I couldn't find anything so I gave technical tutorials a shot. I found some companies to contract me, but the time involved basically makes the work a less-than-minimum wage 'job'. I know front end development to a degree, but I'm also below the poverty line.
I can't answer your question but I can at least validate your perspective first-hand.
Ask HN: How do you *really* get a good Software Engineering job?
11–20 of 23 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you *really* get a good Software Engineering job?
#12One way to get a good software engineer job is to zero-in on firms that look like they are doing interesting work. Don't send them a resume. Instead, approach individuals in a friendly peer-level manner. Start a conversation-- as a fellow coder, I was curious about the work you do.
Re: Ask HN: How do you *really* get a good Software Engineering job?
#13Hiring managers are looking for proof that you are as good as you say you are. Inexperienced / young programmers often vastly overestimate their own abilities and experienced managers know this. Having hired a couple of gung-ho self proclaimed supermen only to see them not deliver, the hiring manager now wants to see proof.
If you are new in the industry, you don't have people to vouch for you. That's why you get requests to see your actual work, rather than own cherry-picked code examples.
"I could do it easily if I just got the chance" won't fly if you are in a location where there are more developers than jobs. You'll have to make yourself stand out. The easiest way to do that is to build stuff. Doesn't have to be groundbreaking stuff, but it should work and be within your "specialty" language(s).
Then next time someone asks you for a non-trivial example, you can just send them a couple of your projects, rather than a couple of clever code snippets.
Re: Ask HN: How do you *really* get a good Software Engineering job?
#14Don't assume it's your fault.
Hiring, often times has biases. There could be any number of reasons: either technical or personal. Hiring decisions are often subjective, despite the fact that they try to be somewhat objective. And it's especially hard for people with less than 5 years of experience. Keep trying, you'll get it eventually.
Re: Ask HN: How do you *really* get a good Software Engineering job?
#15"know how to code in multiple languages and provide decent coding examples" "a fully functioning and non-trivial web app"
If you haven't written a full app in a language, can you really claim proficiency in it?
Re: Ask HN: How do you *really* get a good Software Engineering job?
#16Most important is to keep looking, and not let the search get you down (which is hard , for sure). Remember that looking for work is a full-time job. My current position I found through a connection, and that doubtless helped, but I've gotten jobs before through responding to university postings and craigslist ads. I've also been turned down at plenty of places that I've found both ways - for any given position, most…
>> Remember that looking for work is a full-time job.
+1
Being employed is side effect of that.
Re: Ask HN: How do you *really* get a good Software Engineering job?
#17get a open source contrib on your resume - something they will recognize by name, and hopefully quote something cool - "sped up rendering by 99%" get a good past job that they will recognize the employer name and you will have an easy time.
+1 for this. A caution: don't just "join" a project: you have to do something in the project and be able to point at the actual code contribution you made.
Re: Ask HN: How do you *really* get a good Software Engineering job?
#18Position yourself not as a programmer (or glamorous version of that: software engineer), but as a person who can boost residual value of a business. People like these are assets.
"Programmers", "developers" and "software engineers" are essentially liabilities. These are the first to let go when things gets uncertain.
Re: Ask HN: How do you *really* get a good Software Engineering job?
#19Position yourself not as a programmer (or glamorous version of that: software engineer), but as a person who can boost residual value of a business. People like these are assets. "Programmers", "developers" and "software engineers" are essentially liabilities. These are the first to let go when things gets uncertain.
This sounds great but there is one caveat. The person that does the hiring probably doesn't care about the business, they usually just care about their job. It's two different things. The exception are start ups where the person doing the hiring might be the founder or closely tied to them.
Re: Ask HN: How do you *really* get a good Software Engineering job?
#20In my experience, even having non-trivial apps won't get you anywhere. Networking is the only sure fire way to get a position where I am, and a lot of that comes down to luck in finding the right people at the right time.