Finding (and getting) a beginner/entry level programming job
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If you don't have work experience, but you think you know enough to handle the job, prepare a portfolio - some software projects you've worked on that can demonstrate your best abilities.
Mention (in the cover letter if there's no good place in the resume) that you are willing to send it (and give a demonstration, on request) to whoever will be conducting the interview.
Where does one put a github account on a resume? Serious question.
Small companies and startups are most likely to go for this. Big companies will take one look at the lack of a computer science degree and will stop reading without ever letting someone important get a look.
Hm. I'm not sure whether that's unfortunate or not. Either way, I plan to go back to school once I can afford it, but I don't know that the degree will be in CS.
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will hit a fair majority of core language features
As an aside, working with files has always seemed to me to be a forgotten or neglected part of most language instruction I've come across.
And do Fibonacci both recursively and iteratively; it's a good way to compare the two approaches.
Oh, I know! One likes stack overflow and the other likes the Register
(Thanks for the ideas)
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But @Yamikuronue's already complained at me about some stuff I did in mafiabot, so obviously much further to go.
Honestly, what you need most is practice working with other devs. We keep stepping on each others toes in a way that @accalia, @raceprouk, and I don't, which is mostly just practice.
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@RaceProUK said:
will hit a fair majority of core language features
As an aside, working with files has always seemed to me to be a forgotten or neglected part of most language instruction I've come across.
I/O isn't really a language feature, but a library feature ;)
Still, it can't hurt to get used to the libraries as well.
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But @Yamikuronue's already complained at me about some stuff I did in mafiabot, so obviously much further to go.
you have the enthusiasm, that's good. can't teach that.
just need practice with working with others ;-)
we can help with that.
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Where does one put a github account on a resume? Serious question.
In this day and age, I don't see any problem putting a URL to the code in an appropriate resume section. Create a new section ("sample code"?) if nothing else seems appropriate. If the URL is too big for someone to type in, consider making a tiny URL that points to it. (The person reading your resume may not get your original soft-copy. They may get a printout or a PDF, or even a PDF scan of a printout. Which is why you want the URL to be something that can be comfortably typed in.)
The last time I did this was a long time ago. They asked for a code sample and I e-mailed them a zip file.
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Modulus? Cool doesn't even have a greater than operator.
Also,
x == yis syntactic sugar forx.equals(y), which can crash with a null pointer exception, which cannot be caught.
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Who designed this so-called programming language?
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Cool doesn't even have a greater than operator.
I guess I don't have to point out that's not very cool.
Who designed this so-called programming language?
A college professor, who else?
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∗Copyright © 1995–1996 by Alex Aiken. Copyright © 2000–2015 by John Boyland. All rights reserved.
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Slightly off-topic: Contracting used to be a good idea in hiring staff with confidance on their ability, but the employers had abused it as a way to "quickly find and squeeze any value out of the employee and discharge him on done" so I no longer have any interest on applying on jobs that claim to be "contract based first, will change to perm. after a year or so if performance is satisfactory" as I treat them as outright lies.
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That's fair, but for getting some quick experience under your belt and/or figuring out what types of work you like and dislike, short-term contracts without the intent to renew are what you'd want.
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Indeed. At least that's less risky than trying to get freelance job on your own.
I know of some people who encourage other to "be their own boss" and start freelance business, but feel that the freshman lacks experience to tell whether the client side is a good client or the warning signs in requirement detail (i.e.: factors affecting whether the project can close) and there's very high possibility to lead to dead end.
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I was in a similar situation when I was looking for my first programming job. My suggestion is to network some. Find the local hackerspace/makerspace and drop by. I guarantee you'll find some programmer types who need help with an open source project or something to benefit a school or whatever.
You then get experience working with someone on a project, some guidance growing as a programmer, and something you can put on a resume.
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Honestly, what you need most is practice working with other devs. We keep stepping on each others toes in a way that @accalia, @raceprouk, and I don't, which is mostly just practice.
just need practice with working with others
we can help with that.
Yeah, "other people" isn't exactly my strong point
The help is welcomed
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My suggestion is to network some. Find the local hackerspace/makerspace and drop by. I guarantee you'll find some programmer types who need help with an open source project or something to benefit a school or whatever.
You then get experience working with someone on a project, some guidance growing as a programmer, and something you can put on a resume.
Hm, maybe. I need to see if any of those things exist around here - although since there's at least three colleges/universities in the area, I suspect so.
Thanks.
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Yeah, "other people" isn't exactly my strong point
neither was it mine wehn i started working on sockbot.
then a little hedgehog started helping me with things, and i got better.
then a semiprecious stone and a .... yami.... joined and i got a lot better really fast.
if you have the will, there's a way forward.
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Hm, maybe. I need to see if any of those things exist around here - although since there's at least three colleges/universities in the area, I suspect so.
Thanks.
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Oo, convenient! Thanks!
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That's going to be difficult (I'm still going to try). I'm not the most social person,
Nor am I, but if you want to win the game you gotta play ball.
Do what you gotta do to cope. Schedule a long break after a handshaking session. Do the jibber jabber over the phone or Skype. Once you get a few years on your resume, it gets a hell of a lot easier.
BTW, I hope you've thought of this, but you will have to interact with co-workers. That's not optional.
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Where does one put a github account on a resume? Serious question.
Just above the pink pony, but to the left of the dark purple one with the moon icon.
Serious answer.
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Do what you gotta do to cope. Schedule a long break after a handshaking session. Do the jibber jabber over the phone or Skype. Once you get a few years on your resume, it gets a hell of a lot easier.
I'm not sure whether or not I'd be worse off over the phone, but Skype might be useful. I can probably do fine in person though – my problems are more in the realm of making and maintaining contact, making requests, etc. Stuff that doesn't depend too much on the medium. My past work has helped me with that through exposure, fortunately.
BTW, I hope you've thought of this, but you will have to interact with co-workers. That's not optional.
Yes, and that shouldn't be a problem. It's establishing and making use of new connections I may have trouble with.
Just above the pink pony, but to the left of the dark purple one with the moon icon.
I see a dark purple pony, but it doesn't have a moon icon. And I can't seem to find the pink pony at all. I think I need help.
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I did add goroutines and channels, though. So you can make concurrent mergesort.
No strings, typed arrays or generics, but have a sophisticated concurrency thing right out of the gate?
No wonder you like it.
Where does one put a github account on a resume? Serious question.
At the top: Name, email, github / linkedin / stack overflow / personal website (whatever you have)
At the bottom: phone number, street address, other contact info
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19 posts were split to a new topic: How well do you know the Sockdevs?
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Do what you can to network with individuals in your area that do what you want to do. In our city, there are various professional networking meet-ups for developers, entrepreneurs, makers, hackers, etc. Anything you could reasonably be in to. If you have similar things in your area, go to them. Get to know people.
From what I read, your resume is...sparse. That won't get you consideration if that is all a person looks at. But, if you know someone who can vouch for you, that could be the foot in the door that you need. A resume that won't get a second look could get pulled from the stack for consideration if someone puts in a good word for you.
You just need to know people. That comes naturally when you work in the field. If you don't, you need to make it happen. Most jobs are never listed on job sites and such. They are filled through internal hires and recommendations. That sucks when you are on the outside, get yourself on the inside.
Once you are in the field for a few years, no one will give a shit about what is on your resume, but getting over that hump can be a real bastard.
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Once you are in the field for a few years, no one will give a shit about what is on your resume, but getting over that hump can be a real bastard.
QFT
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I've been surprised how much I'm approached from the crap I have on GitHub. Regardless what blakey says about open source, it's an easy way to get your name out even if it's just some crappy personal projects.
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And I'd probably do that if it weren't Git.
The other problem being I need code out there with different identities (for example, my Skyrim mods would go under "Blakeyrat" not my real name-- of course I can't put the Skyrim mods on Git anyway as they require sparse repos and Git doesn't support that well) and GitHub doesn't seem to have any facility for that other than just maintaining multiple accounts.
I had about 4-5 projects out on Google Code in the past, including the code that ran www.hiareyou.com but obviously they're all deleted now.
Which reminds me, I need to spend a weekend and set some shit back up. I don't know where I'll put it, but it won't be in GitHub.
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I've been surprised how much I'm approached from the crap I have on GitHub. Regardless what blakey says about open source, it's an easy way to get your name out even if it's just some crappy personal projects.
Getting your name "out there" through some means is always good.
Back when I was in college, and USENET was still popular, I spent a lot of free time posting replies to comments in comp.os.os2.programmer (having learned OS/2 programming from a job the previous summer.) I got (and accepted) a great job offer because the VP of engineering for a startup needed an OS/2 person and I was highly visible as someone good at solving problems.
Of course, newsgroups are not all the popular these days, but I think you could do the same thing on other popular programming forums.
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Of course, newsgroups are not all the popular these days, but I think you could do the same thing on other popular programming forums.
Disclaimer: WTDWTF is not something you'd usually want to put on your resume.
