Some advice on Software Development

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iDenTiTy

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Hi guys,

I am in desperate need of advice.

I have recently just graduated from varsity. Now all the job requirements say 1 years experience or more. All my CV submissions come back as not fulfilling the basic req. (being 1yr commercial experience)

I have no experience and my skills are therefore somewhat lacking.

My question therefore is:

How do I go about getting experience and do you have any ideas for me to practice my coding? I do C# and (slightly better T-SQL).

It's getting desperate for me. I just need some ideas.

:)
 
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I know, it's a catch22 situation... Try offering your service for free for, say 3 months, at the company you want to work for. Put the effort in, and demonstrate your worth.
 
Work for few months on open source projects. Start own website - that counts as experience. Keep looking for job.
If that is comforting, due to high interest rates demand for any kind of workers is very low experience just looks as main obstacle.
 
Been there myself a couple of years ago. You will have to work for a minimum salary and don't give up looking for something.
 
Just hang in there and keep plugging away. Most entry level positions aren't advertised or gotten through agencies. Send CV's out, phone companies, if you know anyone who is working in the industry talk to them.

When I was starting out it took nine months to find my first job. It's demoralising and frustrating but keep plugging away. You'll find something.
 
BrendanD said:
Just hang in there and keep plugging away. Most entry level positions aren't advertised or gotten through agencies. Send CV's out, phone companies, if you know anyone who is working in the industry talk to them.

When I was starting out it took nine months to find my first job. It's demoralising and frustrating but keep plugging away. You'll find something.
Click to expand...

Ja. I also have a damn student loan to pay.

What kind of salary should I look at?
 
Think of a small application that you think would be interesting to develop and work on it.

Do the planning, development and documentation. This will serve as a small portfolio of your ability so it is best to be as professional about it as you can.

If you do it right, this little project will illustrate many things to a prospective employer:
- that you can design and plan before developing
- that you can follow the plan once you start developing
- that you have the commitment to see a project through to the end
- that you are serious about the quality of you work

It will be to your advantage to operate like you would in a development house, so follow best practices like unit testing, writing tests before actual code, commenting/documenting your code and using a version control system, etc.

It might also be useful to commit to a timeframe up front for each stage of the project and try your best to make your own deadlines.
 
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icyrus said:
Think of a small application that you think would be interesting to develop and work on it.

Do the planning, development and documentation. This will serve as a small portfolio of your ability so it is best to be as professional about it as you can.

If you do it right, this little project will illustrate many things to a prospective employer:
- that you can design and plan before developing
- that you can follow the plan once you start developing
- that you have the commitment to see a project through to the end
- that you are serious about the quality of you work

It will be to your advantage to operate like you would in a development house, so follow best practices like unit testing, writing tests before actual code, commenting/documenting you code and using a version control system, etc.

It might also be useful to commit to a timeframe up front for each stage of the project and try your best to make your own deadlines.
Click to expand...

I was just thinking that.

I'm planning to build an Email app like firebird.
Doing exactly the things I studied (you mentioned them quite nicely).

:)

Thank you. Thanks to all the guys above.

:)
 
iDenTiTy said:
Ja. I also have a damn student loan to pay.

What kind of salary should I look at?
Click to expand...

I'm really not sure about salaries for entry level C# coders these days. I was in your position almost ten years ago. (Just goes to show that nothing really changes.)

Things got so rough I sold timeshare for a few months to make my loan payments.

Things are going to look bleak, but keep at it. Also, where did you study? Some institutions have some sort of program to place graduates. It couldn't hurt to ask around about it.

One last thing. If you are going to send out unsolicited CV's; your cover letter is crucial to getting anyone's attention. Do your research on the company, find out any successful contracts, tenders or systems they have been involved with. Mention how much you'd like to work with and learn from a team with their track record. I know know or two IT directors who put a lot of stock into a well written, intelligent, grammatically correct cover letter.
 
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Bule said:
Work for few months on open source projects. Start own website - that counts as experience. Keep looking for job.
If that is comforting, due to high interest rates demand for any kind of workers is very low experience just looks as main obstacle.
Click to expand...

+1

I also had tons of own projects (Apps and a couple of sites) during my varsity days, ran the IT dept at the campus radio and offered tuts to classmates from 1st to 3rd yr. By the time I left Wits I had quite a nice portfolio

So it helps to get involved when you still studying. The only things is to make sure that you keep it all balanced
 
Recruitment Agents don't know jack ****.

All my previous jobs and 90% of all interviews I got was through me, marketing me with my CV sending it to hundreds of people who advertise without recruitment agent.

Trust me, the minute someone wants me to fill out a skills matrix they get the back burner. No kind of "skills matrix" will tell someone your real experience.

Anyway... review your CV, I will try and put up an example of what I use for your reference later (maybe on my Web Dev blog)

sometimes it's hard getting an entry level position but there is a lot of people looking for that (check myBB job's section)

don't be afraid to learn new stuff (like SEO etc) and don't think you'll immediately get 6-9k starting salary. You have to whore yourself out in the beginning but the experience is worth more than the measly salary they'll pay
 
what did you study at varsity?

what where your majors?

are you algorithmically strong?
 
AcidRaZor said:
Recruitment Agents don't know jack ****.

All my previous jobs and 90% of all interviews I got was through me, marketing me with my CV sending it to hundreds of people who advertise without recruitment agent.

Trust me, the minute someone wants me to fill out a skills matrix they get the back burner. No kind of "skills matrix" will tell someone your real experience.
Click to expand...

Correct. What is worse you will find hundreds of jobs advertised on different job seeking web sites, which are probably invented so that employment agency may store few more CV's in DB. Probably potential employers prefer agencies who can offer better choice of candidates - CV's (about 75% of those are currently happily employed).
 
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