[PLUG] Linux job hunting...

[chris (fool) mccraw]

Hi Michael,

Advice I give to anyone who wants to work in tech is to work in tech!
Contribute to open source, work on a project for your portfolio, expand
your horizons - I realize this was kind of what school was supposed to do
for you, but if you find yourself without the skills for the jobs you want,
as someone who knows one programming language, you should be able to pick
up others pretty easily.  If you want my opinion, Java is a good feather to
have in your cap (some people poo-poo it, but it's not going anywhere and
has an incredible ecosystem and is really well-optimized for lots of
tasks), but something front-end (javascript in the form of Node or Angular
perhaps) or something that can span the stack a little better (Ruby,
Python) might be a good one to add to your resume.

I don't know how you learn, but I only learn by doing, so making a sample
project while you learn gives you an instant portfolio that you can host
for free on GitHub, seems to me.

Another option for breaking into tech is starting in developer support.
Places in town like New Relic are always hiring folks who can program -
you'll be working on interesting technical problems with developers (both
folks inside the company as well as customers) and learning as you go - I
joined that team with negligible python experience for instance, and came
out understanding quite a bit more, able to write API wrappers and having
some code on github.  Plus, they pay way way better than seasonal anything
(check glassdoor.com if you want to know more).

One caveat to that path - while it is totally a "foot in the door" at a
company with tons of developers on staff as well, and it is a fabulous
learning opportunity using tools that the industry is using like JIRA,
GitHub, etc, you need to be careful about how you position yourself when
applying.

As a proud support professional who hires people, nothing turns me off more
than someone saying "I'm doing this just as a stepping stone".  It can *be*
a stepping stone, but you need to give your focus to the work at hand and
be willing to stick with it for a year+ if you're going to try it, or else
it's not really worth their time to train and onboard you.

Just my $.02

On Mon, Nov 14, 2016 at 6:10 AM, Michael C. Robinson <
michael at robinson-west.com> wrote:

> I have a major problem, I'm a college grad in computer science with 0
> years of experience.  That PSU allows this when granting a degree is
> sad, but that's another issue for another time.  Everything I can find
> is for senior level people and a lot of the programming jobs require
> .NET or some other Microsoft thing.  Short of an internship, no college
> graduate can have experience programming in a Linux or any other
> environment professionally.  How do you land a job in this market? With
> Intel laying off so many senior level people, I cannot compete with the
> talent out there.  The tech industry in Oregon doesn't need college
> graduates and doesn't seem to want them either.
>
> I'm thinking of volunteering somewhere, possibly at freegeek.  Thing
> is, I need coding experience.  The only other thing I can think to do
> is build a code repository and certify in Java.  Don't know if there
> are Python, C++, PHP, and Perl certifications that companies care
> about.  I'm looking at seasonal work in retail because I can't get a
> computer job.  That doesn't cut it, I worked too hard for a degree in
> computer science to be shut out of the field.  I need in, I'm too old
> to wait: 1, 5, or 10 years longer for that first progamming job.  I've
> been job hunting for 2 years as it is.
>
> Interested in any good tips or advice people may have.  I admit I'm
> discouraged, but I'm not giving up.  Giving up won't solve the problem
> of being unable to land that first programming job.  This isn't a
> situation I want to deal with much longer, an entry level programming
> job would be very welcome.  Barring that, all I can think to do is
> prove I have the experience necessary to function in a more senior
> position.  That's a heck of a place to start though.
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG mailing list
> PLUG at lists.pdxlinux.org
> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
>