Advice for an aspiring programmer? • Hacker News Board

Re: Advice for an aspiring programmer?

#11

Post by wimplash » Fri, Aug 19, 2011, 2:05 PM UTC

Whatever you do, make it publicly-visible. Companies will not hire a software developer with no work experience, who can only say that they are able to program in X.

If you are able to...

* Demonstrate your abilities in programming language X by showing them your code through a public repository (i.e. Google-code, github, bitbucket, etc...)

* Demonstrate your communication abilities/soft skills by showing them the supporting documentation (i.e. a development blog, user documentation, etc...)

* Demonstrate your ability to explain/defend the design/implementation choices made in the development of your application

...then you have a pretty good foot in the door for getting into the software development industry.

On the converse, however, not all hiring managers will/are able to take this much time when investigating potential candidates.

Re: Advice for an aspiring programmer?

#12

Post by apsurd » Sat, Aug 20, 2011, 4:53 AM UTC

I say this all the time: the best advice I was given about going out in the working world is "the bar is lower than you think".

Any person genuinely interested in their work will ALWAYS think they are less capable than they actually are. It's human nature. This is because someone who truly respects their craft is of course going to be humbled by it. I know that I know nothing sort of thing. I'd argue that the absolute top tier world class developers are the some of the most humble. Of course there are outliers but I think humility is a requisite quality of true mastery for the most part.

What does this mean?

It means your background doesn't matter. If you are motivated to do your best and ready and willing to work hard and learn and improve then you are already better off than 90% of the workforce out there.

Every company has their own processes so many times it not really about what you know but how eager you are to learn.

Companies hire for character not necessarily for current knowledge. I've seen with my own eyes people get hired for ruby jobs that did not know a lick of ruby. They come from php backgrounds etc.

So fwiw and this is just my experience as a web application developer with no formal education : It's not about what you know, its about your desire to learn, your motivation, and your character attributes that count.

Be genuinely motivated to better yourself, ALWAYS convey your desire for personal excellence, and you will never have a problem finding a job.

Best of luck.

(p.s. get a a github account and push code like a madman)

Re: Advice for an aspiring programmer?

#13

Post by chubs » Sat, Aug 20, 2011, 10:49 AM UTC

Here's my advice, on a slightly different note to the others: Learn how to make iOS apps, and make a dozen or so of them (obviously, make them smallish apps). Charge $1 each, and have a free/lite version of each app too. This will teach you nontechnical but very important career skills: how to ship, entrepreneurialism, and initiative!

As for your worries about signalling mechanisms, there are 4 SIMPLE answers to that: github, meetups, stackoverflow, and apps in the app store. You sound like a smart guy - get busy!