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Colors, I believe you said that you have a comp sci degree, but I want to know... for all of you that do software for a living - what got you your first job, and what kind of credentials did you have at the time?

Way out of place on a music forum, but what the hay.

gtZip wrote:Colors, I believe you said that you have a comp sci degree, but I want to know... for all of you that do software for a living - what got you your first job, and what kind of credentials did you have at the time?

Way out of place on a music forum, but what the hay.

Wow, great question!

Out of place or not, I will answer. It's not a simple answer, so allow me to elaborate the whole thing.


I did two summer internships during my Senior and super-Senior years (CS is not a classic 4-year degree when I went through the program).

What got me my first internship was interesting: My resume was on a final table with 9 other candidates. One of the people in the room helping make the decisions was a human resources recruiter, and she happened to be an old high school classmate of mine. The people in the room were having a really difficult time making a decision because all 10 finalists were really solid candidates. My old classmate said, "Well, if it makes it any easier, I know Chris, and I think he'd do a great job". So I got the gig. Thus, my first internship was basically made because of a personal contact.

I got the second internship the following year from the same company because they liked my first internship.

During my final year of college, I also worked part time for a professor on the campus writing some small software programs for him. I had answered a part-time ad for a programmer so I could make a couple extra bucks and so I could practice my craft.

When I graduated, I had two job offers. One was from the company that I had done two internships with. It was a very nice offer. The other was with the professor who was building a startup and wanted me to be the first software hire.

I went with the professor because my wife (at the time, now divorced) refused to move. When I told her about the job offer from the company (which had been 5 hours away - I had spent my last two summers away) she cried and didn't want to go. The job with the professor's company was on campus and thus we could buy a house near her home town, 30 minutes away and I commuted.

Either job paid about the same and had decent benefits. I am not sad I didn't take the other job, as I learned a ton from that professor and that first job.

But it was clear to me that working while I was going to college - both for the professor and during the internships - was a smart move. Since then I have always encouraged CS students to take internships and to work any part time jobs they can that will allow them to work their programming skills. I got job offers because I had worked for people before graduating and that was huge, IMO.

I didn't go to college until I had been out of HS for ten years. I was going to be a rock star tee hee. After working at factories for ten years and failing to get a band working I decided to go back to school; I got an Associate's in CS (Summa Cum Laude). Within a week of getting my degree I started working as a computer operator on the afternoon shift, doing backups, running month end processes, etc. After two years I was totally bored and decided to go back to school and get my BS so that I could program, my true love. Ironically I got a job in programming a couple of months after starting back to school. So I worked days, went to school at night, as well as raised a family. I worked there for 16 1/2 years, and three jobs since.

What got me my first IT job? My resume. The manager said he picked my resume because it looked better than the others (he had a huge stack too!). I had no credentials other than my degree.

My first programming job I got after meeting the manager at Chili's and having a beer together. I never even gave him a resume.

I have been pretty fortunate, I know I'll always be able to work.

Great info, thanks guys.
Looks like its mostly personal connection and practice/prior work to show them, eh?

gtZip wrote:Great info, thanks guys.
Looks like its mostly personal connection and practice/prior work to show them, eh?

Personal connections make a huge difference. As with any other career field, it's who you know. Networking makes a big difference.


A couple things you'll find in the CS world is (a) lots of good developers have technical blogs, and you can do a fair bit of networking via a blog.

Also, (b) tech conferences like Agile Austin or The PDC (Professional Developers Conference) can be great networking tools in addition to giving you great learning opportunities. Not all companies will budget for conferences, so sometimes you might have to do it on your own bill, but the good software conferences are worth going to. You can meet some real heads of industry at these events and make some connections.

I've turned down some interesting job offers in the past 5 years or so because of people I've met at conferences or people I've got to know via their and my blogs. If you are good at your craft, smart, a good worker and you can convey that through a blog, you'll find there's a world of opportunity out there as a professional software developer.