I need to make a technical objection here, as more or less all of American universities are non-profit. The cost is still bullshit, but that's mostly because the government doesn't fund higher education, so universities have to come up with money for professors and grants themselves.
In the US, a bachelor's degree in CS is more or less sufficient certification for any entry-level programming job, though I'm not sure exactly how well that would carry over to Australia.
I need to make a technical objection here, as more or less all of American universities are non-profit. The cost is still bullshit, but that's mostly because the government doesn't fund higher education, so universities have to come up with money for professors and grants themselves.
Fair play. The government pours a ton of funding into higher education, here, and they also make cash through other means, such as opening facilities to non-students - I can go to many universities, and eat at their cafeterias, go to shows at the theatre, go to the gym, pool or running track, or go to the bar - in fact, I used to head to the Red Room quite often with a dodgy student ID, because the beer was cheap and the atmosphere pleasant.
In the US, a bachelor's degree in CS is more or less sufficient certification for any entry-level programming job, though I'm not sure exactly how well that would carry over to Australia.
It would carry over well here, American schools have a good rep for quality of education. They might ask you a few extra questions about the nature of your education and what you know, but that'd be the limit of it.
I'm going to have to strongly disagree with you Scott, on the grounds of being a recent CS/EE graduate. I have in the past months found that 90% of job listings for programming work out there recently have been for mid or high level positions and require at a minimum a degree AND 5 years experience. I'm sure people are contacting you, you have many years of experience in the field. It may well be that I suck but the jobs market isn't exactly generous for entry-level programming right now. Also fuck your anti internship position, a majority of the people in my graduating class went on to jobs via internships/co-ops. There are no internships that are unpaid and legal. They are great for building your resume before leaving college, and getting connections.
Jobs Jobs jobs
Anything more to this other than whats on the listings, and applying there?
I'm going to have to strongly disagree with you Scott, on the grounds of being a recent CS/EE graduate. I have in the past months found that 90% of job listings for programming work out there recently have been for mid or high level positions and require at a minimum a degree AND 5 years experience. I'm sure people are contacting you, you have many years of experience in the field. It may well be that I suck but the jobs market isn't exactly generous for entry-level programming right now. Also fuck your anti internship position, a majority of the people in my graduating class went on to jobs via internships/co-ops. There are no internships that are unpaid and legal. They are great for building your resume before leaving college, and getting connections.
Jobs Jobs jobs
Anything more to this other than whats on the listings, and applying there?
HR and other groups that do hiring often over-state "requirements" in my experience. They think that having higher requirements will actually get them the good employees and self-sort the garbage pile. You should apply anyway, if you need work. Put yourself out there. Sometimes you'll get trash-binned but it doesn't even matter. Just do it.
I'm more than happy to expand on any particular part, I just need a specific question to answer. I don't know what's material to you or not. I've worked at Blackbaud for 5 years now, so I know a lot about what goes on here and I know a lot of the managers who do the hiring. I have a good feel for what they look for.
I'm going to have to strongly disagree with you Scott, on the grounds of being a recent CS/EE graduate. I have in the past months found that 90% of job listings for programming work out there recently have been for mid or high level positions and require at a minimum a degree AND 5 years experience. I'm sure people are contacting you, you have many years of experience in the field. It may well be that I suck but the jobs market isn't exactly generous for entry-level programming right now. Also fuck your anti internship position, a majority of the people in my graduating class went on to jobs via internships/co-ops. There are no internships that are unpaid and legal. They are great for building your resume before leaving college, and getting connections.
Jobs Jobs jobs
Anything more to this other than whats on the listings, and applying there?
When it says 5 years experience and degree, it's just a bunch of BS. Apply anyway. You just haven't learned how to read job listings.
I'm going to have to strongly disagree with you Scott, on the grounds of being a recent CS/EE graduate. I have in the past months found that 90% of job listings for programming work out there recently have been for mid or high level positions and require at a minimum a degree AND 5 years experience. I'm sure people are contacting you, you have many years of experience in the field. It may well be that I suck but the jobs market isn't exactly generous for entry-level programming right now. Also fuck your anti internship position, a majority of the people in my graduating class went on to jobs via internships/co-ops. There are no internships that are unpaid and legal. They are great for building your resume before leaving college, and getting connections.
Jobs Jobs jobs
Anything more to this other than whats on the listings, and applying there?
When it says 5 years experience and degree, it's just a bunch of BS. Apply anyway. You just haven't learned how to read job listings.
This. Also, if it says "need to know all of these" and you just know a few, that's OK. Apply anyway and explain how you can learn the rest.
Oh yeah definitely. I've been applying to almost anything that comes up that's reasonably close to something I could do. That said they few who have contacted me back in any fashion are via connections, or have fairly low experience requirements. The feeling I have been getting (correctly or not) is that there are no small number of CS types that are graduating on top of the ones who were laid off and as whole there's a fair amount of competition at every level.
The best ones I've encountered required you to know proprietary languages/software that was internal to the company. Or used in-industry language to sort of hide the actual responsibilities and make them sound more important/significant than they are.
Oh yeah definitely. I've been applying to almost anything that comes up that's reasonably close to something I could do. That said they few who have contacted me back in any fashion are via connections, or have fairly low experience requirements. The feeling I have been getting (correctly or not) is that there are no small number of CS types that are graduating on top of the ones who were laid off and as whole there's a fair amount of competition at every level.
I'm not sure how much competition there is for our jobs, as I'm honestly not too sure how many people are really willing to relocate to Charleston. If you know .NET and SQL though, you can do the work. You might have to pick up some Javascript.
Feel free to send me your resume (email of my username at hotmail) if you want. I'm not necessarily incredibly experienced, but I've been working for a couple years and I think I would be able to give more targeted advice if you wanted. I can genuinely say that I went from where you're at right now to finally (desperately) finding a job that fit, and I've figured out a couple places where I personally went wrong since then.
Honestly, as long as you can convince them that you can learn whatever you need to teach in the time between your hire date and your first day of work, you'll be fine - They hire for the personality and the work ethic, not necessarily the qualifications.
I'll look into it. I might be able to pick enough up to manage it.
I ended up teaching HL2 modding my first summer, which I did not know at all when I went into the interview.
If you have any questions, you know where to find me.
Feel free to send me your resume (email of my username at hotmail) if you want. I'm not necessarily incredibly experienced, but I've been working for a couple years and I think I would be able to give more targeted advice if you wanted. I can genuinely say that I went from where you're at right now to finally (desperately) finding a job that fit, and I've figured out a couple places where I personally went wrong since then.
Will do, any help is appreciated.
I'm not sure how much competition there is for our jobs, as I'm honestly not too sure how many people are really willing to relocate to Charleston. If you know .NET and SQL though, you can do the work. You might have to pick up some Javascript.
I've a little of both SQL and JavaScript, not so much .NET. Then again I'm expecting no small degree of learning wherever I end up.
Comments
In the US, a bachelor's degree in CS is more or less sufficient certification for any entry-level programming job, though I'm not sure exactly how well that would carry over to Australia.
Also fuck your anti internship position, a majority of the people in my graduating class went on to jobs via internships/co-ops. There are no internships that are unpaid and legal. They are great for building your resume before leaving college, and getting connections. Anything more to this other than whats on the listings, and applying there?
What position are you interested in?
If you have any questions, you know where to find me.