Programming and first job

[Trillian]

I wanted to ask this question and had no one around to bounce this off of so thought no better time to register then now and ask away. Also to the mods if they wanted to put this in general they can. 

So I've just finished my program in development C#, ASP.NET, Java, PHP and some of the of the other web languages. So with school now being done, I find myself looking around  my city and see no jobs available, no real network and no support from the school, Newfoundland for ya :P. So my question is how many programmers out there moved away to find work and did it work out? What were some of the things that you did after Uni or College?

Thanks Guys

Trill

[Paul's Planet Tech]

Hello,

 

  Well I never went to college for programming, but I did start my own game dev team (BlindFoldGames)... and we've been doing well so far. You mentioned that you know C#, why not try Unity and maybe do some game dev on the side? It worked for me anyway. :-)

 

[Brenz]

There were no jobs where I used to live so I moved to a city with a good size software engineering sector for university. When I graduated I found a job here and stuck around

[PlutoNZL]

During my last year of University I got an internship at a local software development company. They kept me on full time after I finished University. I worked there full time for a year before moving to Vancouver to work. 

 

I've been in Vancouver for almost a year and I love it. 

 

If there is no jobs available in your area, you may have to move to a bigger city. Most decent software development companies will fly you out for an interview, so you can get a job before you actually move. 

[Trillian]

It's nice to know that you're not "alone" in situation like this. Sadly St John's is sort of not a good place right now to be a junior developer, for better or worse, looking for work. Hungry to learn and get into something so it's like the only option is wait here for something or move to BC or Toronto and cross fingers. Just need to know that for some people it worked out.

[PlutoNZL]

26 minutes ago, Trillian said:

It's nice to know that you're not "alone" in situation like this. Sadly St John's is sort of not a good place right now to be a junior developer, for better or worse, looking for work. Hungry to learn and get into something so it's like the only option is wait here for something or move to BC or Toronto and cross fingers. Just need to know that for some people it worked out.

Don't just move to BC or Toronto, secure a job first. Apply online and if the company likes you they should fly you to their office for an interview. 

[Trillian]

8 minutes ago, PlutoNZL said:

Don't just move to BC or Toronto, secure a job first. Apply online and if the company likes you they should fly you to their office for an interview. 

Oh god ya, No I wouldn't just move without finding something first, that would be WAY to risky for me haha! I more so meant apply for positions in those places

[Nuluvius]

On 04/07/2016 at 10:30 AM, Trillian said:

no real network and no support from the school

This was not that dissimilar from my own situation at the start. I originated from a very working class background and as such I didn't really have any support, networking or knowledge at all about such a vastly different industry and indeed social circle. Moreover I had already worked for most of the first quarter of my life in various blue collar jobs and was essentially faced with making a 'leap of faith' in order to attain more. I was surrounded by people who thought that I was insane by saying that I felt like I could have more this way. I was repeatedly told that I'd never make it and that I would come crawling back begging for my job like a maggot... I digress, those days and experiences are far behind now 

On 04/07/2016 at 10:30 AM, Trillian said:

So my question is how many programmers out there moved away to find work and did it work out?

I was lucky enough not to have to due to being in the UK and having graduated living in Manchester and then later moving back 'home' near to Cambridge. There is such a great abundance and variety of jobs in the industry to be had, especially the further south and towards Cambridge and London one travels.

 

I have looked into moving country in the past and do recall that Software Engineering/Development is a skill that ranks highly on many countries wanted skill lists. Therefore I think that the only problem you'd likely face, having freshly graduated, is the experience gap and justifying the investment to a potential employer.

On 04/07/2016 at 10:30 AM, Trillian said:

What were some of the things that you did after Uni or College?

To this day I consider the best thing that I did to be turning down the internship and going out to get a real job instead. I worked part time concurrent to my second and third year and then went full time once I had graduated. This effectively nullified the experience gap problem moving forwards and yielded a truly massive boost to the start of my career.

 

Beyond that I'd say that networking is vital because literally it's not what you know it's who you know; get your online profiles built up and made visible ASAP.

 

Lastly having just exited the education system when do start working in a role remember that all of your knowledge so far only amounts to theory. You'll be entering the real world where things will be vastly different. Therefore you know nothing... Nothing at all.