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My GF learned to code in 3 months. This is what she came up with.

nukaco.la

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Re: My GF learned to code in 3 months. This is what she came up with.

#61
Almost invariably when we see posts like these on Hacker News, the person actually had prior programming experience, but just happened to start taking it serious for the last [small number] [unit of time].

Thus is the case here. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4050952

However, it's impressive for a first project. I hope you stick with it.

Re: My GF learned to code in 3 months. This is what she came up with.

#62
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to be reasonable about the scale. A 4/5 in English by your standards would also imply a deep understanding of root languages, old English, literature etc...

Becoming "fluent" in a programming language is vastly different from becoming "fluent" in a natural language. I hate when people make that comparison. How often does one ask for the etymology of the "if" statement and to what extent is such an understanding required for programming language mastery?

Be that as it may, what most would call a "fluent" English speaker likely only has a high level working knowledge of the actual English language

Re: My GF learned to code in 3 months. This is what she came up with.

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like it, but in 3 months she got 2/5 in rails, 2/5 in javascript and 2/5 in git? I doubt thats even possible... I've been working with each of those for ~6 years and I'd still only put myself at a 4 and if I was being generous. It's funny the longer you work with something the more you realize how little you understand it. I probably would have put myself at a 2/5 in those categories 5 years ago, but looking back,…

As if rating one's skills in a particular subject with a 1-5 rating under no context bears much meaning... it's so arbitrary as to be insignificant (but it could be a cool concept if not abused). It also depends on one's motivation for representing their skill level; for example, jobseekers probably overestimate their skill levels. It would be great to have a standardized rating system based on a few different tiers…

I mean how advanced can you be in a scripting language ? There is no memory management, no low level systems knowledge required. Can you give me an example of writing really really advanced code in Ruby or Python ?

Re: My GF learned to code in 3 months. This is what she came up with.

#65

I really like the skills section http://nukaco.la/skills.html I wish this was standard practice for resumes, even though it's subjective assessment it's really easy to compare relative strengths and weaknesses, for example it's very easy to see "dabbled in haskell, very proficient in garage band" just by glancing

It is actually standard on German resumés. Not in the sense that everyone does it, but a self-assessment is often recommended.

I think it’s especially useful in showing off relative skills. It doesn’t make sense to compare across categories (or – even crazier – people), it does make sense to compare within categories. It doesn’t have to be super-precise, but it makes it easy to see where someone sees their core-competency and with what they at least played around with (and are likely to learn quickly). How good they are actually at their core-competency has to be determined in the interview process (if there is no other objective way to do it) but that is going to be the case either way. The self-assessment is just a little hint for whoever reads your resumé to help them judge your skills better.

Sometimes it’s probably better to be more descriptive, especially when it comes to foreign language skills, but it always also depends on the job. The way I do it, the self-assessment also changes depending on the job. When I put myself down as “very good” with SPSS then I’m only talking about SPSS-knowledge that is actually important for the job I’m applying to. It doesn’t mean that I know every feature of SPSS, it does mean that I know every feature that is relevant for the job.

(It’s probably always best if you can substantiate your subjective assessment with objective facts. I put myself down as “very good” in my English-language skills and I have the A in the Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English to prove it.)

I don’t really understand all the incomprehension at the scales. Putting yourself down at five points obviously doesn’t mean that you know everything or there is no more to learn. That would be non-sensical. Don’t even try to compare that self-assessment to other people, if you do, pick a random group of people with similar qualifications. Someone who puts themselves down at five points would see themselves as quite some ways above average in that group.

Re: My GF learned to code in 3 months. This is what she came up with.

#66
I'm insanely jealous of your gf. I've been doing programming as a hobby for nearly 10 years and haven't knocked out anything as cool at that. Nice skills section too. I might make that as an extra attachment page to my CV. Ask her, Python or Ruby and why for me.

Re: My GF learned to code in 3 months. This is what she came up with.

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like it, but in 3 months she got 2/5 in rails, 2/5 in javascript and 2/5 in git? I doubt thats even possible... I've been working with each of those for ~6 years and I'd still only put myself at a 4 and if I was being generous. It's funny the longer you work with something the more you realize how little you understand it. I probably would have put myself at a 2/5 in those categories 5 years ago, but looking back,…

As if rating one's skills in a particular subject with a 1-5 rating under no context bears much meaning... it's so arbitrary as to be insignificant (but it could be a cool concept if not abused). It also depends on one's motivation for representing their skill level; for example, jobseekers probably overestimate their skill levels. It would be great to have a standardized rating system based on a few different tiers…

I'd put 5 at "wrote the language or contributed to the language". So 1-5 on Python where 1 is completed first tutorial book, written a non-trivial program. 5 == Guido Rostrum / contributed to a release. 3-4 would be if you have written a compiler.

Re: My GF learned to code in 3 months. This is what she came up with.

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As if rating one's skills in a particular subject with a 1-5 rating under no context bears much meaning... it's so arbitrary as to be insignificant (but it could be a cool concept if not abused). It also depends on one's motivation for representing their skill level; for example, jobseekers probably overestimate their skill levels. It would be great to have a standardized rating system based on a few different tiers…

I mean how advanced can you be in a scripting language ? There is no memory management, no low level systems knowledge required. Can you give me an example of writing really really advanced code in Ruby or Python ?

Managing memory and using low-level system functions is only advanced when the problem at hand requires it. Otherwise its yak-shaving. It would be like digging a pool with a spoon because you're too bad-ass for shovels.

Re: My GF learned to code in 3 months. This is what she came up with.

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like it, but in 3 months she got 2/5 in rails, 2/5 in javascript and 2/5 in git? I doubt thats even possible... I've been working with each of those for ~6 years and I'd still only put myself at a 4 and if I was being generous. It's funny the longer you work with something the more you realize how little you understand it. I probably would have put myself at a 2/5 in those categories 5 years ago, but looking back,…

As if rating one's skills in a particular subject with a 1-5 rating under no context bears much meaning... it's so arbitrary as to be insignificant (but it could be a cool concept if not abused). It also depends on one's motivation for representing their skill level; for example, jobseekers probably overestimate their skill levels. It would be great to have a standardized rating system based on a few different tiers…

On my resume, I have a "skills" section that basically lists technologies I've worked with that I'm interested in working with now (and some I haven't work with) with a "code-word" based description of how I'd rate myself. The "code-word" selection will beat most HR folks, but I include a "decoder-ring" style description in my cover letter on what I mean by those code words. Things like, "familiar: know at least basic syntax and can easily use all syntax with reference, will likely need to use a reference for common libraries" and "expert: Need documentation only for infrequently used or obscure library calls, comfortable writing a tokenizer and lexer for the language given the specification". I actually got the idea when I applied for a job way out of my league and actually got a response explaining it was out of my league, so I asked for some feedback on my resume, figuring don't let a good thing go to waste and the response was "years of experience in a language doesn't quantify your knowledge of the language." I was quite young at the time and the approach I ended up with hasn't steered me wrong yet.

Re: My GF learned to code in 3 months. This is what she came up with.

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As if rating one's skills in a particular subject with a 1-5 rating under no context bears much meaning... it's so arbitrary as to be insignificant (but it could be a cool concept if not abused). It also depends on one's motivation for representing their skill level; for example, jobseekers probably overestimate their skill levels. It would be great to have a standardized rating system based on a few different tiers…

I mean how advanced can you be in a scripting language ? There is no memory management, no low level systems knowledge required. Can you give me an example of writing really really advanced code in Ruby or Python ?

You've been downvoted a decent amount, and I can see why, but I believe it is unfair because it's only due to your perspective.

At one job I ended up having a lot of work writing language bindings from C to what is commonly considered a "scripting language" (TCL), so it's easy to have to deal with memory management and low level systems knowledge in relation to a scripting language (knowing the semantics of memory management within a language drastically changes how you have to write the bindings). However, the idea is to rate your skill with that particular language. No matter what the most advanced state is of a language, a 5/5 (or whatever the scale is) means that you can accomplish the most advanced task possible in the language. That doesn't mean that someone who is, say, 5/5 in Perl, will have the same skillset and capabilities as someone who is a 5/5 in AT&T syntax assembler. However, there are a list of base assumptions of skills they do have that may align with what we need as a developer when looking at resumes.

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