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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?

#32

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.

Not this. Even if you want to do mobile apps, just starting out you need to work with other developers as you learn a lot from them. If your goal from day 1 is to work solo you aren't going to have that feedback loop where you are pushed by your peers and can learn from your (and their) mistakes. This is compounded by the fact that you will probably develop proficiency working solo to where you can do things well enough to make money, but the customer doesn't know software design patterns, writing maintainable code, etc, they just know whether something specific works or not. Overall, without working with others I feel a career can stagnate. Its a bit of a cliche, but a lot of developer bloggers write about how if you aren't working with people smarter than yourself than you need to find a new job, by always working solo you're missing out on this entirely.

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

#33
You'll probably need to start with a small company, bigger companies usually aren't willing to give someone their first "big break". I started out just doing my own projects and then did some work for relatives, etc, then, finally I was able to find someone who was willing to hire me a few hours a week to do remote development. From there I just kept incrementally jumping to the next better opportunity I could find. Its not necessarily the smoothest path but you can progress quickly if you keep pushing yourself. Basically, don't think of anything as being beneath you as long as its related to development, take the first job you can find with a company that will even give you half-time to where you can go into an office each day and work. A lot of companies are weary of letting people "short on years" work on development so its an uphill battle, but even working in a QA position could lead to a solid developer job as you usually can expose yourself to the application's code (some QA guys do and want to become developers, some don't). If you're a QA guy who reads code and finds bugs then... to the next job you apply to you can say you were a junior developer, and so on

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

#35
Well, I've been working as a full time dev for 3 years now and never went to college.

What I did was start low as a jr. system admin for linux systems. I'm not very social so I never made 'connections' so I hade to improve my skills. So from jr I went to sr, and within a couple of years got my first job as a jr. dev for a small company.

It's at these kinds of jobs that you will learn the essentials:

MVC Databases HTML/CSS/Javascript Message Queues

From here, it's up to you to keep improving your skills and building projects. Managers don't like github profiles, so I highly recommend you have your own app (not just a website.)

From there you can move on to things like: Mobile Apps Function Languages Socket Servers Low Latency Systems

Of course, always make sure you study and learn the basics. Such as basic sorting algorithms, working with bits/bytes, etc.

And so on.

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

#36
I was in the same boat as you for a while. The short answer is, don't look for a job, make one. In my case I'm in a CIS college program with a concentration in web development but I'm not too far in and so far have taught myself more than the classes aside from the C++ I was taught there. While you build your skills there's a huge market for local businesses that need some cheap web dev stuff done and you can make a great living off it. In my case I've increased my income tenfold. Of course my first job was free and the second was o ly $400 but the work comes in consistently with a minimum of 2 jobs a month and an average of a 2 month turnaround per job. It's not much to start but you can build it and I really encourage it to anyone so long as you don't set the client's expectations higher than what you can achieve.

You say you learned Python and Django and I think that's a great place to start. Add on to that with a solid font end knowledge and you're good to go until you get hired.

If you're in the Chicago area you should get in touch with me as I'm looking for help as we speak.

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

#38
Same here. I'm really trying hard to get into freelancing but since I'm not really good in networking I haven't come around to get a decent project yet. My current plan is building a strong online portfolio, which is hard to do without find any gigs.

If anyone is looking for a jr. front-end Dev., Wordpress Dev. or beginning Rails Dev. drop me a line. I'd appreciate it :) Languages: JS, Python, Ruby, PHP

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

#39
I'm a self taught developer as well.

I started with the front end because I had a decent design sense and attention to detail. If you can care about pixel perfection, I think it's a good route. JavaScript, HTML, and CSS aren't the most difficult technologies to start with, and you get a little more leeway to make mistakes or write sloppy code in the beginning, learning as you go.

It's a good time to be doing this. There is need for developers enough that if you can prove that you're smart, a mid-sized or smaller startup may take a risk with you.

Try putting up a personal website. Set up your own server if you can, write your own code, and get something up showing what you can do.

At this point, do whatever you can to show that you've taught yourself a decent amount. You want to prove that you can learn, not so much that you're already a pro.

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

#40
Try http://www.djangogigs.com, I get contacted frequently through that site. Also you may want to post you resume online, like http://www.cvstash.com.

The best way to demonstrate your python and django expertise is to create a web app using that stack. Find some cheap hosting and you're set. Who knows, your app might even be a hit and you can skip the job seeking routine altogether.

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