The foolproof way to be hired as a programmer
Do you really want to be a programmer?
A programmer needs a special perk, so not everybody could be a (good) programmer. It’s not that programmers are smarter than the rest of the population. It’s like a painter, some painters born with the talent; others train to be good painters while others are bad painters.
If you don’t have the talent, then you could spoil years in some career that you will hate.
Why everybody wants to be a programmer?.
It is because of the good salaries and the insanely amount of jobs available. To be a programmer is a good deal!.
But you could learn to drive a dozer and earn good money too, and the training is easy and short.
There are people that love to program (I’m in) but most don’t.
Then, How can I be hired?.
Three factors: (pick at least 2)
- Experience
- Expertise
- And certificates / degrees.
- Sometimes there is a fourth factor, and it’s the salary but let’s keep it as your hidden ACE.
Is it worth to have a degree?.
For most jobs, yes and it counts. It used to be mandatory but now most businesses don’t ask for it and some don’t care it at all. However, it is not the only factor. If you can have a degree, then go ahead and run for it. The more degree/certification, then the merrier.
But, you could land a job without a degree, with only experience and expertise.
Costs, from 2 to 5 years plus the cost of the University.
There is another alternative and is to achieve a certification or to take a short course.
A certification could costs you 3–6 months and it could helps a lot. However, a certification is a memory-game so it is not for everybody. Can you cheat it?. yep.
And how about experience?
Usually, the experience is CATCH-22 (see Wikipedia), so you will not be hired because you don’t have experience and you don’t have experience because nobody wants to hire you, and why nobody wants to hire you?. because you don’t have experience. -> <-
Could you cheat the system? And, how?.
- Yes, you can. Use your social contacts. And I’m not talking about Facebook or Twitter but relatives, friends and somebody that could hire you, even if it is for free. Let’s say that your dad work in some business, you could try here even if it is for filling papers.
- Some teachers are a good source of jobs while others are useless. You want to achieve experience as fast as possible, usually before you complete your degree.
- Join a startup group
- Be volunteer. However, nobody wants a volunteer that is the useless guy of the group.
- Form a group or join a group of developers, for example, GitHub.
Costs, from 6 months to a year if not more. Some jobs ask for +3 years of experience and they are the jobs that you want, but not today.
There are two words, the academic and the “real world.”
Both worlds work with different rules, and it is here some people fail
Let’s say that you spend +4 years of study at a University and somehow, you are hired in a top company. Great!. However, to be employed is only part of the game, the real game is to keep your job (or to jump to a better job). 90% of the time, what you learn at the University and what the industries want are different things. And it is the reason why many jobs ask for experience, only a few (decent) companies hire greenhorns.
For example, let’s say about language. Most universities are crazy with Python, Python this and that.
However, how many companies use Python as the core?. A really few ones, fewer than you could imagine.
You could say: “but, but I know businesses that use Python.”, Yes, but unless you are pointing to be contracted in those businesses, then other industries don’t use it at all, or they scarcely use it. They are exceptions.
Expertise
Then, what the industry use or require?.
- JavaScript is elsewhere but with a catch.(*)
- Java is king. Everybody hates Java but not you, you must love Java. Why?. Good salaries, many opportunities, you could make a career with Java, and the projects are LONG LASTING. But, but Java is a bad language?. WHO CARES? Do you want to be hired?. Anyways, Java is not a bad language, people ill talks about Java because EJB 2.0, and EJB 2.0 is dead since a decade ago (EJB 3.0 is easy if not lame, a single annotation!).
- Then C# is also a nice alternative. But-but Microsoft is evil. And again, what’s the problem with it?. People consider picking a programming language equals than to choose a political party. Sheesh with those people. Why? C# (and even VB.NET) is a good alternative?. For starter, it is the most accessible language of the market, by far!. Visual-Studio is an excellent tool, the salaries (working on .net) are great, and there are many jobs around here.
- And PHP, PHP is different. PHP is the king of the SMB and startups. How?. Google says that +70% of the websites use PHP. However, there is a catch; the salaries are not as good as Java and C# but, if you want to work as a startup, then it is your language, it’s easy and cheaper to buy a server, the language is highly supported, and it’s flexible.
- And Python. Python is king, in the academic research world. Outside of that, Python is a rarity. But it is not as used as other languages. Most pro-python are only students that they don’t know the “real world.”
Also, Python is a poor election for a simple factor; most universities are teaching Python, so the supply of python developers will increase but not the demand. It means more competitors and fewer seats. But, but Python is easy. No, Python is not easy. Python is easy if you only know Python but it’s not easy in comparison with other languages. Python is fast for some jobs (PANDAS for example, PANDAS is a programming library, not a chinese bear) but it’s ugly for other projects such a business systems. - And about Ruby and Rails. Why?.
- (*) And about JavaScript, JavaScript is hard to master and hard to build anything large than 50k lines of code. While it is possible but there are little companies that build their system with only Java.
However, it is used for the front-end. JavaScript usually is required in tandem with other languages and not as the ONLY language used in a project. - SQL. As JavaScript, it is a must have.
Costs, a year of preparation plus the price of the course (if you pick one). Note: most online courses are rubbish and a waste of time.
Tl/dr, pick Java (because Java is job friendly), followed by C#. But newest developers hate them?. Fine, it means fewer competitors.
Finally, Interview
Usually, the first interview will be done by the people of Human Resources. You must know that your interviewer could be a person that will prejudge you. But is it fair?. Sorry but the process is for the good of the business and not for the good of everybody else. Also, I don’t write the rules, so don’t blame me!.
- A good CV. Your CV must be clean, one page and focused on the specific job. Let’s say that you have worked on McDonald’s (as a temp), and you worked in a small SMB, and you want a job as developer?. Then, please delete your experience at McDonald’s because it looks ugly.
- You must decorate your CV that it’s not the same that lie. So it is true but a true over-exposed.
- Tattoo is a bad idea.
- You must dress formally or semi-formal if they ask for it. You must never, never dress informally. T-shirt and sneakers are out. But, it is how I dress. Who cares?, do you want to be hire or do you want to be “authentic”?(authentically unemployed).
- Please, take a shower.
- And remove your inappropriate facebook account.
- You must be punctual and formal.
- And you must smile, even if the interviewer is a douche.
- And you must talk about programming, you must speak a lot. It means that you know about the topic even if your talking is boring. Silents guys are not cool.
- You must understand that the people of HR don’t know about programming and some of them, hate programmers.
In a interview, I always want to hear the next words:
- I need the job
- I like to program
- I am compromised, I am not scared to do overtime if the job requires it.
- And, I know “X” technology
In a interview, I am tired to hear
- I am proactive
- I am a leader. (so,do you want a job as junion programmer?)
- Soft skills.
And about the technical interview, it’s easy. If you know then you could pass it. And if you don’t know the technology, then it depends on your desire to work (that it’s different to your desire to earn a salary).
Conclusion
To have a degree counts but his costs is high. To achieve Expertise is hard but it is possible to achieve expertise in a year. And about Experience, to gain experience could be a bit tricky. Pick two of them (or three if you want to be sure).
The long route (degree + experience + expertise ) is around 4–6 years but it is a “safe” bet.
The short route (experience + expertise) could starts from 6 months. And yes, it is possible, if you are enough good. If not, then it could take a year.
My background
I work in education (in spanish) and I also worked hiring codemonkeys (and sometimes I still hire but it depends on my customers), so I know how the market works.
