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Ask HN: How does a hobby programmer get hired?

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

#11

Post by phphphphp »

Job experience is a cheap proxy for the ability to get things done: if you've had multiple programming jobs, then you've probably been able to get things done and so hiring you is a safe choice. The absence of programming job experience doesn't mean you can't get things done, it just means you need to demonstrate to employers that you can get things done in other ways.

You don't need to do a bootcamp (and I'd argue it would not help at all) rather you need to ship something and then layer that with previous non-programming job experience to demonstrate that you can deliver things as part of a team. My greatest value (as a software engineer) is in the non-code value I bring to my team. Given the choice between 2 candidates, 1 with only experience as a software engineer, and 1 with experience of non-programming jobs, I'd be giving strong consideration to the person with a broader range of experience. Leverage your non-programming work experience to show that you can deliver value.

Regarding passing coding challenges: coding challenges are a very lazy method that companies use to filter out candidates. Passing a coding challenge is easy and doesn't mean much (they're also just as easy to fail) so don't focus on them at all. Your focus should be almost exclusively on interviews, and you should work towards giving the interviewer as much confidence as possible that you'll be a valuable member of their team.

Also, don't assume that levels (junior, mid, senior) correspond to the amount of programming job experience you have. If you can ship code yourself, you're already mid or senior level at most companies.

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

#12

Post by gatewaytonarnia »

In my experience it’s not too hard to get an entry level role at consulting companies like Accenture, Deloitte, etc, there are also hundreds of smaller consulting companies. Create a resume that shows,

1. You can answer basic coding questions 2. You’re able to work on a team 3. You have some soft skills to work with customers to learn about what they want, so you can build it for them

The first step is to get that interview with the above resume. Then when you interview be sure to be transparent about your experience and interests and your desire to continue learning. If you’re working with _good_ hiring managers this is the most important thing to them.

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

#14

Post by listofthings »

I was in a similar situation. I got a programming adjacent job to break into the market - I applied as a developer advocate since I was comfortable enough talking about code, and writing code that wasn’t necessarily up to par for a full time job but enough to be able to write dummy code for other developers to follow. While in that role I started working with engineers at the company to improve my skills, and also started contributing to code that wasn’t part of my responsibilities. 2 years after joining as a developer advocate I transitioned to a developer role. Feel free to DM if you have any questions.

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

#15

Post by satya71 »

I’ll leave a different answer. You can keep your day job and do a side project as SaaS/product. Do you know a problem in your day job that people would pay for? May be a Chrome extension or an enterprise app plugin. Something that has easy distribution and no up front costs or huge marketing required.

You can then parlay that into a software engineering job or even a more ambitious SaaS.

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

#16

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #5

Two ways in I have witnessed: 1) Ship something. "App Stores" make that easy. Interviewer can easily download your app(s) and have plenty of material to ask you about during the interview. 2) Get hired into "QA" — preferably for a position that allows you to write (code) tests. Many of our "testers" where I worked moved into engineering when they were seen as willing and able to make the move.

> Interviewer can easily download your app(s) and have plenty of material to ask you about during the interview.

In my experience, this never happened.

I strongly suspect that was because they had already decided they weren’t going to hire me (I was 55, when I was interviewing), and didn’t want to waste the time.

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

#17

Post by JKCalhoun »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #16
JKCalhoun wrote: post #5

Two ways in I have witnessed: 1) Ship something. "App Stores" make that easy. Interviewer can easily download your app(s) and have plenty of material to ask you about during the interview. 2) Get hired into "QA" — preferably for a position that allows you to write (code) tests. Many of our "testers" where I worked moved into engineering when they were seen as willing and able to make the move.

> Interviewer can easily download your app(s) and have plenty of material to ask you about during the interview. In my experience, this never happened. I strongly suspect that was because they had already decided they weren’t going to hire me (I was 55, when I was interviewing), and didn’t want to waste the time.

I can't argue with your experience but will simply add that I did download apps from the two candidates I interviewed that did have apps on the AppStore.

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

#18

Post by zulban »

There's a huge industry of bootcamps and certificates clammering for your money. Don't.

Unless a specific job you want needs a specific certificate, don't pay for them. Your employer probably should pay anyway.

Make a nice portfolio of projects, or contribute to open source projects. That's your resume.

You'll always have trouble getting hired in government or big companies without a degree, tho.

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