How did you find your first programming job?
I'm studying computer science and want to better prepare myself. Just wondering how everyone here managed to find their first real progamming job. Do I have to have a lot of experience to get a niche over others? I have just been doing some small projects myself for fun ... nothing serious or professional.
11 comments
I don't know if this is common in the rest of the world, but many Universities in the UK offer an industrial placement scheme, whereby each participating student has to get a job (relevant to your degree) for a year of their course. So in the 4 year course, the 3rd year is work experience.
I did that, which was fantastic experience (good coworkers, nice codebase to work with and an interesting industry) and led to me being employed by the same company upon leaving University. While interviewing for my next job, it was often mentioned that I had 18 months more experience than others in my position (recent-ish graduate), and they valued that much more highly than they would one additional year of in-University education.
As for getting a job without a educational backing, it's all about proving yourself. I have a friend who's co-worker had never been formally educated, but was a senior developer at the firm. He had a solid portfolio and ran his own small web development effort on the side. Code things, and show them to prospective employers.
I did that, which was fantastic experience (good coworkers, nice codebase to work with and an interesting industry) and led to me being employed by the same company upon leaving University. While interviewing for my next job, it was often mentioned that I had 18 months more experience than others in my position (recent-ish graduate), and they valued that much more highly than they would one additional year of in-University education.
As for getting a job without a educational backing, it's all about proving yourself. I have a friend who's co-worker had never been formally educated, but was a senior developer at the firm. He had a solid portfolio and ran his own small web development effort on the side. Code things, and show them to prospective employers.
Get an internship, make connections with the IT department, with all of your professors and any alumni you meet. I got a job offer from one of my internships and an alumnus but ended up working at the company that did the back office software for my college (a connection through people in that department).
One more story: my friend who went to business school (and got a business degree) ended up getting a full time job with the IT department and is still working there today. He started as an entry level programmer and is currently a business analyst.
I got into eXtreme Programming during college around 1999. I put it on my resume and dropped the name at various applications. I went around looking for Smalltalk jobs and then got recruited by ThoughtWorks in 2000, probably because I had the XP interest.
I recommend identifying what you want to do, find out who's doing it, and then contacting people there directly until they bring you in. Knowing what I know now, my approach of mostly sending out resumes and hoping for the best was not optimal. I still don't know how to "network" but calling companies that are doing cool things, or asking people on irc where they work and whether they like it, things like that, are probably going to be sort of like networking.
I recommend identifying what you want to do, find out who's doing it, and then contacting people there directly until they bring you in. Knowing what I know now, my approach of mostly sending out resumes and hoping for the best was not optimal. I still don't know how to "network" but calling companies that are doing cool things, or asking people on irc where they work and whether they like it, things like that, are probably going to be sort of like networking.
I found my first job through a job fair - but I had several internships before that. Small projects are great to show that you have interest in programming by default. It will definitely be worth something. But I reckon my internships helped me quite a bit in getting them to talk to me. After that, it's a whole bunch of technical questions, coding, etc.
Networks and job fairs are fairly useful. If you attend conferences or talks, get to know the people there.
Networks and job fairs are fairly useful. If you attend conferences or talks, get to know the people there.
Complete luck. I managed to get an internship doing programming work with a local design firm simply because I knew iOS development and they wanted someone who did.
If I were you, I'd try contacting companies that are doing things to want to do and sending them your resume. Persistence is key.
If I were you, I'd try contacting companies that are doing things to want to do and sending them your resume. Persistence is key.
I got my first internship through a standard corporate application with only 4 CS courses under my belt. I tend to interview well, and there was a lot of interest in my resume because I was a returning student. Two of the three people who interviewed me did the same thing, so that wound up being my "in".
I got my first real job through Monster.com, I'm sorry to say. I had just moved to a new town and a company needed some help, so I went ahead and applied. It wasn't a great gig, but I wasn't trying to be selective at the time. I would not recommend using Monster.com and if I could go back in time to slap myself I would. I still get occasional calls from recruiters for a 4-year old resume.
The best advice I can offer you is that, however you brand yourself on your resume, tell the truth in an interview. Don't exaggerate or fabricate, and if you get to the limits of your knowledge don't be afraid to say so. Think of it as an extension of "underpromise and overdeliver". I never put anything on my resume I'm not prepared to talk about for at least half an hour precisely to avoid any hint that I'm making shit up as I go.
I got my first real job through Monster.com, I'm sorry to say. I had just moved to a new town and a company needed some help, so I went ahead and applied. It wasn't a great gig, but I wasn't trying to be selective at the time. I would not recommend using Monster.com and if I could go back in time to slap myself I would. I still get occasional calls from recruiters for a 4-year old resume.
The best advice I can offer you is that, however you brand yourself on your resume, tell the truth in an interview. Don't exaggerate or fabricate, and if you get to the limits of your knowledge don't be afraid to say so. Think of it as an extension of "underpromise and overdeliver". I never put anything on my resume I'm not prepared to talk about for at least half an hour precisely to avoid any hint that I'm making shit up as I go.
Thanks everybody for the great advice. Looks like networking makes things easier. Not my favorite thing to do but I guess I have to suck it up. I am more of a lone wolf ... like to do my own things ...
I also like taking part in programming competitions ... wondering if they help in resume ...
I had almost received my B.S. Management when I was offered a entry-level job as a Requirements Analyst at an eight-person software company. At this point I had probably written 1000 lines of code in my entire life (JavaScript/PHP, mostly copying tutorials) and had no real intention of becoming a programmer.
After four months, I had become the longest tenured employee (besides the owner, who was non-technical) after everyone else in the company quit. I had no choice but to take the role of Lead Developer on a $170,000 project. Needless to say, I learned to code ... and since then my interest in CS/SWE has snowballed to the point I enrolled in a M.S. Comp Sci program.
After four months, I had become the longest tenured employee (besides the owner, who was non-technical) after everyone else in the company quit. I had no choice but to take the role of Lead Developer on a $170,000 project. Needless to say, I learned to code ... and since then my interest in CS/SWE has snowballed to the point I enrolled in a M.S. Comp Sci program.
I was in my first year of college. In brief discussions with one of my professors I mentioned I did PHP amongst other things. A few months later he passed me in the hallway and asked would I meet with him about a project using PHP, MySQL... traditional stack. Basically he saw my work in class plus saw I did work outside of class to know I could handle it.
I was in high school, my brother was working at Webs.com (or Freewebs as it was known back then.)
He asked me if I wanted to take over the template building process for them, and I agreed. Started as a contractor and ended up working there full time for almost three years straight out of high school.
He asked me if I wanted to take over the template building process for them, and I agreed. Started as a contractor and ended up working there full time for almost three years straight out of high school.
My first web development job came as random luck. I received a phone call at my high school via the school office. I headed to the office to see what the call about and it was a local ISP begging me to come in and work for a week. All of their techs were sick and they learned of me via one of the techs.
I did tech support with them for a week and ended up taking on a web site project as well. A couple weeks later came another project... and another... and then then two years later we had a good laugh when we realized that they never hired me officially.
My first real programming gig came out of the blue as well. I had just graduated high school in North Carolina and received an e-mail from a startup in California. They had learned about me from my work on Gaim (now Pidgin) and wanted to hire me.
Two weeks later I was driving across the country to start the job. I don't even think there was an interview involved. I almost half expected to get there and find an abandoned building.
That was many years ago. Sadly, I now find myself somewhat underemployed and toying around with a few startup ideas while longing to move back to California.
I did tech support with them for a week and ended up taking on a web site project as well. A couple weeks later came another project... and another... and then then two years later we had a good laugh when we realized that they never hired me officially.
My first real programming gig came out of the blue as well. I had just graduated high school in North Carolina and received an e-mail from a startup in California. They had learned about me from my work on Gaim (now Pidgin) and wanted to hire me.
Two weeks later I was driving across the country to start the job. I don't even think there was an interview involved. I almost half expected to get there and find an abandoned building.
That was many years ago. Sadly, I now find myself somewhat underemployed and toying around with a few startup ideas while longing to move back to California.