Hey, I need to get a programming job. Badly. Where should I look? And what types of things (eg, experience) do i need? =============================================== "Tell brave deeds of war." Then they recounted tales, -- "There were stern stands And bitter runs for glory." Ah, I think there were braver deeds.

Forgive me if I ramble too much (late night at Hooters)...also, while some of these points i am going to bring up apply to a majority (my experience), most consistent posters I have seen on this board are the exception.

Also, this is all business related. So, turn back now ...


Getting the job shouldn''t be a problem with someone of your skill. The problem is, getting a GOOD job. One that will let you grow without boring you too fast.

If you haven''t had a programming position before, then your biggest advantage is how well you know your language of choice.

Of course, you might get pigeon holed into the boring, mundane tasks your first job out of the gate...thats ok, spend your extra time picking up on new technologies.

A big problem for first timers is that they believe their "solid" understanding of C/C++ is all they need (knowing it and applying it are two VERY different aspects). Thats all fine and good...we can always use "grunt" coders. But, it won''t get you the high pay, or the good assignments.

Also, don''t assume you know everything. Guaranteed, there will be someone, somewhere during the interview process that will likely make you feel like an idiot if you do. Don''t confuse the above with a willingness to speak up and offer any contributions...sometimes a fresh perspective is needed.

Ok! Enough of the bad things...

When applying you get brownie points for the following:

- Attitude
- Willingness to learn different technology
*** the above are weighted heavily!! the rest is just icing on the cake.

- Windows programming (SDK)
- COM (raw COM isn''t in such demand anymore as almost everything we do now has to be supported in a scripting environment..which leads to..
- Automation
- Database programming
- Multi-tier development
- More than one applicable language (VB, VBScript, Java, Java Script, HTML, DHTML )
- ATL
- STL
- Some Methodology ( UML, OMT, Design Patterns )

Guess thats enough rambling for now..

As you can see, there are alot of technologies out there that are worth looking at. The ones that I mentioned are excellent skills as far as what we are looking for. Other employers will probably look for additional skillsets.

As for where to look, I would suggest you look at positions in fields that offer technologies that might interest you.

...and if your in the Dallas area, drop me a line. I will be happy to give you more information about what we do here at our company, see if its something you might be interested in.

HTH,

-mordell

nah, im over in Buffalo NY.

heh, but thanks for the info and the offer.


I honestly don''t care if my job is boring, because i just need one, and will accept anything.

I know C++, Eiffel, a medium bit of Visual Basic, and a small amount of HTML (I just never bothered learning it, its such a mess.)

don''t know too much windows stuff, I tried to stay away because I like making portable programs.

===============================================
"Tell brave deeds of war."
Then they recounted tales, -- "There were stern stands And bitter runs for glory."

Ah, I think there were braver deeds.

I''m originaly from the Buffalo area. Take a look in the buffalo paper... there are always tons of jobs listed there. There are probably some software related jobs also (not just programming) which would be interesting and could lead to VB/Access programming (aka, pure hell. I''m debugging one of them right now, actualy.) you could also try looking up Brandon Vogel... last I knew he was still into hardware, but i''m sure he knows someone who''s looking for a programmer.

please direct all typo''s/spelling errors to /dev/null