I've interviewed many, *many* part time developers over the years and here's a little insight into how I view experience, job history, etc. Keep in mind that all this is based on my own meandering experience. Take it all with a grain of salt.
If you aren't the exact match for what the potential employer is looking for, you'll be at best a mostly-clean slate. Companies will *definitely* look at what you've been doing with yourself, as both a measure of your programmer-ness and of your ability to just "get 'er done" (landing a sweet part time or summer job gives you higher marks in the latter; writing a popular app can make you a superstar; working for a competitor or partner can also be attractive). One of the problems with only having web programming experience on your resume is that web programming is typically seen as something that can be performed by lower-caliber programmers. It's much easier for a self-taught coder to become very good with PHP than with C++ or assembly. Finally, employers are a lot like lenders. They want to see what you've done in the past and who else has been willing to take a chance on you. Just like it's much easier to get a car loan if you've already had one (and even easier if you currently own a house), it's much easier to get a killer job if you've already got one. -Brent Adam Findley wrote: > Andrew McNabb wrote: >> On Mon, Mar 27, 2006 at 01:56:35PM -0700, Scott K wrote: >> >>> Not to knock the MTC or anything, I have a friend who worked there >>> through the end of his BYU career. He didn't bother to get an >>> internship, but worked right through and graduated without a job. >>> >>> He'd been labeled a "Web Programmer". Web programming companies are the >>> only people who will talk to him as he works hourly with all the other >>> coders, and he's looking at grad school as the ladder out of his pigeon >>> hole. That's not what I'm interested in, so I'm just sharing a warning. >>> >> >> Not to be rude, but I have a hard time believing that this is the full >> story. From what I've seen (and correct me if I'm mistaken), fresh CS >> graduates are considered mostly blank slates. >> >> Did this person get really bad grades? Is their resume poorly written? >> Are they applying anywhere outside of Utah? It seems to me that there >> are a lot more factors than the part-time job you had in college. > Sadly enough, when I was shopping my resume around at job fairs, people > only saw my heavy web-experience, and basically pidgeon-holed me to not > have any *real* programming skills. > > Adam > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > -------------------- > BYU Unix Users Group > http://uug.byu.edu/ > > The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their > author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. > ___________________________________________________________________ > List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list -------------------- BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
