Ask HN: When to apply for a real job? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: When to apply for a real job?

4 pointsinsuffi2 comments

Hello.

My question is mostly aimed at self-taught developers - when did you consider yourself good enough to apply for a real job?

I realize this sort of issue is difficult to quantify, but I'm curious as to what level of skill is actually needed to work as a developer professionally.

At this point I've been writing a lot of small utilities(<200 loc) in python, random scraper/parser scripts on odesk, and playing around with Django. I can build a site or a blog engine in Django, but the ultimate problem is this:

How do you know that your skills/your code are/is good enough to work at a company.

If this question is too broad or doesn't make sense to you, keep in mind that I probably do not know industry specifics as I haven't been exposed to the real world yet.

Cheers.

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I had a degree in electrical engineering, but only coded substantially in VC++ (self-taught) in my fourth year of university. The university syllabus only covered the basics of Java and C++, not enough for a real job.

Thereafter, I served my National Service, and worked for 5 years in non-development roles in the Civil Service.

About 2 years before I left the Civil Service I taught myself HTML, CSS, Javascript, Linux, PHP and design, and did maybe about 2-3 free websites/web apps for friends. Just before I left the Service I was able to code small web apps in PHP.

At that point I still wasn't very confident, so applied for a developer/sysadmin role in a small company where the pay was way below market average, trying to "break into the industry".

After about 2 years of developing larger web apps, and working with major clients, I finally had some substantial development work to put on my portfolio, so I'm applying for a real developer position now.

So it took about 4 years for me to transition from being a civil servant to considering myself good enough to apply for a developer role.

It is a broad question. To specify, we'd need to know which jobs you'd be applying for.

From your description, you could almost surely land an intern or junior developer position. Those of course would (hopefully) give you the work experience to move up from there.

The only way to really know is to start putting yourself out there and getting feedback from potential employers. There are just too many variables between companies for there to be an external gauge for "good enough".

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