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ben@site5.com Thanks, Ben
PS, I'd be happy to tell you more about Australia as I'm here now on a 1 year visa. And just finished a 6 month trip through Argentina and South America if you are thinking seriously of something like that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is true. Funny you mention Ruby as I have just completed Code School's Try Ruby course this weekend! However, how could I make any particularly meaningful contribution in a language I am just learning? I feel that any issues or new features in an open source project probably require some fairly advanced knowledge, no?
A lot of my blogging at that time was about what I was learning. In fact those posts were the most instrumental in getting me the job in Chicago. My blog showed up for a lot of howto searches for perl. Which got me noticed by a company needing perl programmers. Blog about what you are learning. Your contribution will be helping others learn from your experiences.
http://paulsantana.wordpress.com/2013/03/30/the-effects-of-a...
I've been where you are right now. Only I was married with 4 kids and one on the way. No job, No home, No degree, and what looked like No future. I don't know what your exact circumstances are but here is how I went from there to working for Google. 1. I got exposure. I hung out online with open source developers and participated. I did stuff in perl and blogged about it. 2. I did whatever I needed to to survive and…
1. Hanging out in tech channels on IRC
2. Teaching myself to program C with the GNU toolchain
3. Getting a 2nd job doing 1st level remote tech support (my first tech job) in addition to a full time job driving a forklift to save money for books/computer equipment while I lived with family/friends and slept on couches.
4. Joining open source programming projects and reading tons of other people's code.
5. Going to a programming job interview and beating all the other more experienced and formally educated candidates by walking into the interview with a working demo I wrote in the weeks before of what they wanted to hire a programmer to build running on my laptop.
6. Realizing a lot of programming was going to be outsourced and teaching myself sysadmin work so I could pivot.
7. Working as a sales engineer for an IBM BP to get corporate formal sysadmin "education" (certifications).
8. Applying for an MIT sysadmin job based on my IBM certifications. And, getting the job because I was better educated than the other applicants.
Obviously, a lot of that took years and there were other jobs (construction, concrete, moving furniture, factory work, etc) and stuff in between and countless set backs. That included tons of people that wouldn't even talk to me because I was a drop out. I did eventually get a GED and an AA degree from a community college (night school). But, the points listed really were the important events.
You need to treat your career like a start-up or any big goal. Decide what you want your life to be like and think of every possible way to get to that point. Then go. Be aggressive and relentless in getting there. There's going to be tons of failures and setbacks. Don't look at them as something that stops you or traps you. Look at them as pivots, as steps in the iteration that will get you where you want to be.
I wanted to be a part of MIT since I was a kid (because that's where the GNU software that gave me a chance came from). Here I am. There are plenty of people here that followed an ideal path to get to their current place in life (best wealthy families, best private schools, scholarships, mentoring programs, best research groups, etc). But, there are also plenty of people like me that can look back on the same kind of crazy path of "anything and everything necessary".
Like zaphar said, don't give up. Be dedicated, aggressive, and relentless in discovering the path to what you want to accomplish. That's the most important thing.