something that will lend itself to being useful in a new position? Something worthy of putting on your resume, or have you been in the big-house?
Quad skating his way through the world since the early 80's... Booger Mobile - My bright green 1964 Ford Falcon - check out the blog here!! | If you feel generous - make a donation to Camp Quality!!
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How to get back on track ? I know C#( worked for a year ), I was really good in C during student life (Computer science and engineering grad) as well. Now want to do MVC, very little knowledge of HTML and CSS. Can anyone give me some idea how to make myself fit for a job by Jan'2014 ?? its not a joke. (I am jobless at the moment ). by the way I am in UK.
You need to go all out. Buy cheap old PC's from ebay, fit them out with all the free stuff, do a few practice projects in c/c++/c# on Linux, which is all free. Start a project or two, tout a product around local businesses - it doesn't have to be brilliant, it's just that you can claim on your CV that this is 'commercial experience', without lying. Open an account with Abe books and buy LOTS of cheap, used programming books to work through. When going to interviews, you've got to be able to talk the talk. This is not commercial, but you can claim 'familiarity' with all the tech; expand from C/C# and try out (free) Python, (free) Ruby etc. C/C# are a natural fit for Interop, get used to building C library functions to be consumed by C# apps; if you're on windows there are free 'express' versions of Visual Studio. And practice, practice, practice! Then, when your CV looks good(a MS Word template looks good if you have the luxury - if not, do it on a friend's machine, then when you put the CV back on your Libre-office free wp, evrything will stay where it is meant to), HIT THE AGENCIES! Job sites? CWJobs is a good one. Build experience with the agents. Once you've got a track record they'll often keep feeding you leads because you show. Good hunting! :-D
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How to get back on track ? I know C#( worked for a year ), I was really good in C during student life (Computer science and engineering grad) as well. Now want to do MVC, very little knowledge of HTML and CSS. Can anyone give me some idea how to make myself fit for a job by Jan'2014 ?? its not a joke. (I am jobless at the moment ). by the way I am in UK.
Ummm... "get back on track"? What track do you want to get back onto ? You say you did C# and C. Now you want MVC, HTML, CSS. First of all, do you know what position are you targeting? Or what particular type of project? You must first determine what is it that you want. In the "real programming world", C programming is nothing like college, trust me. But if you were any good at it, you must have some solid knowledge about data structures. First go with that and study some more. Add some algorithms and design patterns to your study list, and you're good to start pretty much anywhere a little above the beginner level. Moving on... C#... this is a rather generic language. Did you do desktop or web applications? Did you like it ? After answering this, you can choose a path to follow. There are a lot of books out there, some good, some better, some garbage. This is not that important, anyone can read a book, but what matters is what you can do after reading that book. Practice, practice, practice! As someone else replied, if you're satisfied with the results of your studies (small projects and homework), you could make yourself an online portfolio. Probably it will not matter much, but you will be doing something which you can show if necessary. Also, you can get some self esteem from this too. And most importantly, when applying for a job, be flexible, ask about personal improvement, be open to negotiation (regarding not only salary, but also position and projects). Be aware of what you know, be honest, and most importantly, be open. And get ready to relive the student years, because you will most likely have to learn a lot of stuff after you get a job.
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How to get back on track ? I know C#( worked for a year ), I was really good in C during student life (Computer science and engineering grad) as well. Now want to do MVC, very little knowledge of HTML and CSS. Can anyone give me some idea how to make myself fit for a job by Jan'2014 ?? its not a joke. (I am jobless at the moment ). by the way I am in UK.
Take a look at http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/#?fbid=C5_8bh7ClVt[^]. It's Free Microsoft Training Delivered by Experts.
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How to get back on track ? I know C#( worked for a year ), I was really good in C during student life (Computer science and engineering grad) as well. Now want to do MVC, very little knowledge of HTML and CSS. Can anyone give me some idea how to make myself fit for a job by Jan'2014 ?? its not a joke. (I am jobless at the moment ). by the way I am in UK.
HTML and CSS are pretty easy to learn, HTML is a tag language, while CSS is for giving style to these tags for presentation, you can find plenty of tutorials about both on the Internet, I learned a lot about HTML from some dead simple tutorials, but this was many, many years ago, so I can't find them anymore. Also, you may also want to add JavaScript to the HTML/CSS mix, as it's necessary for interactivity. Your mayor problem will be wrapping around the MVC concept, especially if you were doing something with Windows Forms/ASP.NET when you were using C#.
CEO at: - Rafaga Systems - Para Facturas - Modern Components for the moment...
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How to get back on track ? I know C#( worked for a year ), I was really good in C during student life (Computer science and engineering grad) as well. Now want to do MVC, very little knowledge of HTML and CSS. Can anyone give me some idea how to make myself fit for a job by Jan'2014 ?? its not a joke. (I am jobless at the moment ). by the way I am in UK.
Hi, fatema. I think that a good start point for you should be get a Microsoft Certification (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/certification-overview.aspx[^]). You said that you already know how to program, maybe MTA certifications should be easer for you. http://www.asp.net/mvc[^] is a good place to study. Good luck! :)
André Maia
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Cristian Amarie wrote:
*(unsigned char *)buffer++ = '\0';
Man, I miss the days when C / C++ ruled the Earth. I miss the dinosaurs, too. Just not as much. They always made a mess of my front yard.
Christopher Duncan Author of Unite the Tribes: Leadership Skills for Technology Managers Have Fun, Get Paid: How to Make a Living with Your Creativity The Career Programmer
Well, I usually feel like on the extinction verge. But working on Bitdefender there isn't a single day without guts. Just finished a meeting for the next version optimizer - should be freeze processes with NtSuspendProcess or registering ourselves as a debugger and do a some form of Break All? Now *that's* the stuff I wanna do. Not jerking around yet another [fill spaces].JS library larger than user32.dll or discovering some new json database after working with ODBC for years.
Nuclear launch detected
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How to get back on track ? I know C#( worked for a year ), I was really good in C during student life (Computer science and engineering grad) as well. Now want to do MVC, very little knowledge of HTML and CSS. Can anyone give me some idea how to make myself fit for a job by Jan'2014 ?? its not a joke. (I am jobless at the moment ). by the way I am in UK.
fatema wrote:
How to get back on track ?
And how long were you a developer? And what have you been doing since then? If you did in fact have a number years as a professional developer and you have been working in a specific industry since then then the obvious path would be to use your domain knowledge of that industry to land a job as a developer in that industry. If you don't have real development experience in the past (like 5 years) then you are starting from scratch.