Ask HN: Questions from a self-taught (UK) intern | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Questions from a self-taught (UK) intern

3 points666lumberjack2 comments

Hi,

I'm currently an intern developer for Coca-Cola European Partners and I'm in a slightly unusual position for an intern because I'm completely self-taught (as opposed to being a university student).

My responsibilities are mostly frontend stuff in HTML + CSS and some work with Saleforce, but I'm the only programmer on my current team so I'm doing bits and pieces all over the place. I've also got free reign to teach myself anything reasonably relevant when I'm not directly working on a project, which has enabled me to solidify my understanding of Javascript and start learning Haskell.

Currently I'm a month in (with an expected duration of three months, but the possibility that it'll be extended to six months). My eventual goal is to get into backend web development and move to London.

General advice from people who've been in a similar position would be great, but I also have a few specific questions:

- How much value is there (if any) in having worked for a relatively 'prestigious' company like Coca-Cola for development roles? - I often read about how getting your first job as a self-taught programmer is the hardest part of the process. To what extent does having previously interned somewhere help with this? - Is it reasonable for me to be looking/applying to jobs now with the expectation that I've got two months left, or should I wait until closer to when I finish to start applying? - I'm planning to apply to both Junior dev positions and other internships (if the latter is closer to what I want to be doing in role), but I'm under the impression I was pretty lucky to get my current role as a non-student - how true is that?

Hi, I work on web in London. The prestige of the company isn't as important as having proved you can work and learn. In fact you should probably ask that on interviews - what will you team be like and what kind of opportunities will you have to learn and grow as a dev? It's never good for a dev to work alone, but it's especially harmful for junior devs.

I don't know the market for Haskell. If you want to get into backend for web, you can't go wrong with Node.js. Agencies using those services usually prefer the backend written in Javascript or Typescript so more devs can, in principle, work on both ends. Moreover, you can get into cloud services like AWS and Azure easily if you know Node. I reckon it will be easier to start as generic "web developer" or "junior developer" and then gradually evolve into backend. Specialists tend to be mid to senior.

You should start sending applications on your last month. I don't think it will take you more than that to land a junior role in London (there are many more junior openings than internships). But you can create a Linkedin account today if you don't have one.

Thanks for taking the time to advise me. It's good to know that having been the only dev on the team is a potential red flag; I'll make sure to de-emphasize that on my resume.

Based on searching Indeed/Whoishiring etc. the market for Haskell developers is fairly small, but London has relatively high demand for developers with Functional Programming experience (since Fintechs tend to like it). My main goal in learning Haskell is just to broaden my programming horizons, but I'm quite enjoying it thus far so FP is a career niche I might explore. With luck I'll be able to get some Node experience doing one of the projects my bosses are discussing as well.

I do have a Linkedin, but it's relatively basic so I'll make sure to update that and my resume before I'm in my final month. In the event that I reach the point where I've not much to learn from my team/projects here by the end of my first three months, is it still worth continuing the internship (assuming I get offered an extension) or is all the value in what I learn as opposed to being able to say I've 'worked' x months?

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