WHILE YOU'RE STILL IN COLLEGE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ALL YOUR NON-PROGRAMMING OPPORTUNITIES ESPECIALLY IN WRITING AND DESIGN HOW IRONIC THAT THIS ARTICLE IS FROM A GROUPON PERSON AND GROUPON HAS SUCH CLEVER AND HUMOROUS WRITING AND BEAUTIFUL DESIGN YET HIS BLOG LIKE THIS COMMENT IS PRACTICALLY UNREADABLE BECAUSE OF YUCKY TYPEFACE AND BLOG SETUP DO WHAT OP SAYS BUT NOT WHAT HE DOES
Advice to a college sophomore programmer
11–20 of 27 posts
Re: Advice to a college sophomore programmer
#12WHILE YOU'RE STILL IN COLLEGE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ALL YOUR NON-PROGRAMMING OPPORTUNITIES ESPECIALLY IN WRITING AND DESIGN HOW IRONIC THAT THIS ARTICLE IS FROM A GROUPON PERSON AND GROUPON HAS SUCH CLEVER AND HUMOROUS WRITING AND BEAUTIFUL DESIGN YET HIS BLOG LIKE THIS COMMENT IS PRACTICALLY UNREADABLE BECAUSE OF YUCKY TYPEFACE AND BLOG SETUP DO WHAT OP SAYS BUT NOT WHAT HE DOES
I'm not sure if I should downvote you because your post is really annoying me, or if I should upvote you for the self-referential murdering of style...
Re: Advice to a college sophomore programmer
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think a company wouldn't want to go through the bother of issuing a visa just for an intern. The problem with GSoC is that it doesn't count as an internship for companies that need one. Or meeting my university's requirement for an internship, although that requirement could be fought against.
Try to avoid companies that would value a run-of-the-mill internship over a highly productive GSoC. :) On the subject of visas: I know that in the US, if you come on a student visa, there are certain allowances for summer internships in technical fields. Your local consulate should know the details.
I don't have a student visa unfortunately.
Time to build an open source portfolio and get in line for GSoC...
Any suggestions? I have a few small useful scripts that I've written over the years but they're not of good quality to release. Should I work on those or find some project to work on?
Re: Advice to a college sophomore programmer
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Try to avoid companies that would value a run-of-the-mill internship over a highly productive GSoC. :) On the subject of visas: I know that in the US, if you come on a student visa, there are certain allowances for summer internships in technical fields. Your local consulate should know the details.
I don't have a student visa unfortunately. Time to build an open source portfolio and get in line for GSoC... Any suggestions? I have a few small useful scripts that I've written over the years but they're not of good quality to release. Should I work on those or find some project to work on?
Here's a list of last summer's mentoring organizations: http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/program/accepted_orgs/google...
I haven't done it myself, so I don't know if my advice is any good, but I'd suggest picking one that interests you and getting started fixing bugs as soon as possible. And when you have a chance, double-check that they intend to take part this summer, too.
A friend of mine did GSoC a few summers ago. If you like, send me an email and I'll put you in touch.
Re: Advice to a college sophomore programmer
#15Get laid as much as possible.
Re: Advice to a college sophomore programmer
#16WHILE YOU'RE STILL IN COLLEGE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ALL YOUR NON-PROGRAMMING OPPORTUNITIES ESPECIALLY IN WRITING AND DESIGN HOW IRONIC THAT THIS ARTICLE IS FROM A GROUPON PERSON AND GROUPON HAS SUCH CLEVER AND HUMOROUS WRITING AND BEAUTIFUL DESIGN YET HIS BLOG LIKE THIS COMMENT IS PRACTICALLY UNREADABLE BECAUSE OF YUCKY TYPEFACE AND BLOG SETUP DO WHAT OP SAYS BUT NOT WHAT HE DOES
Along these lines, where could I get a design critiqued so that I could avoid comments like this about my own site?
Re: Advice to a college sophomore programmer
#17WHILE YOU'RE STILL IN COLLEGE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ALL YOUR NON-PROGRAMMING OPPORTUNITIES ESPECIALLY IN WRITING AND DESIGN HOW IRONIC THAT THIS ARTICLE IS FROM A GROUPON PERSON AND GROUPON HAS SUCH CLEVER AND HUMOROUS WRITING AND BEAUTIFUL DESIGN YET HIS BLOG LIKE THIS COMMENT IS PRACTICALLY UNREADABLE BECAUSE OF YUCKY TYPEFACE AND BLOG SETUP DO WHAT OP SAYS BUT NOT WHAT HE DOES
I understand the need for good typography and design and the importance of readability. I agree that they are important factors in web design.
But really? Unreadable? The typeface isn't THAT bad, nor is the website design THAT horrible.
Re: Advice to a college sophomore programmer
#18It's refreshing to see an article like this not contain points like "My CS degree was pretty useless and everything I need for my job I learned on my own"... While college isn't for everyone, much of the "developer approach" that I use to learning a language (whether it be from the docs/blogs/book) are skills I learned from my CS degree.
CS degrees are just as useful as you make them! CS degrees require personal learning and development, something that your classes try to get you to do. To be a good developer requires going above and beyond what your class requires. Take the challenges professors/teachers/lecturers give you. Think for yourself: experiment, try stuff, read Hacker News and other RSS feeds, etc. Education isn't about receiving, it's about learning. Dive into communities related to technologies you're learning. Oh, do try to learn to work in groups: it's invaluable experience. (Written as a senior in college)
Re: Advice to a college sophomore programmer
#19Point 2 is somewhat of a difficult area on my opinion. When looking at programming books, I usually have the following process in mind: * How in depth are the official docs? If you're going to read a book on a language, you need a way to validate the book's contents. How else will you be able to tell the book is not leading you down the wrong learning path? This also gives you a chance to check on if the language is…
Great point, I added an edit to that effect. How do you tell the good tech books from the bad? Ask someone who is good at that technology. Too shy? O'Reilly and Pragmatic Programmer books are generally good, and you can often get good recommendations by searching on StackOverflow or SearchYC ( http://searchyc.com/rails+book ).
Amazon book reviews and never buy a book you haven't held in your hands, are pretty much the two rules I follow. The idea is basically widen what books in the field you have heard of through amazon, then get a hold of them some how(I usually get an inter library loan for a few weeks) to check depth and writing style. So far skipping step two has stuck me with books I didn't really appreciate.
Re: Advice to a college sophomore programmer
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't have a student visa unfortunately. Time to build an open source portfolio and get in line for GSoC... Any suggestions? I have a few small useful scripts that I've written over the years but they're not of good quality to release. Should I work on those or find some project to work on?
Here's a list of last summer's mentoring organizations: http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/program/accepted_orgs/google... I haven't done it myself, so I don't know if my advice is any good, but I'd suggest picking one that interests you and getting started fixing bugs as soon as possible. And when you have a chance, double-check that they intend to take part this summer, too. A friend of mine did GSoC a few summers ago…
Browsing through that list now...
I'm not sure but I think someone from my uni did GSoC last year, I'll try finding out about that first. Thanks anyway!