(Ok, take two without attachment) Hi, I'm a self-taught, 39 year old Python web/database coder, now looking to get into a full time position after 8 years of freelancing. My problem (I think?) is that I'm not what is considered a catch to the stereotypical founder: no CS degree, been working on regular Python+SQL projects, not young. I know I'm competent, I've been inhaling CS and coding books for years and have taught myself some tricky stuff like microcontroller assembly and real-time audio/midi app development in C. But maybe I don't know how to properly present myself to people who might be interested in someone like me, or know who those people might be. I hope there are some companies who are actually impressed that someone has had to do all the running-a-business stuff in addition to coding, and has experience being completely responsible for the clients and the bottom line? Any one have thoughts on what kind of places those might be or what to stress in applying?
How to get hired as mature self-taught ex-freelancer?
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Re: How to get hired as mature self-taught ex-freelancer?
#2I would advise you learn some cutting edge tech, become good at that, and then people will be begging you for work.
Re: How to get hired as mature self-taught ex-freelancer?
#3If you've got a reasonable amount of Python experience you shouldn't have any trouble going from freelance to permie, just apply for regular python roles (assuming that's what you want). You might want to be upfront about salary expectations because permie places might think you're likely to be expensive because you've been freelancing.
Re: How to get hired as mature self-taught ex-freelancer?
#4What projects have you worked on during your freelancing? Is there some tool out there that you made? Have you fixed a bug somewhere? People usually don't just want to hear "I can do xyz" they want to see stuff. Remember Feross Aboukhadijeh who created youtube instant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube_Instant , he was offered a job by youtube CEO not long after.
Re: How to get hired as mature self-taught ex-freelancer?
#5I feel your pain, I'm in a similar position. I just turned 40, have experience in PHP, Rails, lots Javascript (including Backbone, Knockout, a bit of Angular and learning Ember now), a bit of Python and learning Scala. No degree, and most of what I've worked on were internal corporate tools or start-ups that are no longer around.
I've been building out sample apps in newer Javascript frameworks so that along with learning the newer stuff, I have something in my portfolio that I can point too.
What I've found in my interviewing is that the biggest concern people have is that I'll stick around for a few months to a year and then move on, it wasn't until an interview last week that I explained to the CEO that the work I'd been doing was always project work, I didn't regularly just pick-up and leave jobs. He wanted me to work for 60 days without pay so he could be sure that I wouldn't leave without giving 60 days notice.
I'm in Sydney, Australia, and need full-time work to keep my visa or else have to go back to Canada. Where are you based?
Re: How to get hired as mature self-taught ex-freelancer?
#6I went through this in 2009. What I found was that no one cared about my degree (also non-CS), but a lot of companies were incredibly hesitant to hire me because of my business experience. I got questions like, "After being your own boss, why would you ever want to work for someone else?" and "How do I know you're not just going to quit in a year and start another company?"*
I rewrote my resume to emphasize my experience as a developer and downplay my experience as a founder, and that was what ultimately got me a job. You want to be truthful on your resume, but you also have to present yourself as someone who is a logical fit for the position being offered.
* It took two years.
Re: How to get hired as mature self-taught ex-freelancer?
#7People here told me that I could make money by teaching myself some code. After seeing a lot of these posts, I am really starting to doubt it. You have so much experience, expertise, and you're a successful freelancer. And you have to ask about jobs? What am I getting myself into... I am 31, I might as well go try to be a professional golfer or something else hilariously impossible. Seriously, I think my life is going to be over soon. There is nothing I can do.
Re: How to get hired as mature self-taught ex-freelancer?
#8People here told me that I could make money by teaching myself some code. After seeing a lot of these posts, I am really starting to doubt it. You have so much experience, expertise, and you're a successful freelancer. And you have to ask about jobs? What am I getting myself into... I am 31, I might as well go try to be a professional golfer or something else hilariously impossible. Seriously, I think my life is goin…
If you don't try, you'll certainly fail.
Re: How to get hired as mature self-taught ex-freelancer?
#9I would advise you learn some cutting edge tech, become good at that, and then people will be begging you for work.
Any example?
Re: How to get hired as mature self-taught ex-freelancer?
#10I interview a lot of people. My experience is that people with degrees are better are a little better at algorithms and they know big-O complexity. People without degrees hate it when I ask big-O complexity problems.
However, I think the programming ability is something that's gained by doing and not by studying. I think the programming abilities, knowing how to debug, the languages, the IDEs, the people that know this well, are the ones who are passionate about programming.
If I interviewed you, I would ask you some basic Python questions. I would make you code and solve some simple algorithm questions. I would also ask you some SQL questions. I would expect that you could write a SQL statement that does a join, a group by, uses a having clause.
If you can demonstrate this knowledge in an interview that's awesome! If the interview doesn't go well, don't worry too much about it. Try to learn what you didn't do well on, then try again.