how did you get your programming job?

jeremuck

I'm curious...
I'm taking a break from school right now... (double in CS and music)
I can't stand this data entry crap.
I gotta get a decent job...

daynah

I went to a University, majored in CS, and I was hired as a student in the middle of my sophmore year. At first it was mostly data entry, which turned into a programming job. When I finally got my degree, I was hired full time. I think I was pretty lucky. 🙂

greg252

From what I understand, it is very difficult to find a well paying PHP job.
I have a full time graphic design job and do programming at night.
Mostly, I get my programming jobs from an ad agency that I have a good relationship with.

My idea is this:
I am a programmer and will never make the real money if I work for someone else. So, I get an idea, write the program, set up the website and get someone else to manage it.

This leads to (potential) residual income and more freelance programming jobs (by having a full portfolio of active sites).

It's all theory right now, but it's building quickly.

jeremuck

I don't mean just PHP... I mean any programming job with a paycheck.

You've got the right idea, I guess.

Wave

there are many ways to sell your brain, till now i have searched jobs on forums, like this, job sites and my customers references, month ago i decide to create web development company, but it is another story, so another peoples will sell their brains to me 🙂

Quevas

Luck!

Last year I didn't know anything of programming (...I'm still learning, even by this forum 😉 ), now I'm working for a software house... and they pay me!!! 😃

This is Luck...

_SuperString

Persistance...
I worked for about 2 years for web design/development agencies, but they pay rubbish now, and are going out of business (or getting bought over) all the time. So I decided to look to work for a industrial/manufacturing company's IT department as it a bit more secure these days (just a bit though). But it true that a little knowledge can go a long way, if you present it with a positive attitude.
I did'nt get a degree, just keeped trying....

Bunkermaster

Originally posted by greg252
My idea is this:
I am a programmer and will never make the real money if I work for someone else. So, I get an idea, write the program, set up the website and get someone else to manage it.

That's what I do

php-er

Currently I'm doing work in sales (totally un-computer related), but have been doing freelance webdesign and programming for about 6 years now.
I recently started a company offering web design and various programming, and I'm also offering hosting. I'm on the computer all day at work, and can be in an instant at home - so providing tech support has been great.
It's really only part time right now, until i can move it to the next level.

largo

The jedi council was hiring and I lucked in. With Anakin gone, it was hardly a problem -- also the princess needed jedi comfort.

exponder

I had to sell my soul to the Computer gods (Linus Torvalds) in order to beg my way into the data entry on a local isp company.

wilsonodk

I started making web pages for bands (no pay)
then a friend got me to go to a freelance agency
two hours later they assigned me to do a short term gig (three days)
the previous guy left because of death in the family (lucky me, unlucky him)
3 days turned into 6 months turned into full-time running the dept (luck!!!)

BTW, the agency never got me another job & about 2 months working with them i ditched them,
I was able to keep my first client, because i was cheaper but i made more on each job.

Hardwork for the kung(foo) :-)
Luck for the paycheck ;-)

jerdo

Luck mostly. But I went to college for CS and then quickly found that at the state university the garbage they were teaching was so far out of date it wasn't funny. So I learned all the useful stuff on my own (still learning) and decided to go into the working world.

xjeffx

I guess it was luck in my case too. Fresh out of college with a CS degree, looking for a web-design/programming job. I happened upon a small company that had just had a split and was desperate for a designer/programmer. They didn't pay much, but I didn't need much. Stuck around and they ended up firing everyone else and keeping me. I got a substantial raise and am the sole designer/programmer now. It's been 2+ years and it's working out so far.

arcturus_10

Hello All,

I have taken a fairly circuitous route to my current position as Manager and main developer of a banks e-learning program.

I went to art school majoring in Fine Art - painting and sculpture. Somewhere down the road I worked for a non-profit group where I was the most interested in computers when the world wide web really got going. So I was picked to be the web master for our web site. From there I began reading everything about HTML and programming that I could find and put together some small websites for pay.

Finally I decided to work on my own just doing web development, but it didn't actually work out - I survived this way for a year - made some cool stuff, but in the end I built up a bunch of debt and I had to go for a regular paycheck. I decided to move myself and my family to another area of the country NW Arkansas - Northern VA may have been a hotbed of jobs then, you would have to make $100,000 / year to live well there - things are expensive and overdeveloped /underplanned - traffic is HELL.

Lady luck placed me in the right place at the right time - a bank was looking for someone with web development experience to oversee their budding e-learning program. I ending up being able to cut out the various outside companies that were going to charge us $100/ hr. for programming. I told my manager I could do it myself and I was able to turn my job into web design / programming with Flash, Actionscript, JavaScript, PHP, XML and mySQL.

The pay here isn't what it would be in other areas of the country, but because the cost of living is much cheaper I am actually living a much higher standard of living here than I would be in other areas. Plus, in another year or so I will have three years experience as a manager / developer with these technologies and that should open other doors / opportunities. So, some of you young people with no attachments should consider moving to a smaller area that doesn't have a good crop of developer types - there is still a great need for programmers in those wide and open spaces!

Good luck!

arcturus_10

Sorry to not be clear about geography - it so easy to forget we are talking to people from every area of the world when we chat.

My comments are confined to the market in the United States. I am now working in Bentonville, AR - home town of Wal-Mart.

jeremuck

Arcturus:

Have you heard of Harding University?
I attended there for two years. It's in Searcy.
I might go back there someday, although the lack of planning in that area of the country drives me up the wall.
Every weekend the internet went down. The whole state is one one big intranet, basically, and they had frequent problems.

Oh, and the road system... shudder They have you cross on-coming traffic when you exit the highway, and the on-coming traffic is responsible for yielding. What a mess.
We have u-turns in NJ. I like my U-turns.
And the leaves change color here.

BTW Jerdo:

Many colleges purposefully don't teach the newer stuff. With the rate technology changes, they don't believe it's useful to teach technology-specific concepts because by the time you finished school, you'd already be outdated. It's a pretty valid point, I think. They don't want to teach you technology or the hottest thing, they want to teach you the science and the concepts. That way, you'll be able to learn whatever technology you choose quickly.
That said, it's real important to keep your skills up to date.

I was learning assembler and C in school. They also taught Cobol and LISP. None of those languages are brand new. But I learned PHP in about a week because I already knew most of the concepts.

arcturus_10

Jeremuck,

No, I haven't visited Searcy or Harding University. I avoid driving on 40 as much as possible. Don't even get me started about the traffic system here...and lack of planning for development is a statewide problem as well. It doesn't take a visionary or an Eistein to see what has happened in other parts of the country where there was rapid development without planning.

I miss New York City.

Your advice regarding university training is right on though. What is important about university training is the abstract scientific foundation. This supplies the structure into which one can intelligently apply various programming schemes.