Student Programmers

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initroot

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Hi Everyone
Maybe somebody can give me some tips or information. I am a student currenty studying toward Btech in FIS.(1st year)
I have obtained knowledge in java (school), vb.net (books) ,c# (books),c++ on a beginner level.
Do anyone know of some holiday work for december or freelance projects I can join regarding programming in that languages?
Where do I go from here? I want to do something extra regarding programming, for the vb.net programming in the course is too easy and i have some freetime.
Should I do one of the Microsoft courses extra?

Thanks
 
I don't know what u mean by beginner, have you programmed with databases? Anyway it's good you're looking 4 work even if it's free to gain experience.
 
stoymigo said:
I don't know what u mean by beginner, have you programmed with databases? Anyway it's good you're looking 4 work even if it's free to gain experience.
Click to expand...
Hi, only c++ i just started out with. With java I have used access database with sql.
.net I have used Mysql and access.
 
OP build up your own project, use subversion and git and all that jazz to get experience in those things

Make a website or blog with archives of all the projects you've done. you can do that? You're in 1st year, early days, just get a good "e-portfolio" trust me interviewers love it.
 
CrazYmonkeY159 said:
OP build up your own project, use subversion and git and all that jazz to get experience in those things

Make a website or blog with archives of all the projects you've done. you can do that? You're in 1st year, early days, just get a good "e-portfolio" trust me interviewers love it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. Yes I started with html when I was 11. I also have a blog already, just started while back, where I blog "tutorials" of what I did, like hello world android app etc.
I am going to look into GIT.
Thanks
 
hey dude. I'm in the same situation except I'm in my 1st year at varsity college in ct. Best thing to do from what I've heard is to try build your own project so you can showcase your ability's and style as a programmer and show it to company's and hope they are willing to employ you.
 
I am studying Financial Information.Systems. It is more Accounting/Financial related. Will start building my e-cv. Does anyone know where I can look for holiday work?

Sent from my GT-I5700 using MyBroadband Android App
 
I agree with the "build your own project" suggestions (and, hopefully, share the code too ;)). I would, however, put that second to contributing to an existing open source project. This is even more effective than building your own project for a number of reasons:
  • Your code is reviewed by other (often more experienced) developers.
  • Your work is "guaranteed" to be used by other people.
  • Your code is publicly available for prospective employers to look at.
  • The other people in the project community can vouch for you and your abilities.
  • and more...

These benefits have been discussed in a few articles/posts that I've read recently (this being the only one I can find at the moment), highlighting the increasing importance of your e-CV (as you guys have dubbed it :)) through open source software.
 
Not trying to discourage you but I doubt a company will hire you programming wise for a short period of time unless it's for web applications or a really small ad hoc program.

The fact is that most places put new employees on their existing systems which take weeks or even months to figure out and you progressively add to/maintain these apps as your understanding grows. I don't see many companies paying for this as it will just cost them to train someone who they can't utilise at the end of the day.

I'd also recommend building a portfolio for yourself, something I should have done. Start with something simple (which you have more than likely already done by the sounds of things) and build. Identify small gaps where apps don't exist that ppl look for but can't find (I started with a media file splitter than chops up a video file into smaller parts to download). Also identify a medium to large project that you can build, maintain and add features to that will last a year or more.
Most importantly write up some documentation on these projects. Many prospective employers have requested this from me to gauge my skill, inspiration and talents. For each project/program give it a name and a desciption as well as what kind of problem it solves. Also mention your long term project and how it has evolved.

Doing this will give you a good foothold for future employment as it shows prospective employers that with smaller apps you can identify gaps in the market as well as solve those problems and a bigger more long term project can show that you are dedicated to projects, have the patience to evolve a project and adapt it to the needs of the client(s). It's important to know that 95% of all projects you will work on in software development will utilise one or more databases (MS SQL, MySQL or Oracle) and include reporting so get to know them well!

About walter_l's post: I'm not sure how much programming experience you guys have but if you get involved in contributing directly to open source projects it might be a bit overwhelming. Depending on the project you might find yourself way out of your league. The quality of the code many open source developers come up with can be astounding - I'm finding the same thing with my new job. Also it can be hard to prove how you have positively contributed to an open source project unless the project is very small or you have contributed a rather large/definitive improvement.
 
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Hi Fransh, the count

It's great that you're already looking for ways to differentiate and excel in what you want to do. Taking the initiative to do more than is expected of you and not being complacent with only passing your subjects are great personality traits and something companies out there will definitely notice.

It would be good if you could come through to our offices in Stellenbosch some time. Whether we would be able to provide you with work would depend on when you want to work and which projects we're working on. PM me if you want to make an appointment.

I definitely won't start my own open source project, you'll learn much more from experienced developers in existing projects although it can often be daunting to get involved. It's often good to just subscribe to the mailing list and try to answer simple questions. Just knowing more about a project and having an online presence can already give you an edge.
 
Easiest option:

Join a popular open source project. It'll take more than a year to become part of the team if it is a really well known project but if it is popular you'll get hired like nobody's business.

Here in SA companies are a bit behind the times, but in Australia, Britain, USA if you have experience in something like an Apache platform then you'll get work without even going to an interview. The company can see you code quality and personality from the internet (message boards where you collaborate) before they even meet you.

Just don't act like an ahole on the internet and develop good decent code.

Even here in SA being part of a decent OS project will easily net you a job.

Problem with trying to get a job is, the only companies that will hire you now are either going to try exploit you, and during said exploitation teach you the wrong things (because they only attract n00bs). Or you'll end up at a place that does really basic things that don't count for sheet anyway.

Maybe if you were 3rd year but 1st year is still very green.

That said getting a job in IT if you know something and can work in a team isn't even remotely difficult.
 
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Yes Gnome is quite correct.
Also a very good site is dreamincode.net there are a few small projects that you can find here http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/forum/97-share-your-project/
they always looking for work and you can ofcourse always show it in your portfolio when you looking for a job. It also teaches you howto work in a group and code in a group using git,svn, or other code versioning systems which is always a plus when working in a group.
 
Fransh said:
Hi Everyone
Maybe somebody can give me some tips or information. I am a student currenty studying toward Btech in FIS.(1st year)
I have obtained knowledge in java (school), vb.net (books) ,c# (books),c++ on a beginner level.
Do anyone know of some holiday work for december or freelance projects I can join regarding programming in that languages?
Where do I go from here? I want to do something extra regarding programming, for the vb.net programming in the course is too easy and i have some freetime.
Should I do one of the Microsoft courses extra?

Thanks
Click to expand...

It depends on your objective, "coding part time for money" or "coding for fun"

If you want to code part time for money you should probably check with the CPUT grad recruitement places if there are any projects that you can do. Another good idea might be to try the Computer Science department there. But then again while you are getting some money (it wont be alot though); depending on the company you may/may not get the work you want to do.

Coding for fun ... you can do one of two things ... either join an open source project through the various code hosters (try google code projects or github projects); find a project you are interested in and contribute ... people there are typically friendly and you sort of get the open source experience

the other thing you can try to "sharpen your skills" is to join something like http://uva.onlinejudge.org/ or the google code jam questions where you can practice algorithm stuffs ... it might prove useful to you since you only in 1st year (should be useful 3rd year).

But good for you and your enthusiasm, hope it works out :)
 
Ludjer said:
Yes Gnome is quite correct.
Also a very good site is dreamincode.net there are a few small projects that you can find here http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/forum/97-share-your-project/
they always looking for work and you can ofcourse always show it in your portfolio when you looking for a job. It also teaches you howto work in a group and code in a group using git,svn, or other code versioning systems which is always a plus when working in a group.
Click to expand...
Thanks, going to have a look. Also here is link to my blog, just starting out thou.
http://franshbotes.blogspot.com/
 
I am looking to code for the experience. Don't care about the money.
The cput course I am doing we are doing vb.net programming for a subject. I already obtained the knowledge of the vb.net we are going to do in the course for the next two years, so I want to do something extra.
smb3 said:
It depends on your objective, "coding part time for money" or "coding for fun"

If you want to code part time for money you should probably check with the CPUT grad recruitement places if there are any projects that you can do. Another good idea might be to try the Computer Science department there. But then again while you are getting some money (it wont be alot though); depending on the company you may/may not get the work you want to do.

Coding for fun ... you can do one of two things ... either join an open source project through the various code hosters (try google code projects or github projects); find a project you are interested in and contribute ... people there are typically friendly and you sort of get the open source experience

the other thing you can try to "sharpen your skills" is to join something like http://uva.onlinejudge.org/ or the google code jam questions where you can practice algorithm stuffs ... it might prove useful to you since you only in 1st year (should be useful 3rd year).

But good for you and your enthusiasm, hope it works out :)
Click to expand...
 
I am busy with a Payroll Application for the Agriculture market, it is currently in early development, but would anyone mind having a look at it? Give me some critic on how to improve it? It is my first "big" project.
 
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