Ask HN: I'm an 18 year old programmer; How do I get a job?

Re:Ask HN: I'm an 18 year old programmer; How do I get a job? by dmillar on Wednesday August 11, 2010 @02:49PM (#1595620)

I might be old fashioned, but if you want a career as a software engineer, why not attend college for a degree in computer science? When you are done, you'll likely be heavily recruited and face a much less hostile employment environment.

Despite what some say, college is good for most people and will help round you out as a contributing member of society. I put myself through college as a part time developer and had more fun than I can remember.

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Re:Ask HN: I'm an 18 year old programmer; How do I get a job? by dotBen on Wednesday August 11, 2010 @03:53PM (#1595860)

I got my first job at 18 as a developer, I never went to college and it hasn't done me any harm.

Granted, I don't know much about compiler design and the like -- but all of that would be theoretic for me in web development. Instead everything I know is more practically orientated - real skills directly related to web development etc.

Whenever I've needed to learn something, a few days reading has quickly groked most stuff for me.

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Re:Ask HN: I'm an 18 year old programmer; How do I get a job? by tricky on Wednesday August 11, 2010 @03:00PM (#1595658)

Seconded... Unless your situation requires it, don't be in such a rush to grow up.

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Re:Ask HN: I'm an 18 year old programmer; How do I get a job? by Locke1689 on Wednesday August 11, 2010 @03:57PM (#1595875)

I don't know about you guys, but if I were interviewing a candidate, most of my technical questions would be data structures and algorithms. Knowledge of frameworks and languages is good and all, but it doesn't really test how a programmer thinks about a problem. I don't think many people would be able to write a hash table in C without having at least some background from college.

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Re:Ask HN: I'm an 18 year old programmer; How do I get a job? by rw on Wednesday August 11, 2010 @03:21PM (#1595752)

I recommend against studying CS in college unless you think the school has a really stellar program. Since the OP is self-taught already, he can keep his software development hobby+job, while officially studying math or econ in school. That will give him a broader POV. YMMV of course :-)

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Re:Ask HN: I'm an 18 year old programmer; How do I get a job? by msg on Wednesday August 11, 2010 @05:54PM (#1596287)

You probably can't get into the more important and interesting classes without taking or testing out of data structures and algorithms. I refer to, e.g., Programming Languages, Artificial Intelligence, Distributed Systems, Robotics, etc. Looking back, I would put Compilers in there too.

Make sure you know enough to get into the cool CS stuff. Don't assume that SW development gives you a CS background. One informs the other.

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