4 replies to this topic

[Liars_paradox]

I asked about how I could go about finding a job a few months back on another forum. Someone on there told me to do opensource as a means to gain experience. But, I keep getting, at least with the staffing agencies, that the experience has to be paid experience. That's usually what non-programmers tell me, is that I need to have paid work experience. But, most of them don't even know what opensource is.

I guess the main motivation that people have for working on opensource is to do something that they like. I really don't know if it helps you in any other way.

[mrlemke]

Sounds like you're applying for a job with companies that don't have programmers process the hiring. Maybe try looking for a startup or do some contracts for oDesk to get paid experience.

[WingedPanther]

The guy who wrote Dynamic Draw made it, and later open-sourced it, as a means to showcase his skills. It apparently worked, as he now seems to be employed :)

[TALucas]

When employers say they want to hire someone with experience, they are really looking for someone that has used a certain set of skills in the workplace for a period of time. For example, if I were looking to hire for a java position, and I had one applicant who had worked as a programmer for 3 years but had little experience with java, and someone who had learned java on his own, but had no employment experience, I'd hire the person with actual job experience. To me, the skills of holding down the same job for 3 years, and working as part of a team carry more weight than a specific language. Programmers can pick up a new language and tool set fairly easily.

After saying that, I'd also like to say that any type of self learning is important, and we as programmers should always be learning new skill sets. If two resumes were identical except for one that had several skill sets that one individual learned on their own....I believe that person would have an advantage.

[Liars_paradox]

So, I take it that job experience is the most important factor in finding work - kind of like it takes money to make money, right? But, if that's the case then how can I go about finding work with no prior job experience then?