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How to Get a Job as a Developer in Less Than Six Months

learnwithjeff.com

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Re: How to Get a Job as a Developer in Less Than Six Months

#131

Post by jeffreybaird »

RutZap wrote: post #96

This is a nice story but there are some hidden issues around here. The ones that want to get into programming should be aware of these: It's not an easy trip.. it's not just six months... it's a lifetime. Yes you might get a job in 6 months but then you will have to work even harder to keep that job and to be in the game. You will never stop learning... you will have to constantly adapt yourself to the new technologi…

"It's not an easy trip.. it's not just six months... it's a lifetime. Yes you might get a job in 6 months but then you will have to work even harder to keep that job and to be in the game."

That is exactly why I fell in love with programming. There will never be an end to the learning.

Re: How to Get a Job as a Developer in Less Than Six Months

#132

Post by jeffreybaird »

troels wrote: post #81

Work your ass off (...) So, in order to make the kind of strides I made, expect to spend at least 10 hours a day, six days a week dedicated to programming activities. Important point is that you have to love those 10 hours. I'm pretty sure that if you do it just with the end goal in mind, it won't work. You mention this, but I think it could be emphasised.

Honestly the six months started as a weekend curiosity, and those ten hours often became twelve or more. Addiction was an understatement.

Re: How to Get a Job as a Developer in Less Than Six Months

#133

Post by gizzlon »

kamjam wrote: post #117
reinhardt wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right on! The nerve of some programmers to think their profession is in the same league with the big boys that need college and university degrees! Who do they think they are, some kind of scientists or engineers?

I know plenty of programmers without degrees, I was extremely surprised some of them didn't because they were so bloody good! The thing is with having an IT degree, this industry moves so quick how much of what you learnt is still relevant (aside from the OO and SQL)... You have to be CONSTANTLY re-learning new tech otherwise you're not going to be a very good/relevant programmer for long!

Obviously you can't stop learning, but the thing is that by obtaining an IT degree you'll often learn fundamental things you wouldn't learn otherwise.

Re: How to Get a Job as a Developer in Less Than Six Months

#134

Post by giZm0 »

One of the biggest problem in the industry is that there are to many bad programmers! The sad thing is that these kind of people spam all the employers, which make it a lot harder to filter out the good from the bad.

On the other hand their work tend to give all the rest of the us work when they just hit the wall with something hard.

Re: How to Get a Job as a Developer in Less Than Six Months

#136

Post by jeffreybaird »

So, there have been a lot of negative comments and I understand where they are coming from. I will try to address them as best I can.

"Seeing a self-taught guy with 6 months coding experience writing software at a medical lab testing facility makes me a bit nervous."

I am working mostly on internal systems and when I venture outside of that I have my own branch write thorough tests and have multiple people check my code.

"I shudder to think of the quality of his code and the projects he or people like him are let loose on."

My code is pretty shitty. But, I know how bad it is, I know my limitations. I work long days and more after work to improve. I am not pretending, I am learning.

"Very fancy, but I am a software engineer, or programmer, as you prefer it to be called. Engineer means that I studied 5 years at university (Bs + Ms), and I know what I have learnt there, and I wouldn’t want to work with someone that doesn’t know about algorithms, algebra (it helps you understand a lot of things and opens your minid), compilers, statistics, concurrent programming, software architecture (1 full year course), UI designing, networks, databases, etc, etc."

I disagree that amount of time in a University is what allows one to become a programmer, it is the skills and knowledge acquired at the school. I didn't have that option, I needed a job in under six months or I was going to have to get a job doing something I didn't love. I worked hard and got the job. Am I a master? Nope. But, I have put myself in a position to become one with continued hard work.

I think that is all of them. Many people glossed over this line, "When I started this search I thought I would be scrubbing toilets in exchange for nightly code reviews."

The fact that I am not doing that is a mixture of my willingness to clean toilets to learn the craft I love and a market desperation for developers.

Re: How to Get a Job as a Developer in Less Than Six Months

#137

Post by nandemo »

dagw wrote: post #126
kmfrk wrote: post #124

Can anyone outside the U.S. - preferably in Europe - share similar stories, if any? I find that the U.S. has so many cool ways to work your way into a programming gig, it makes anyone outside red with envy, but I struggle to find something similar in Europe - especially in smaller countries. What would your advice be for us who can't get a U.S. visa? EDIT: I'm thinking mainly of Python/Django jobs and communities her…

The big advantage with the US in this case is that it is often cheap and easy to fire someone. This makes companies much more likely to take a chance on someone, since they know they can get quickly rid of them if it doesn't work out.

That's true but it's not the only reason. Note that there's still a social cost to firing people.

I believe another major reason is that software companies in the US are in average more profitable and more productive than in other countries.

Re: How to Get a Job as a Developer in Less Than Six Months

#138

Post by sp4rki »

samspot wrote: post #76

Self-taught programmers get a bad rap because we've all seen the guy who didn't know about arrays and defined 300 variables (I'm not kidding by the way, and this was in perl. Full of wonderful names like $aa1, $aa2, etc.). However you can get around this by having the OP's attitude about being a life-long learner. It's important to get a lot of exposure to different people and styles to offset some of the lack of bac…

I don't think that's the case now... I wary of people with a bunch of certifications and college degrees when I'm hiring for my department. I tend to look more for the small details that let me know that the person is up to date and loves programming more than if they have been taught "classically" .

Interestingly enough, almost every "computer science engineer" with 11 page CV's I've interviewed have not been able to pass a basic test I get all possible recruits do. Be assured though, it's just a filter to get the people that just don't know enough, not an actual "test" per-se

Re: How to Get a Job as a Developer in Less Than Six Months

#139

Post by mattdeboard »

gizzlon wrote: post #133
kamjam wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know plenty of programmers without degrees, I was extremely surprised some of them didn't because they were so bloody good! The thing is with having an IT degree, this industry moves so quick how much of what you learnt is still relevant (aside from the OO and SQL)... You have to be CONSTANTLY re-learning new tech otherwise you're not going to be a very good/relevant programmer for long!

Obviously you can't stop learning, but the thing is that by obtaining an IT degree you'll often learn fundamental things you wouldn't learn otherwise.

You're projecting. I have no degree. I've taken the time to teach myself the fundamentals. Dueling anecdotes here obviously but we all know plenty of people with CS degrees who are worthless when it comes to tackling a problem, and plenty of people without who are credits to their profession.

Programmers program. If someone programs, they're a programmer. My daughter uses scratch to write software. She's 8, the software is not sophisticated but it's software. She's a programmer.

Re: How to Get a Job as a Developer in Less Than Six Months

#140

Post by codegeek »

"I like to learn; I like to teach; I kill two birds."

I like this tagline on the blog. Congratulations Jeff. Yes there are naysayers and there is always an argument against something. But we applaud your efforts. For people who are criticizing this, just look at it this way. This guy pulled off something by working his ass of (in his own words). The creates hope and inspiration for others like him and I am sure there are plenty even among HN.

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