Do an Internship…or else!
When I was in grade school I was told “go to college and be somebody”, “go to school and make something of yourself so you don’t have to struggle for the rest of your life”. That was the contract… that was the agreement and I happily accepted without question. I eventually graduated from college with a computer science degree in 2004. Since then, I’ve gone back to school to gain some certifications in Windows, then went back to school again taking some online classes to learn web development once I figured out it’s what I want to do long-term. I am currently a student at FreeCodeCamp.com as a front end web developer, as well as taking a few courses online with Codecademy.com and whatever blogs, books or YouTube videos I can find to increase my skill set. I feel like I have done the leg work, yet am not really seeing the results I expected.
I never actually did an internship because I was not aware of the importance. Now that I think about it, at the time, I probably didn’t even know that was a thing. I now find myself often wondering how any programming students coming fresh out of college would ever find significant employment in the field. Unless one is smart or lucky enough to land an internship in the field, the chances are slim as most employers are seeking people who already have relevant experience, and in most cases, extensive experience. It’s the old ‘Catch 22’: “how do I gain the necessary experience if I need experience to gain the experience”? What if I were completely self-taught? What if I were a seasoned IT professional just seeking a career change? How does someone of limited programming background break into the field?
In frustration, I have done a lot of research in an attempt to explain my lack of significant employment in programming. I have found that not only does no one individual know everything there is to know about a single language, but that it takes at least ten years for one to become sufficiently knowledgeable, but not necessarily to be considered employable. I think one thing that keeps me pushing forward with my learning is that, I actually know a few programmers who are web developers and they are paid very handsomely. This gives me hope that if they can do it, then it’s at least possible and not unattainable; if someone else could do it, then so can I. I would advise anyone trying to break into the programming field to not only do an internship at and established company but also, seeking out a career mentor is probably just as important. Maybe this is some senior person at your company or a former classmate. Age is not as important as experience level. This should be someone who is well seasoned in his or her career and is willing and able to give advice and answer any career related questions you may have. Try seeking out other programmers in developer groups found in Meetup in your city and ask around there. There are also plenty of blogs, Q&A sites and chatrooms where you’ll find plenty of developers eager to help.
I have also discovered that employ-ability is also based just as heavily on one’s market or region as much as one’s skill set. For example, here in Charlotte I find lots of .Net roles as .Net is in very high demand here, especially with the banks and financial institutions. When I apply for jobs they are usually something that I have confidence I could do. My skill set is geared towards HTML5, CSS3, JQuery, and Bootstrap. The fact that I am still kind of a newbie (about 3 yrs.) means that I usually apply for entry level or Jr. developer roles based on these technologies. However once I get a more detailed job description, the skills that they are requiring is usually that of a mid to senior level developer. This probably means they actually want a mid-senior developer, but only want to pay Jr. level pay. This is a trick I had to pick up on from hundreds of failed interviews. They generally like my personality, but the general consensus is that I “lack sufficient experience”…for a “junior” role. For a long time I didn’t really know what to make of this. I mean, besides the schooling, I have taken the initiative of building an online portfolio of projects I have completed in the past. I have mock-ups and examples of my work on codepen. I even blog and offer helpful programming tips on LinkedIn, Tumblr, Medium and Twitter. I’m sure I’m not the best out there, but I think I am employable. The only explanation I could come up with is that the classes I have been taking which are mostly based on JavaScript, have not been greatly effective at finding a job here as JavaScript may be in higher demand elsewhere in the country or abroad. That or it could be some totally unrelated reason…
In my opinion, a programmer is a programmer and the fact that I have made the sacrifice to not only teach myself these technologies, but also build projects on my own to better learn shows that I am a self-starter who requires little motivation and also displays initiative and leadership skills as well. That I have mostly taught myself proves that whatever skills I may not have much experience with, I would have no problem learning quickly, which is also an asset. The fact that it is taking so long to find significant employment in the field of programming is becoming mind boggling and exhausting.
