Dave had “fuck you, pay me” programming skills
Quite literally.
Rewind to November 2000. Y2K hadn’t brought about Armageddon. Stack Overflow wouldn’t be created for another 8 years. Google had only recently turned 2. I wouldn’t hear about Google for almost another year. When I hit a software bug I would load up the Microsoft Developer Network help CDs. If I was still stuck I would go to the library and find a book.
Things have come along way for developers in the last 18 years.
Anyway with the end of my third year of Engineering, I had to find somewhere to do my work experience. So I wrote out a pitch:
“Hi, my name is Ben, I am a third year engineering student. I would like to complete 12 weeks of work experience with <insert company name> as part of my degree. I would like to do this with <insert company name> because during my study I have found <insert companies area> to be interesting. Can you direct me to who I should speak to?”
I then practised over and over until I had it memorised. Then I picked up the phone book and I started cold calling. I literally called every single engineering company in the phone book. The economy wasn’t great so no one was hiring, let alone taking on work experience students. In the space of just 3 hours I managed to get rejected by every single engineering company…
