I’m looking for a mentor who is in the software industry.
About me: I’m studying math at a university in Ohio, and I’ll graduate in May. I’m a mostly self taught programmer, but I’ve also taken a few CS classes at school and on Coursera. My most developed skills are in Python and Django, though I’ve also used C, C#, Haskell, SQL, Javascript and a few other technologies.
My goal is to find a job as a software developer, but I face several challenges:
I'm not a mentor, but I'm in a similar situation. I have a math degree (with some CS) from a unremarkable school, no work experience, no network, and no web presence. I've had success getting interviews at large tech companies just by applying online. There's usually a job listing aimed at recent graduates. I should mention that I have fairly credible signals of CS skill on my resume (meaning I list some things I've built and say a few words about each), a decent academic record, and a fortunate aptitude for the sort of algorithm questions they like to ask during screening phone interviews.
To be clear, my first onsite interview is coming up, so who knows how it will turn out :) Be careful who you take advice from! Although this is very limited information, it seems I was under-confident that these companies would talk at all to someone who had e.g. no work experience and no referral. I would have told my past self to apply earlier!
1Adele_L
I'm in a similiar situation - been studying math, but looking to get a programming job. I've been using the well-accliamed Cracking the Coding Interview book to prepare for interviews. If you're interested, I would be happy to trade advice, review, or questions.
Right now, I think the main thing I need to work on is building up my network. I've done most of djm's suggestions already.
[anonymous]190
Instead of using a name like a_lurker and asking for PM's I would suggest going trying to be a little more public - your goal should be to display to potential employers that you can code.
This is actually harder than it sounds, as programmers (especially self taught) are more likely to be introverted and don't like marketing themselves. [from my personal perspective]
Some suggestions would be:
Pick some sort of professional sounding name for yourself (doesn't have to be a business name) that you want to be known as - better if it is rare on google. You
I’m looking for a mentor who is in the software industry.
About me: I’m studying math at a university in Ohio, and I’ll graduate in May. I’m a mostly self taught programmer, but I’ve also taken a few CS classes at school and on Coursera. My most developed skills are in Python and Django, though I’ve also used C, C#, Haskell, SQL, Javascript and a few other technologies.
My goal is to find a job as a software developer, but I face several challenges:
- I don’t have any job experience in software.
- I don’t know many people in the industry.
- My university’s Care
... (read more)Instead of using a name like a_lurker and asking for PM's I would suggest going trying to be a little more public - your goal should be to display to potential employers that you can code. This is actually harder than it sounds, as programmers (especially self taught) are more likely to be introverted and don't like marketing themselves. [from my personal perspective]
Some suggestions would be:
... (read more)Pick some sort of professional sounding name for yourself (doesn't have to be a business name) that you want to be known as - better if it is rare on google. You