Comments on: Preparing Yourself, a Student, for a Programming Job

By: Shadus

Shadus — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 02:44:45 +0000

College coursework is nothing related to programming. I learned more helping on one open source project than I did in all the years I was in school. Find a project that interests you and join it for a few months, find some problems, implement code to fix it, do it in the standard style of the project.

That’s a far better teacher than anything you’ve done in college prior.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:39:35 +0000

Some things never change. It’s been over 15 years since I was programming for $, just out of college. But I didn’t have a clue about the real world. When I learned that I would be modifying existing code, I damn near quit, it was quite a shock.

But I survived…kinda.

By: Bryce

Bryce — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 03:51:27 +0000

Also @Jason. I just re-read what I wrote and I sound like a supreme cock. I totally didn’t mean it that way at all, I just mean to get involved in a current opensource project. Jake went over how it was important to have real world experience with other people’s code. This is a great way to do it.

Again, sorry for sounding like a total jerk.

By: Bryce

Bryce — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:19:10 +0000

Hey jason try getting some real experience coding. Try working on an open source project. Look for some basic bugs in some software packages you use and get some patches in there. From there look into adding small features.

If that doesn’t get you in then maybe you should get different recommendations and references….

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:21:33 +0000

Thanks for the advice, but what about those who have graduated, ace interviews/tests, and for some unknown reason don’t get it? I’ve been told I do very well on the tests companies give, and I’ve been told by interviewers that an interview was great. Two years and counting from my graduation and still fast food.

By: Dan C

Dan C — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:54:54 +0000

Hey, thanks for the advice. I’m a college computer programmer approaching my final year. Though I do want to go into computer science at the local university before I hit the job market, your insights are very helpful.

By: Bryce

Bryce — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:38:16 +0000

Heh, there certainly isn’t a substitute for getting good at understanding code that’s already been written.
I’m currently working on a few patches for RawStudio to properly support Fuji raw files. It’s been a trip so far. And I won’t lie, it’s only a small project.
When I was working on MyNoteIt.com that place was/is a shitnest of code with no real consistency in the php/javascript/html/css. Talk about a pain in the ass….
Heh but who knows where I’ll go when I graduate, maybe I’ll do IT related instead of programming, I mean I’m sure i’ll still program in my spare time, but who knows.

We need to do dinner/lunch/drinks or something sometime soon.