I’m already convinced I should do this, but I need more procedural knowledge about how to break into the field.
(I actually already have a tentative assignment from an LWer I met on my NYC trip, but that was kind of a one-shot thing and doesn’t easily generalize.)
The common advice I’ve seen is to spend a few months contributing to some open source project. See this blog post, for example. (The advice in that post is hard to follow unless you already know C++ and feel like banging your head against the enormously complex Google Chrome codebase).
I’m also trying to get a programming job, but my hangup so far has been finding an open source project that I find interesting enough to contribute code to.
I think the point is that if you’re trying to convince someone to pay you to write code for them and you have no prior experience with professional programming, a solid way to convince them that you’re hireable is contributing significant amounts of code to an open source project. This demonstrates that 1) you know how to write code, 2) that you can work with others and 3) that you’re comfortable working with a complicated codebase (depending on the project).
I’m not certain that its the most effective way to achieve this objective, but I can’t think of a better alternative. Suggestions are welcome.
In my case, I found a local startup that employed students to test their code (we’d get a new build every couple of days and run it through a set of tests) on a part-time temp basis, paid by the hour. As the only non-student doing it, I worked more-than-full-time hours for a few months, and got noticed for having a work ethic.
You need something that you want to use. For instance, you want help calibrating your own judgements, but are disappointed by what predictionbook can do, and think that InTrade is too inflexible for you, and much to expensive/risky. Now, start. (That for instance would be a task for me, but after work I’m really not too much interested into programming anymore, and I know that I actually don’t really care.)
You have to find something that motivates yourself, of course. Some people like math-puzzles, I despise them. If one shoot problems don’t work for you, try something more day-to-day usable for yourself. Find something you want to do but don’t because it is too much manual work, for instance.
But, as I wrote as a comment to your comment’s parent, you should really reassess if learning on how to program pays back that much.
I’m already convinced I should do this, but I need more procedural knowledge about how to break into the field.
(I actually already have a tentative assignment from an LWer I met on my NYC trip, but that was kind of a one-shot thing and doesn’t easily generalize.)
The common advice I’ve seen is to spend a few months contributing to some open source project. See this blog post, for example. (The advice in that post is hard to follow unless you already know C++ and feel like banging your head against the enormously complex Google Chrome codebase).
I’m also trying to get a programming job, but my hangup so far has been finding an open source project that I find interesting enough to contribute code to.
Link Context
I think the point is that if you’re trying to convince someone to pay you to write code for them and you have no prior experience with professional programming, a solid way to convince them that you’re hireable is contributing significant amounts of code to an open source project. This demonstrates that 1) you know how to write code, 2) that you can work with others and 3) that you’re comfortable working with a complicated codebase (depending on the project).
I’m not certain that its the most effective way to achieve this objective, but I can’t think of a better alternative. Suggestions are welcome.
In my case, I found a local startup that employed students to test their code (we’d get a new build every couple of days and run it through a set of tests) on a part-time temp basis, paid by the hour. As the only non-student doing it, I worked more-than-full-time hours for a few months, and got noticed for having a work ethic.
You need something that you want to use. For instance, you want help calibrating your own judgements, but are disappointed by what predictionbook can do, and think that InTrade is too inflexible for you, and much to expensive/risky. Now, start. (That for instance would be a task for me, but after work I’m really not too much interested into programming anymore, and I know that I actually don’t really care.)
You have to find something that motivates yourself, of course. Some people like math-puzzles, I despise them. If one shoot problems don’t work for you, try something more day-to-day usable for yourself. Find something you want to do but don’t because it is too much manual work, for instance.
But, as I wrote as a comment to your comment’s parent, you should really reassess if learning on how to program pays back that much.
I meant finding someone to pay me for programming.
Ouch. 100% misread.