Who actually is a software developer or a potential software developer here?

[Phiirso]

If you're a student, share your experiences and any projects you're working on, and if you're employed, it'd be nice if you can drop some tips for those of us who are trying to get into the industry.

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[celidheere]

I'm a student and I'm about halfway through, I know Java, SQL and Python. The biggest piece of advice I'd have is experience = king in this industry. Your degree doesn't mean much in the face of your portfolio, your application won't be taken seriously if you haven't built up a body of work so if you're going into your degree or just learning on your own, make sure that's your focus.

 

[Phiirso]

I'm a student and I'm about halfway through, I know Java, SQL and Python. The biggest piece of advice I'd have is experience = king in this industry. Your degree doesn't mean much in the face of your portfolio, your application won't be taken seriously if you haven't built up a body of work so if you're going into your degree or just learning on your own, make sure that's your focus.

Solid advice man. I've made a couple of projects to put up on my portfolio but they're honestly subtier. Recruiters are looking for if you can do the job or not and this is one of the best ways they can gauge your skills. The other is code-reviews

 

[Calaf]

I am a student, and I know Java, Python, SQL, HTML, C+. JavaScript and Ruby and others.
As @celidheere said, experience is the game here. Honestly, I am not as such, since I focused on other business, but when I finish soon, I will attempt to explore with ideas

 

[repo]

I am a student, and I know Java, Python, SQL, HTML, C+. JavaScript and Ruby and others.
As @celidheere said, experience is the game here. Honestly, I am not as such, since I focused on other business, but when I finish soon, I will attempt to explore with ideas

That's a lot of languages. Why would you learn all of those?

 

[Calaf]

That's a lot of languages. Why would you learn all of those?

For some, I learnt it when i was young and in school, it stuck in my mind
Ruby is because i can see it being very important later on

 

[SOULSEARCHING]

I don't understand computer Language

 

[Odkac WRLD]

I was briefly a CS major, but went the CompEng route pretty quick after my first Data classes.
However I take most of the same classes as them and can get the jobs they can, so I may be able to offer some things.

I had two CS internships, one was unpaid and not much hands on work. The second was an insurance company. They had a small software team, and I was just lucky to get the job as I was 19 and they probably had older applicants to choose from.

As far as internships go, most don’t expect you to be doing big dog stuff as soon as you join. First week or even two is minor bug fixes and getting yourself used to languages and setup and such.

Even if you are handed a “big project” it’s always low priority to the organization- because these million dollar companies are not handing big moneymakers to basically kids in their eyes.

if you are looking to get an internship, here are my tips.

GET GOOD GRADES IN MAJOR CLASSES

If you wish to get a decent internship, have very good grades in all CS classes you are taking. Even math and physics courses will be glanced at. Nobody is going to give a shit you failed Anthropology or PoliSci- but if you really messed up in Data Structures good luck on finding any kind of position.

If you are in uni looking for an internship, here are some things to take into account.


a) if your a freshman it’s gonna be kind of hard to find an internship. Not impossible. But you will be competing with older kids who have taken more courses and companies may value them more.

b) Don’t get too scared about feeling like you don’t know things. You definitely will have a mentor.

c) Projects definitely matter. But don’t get carried away. Does it work>>>>>how it looks.

I am soon to graduate and this corona really fucked my job search.

Any further questions I am willing to answer.

 

[kickz]

Been in the field for a few years, if you are in the USA get to know the tech stack(Software languages) popular in your City/State. That will make getting jobs even easier.

Also if you haven't yet, create a github account with your Projects uploaded, and link it to your resume/CV.

 

[Xasusi]

Not a compsci autist, even though I secretly wish I was.

 

[Jaha]

Fullstack hobbyist here, been messing around with whatever I find interesting, usually with trendy frameworks and tech stacks. Golang, Javascript, React, PostgreSQL, mongodb and some devops.
Planning on studying further into uni to get that "paper validation"

Touching on a few points Odkac WRLD made,
Having strong grasp of Data structures and algorithms is very important, both in helping you better analyze and think critically about the project you're working on and the code and also getting through the technical interviews.

In the real world, you most likely never get to use any of those complex algos. Majority of the the things you'll work on are I/O based with some CRUD functionality and perhaps some fairly complex business logic but it usually depends on the project.

b) Don’t get too scared about feeling like you don’t know things. You definitely will have a mentor.

CS is really huge, you'll never know everything and no one does, you'll have to learn new things as you progress, you're bound to this anyway as programming involves allot of research.

c) Projects definitely matter. But don’t get carried away. Does it work>>>>>how it looks.

I agree with you on this, to stand out you need to have decent projects in your portfolio and not another "Todo" app that everyone has built.

You also don't need to have many projects under your belt, quality > quantity, having a one or a few serious projects that showcase your capabilities are way better than a bunch of unoriginal tic tac toe game or some algo you made that no one cares about.

It should be something that you could find yourself using and actually solves a unique problem.
While the way your project works on the backend is very important, I also think that you should not overlook the design, humans are visual creatures. No matter how great the backend is, if you have a horrible looking UI it can unfortunately get some people uninterested.

For some, I learnt it when i was young and in school, it stuck in my mind
Ruby is because i can see it being very important later on

Eh Ruby, it's been on a huge decline and not many companies are using it these days, I wouldn't bet on it You're better of sticking with python and it's shitty syntax as opposed to Ruby.

Not a compsci autist, even though I secretly wish I was.

Why not try giving it a shot? you might find yourself enjoying it! It's very rewarding when you see the things you make working!

 

[Calaf]

Eh Ruby, it's been on a huge decline and not many companies are using it these days, I wouldn't bet on it You're better of sticking with python and it's shitty syntax as opposed to Ruby.

You never know, Ruby could change, due to Phython continuous flows

It was easier to learn too

 

[Jaha]

I can't say much about both as I'd never dare getting close to them, I'm so used to the curly brace syntax and the good ol' semi colons, anything missing that gives me anxiety.

But both Py. and Rb. have a pretty simple to learn syntaxes, Ruby was also once very popular and used allover, people always tend to say they love working with it but doubt it will get any traction again.

There are far better alternatives faster in runtime speed and performance, an example being Node.js the server side runtime for Javascript that has also gotten huge popularity. JS is way past those times where it was only seen as something you'd add to a webpage for some dynamic behavior, and now with Typescript, you get the added benefit of having type checking to help you catch bugs before they slip into production! I can't imagine using JS without TS these days.

Also while being single threaded, Node.js scales up decently to thousands of concurrent requests, very useful for real-time systems such as chat.

But honestly, learn whatever you find interesting, and assuming your end goals is to get a job in the field, you should look at what opportunities there are around your area and the tech stacks the companies are using and learn those while having fun!

 

[rayan122]

I am a first-year university student in software engineering and they taught us Python this year. In the second half of the semester, we had to work in a group of four to produce an console based image filtering application. We used a library written by one of the professors that handled everything touching the Pillow library (updated version of PIL) and Tkinter, so it was a really simplified project that focused on creating the algorithms for parsing through an image and creating the console UI in the end.

In grade 11, I learned C and in grade 12, I learned about web development. We learned HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery, PHP, and mySQL and the course was project-based, so after having learned the basics, the teacher put us in groups of 4-5 and assigned each group a project. My group was assigned with creating a graphical locker selection system. It was really challenging and our finished product was full of bugs, but it was fun and I learned a lot nonetheless.

I am not employed, but advice that I hear very often is that, like many of said here, that personal projects are very important.

 

[GLDGB]

I am a dev, shoot me any questions.

I could start babbling but I’d rather answer what you wanna know about this career or advice.

 

[GLDGB]

for real? Are you employed right now?

Yup alx. Although starting today my excessive usage of this site may get me terminated.

 

[Gojo Satoru]

planning on pursuing a com sci degree

 

[GLDGB]

That's cool bro. I currently major in cs, but I have some doubts. Don't mind if I ask you some question. For instance, how long have you been a dev and what is your impression of the field?

23, graduated last year- this was my first full time gig.

Getting a full time offer was hard. A lot of applications filled out, few interviews offered, and even fewer call backs.

The industry is life changing tbh, a year ago I was a regular college kid praying for a job and now I’m fairly established so alx for that.

Networking is important. LinkedIn is a must, every uni student should have one- especially CS ones a good amount of recruiting to be done there.

Day to day work won’t be fun unless you truly have love for the field or problem solving in general. A LOT of teamwork so your forced to become a people person. Ask yourself if your okay doing this 9-5 each day, for the next long while.

What I would say to uni students is avoid the field if your chasing the money. You’ll only burnout.

Not nearly as glamorous as they make it seem, but a meaningful career. The industry is growing at a rapid rate and shows no sign of decline.

 

[GLDGB]

Interesting. I'm glad you are able to get that opportunity with alx. I hear it is pretty tough to find work as a dev, which is one of the reasons I'm hesitant. Always hearing about Somali people who've studied cs and can't find work. Where are you located if u don't mind sharing, did you have to move? I'll probably have to move since there arent any cs opportunities here.

I won’t say where I came from as it’s not many malis there, but I had to move to Seattle area for this job.

Not finding a job is a genuine fear but when you move to a tech hub you’ll be a lot safer. I have adeer here but this isn’t home base.

A Somali kid in OH or WA, one is going to have a lot more ease in finding work then the other in most cases.

If I had stayed in my state I doubt I’d have found a job in all honesty.

 

[GLDGB]

I'm thinking about moving to Seattle or one of those places with better tech opportunities since I want to intern before finishing school. Speaking of which, did you have any prior experience before finishing school? Also, what first language do you recommend?

For a beginner Or for me at least, Python or Java would be best...but I lean to python because it is easier to understand lol. I think another poster mentioned this.

I had two internships and was a tutor for beginner cs courses.
My internships were 3rd and 4th yr. I regret not looking during second year but I was a bum lol.

the other tech hub I’d have gone to would be Boston.