Getting into the programming field..

elitesoldier · 04-09-2006, 02:37 AM

So, I'm planning on studying computer science in college since computers are pretty much my life. I am going down the route of two years of community college then two years of a state university for a BS degree (not enough money to go four years at a state school). It seems that the hardest part about actually getting into programming as a career is getting the first job, that relates to programming. It seems that every employer wants a lot of experience. In fact, some programming job posts I see only mention job experience and nothing about a college degree. I know one way to get experience is to do internships while in college. I was wondering what exactly is considered "experience" in the IT world. There are tons of ways you could get experience for example, coding for source forge projects, coding your own software for retail, freelance etc. However, I am not sure if those are considered "experience" to an employer. The job posts I see don't really go into detail about the experience. The only time I see a specific type of experience was when it was referred to as, "payed work experience" and "Non-school experience."

Also, if anyone here actually makes a living programming then I was wondering how you actually got into the field.

Chankama · 04-09-2006, 10:08 AM

I am going to move this to the "Jobs" forum.

The key thing are "references". They make a world of difference. You can work on sourceforge projects, but you won't get any references. You can work on them for your own knowledge and to build up a portfolio of projects to describe during interviews. But also make sure you get a couple of people that can vouch for you and say how good you are. This is where interships come in. So they are absolutely essential. Unless you go to a great university or are at the absolute top of the class, without experience, you probably will have trouble finding a job at first.

raross · 04-09-2006, 11:08 AM

I agree and you get references by working hard in college and being noticed. Once you are noticed by your professors, they will ask you to help them or work for the department on projects or maybe even research (if you're lucky and smart enough

). That is why I would suggest you to go the full 4 years at college (take out a loan if you have to). A big part of how people get jobs is the job offers go straight to the colleges in the area and not on these stupid monster.com crap. Usually the employers will call up and ask if you have a person like etc, and they will give the job offer to a student they think earned it or you will have jobs offers that are just that, and you will have to hurry your *** up to get an interview. Most schools will take care of the kids they know can produce work. Most schools also have a local company that they are affilated with, which hires say 5 kids from your uni every year. You will have all kinds of offers if you stay on top of things.

fitzjj · 04-09-2006, 12:01 PM

That is what i initially thought when i started university (UK) but these last couple of years i've been looking at summer jobs and both years had to turn places down that i had applied to because i'd already accepted a job elsewhere. While you are at college/uni find yourself a holiday job - i'd recommend if possible getting one with a smaller company (i worked for one with 9 employees) since they'll really aprechiate your work since you'll probably know more than they do and it'll look great on your CV to say i completed this whole project that made the company $xx,xxx or saved them 15hours a day etc... You'll also get some good connections and you'll learn a **** of a lot more than you expected to, trust me! Ok the money will probably be crap but it's the experience you need. Now when you leave uni you are already ahead of everyone else who doesn't have experience - it's all well and good knowing everything you learnt at uni but unless you can apply it in real life it is pointless, having successfully worked in the field shows you can apply it

TheHeadFL · 04-09-2006, 06:31 PM

I talked to one of my Computer Science professors in one of my senior level classes. He hooked me up with an internship working for the school's CS department in the Computer Vision lab working on moving target detection, etc.

From there, the school got a contract to develop some software for Lockheed-Martin and that is where I am spending most of my time working right now.

Lots of companies around here partner with my university. Lockheed, Harris Corp, Boeing, Siemens, Grumman, etc. Lots of them offer entry level jobs to graduates, or even summer internships.