Ask HN: How does a hobby programmer get hired? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How does a hobby programmer get hired?

#251

Post by seattle_spring » Mon, Jan 02, 2023, 9:11 PM UTC

dan-robertson wrote: post #154

seattle_spring wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to see right through this little charade. If you label yourself as "CEO" or some related nonsense, any competent HM will throw your application directly into the garbage.

At least in the U.K. one-person contracting companies are reasonably common. Though I do find the GP suggestion weird.

I’m sure it is, but I don’t think it’s really relevant to my comment: working at a “one-person contracting company” makes you an “independent contractor” and absolutely NOT a “CEO”— not even a little close.

Re: Ask HN: How does a hobby programmer get hired?

#252

Post by slater- » Mon, Jan 02, 2023, 10:07 PM UTC

wenus wrote: post #250

rubberband wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah crap, I messed up here, and I'm quite sorry. I was wrong when I said that bootcamps were red flags. When I stated "Don't do bootcamps. It's a red flag for me"... I should have said "Don't have bootcamps be nearly your only source of experience." Like, if a person rolls up with either a super-expensive boot camp, or a side project that they've kept up with for two years... It's no contest. I certainly won't be mad…

> I certainly won't be mad at you taking the bootcamp. Why would anyone expect you to be mad? Weird.

it's an American turn of phrase, possibly related to the Tupac song "I Aint Mad At Cha." Casual sarcasm.

See also: "I wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating crackers."

Re: Ask HN: How does a hobby programmer get hired?

#253

Post by robocat » Mon, Jan 02, 2023, 11:11 PM UTC

franciscop wrote: post #129

robocat wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd argue that part of "the ability to get things done" is exactly what OP is likely missing as a hobbyist: the ability to work with peers and superiors effectively Completely disagree: in plenty of other jobs people learn to get things done, and how to work with peers/bosses/reports. There is not much signal about the OPs soft skill level so you are making an assumption. Interpersonal skills tend to be strongest i…

Agreed, I've made an assumption and I explicitly added adjectives to note so, like "likely", "IMHO", etc. It's not a crazy assumption though, OP seems pretty lost career-wise, no previous dev experience, unable to land a job in a world hungry for devs, and I'd argue they don't seem to have enough people-skills to figure these questions without resorting to the internet, all of which suggest to be either a student or…

It turns out your assumptions were somewhat hasty ;)

Neontomo wrote in comments (perhaps after you commented): “I'm 29 and started working at 18! I've worked outside the service industry too (recently at Apple) but yes that's my main experience.”, and “I did some work for a hotel and sped up their marketing and IT stuff quite a bit with automation”.

And georgyo wrote “There is a lot of comments, but no one took a moment to look at your profile and visit your website.” —— I always forget to do that! Even though I sometimes backtrawl all comments by a particular hn user (which might have been useful in this situation).

> without resorting to the internet

Asking for “expert” (?) advice on HN seems like a reasonably skilful approach, if used with other information sources (hard to know given we don’t know their context). It looked to me that they got heaps of really valuable feedback, validating their approach?

To me your second comment seems to repeat the mistake of the first. I hope I don’t come across to you as foolishly critical - I think we are all trying to help!

Re: Ask HN: How does a hobby programmer get hired?

#254

Post by dan-robertson » Tue, Jan 03, 2023, 12:02 AM UTC

seattle_spring wrote: post #251

dan-robertson wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in the U.K. one-person contracting companies are reasonably common. Though I do find the GP suggestion weird.

I’m sure it is, but I don’t think it’s really relevant to my comment: working at a “one-person contracting company” makes you an “independent contractor” and absolutely NOT a “CEO”— not even a little close.

Oh, I think I misread your comment above, sorry.

Re: Ask HN: How does a hobby programmer get hired?

#255

Post by nicoburns » Tue, Jan 03, 2023, 2:09 AM UTC

turdprincess wrote: post #246

peanutcrisis wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you substantiate this? It's incredibly hard to believe that the majority of universities offering a programme in computer science would not have a class on operating systems or information security, or anything more abstract or concrete about those topics.

At least at my school, the CS degree was open ended. You take a handful of required corses (intro to programming, algorithms, operating systems) but aside from that, it was up to you to pick the classes which interested you. If you were interested in security, or databases or mobile app development, you could take those classes, but they weren't required. The things I learned in college which were actually applicable…

The other difference is that one takes 4 years and the other 3 months. That’s 16 times longer, so if you spent only 5 hours a week working on or thinking about programming, then that would be an equivalent amount of time. Which is not mention that sometimes things take a while to sink in.

Re: Ask HN: How does a hobby programmer get hired?

#256

Post by neontomo » Tue, Jan 03, 2023, 6:59 PM UTC

dt3ft wrote: post #214

Since you seem to be based in Stockholm, I suggest you sign up for a dev talent program in Stockholm. You get trained by a reputable tech company and if you pass the talent program, you get sent to further training to a potential future employer. My team (in Stockholm) is getting a new potentially permanent member in a month or so. The person switched their careers (age 30+) and I, amongst others will be training the…

Thank you, just seeing the stack you recommended has given me a bit of direction. I will set out to learn the basics of these tools. I'll be in touch!

Re: Ask HN: How does a hobby programmer get hired?

#257

Post by 3minus1 » Wed, Jan 04, 2023, 11:43 PM UTC

I'll add this since I don't see it here, see if you can find someone with industry experience to mentor you. I have 12 years of experience and mentored a family member who has successfully moved over from an unrelated field to tech. It's something I was happy to do, but required commitment from him. I gave him a coding project (he actually never finished the project but learned a lot). I also coached him on what to look for in a job and what to focus on learning.

Alternatively I think coding bootcamp or community college classes are a great way to show initiative and get interviews.

Re: Ask HN: How does a hobby programmer get hired?

#258

Post by yojo » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 4:05 PM UTC

jeltz wrote: post #114

yojo wrote: post #53

I had essentially the same background as you, and made the leap 10 years ago. Here’s what I did: 1) With a friend, I worked through a bunch of tutorials of the current startup web framework (at the time, Rails). 2) At my non-programming job, I looked for opportunities to code things. I made some internal websites, utility tools, stuff like that. 3) I worked my way through Cracking the Coding Interview. This was pre-l…

Leet code interviews have existed for at least 15 years, probably 20. And they were much more popular back then.

The company Leetcode was founded in 2015.

You are correct that algorithm problems were common starting much earlier. The recommended preparation for them was the book I mentioned (Cracking the Coding Interview).

Re: Ask HN: How does a hobby programmer get hired?

#259

Post by neontomo » Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 6:33 PM UTC

robocat wrote: post #253

franciscop wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, I've made an assumption and I explicitly added adjectives to note so, like "likely", "IMHO", etc. It's not a crazy assumption though, OP seems pretty lost career-wise, no previous dev experience, unable to land a job in a world hungry for devs, and I'd argue they don't seem to have enough people-skills to figure these questions without resorting to the internet, all of which suggest to be either a student or…

It turns out your assumptions were somewhat hasty ;) Neontomo wrote in comments (perhaps after you commented): “I'm 29 and started working at 18! I've worked outside the service industry too (recently at Apple) but yes that's my main experience.”, and “I did some work for a hotel and sped up their marketing and IT stuff quite a bit with automation”. And georgyo wrote “There is a lot of comments, but no one took a mom…

Thank you for making this comment. This thread was immensely useful to me, as it helped me get 2 interviews at really cool places where I hope I can be of use and learn something. Currently focusing on learning a very specific stack too, because of the comments here. Thanks to everyone who answered.