[OT] getting your start

[Andrew Clark]

hello everyone,

my name is andrew clark. i used to post sometimes to this NG a while back,
when i was still in school. now i am an alum and i have less time on my
hands, so i am a lurker. i try to read every day and solve at least 2
problems by on my own. my question is this: i am recently out of school
with a new degree in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really*
frustrating to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and
a job to get experience.

so, i was wondering how most of you got your start and whether that start
has led to you to a calling in life. thanks for reading!

andrew

 

[Dan Pop]

my name is andrew clark. i used to post sometimes to this NG a while back,
when i was still in school. now i am an alum and i have less time on my
hands, so i am a lurker. i try to read every day and solve at least 2
problems by on my own. my question is this: i am recently out of school
with a new degree in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really*
frustrating to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and
a job to get experience.

so, i was wondering how most of you got your start and whether that start
has led to you to a calling in life. thanks for reading!

I got a lot of experience from the "toy" projects I was working on as a
student, experience that I could both claim and demonstrate to the
prospective employers afterwards. Many of the real world projects I
worked on later proved to be simpler than my earlier toy projects...

Dan

 

[CBFalconer]

.... snip ...
my question is this: i am recently out of school with a new degree
in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really* frustrating
to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and a
job to get experience.

Having experience doesn't necessarily get you a job in todays
economy. In the US at least under Bush we have seen programming
positions disappear, along with a 45% depreciation of the dollar
WRT the Euro, not to mention impingement on basic freedoms, the
use of the Gitmo concentration camp, and increased concentration
of wealth in the rich. Note that the so-called economic boom does
not include jobs. If you are in some other part of the world
things may be better there.

 

[John Bode]

hello everyone,

my name is andrew clark. i used to post sometimes to this NG a while back,
when i was still in school. now i am an alum and i have less time on my
hands, so i am a lurker. i try to read every day and solve at least 2
problems by on my own. my question is this: i am recently out of school
with a new degree in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really*
frustrating to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and
a job to get experience.

so, i was wondering how most of you got your start and whether that start
has led to you to a calling in life. thanks for reading!

Connections help. I got my first job because one of my professors put
in a good word for me with some people he knew.

I started out (and eventually wound up back) working in defense, which
is one of the few sectors that won't be offshored and can expect to
see some sustained increases over the next few years. You might look
in that area. There are openings for bright and enthusiastic
entry-level programmers (after all, *somebody* has to do the dogwork),
it's just that they're not advertised.

 

[Mark F. Haigh]

>
hello everyone,

my name is andrew clark. i used to post sometimes to this NG a while back,
when i was still in school. now i am an alum and i have less time on my
hands, so i am a lurker. i try to read every day and solve at least 2
problems by on my own. my question is this: i am recently out of school
with a new degree in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really*
frustrating to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and
a job to get experience.

so, i was wondering how most of you got your start and whether that start
has led to you to a calling in life. thanks for reading!

<snip>

Using all lowercase reeks of "student". If you expect anybody to take
you seriously, ditch that habit.

Find something that you're interested in, and dive in head first. Be
open to miserable failures, and every time you end up with one, step
back and figure out where it all went wrong. When you find that point,
try again from there. Over time you will become better at identifying
the warning signs that signify an impending miserable failure.

Alternate between breadth-first and depth-first searches of knowledge.
In other words, it is important to know the breadth of options
available, but it is equally important to master a certain subset of
these. Find a balance.

Finally, spare no expense in acquiring good books. Only buy excellent
books. Read and understand them. If your employer offers to buy them,
make sure they are *yours*, not theirs, when you part ways.



Mark F. Haigh
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Joona I Palaste]

Using all lowercase reeks of "student". If you expect anybody to take
you seriously, ditch that habit.

In any case it's much better than USING ALL UPPERCASE, which reeks of
"Nigerian spam".

 

[Mark F. Haigh]

In any case it's much better than USING ALL UPPERCASE, which reeks of
"Nigerian spam".

It also reeks of other things, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.




Mark F. Haigh
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Dave Vandervies]

It also reeks of other things, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

But is it a THING-IN-ITSELF?


dave, bookshelf

 

[Christopher Benson-Manica]

my name is andrew clark. i used to post sometimes to this NG a while back,
when i was still in school. now i am an alum and i have less time on my
hands, so i am a lurker. i try to read every day and solve at least 2
problems by on my own. my question is this: i am recently out of school
with a new degree in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really*
frustrating to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and
a job to get experience.

Where did you graduate from? A CS degree from Podunk State U. isn't
going to get you very far. Hopefully your GPA is at least decent and
you got some good coursework in - barring those, and without
experience (as you suggest), you're going to have a rough time.

I don't see how you can have *less* time on your hands after
graduation, unless you're working some in-between job to stay afloat.
In any case, you've absolutely got to find a way to get good at
something in whatever time you do have.

so, i was wondering how most of you got your start and whether that start
has led to you to a calling in life. thanks for reading!

I graduated May from Georgia Tech with a 3.6. I had some pretty good
coursework to play up on my resume (with C being my favorite part of
said coursework). I still ended up spending two months looking
fruitlessly for work before I got my current job (for an inveterate
C/DOS hacker - we write C-style C++...) and I'm enjoying it. Don't
give up.

 

[Nick Keighley]

But is it a THING-IN-ITSELF?


dave, bookshelf

from the sig:-

Actually when you try to parody Karl you realise how
seriously amazing his programmer was.
--Nick Keighley in comp.lang.c

I only have to be quoted in a sig 5000 more times before I catch up
with Richard Heathfield.


--
Nick Keighley

-pedantic
This option is not intended to be useful; it exists only to satisfy
pedants who would otherwise claim that GNU CC fails to support the
ANSI standard.
(Using and Porting GNU CC)

 

[shanmu]

In any case it's much better than USING ALL UPPERCASE, which reeks of
"Nigerian spam".

why Joona (often) makes derogatory comments about some country or other?

 

[Joona I Palaste]

why Joona (often) makes derogatory comments about some country or other?

Have you ever actually seen Nigerian spam? I don't know if it really
comes from Nigeria, but it's called "Nigerian spam" because it claims
to come from Nigeria.
You know the type:

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
I AM GENERAL SUCH-AND-SUCH FROM NIGERIA. I KNOW WHERE $10,000,000 (TEN
MILLION DOLLARS) IS BURIED. TO GET MY GRUBBY MITTS ON IT I NEED SOMEONE
TO ASSIST ME FINANCIALLY. PLEASE GIVE ME $10,000 AND I WILL MAKE SURE
YOU GET HALF OF THE LOT. PLEASE TREAT THIS WITH THE UTMOST
CONFIDENTIALITY...

Now, this may all be written by someone living comfortably in his
industrial West world apartment, but it *claims* it's from Nigeria. *I*
didn't invent the term "Nigerian spam", it's in common use.

 

[Mark F. Haigh]

shanmu wrote:

why Joona (often) makes derogatory comments about some country or other?

And why are you so clueless?

Can't you at least be bothered to type "Nigerian spam" into Google?
Joona even quoted it for you. You would have found sites like this
(http://www.scambusters.org/NigerianFee.html). It's standard usage.

I'm really sick of this kind of oversensitive PC BS. There's a couple
acronyms for ya. ;-)


Mark F. Haigh
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Dan Pop]

why Joona (often) makes derogatory comments about some country or other?

If you think that Joona made any derogatory comment about some country or
other above, you're either an ignoramus or a patent idiot.

Furthermore, your statement is about as abusive as Joona's comment
about Indian programmers that started a monster thread recently:
how often does he make such comments? Please support your reply with
quotes from his posts.

Dan

 

[Les Cargill]

why Joona (often) makes derogatory comments about some country or other?

The phrase "Nigerian spam" is not particularly dergatory against Nigeria. There
have been a whole bunch of these "Spanish Prisoner"/"pigeon drop" SPAM
messages received by just about everyone, so it's an apt description of
that phenomenon.