Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience
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Re: Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience
#2This is true for more than just programming.
Re: Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience
#3This shows the distinction between the value of resumes (whether it’s school or job or whether) is in large part just signaling and not actually about skill set.
Re: Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience
#4As a hiring manager, I've found entry level roles to be the hardest to fill well. No metric is a guarantee of a quality candidate. I loathe whiteboard programming, but for entry level jobs it's at least a signal that they're putting in the work to figure out how to be successful within a structure.
Beyond that, I want a narrative for the candidate's career...both where they've been and where they want to go. It helps me figure out if their development goals will be a good fit and what their experience will bring to the team. I've run into a lot of candidates whose careers seem to be guided simply by "I work for the highest bidder" and they don't end up being the best on the team...nor the most enduring.
I can see how this might equate to having the "wrong experience." I hope candidates who wait to apply for that big dream job (or don't get it) at least are taking jobs that prepare them for it. Barring that, I hope they're finding other ways to gain experience. We can't always choose the jobs we want, but I hope everyone is figuring out how to build towards it.
Re: Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience
#5I generally enjoy Dan Luu’s advice, but IMO it’s best approached with the understanding that his professional and social network is somewhat of a bubble that doesn’t reflect the average person.
Specifically, he cites a statistic that 50% of the people with “no experience” he knows are getting ML and other such jobs at Big Tech companies. In this case, I think he’s likely pre-filtering his sample set to people with significant programming/math or other such experience.
I do a lot of mentoring of college grads. If anyone shows an interest in Big Tech I always encourage them to apply and help them get the process started. However, it is not my experience that 50% of your average (or even above average as mentoring programs tend to select for the more ambitious) CS grads are walking into something like a Big Tech ML job with no relevant experience.
Always apply if you’re curious. If nothing else, you will learn the interview process and see where you need to improve for next time. However, don’t feel bad if you don’t get the dream job right away. Most people really do have to pivot up through some more average jobs first before landing the Big Tech jobs with huge paychecks.
Re: Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience
#6is there any way out if you find yourself stuck with a couple years of wrong experience?
Re: Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience
#7A personal anecdote that gives some credence to this theory:
Some years ago, after the Economic Crash of 2009, I attended a course in Progammable Logic Controllers which was designed to be a module for electrician's Continuing Professional Development. I, a Civil Engineer, had no background in this topic and said as much to the tutor. "Don't worry, he said, "the people with no experience nearly always do better than anyone else". This surprised me. It also surprised me when I came joint top in the course results.
Re: Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience
#8I can tell you this is 110% true in my case. I graduated and landed a very shitty testing job at a big consulting firm. I worked hard like a mule( more like a donkey ) for 11 months.
Then one day I woke up in the middle of the night and screamed into the pillow that I rather kill myself then do my job. I resigned the next month.
Fucked around for a few months, got interested in making backend apps and started applying again but this time in development roles( instead of QA ).
Lo and behold, did not get a single response from even a small scale startup. Removed my QA experience and just put my Node,Express projects at the top. Guess what, finally recruiters started to call me.
I realised how I fucked up big time by jumping on the first job offer that I got and my experience for almost an year was just a shit stain on my resume, which completely stalled my career if I hadn't removed it.
Re: Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience
#9The one thing you do learn when in a job that gives you "wrong experience" is that you're in the "wrong job" for what the "right job" would be in the future.
I think you have to be in a "wrong job" before you can understand what a "right job" is.
I do not agree with the premise though as it's assuming that people cannot discern the difference. It's akin to talking about knowledge vs. wisdom and the typical explanation of fruits and vegetables. It makes little sense in this context as people are much smarter than given credit.
Re: Having no experience can be better than having the wrong experience
#10Some people are luckier than others