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? <.>
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
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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
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
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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
I figured you knew that - however, anyone outside the UK/inside the UK but too young to remember, would need extra guidance; hence my putting his name in, and saying that PV 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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My reply is that they would still not have made good employees. They wanted to create their own path, and probably would have made a bad entry level drone.
I understood your reply. It was Mark's that I was commenting on.
"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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Sounds like a dream XD What kind of work did you do?
Embedded software for Visual Display Terminals. I left a couple of years after the PC came out - it was the right time as the terminal market died a death shortly after and the company folder a few years later. I can't claim any sort of foresight though - the company was moving offices and I didn't want to relocate. Took the redundancy money and had a very nice summer, thank you! :-D
Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water
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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.
I'm not picky. I'd rather work $8 an hour programming than $8 an hour in retail. *shivers* Best Buy and Food Lion... two companies I'll never work for again...
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I'm not picky. I'd rather work $8 an hour programming than $8 an hour in retail. *shivers* Best Buy and Food Lion... two companies I'll never work for again...
No you wouldn't. $8 an hour retail means you get to go home at the end of your shift. You can switch off. $8 and hour programming means they own your butt - and will work you into the ground, because you like what they let you do. Paid overtime? Hah! 5 day weeks? But we need this for the end of the month!
Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water
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I understood your reply. It was Mark's that I was commenting on.
"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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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? <.>
Im from mexico, but i also lose some time trough college, began to work at 25. But you shouldnt hurry to get to wrok and enjoy college(if posible), for me college was really fun (hanging with my friends, getting drunk everytime posible, having girlfriend), you should try to enjoy it. Since i began to work i have to little time for myself, let alone for fun, i have stuck several personal projects for quite some time... so my point (and advice) is try to have fun, if you are really enjoy developing and are good at it its a sure thing youll get a first work easily, at least here in mexico is quite simply to get a job for a developer, easier for a good one ;) . One last advice most likely your first work youll be working for peanuts, but then youll get some experience(just to put in your resume, doesnt mean anything else, at least as i see it), and then you can ask for a raise or change of job pretty easily. good luck.
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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? <.>
Without a degree you may need to be a little creative about your approach: Pick a company that you want to work for and apply for a tech support job. After letting the company get to know you, apply internally to transfer into development.
Jack of all trades ~ Master of none.
