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A Site That Teaches You to Code Well Enough to Get a Job

wired.com

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Re: A Site That Teaches You to Code Well Enough to Get a Job

#21

Post by mmcru »

yarper wrote: post #12
mmcru wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

these comments are always discouraging to me. i work in a different field (sysadmin), and i've been struggling to get a job programming. am i that bad at programming? or that bad at finding work? i feel like i know the basics of several languages as well as html, css, sql and git. i wrote an IT-ticket system for a healthcare clinic in python consisting of a basic html form and a SQL database backend (i know this isn'…

Do you have a good github account? Most (decent) employers will probably take this in lieu of a technical interview. You have to remember that its not just them testing you - it's you testing them. As a newbie coder you want to be in a good team where you can learn good practices from solid performers. I mean put it this way - if you were in a team and everyone was at a low skill level, do you think you'd get a good…

i do have a github, but i don't think i would call it "good": https://github.com/mmcru?tab=repositories

i can definitely improve it, and that is something i have been working on. thanks for the advice though; i really appreciate it. i agree with you that ideally i would be working under some more senior programmers to improve my skills.

Re: A Site That Teaches You to Code Well Enough to Get a Job

#23

Post by ejstronge »

mmcru wrote: post #21
yarper wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a good github account? Most (decent) employers will probably take this in lieu of a technical interview. You have to remember that its not just them testing you - it's you testing them. As a newbie coder you want to be in a good team where you can learn good practices from solid performers. I mean put it this way - if you were in a team and everyone was at a low skill level, do you think you'd get a good…

i do have a github, but i don't think i would call it "good": https://github.com/mmcru?tab=repositories i can definitely improve it, and that is something i have been working on. thanks for the advice though; i really appreciate it. i agree with you that ideally i would be working under some more senior programmers to improve my skills.

I just took a look - I noticed you've got a couple of websites in your list of repositories. Why not host some of these on a personal website?

Also, adding a README could help people understand what the scope and goal of each project is (and also help them figure out how to use it/test it).

Re: A Site That Teaches You to Code Well Enough to Get a Job

#24

Post by mbubb »

mattmanser wrote: post #11

It's a nice site and everything, but who is this aimed at? It doesn't seem to be non-coders as far as I can tell. 1. You need to already have a github account 2. The setup assumes you have CLI experience 3. The setup assumes you use linux or a mac (because all non-programmers do that) So has wired misunderstood the target audience, or is the site comically anti-n00b?

You should have a github account if you are learning to program. In my experience interviewers expect it.

Re: A Site That Teaches You to Code Well Enough to Get a Job

#25

Post by philbarr »

MrJagil wrote: post #3

Excellent how this problem is continuously attempted to be solved. As a wannabe programmer, one thing I always lacked from these sites was the ability to somehow see my code live. I.e. it's fun to write html and css on codecademy or python from LPTHW or whatever but how on earth do I get it on the web or assembled into .app? In actuality, the complexity that surrounds DNS providers, server apps (or whatever you call…

It would probably be pretty easy to create a tutorial that gets someone to set up a github account, introduces the basics of git/html/css/javascript, and ends up with the tutee having a Github Page that demonstrates what they've done exposed to the world on the internet. Include the DNS setup via cloudflare if they want to buy their own domain.

Are there not tutorials like that?

And then there would be next steps, using free tiers of online services to add a backend etc. There's quite a lot of places to go from there though. What would be best?

Re: A Site That Teaches You to Code Well Enough to Get a Job

#27

Post by nogridbag »

mmcru wrote: post #5
Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #2

Based on many of the people I've worked with "well enough to get a job" is a pretty low bar to clear.

these comments are always discouraging to me. i work in a different field (sysadmin), and i've been struggling to get a job programming. am i that bad at programming? or that bad at finding work? i feel like i know the basics of several languages as well as html, css, sql and git. i wrote an IT-ticket system for a healthcare clinic in python consisting of a basic html form and a SQL database backend (i know this isn'…

Since you don't have a background in software, I would suggest specializing in the language/framework/utility of the day - something like Angular, React, etc. You will have a leg up on the vast majority of developers (the ones who don't read HN).

I work for a small startup in the NYC metro area and of course I agree with the parent post. We have a fairly terrible interviewing process. Candidates are phone screened by our non-technical manager and are usually selected for interviews based on domain experience. Nearly all of the people I'm forced to interview have the same background (bachelors in India, sole language is Java, 5-20 years experience in finance industry most coming from big banks Citigroup, BoA, etc). My interview process consists of an onsite coding problem, which is of course controversial. But when none of the people you interview have a github account (some have not even heard of github) or have any sample work, I believe it's important. The vast majority of the candidates sadly cannot create a List and populate it with integers in their language of choice.

Re: A Site That Teaches You to Code Well Enough to Get a Job

#28

Post by mbubb »

Great site even with the lack of polish. Conceptually I like it. It makes you think more about the full process of writing code than most similar sites. I think what this does well is try to get folks to think about writing something that QA will then test. That is good for me as I come from an operations background and this part of programming is not natural to me. For me it is crank out Bash or Python and keep trying until something works... This is different it is more like "look at this framework, build the piece that is missing"

As I am a sysadmin I tend to write tools that only I would look at. Writing something fro a test suite is a great idea. A howto page detailing testing process and a testing 'hello world' would be a good addition.

I was surprised that the install didn't involve a github repo install, ie that the install script would not be part of a repo that you clone and then chmod X+ and then install. The benefit of this is that I can keep track of the cli repo and update when needed by watching the repo.

Re: A Site That Teaches You to Code Well Enough to Get a Job

#29

Post by yarper »

mmcru wrote: post #21
yarper wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a good github account? Most (decent) employers will probably take this in lieu of a technical interview. You have to remember that its not just them testing you - it's you testing them. As a newbie coder you want to be in a good team where you can learn good practices from solid performers. I mean put it this way - if you were in a team and everyone was at a low skill level, do you think you'd get a good…

i do have a github, but i don't think i would call it "good": https://github.com/mmcru?tab=repositories i can definitely improve it, and that is something i have been working on. thanks for the advice though; i really appreciate it. i agree with you that ideally i would be working under some more senior programmers to improve my skills.

I also took a look at your contributions - looks a bit spotty!

https://github.com/mmcru

No activity in the last month? Something I personally would pick up on.

Re: A Site That Teaches You to Code Well Enough to Get a Job

#30

Post by lutusp »

Article title: "Out in the Open: The Site That Teaches You to Code Well Enough to Get a Job"

It's a good thing the site's originator didn't make this claim. Even a first-rate site with an enviable effect on students wouldn't want to say this.

Maybe there should be a rating system for article titles, one that measures how far the title deviates from the article itself. In many cases such a title hurts the credibility of the article. In this case, it's obviously a well-intentioned and likely effective teaching method, one that shouldn't have to live down its hyped title.

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