A Site That Teaches You to Code Well Enough to Get a Job • Hacker News Board

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

#31

Post by mmcru » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 2:42 PM UTC

nogridbag wrote: post #27

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'…

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…

thanks a lot for your post. input from active professionals is invaluable to me.

i've actually been working on learning angular for the past few weeks. i've stopped updating my github in that time since i'm just doing basic stuff, but once i finish some more tutorials and documentation i plan on building an angular project to display on my github. are there any particular features that would really catch your eye as someone who hires programmers?

any suggestions regarding the coding interview problem? i see http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Interview-Programming-... recommended a lot.

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

#32

Post by mmcru » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 2:43 PM UTC

yarper wrote: post #29

mmcru wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

you're definitely right. unfortunately i've been busy with a move and learning angular, which was new to me, so i haven't had much new code. i plan on adding more this week. thanks for your advice =]

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

#33

Post by lutusp » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 2:45 PM UTC

koevet wrote: post #22

I find it interesting that the list of supported languages doesn't include Java, which is one of the most, if not the most, requested language - at least in the enterprise space.

I don't know anything specific about the site, but that might reflect an aesthetic bias overcoming the realization that Java is ubiquitous. It all depends on the degree to which a site's operators care about teaching what's being used in real-world projects.

If I ran such a site, I might want to suppress my own aesthetic preferences, but even I would probably exclude PHP, as one example, only because it doesn't represent an easy way to create reliable, understandable programs.

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

#34

Post by pjmlp » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 2:57 PM UTC

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…

> Learning is fun; endless googling is not.

At least you have Google, Bing, Yahoo, ...

Kids these days. :)

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

#35

Post by simi_ » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 2:58 PM UTC

I maintain a list of resources that also can help programmers get a job: https://github.com/andreis/interview

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

#36

Post by Spearchucker » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 3:00 PM UTC

tim333 wrote: post #6

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…

There are some fairly easy ways to get some code up if you go for the easiest solutions. eg web2py/pythonanywhere.com for Python, http://www.appgyver.com/ for javascript/phonegap apps

And here is my problem with both learning sites like this and search engines like Google. If I search for hosting JavaScript, appgyver.com doesn't feature in the results. In that scenario search is broken.

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

#37

Post by pjmlp » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 3:01 PM UTC

mbubb wrote: post #24

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.

Startups interviewers looking for university students.

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

#38

Post by MrJagil » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 3:01 PM UTC

tim333 wrote: post #6

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…

There are some fairly easy ways to get some code up if you go for the easiest solutions. eg web2py/pythonanywhere.com for Python, http://www.appgyver.com/ for javascript/phonegap apps

The deal is, there is no way for a beginner to come to that conclusion after finishing a given tutorial. The different solutions are separated. It is not a continuous flow. HTML/CSS/Javascript(/php) are luckily taught in succession and tandem, but rarely with the hosting, naming, storing, sharing aspects integrated.

It should be:

html -> css -> Javascript (-> php) -> Hover(DNS) -> AWS(server) -> Final assembly -> Live product! -> github -> promotion/advertising/fluff

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

#39

Post by jdhawk » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 3:05 PM UTC

mbubb wrote: post #24

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.

Why? I've been a coder for 10+ years, dont have a github account. Never used git. All the enterprise projects I work on chugg along just fine on local source control servers of various flavors (CC, Mercurial, SVN, etc...)

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

#40

Post by enraged_camel » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 3:07 PM UTC

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…

This is why I loved the Rails Tutorial when I did it about a year ago: it doesn't teach you just writing code, but also testing that code, managing it in a version control system, uploading it to Github and deploying it on Heroku. It's basically an "end-to-end" guide that explains each step of the way thoroughly.

https://www.railstutorial.org/