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Comment by biohacker42 | Hacker News Reader

Been there done that, it gets better.

I got out of school with my BS in CS right at bottom of the .com bust. 2+ months of resume sending and nothing, eventually I got "network engineer" (glorified PC repairman) job. It was fun for about a month, then it got repetitive. 6+ month later I finally got a break and started (for slightly less $) as junior software engineer.

So yeah right now it feels like your CS is worth less then a bunch of certificates, but don't worry things change and in the long term you are better of.

In fact waiting tables might be better then what I did. It could pay more if you get lots of tips and you can keep your skills sharp outside of work, and the temptation to specialize in your new job and forget CS isn't there.

In summary: Suck it up kid!

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It took me a while to get a real programming job out of school as well. It eventually happened. Whatever you do, keep coding. Get stuff out there. Pick an open source project if you like that kind of thing, otherwise follow a pet project, get it on the web. Hell, you may not even need a job if it takes off. But in the short term, there's a serious risk of fading away from code, which is why you really honestly might be better off working at a coffee shop instead of doing a boring corporate job. At least you'll be hungry to write code. A creative writing teacher advised a few students against taking a PR job for the same reason (I'm not sure that was necessarily the best advice, just one school of thought).

In the past, it was much harder to program, because the resources were harder to come by. Now, you really can't say "I never had the opportunity to work with that programming language", because pretty much everything is there for the taking.

Ha! Thanks. Yea, I know what you are saying, and I am sure that something will come along. I am taking my A+ next week because every 'network engineer' position that I have applied for requires it - they do not, however, require a CS degree. Go figure. All I can do is use this time that I have and hone my hacking skills - something to be thankful for. Oh, and at the interview they said the waiter positions was filled, but they will call me about the busboy position! Yay!

Try applying for QA positions as well, instead of tech guy ones. Frankly, you might be running into a problem that you're overqualified for the grunt work positions. Further, unless you're WAY younger than your wife, you may be running into an age discrimination issue.

I've come to the conclusion that the best thing anyone can do for themselves to get into the corporate world is an internship during one's college years. Most places hire their new talent from their intern pool.

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