Re: jobs

[Jason Chambers <tooger@bellsouth.net>]

Natalie

There is no real recipe for success here. If there was, I'd be rich! What I 
can tell you is my story of how I got started (14 years ago).

My first job was working for a software house. Unfortunately, the position 
did not involved any writing of software. In fact, it was a pretty lousy 
job in the services part of the company. It was extremely tedious as it 
involved manual digitizing of drawings, maps and schematics. What was of 
tremendous value was being exposed to life in the software industry. I had 
been hacking code since I was 12 and had always wanted to turn my hobby 
into a career.

So, I began to make some contacts and just worked really hard in searching 
for opportunities within the company. During this time, I was learning C 
and UNIX which is quite a stretch after doing BASIC and COBOL at school. 2 
years later I finally took a position within the company as a junior 
developer working on image processing software (C/UNIX). So now I had my 
foot on the first rung of the ladder but there were still some things 
missing. In my case, it was a degree. The money was still awful at this 
point (~7k GBP) but I thought that would come later. So, I put myself 
through university. It would be five years later before I finally got my 
degree. It was incredibly hard work to go to work during the day and school 
at night. The only benefit being I could put into immediate practise at 
work the stuff I was learning at university.

Once I earned my degree, it was time to spread my wings (the money was 
still crap ~13k GBP). The wind carried me to the US to work as a contractor 
for BellSouth. After two years at BellSouth, I'd had enough and joined 
Delta. I am still luckily employed by Delta.

Once you are employed in the career of your choice, the goal is to keep 
employed. My tips for this is to keep learning, experimenting and sharing 
your ideas with your peers and your bosses. Also, build a network outside 
of your organization. User groups such as AJUG are the best way to do this. 
This may also a good resource 
http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/talks/HowToKeepYourJob/HowToKeepYourJob.htm

To summarize then. Do not focus on the money. If you are good and have a 
passion for the job, the money will usually follow. The days of $200/hour 
are long gone however. Also, consider a non-programming yet software 
related job first if you are having problems jumping straight into a 
developer job. Consider getting involved in some open source projects.

Hope this helps.

Jason
http://jason.blog-city.com

At 05:09 AM 8/23/2003 -0700, free country wrote:
>Hello everyone!
>
>I am a brand new programmer wanting to gain experience
>in the professional world. In your opinion, how hard
>is it to get an entry level job in this tough economy?
>What is the best way to go starting out?
>
>Thanks!
>Natalie
>
>
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