Landing Your First Programming Job
Navigating the Obstacles
It’s time. You’re ready. Maybe you’ve graduated from a college or university with a programming degree. Maybe you sacrificed a couple months of sleep to experience a fast-paced code survival bootcamp. Or maybe you’ve just been spending a lot of time on Udemy or Khan Academy and want to turn those skills into some coin.
Whatever the situation, on behalf of us old-timers I’d like to welcome you to the club! It’s an exciting time in the world of technology, and as a creator of All Things New, you’re going to have a grand time dreaming of cool things and then making them happen.
Before you get there, however, you’ll have to survive a couple of obstacle courses that the wacky world of business has constructed to keep you out. To be fair, much of the obstacles exist to try to give the business some kind of assurances that you won’t murder your coworkers. (Yeah, they’ll also evaluate your skills, but I’m pretty sure it’s more about the murder thing.)
Obstacle Course #1 — Landing the Interview
The first course is usually the most difficult. A lot of people find themselves knocked into the ball pit just trying to get past the first obstruction.
When I graduated college back in the stone age, I sent out something like 350…
