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Best approach for self-taught developer looking for job?

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Re: Best approach for self-taught developer looking for job?

#21

Post by grayrest »

Pulled up your github account. Aside from you accidentally adding your home directory, you're making good progress. If you're looking to get a job quickly, I'd encourage you to focus on one area and I think your shortest path is the front end technologies. Pretty much every firm I know of in NYC is hiring front end developers and the main limitation is finding people who actually know javascript.

If you know (not just read, know):

http://bonsaiden.github.com/JavaScript-Garden/

http://eloquentjavascript.net/

And you can demonstrate it by sticking something on github (fix a ticket on stylus/express/some other node.js project, write a jquery plugin, help out with the django admin) then go to some meetups in SF and talk to people who say "we're hiring frontend developers" which is pretty much everybody. Being able to design entire applications isn't generally required since what people are usually looking for is someone they can say "go make this new dialog" and you go do it using their established design patterns. It is crucially important, however, that you can demonstrate knowledge since I have yet to meet a developer who doesn't "know" javascript.

If you do this and want to work in NYC, shoot me an email. I'll at least give you feedback and probably give you a referral for contract to hire. Nobody cares about your education/work background as long as you can get the job done.

This assumes, of course, that you actually like front end development since quite a few people don't.

Re: Best approach for self-taught developer looking for job?

#22

Post by teamgrep »

Awesome! I think you're on the right track.

I'm a big believer in public portfolios. When I've been on the hiring side of things that's the first place I look. Now it's just a question of improving the both the quality and quantity of projects you're showing off.

How about getting a mentor to review your project(s)? You're not in an organization yet, but you can pretend you are--request a code review from a programmer you look up to.

Teaching others has helped me learn myself in the past. You didn't mention activity on stack overflow--answering questions there can improve your skills and visibility since SO is integrated with SO Careers as well.

Great luck to you!

Re: Best approach for self-taught developer looking for job?

#23

Post by zeratul »

I was in similar situation. I've learned most things on the job but it's good to know some basics about hardware, operating systems, and the network.

You might work as a programmer and do only that but software development is much more than just programming. There are framework, libraries, and architectures. Not just fancy words but ways to do more in less time. And of course: testing, debugging, and rewriting. The last three make good programmer great.

I come for humanities and I can say that programming is not much different than writing a book: read a lot and write a lot ... I think Stephen King said that.

Re: Best approach for self-taught developer looking for job?

#24

Post by stc »

grayrest wrote: post #21

Pulled up your github account. Aside from you accidentally adding your home directory, you're making good progress. If you're looking to get a job quickly, I'd encourage you to focus on one area and I think your shortest path is the front end technologies. Pretty much every firm I know of in NYC is hiring front end developers and the main limitation is finding people who actually know javascript. If you know (not jus…

Thanks for the insight, you really hit upon several things I have been thinking about, namely my shortest path which I also think is javascript/frontend. Been looking into javascript alot more and am developing some couchapps as they let me use javascript/html/css. I am also building some bookmarklets for which I need to use plain javascript as opposed to jquery. I am also interested in mapping/gis so have been putting effort in learning that. Do you think that can be useful or should I focus on javascript right now?

Re: Best approach for self-taught developer looking for job?

#25

Post by [deleted] »

chc wrote: post #15
andrewljohnson wrote: post #13

Make an iPhone app, make some money, and never get a job. I would recommend you either make a Bible app, or a Menstruation Calendar app. Those would both not require any server-side programming, and they are proven ways to make money.

I see so many people suggesting this, and I just don't get it. A very small percentage of iPhone apps even get into the high four-figures. That's not even quit-your-side-job money, much less quit-your-day-job.

[deleted]

Re: Best approach for self-taught developer looking for job?

#26

Post by andrewljohnson »

chc wrote: post #15
andrewljohnson wrote: post #13

Make an iPhone app, make some money, and never get a job. I would recommend you either make a Bible app, or a Menstruation Calendar app. Those would both not require any server-side programming, and they are proven ways to make money.

I see so many people suggesting this, and I just don't get it. A very small percentage of iPhone apps even get into the high four-figures. That's not even quit-your-side-job money, much less quit-your-day-job.

Most people don't try and build apps that they know will suit an audience, and most people don't try for long enough (as with anything).

I believe that anyone who works on an iPhone app in their spare time for a year, and who picks a known winner category (GPS tracking, bible app, free book downloader, offline city maps, etc.) can make a living.

Remember - most people who try at everything fail. Right now, the mobile market is red-hot, and it's a good way to make a living. It's got to be the easiest way to sell software and make money, with a much higher success rate than making a website or a Facebook app.

Moreover, you can command ridiculous rates as a contractor right now for iOS expertise - much better than for JavaScript programming on average.

Re: Best approach for self-taught developer looking for job?

#27

Post by stc »

mark_story wrote: post #12

I come from a similar situation. I graduated with a degree in commercial art and illustration. After slinging coffee for a year, and trying to get freelance work started unsuccessfully, I threw in the towel. I went into programming, as it was a good fit for me. Since I too had no formal experience, I got involved with open source as a way to gain experience and learn from people who were more experienced and knowledg…

Thats a great idea. I am a big believer in/user of open source technologies and would love to contribute.

Re: Best approach for self-taught developer looking for job?

#28

Post by grayrest »

stc wrote: post #24
grayrest wrote: post #21

Pulled up your github account. Aside from you accidentally adding your home directory, you're making good progress. If you're looking to get a job quickly, I'd encourage you to focus on one area and I think your shortest path is the front end technologies. Pretty much every firm I know of in NYC is hiring front end developers and the main limitation is finding people who actually know javascript. If you know (not jus…

Thanks for the insight, you really hit upon several things I have been thinking about, namely my shortest path which I also think is javascript/frontend. Been looking into javascript alot more and am developing some couchapps as they let me use javascript/html/css. I am also building some bookmarklets for which I need to use plain javascript as opposed to jquery. I am also interested in mapping/gis so have been putti…

If you want to go this route, I strongly recommend you focus on javascript. There's enough going on in the frontend that it'll take you a year or two of solid effort before you're good in a number of them. By focusing heavily on one area, you'll get yourself marketable much quicker.

Now, the context in which you learn javascript and demonstrate it is up to you. If mapping/gis is your passion, then go with that. There are plenty of good mapping projects in the browser on github that could use help. If you would prefer a personal project you could, say, do some d3 visualizations using the geo facilities and have a great demo piece.

Re: Best approach for self-taught developer looking for job?

#30

Post by [deleted] »

stc wrote: post #6
andrew_k wrote: post #4

Assuming that this project on GitHub is yours https://github.com/cirsteve/courseslate and you show it to potential employers, I would recommend you to learn pip/virtualenv, read about django best practices, ( http://lincolnloop.com/django-best-practices/ ) Also I would recommend to cleanup your repository from files that are not completely necessary (varios .tar.gz files, .ssh folder, .bash_history, etc.) Those thing…

Thanks Andrew, virtualenv is next on my list as my system is starting to get mucked up with different packages and you are absolutely right that I need to clean everything up. Thanks for the input.

[deleted]
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