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How does one begin in the programming industry ?

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I have a nephew who, for years, have simply just “worked the phones”. He went back to school to get a degree (correspondence school, actually) in IT, and plans to take as many programming classes as he can on the side. He is leaning on C++ and an assembly language.

So, basically, his IT degree is simply to have the academic requirements for an IT career, and the career he is aiming for is that of programming.

He is discouraged right now because as he surveys the want ads, the common requirement is a minimum of three years experience.

How does he break into this field, he asked me, and I have no answer for him.

Any thoughts from you guys ?

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Clarifications

In reply to How does one begin in the programming industry ?

Clarifications

part-time campus jobs count as “experience”

In reply to How does one begin in the programming industry ?

There are also “Junior Developer” jobs. Although I’m not qualified to be anybody’s career counselor, since you asked I will offer $0.02 worth of free advice.

Reading the want ads is not a marketable skill, nor productive unless he is currently looking for employment. A thorough knowledge of his craft, including topics rarely mentioned in the want ads and probably ignored by many of his peers, is likely to be lucrative. Whatever his primary topic of academic study within IT, he will be employed at a sufficient salary to keep a roof over his head. Please advise him to learn what he enjoys, and recycle his newspaper before he gets to the want ads!

“He is discouraged right now because as he surveys the want ads, the common requirement is a minimum of three years experience.”

Suppose obstetricians adopted a similar requirement? Ridiculous! Those “requirements” are only there to weed out the timid, both among the applicants and the HR departments posting such nonsense.

Don’t pay too much attention to what recruiters say

In reply to How does one begin in the programming industry ?

They don’t know crap.

Campus work.
Volunteer for local community/charity
Open source projects.

Potential problem with getting a start with C++ and assembler though. They are lucrative skills, but not the most common need.

Suggest he has a look at managed C++ (C++ with .NET). Picking up C# or even VB.net won’t be a stretch with the other two much more complex tools in his box.

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