When I entered my first senior year, I faced the same dilemma as you. My solution was to go back to school for a fifth year and get an internship at VoIP telco. The telco was hiring "Network Operations Administrators" which is simply a glorified term for people who answer telephones.
What was key about this internship was the exposure it gave me. Before this internship I had always played at the desktop level. For the first time I had access to they types of toys enterprises use. Because I asked for access, and showed a willingness to learn, I was given root access on a couple of development boxes. I began by writing simple C++ programs to parse log files, and make my job as a Network troubleshooter easier. Before long I was able to answer questions from our customers better than the engineers above me.
Within a year I was promoted, and became the Operations Supervisor, and resident *NIX hack. The key of course was that I sought out an oppurtunity that would give me experience using my system admin skills/programming skills.
Let me summarize. Don't look for a job as a programmer if you don't have programming experience. Instead look for a job doing something else around programmers. Even if its licking their boots, and filling their coffee cups. Once you get in the office, if you show aptitude, you can gain access to the tools you need to learn. The idea is that after a year or two in that environment, if you've demonstrated your abilities, someone will eventully give you the oppurtunity to use your skills.
If you don't get that oppurtunity it is because a) you have a bad boss or b) you really don't have any talent. In either case the key is change jobs.
The other suggestion I have is to work for a small company. Small companies are key because they don't care what your qualifications are. If your a janitor at a small company, but you know how to program, it won't take long before you have the oppurtunity to use your skills.
I have been using Red Hat for a few days now... and my desktop keeps locking up! Gnome did it, to the point where even the num lock light stopped changing... so I tried KDE... and my launcher (start menu, whatever the equivalent in KDE is called) keep s locking up. Fortunately, just because the launcher locks up, I can still ALT+F2 a command prompt, and kill the process manually, allowing me to recover. But sheesh. I wish Red Hat would put out something a wee bit more stable than this! Its made me seriously consider switching to a different distro.
On a side note, this is the first time I have tried Red Hat as a desktop OS. I've been using it as the core of my servers since 6.0... and I must say, its getting close. My big issues are no media support (mp3, dvds, mov files, etc), and lack of a good office suite. Face it folks, OpenOffice just doesn't compare to MS Office... and its killing me to use it. I might go back to the dark side, just so I can open.doc files correctly.
Anyone know of a good font package? I miss my TT fonts....
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When I entered my first senior year, I faced the same dilemma as you. My solution was to go back to school for a fifth year and get an internship at VoIP telco. The telco was hiring "Network Operations Administrators" which is simply a glorified term for people who answer telephones.
What was key about this internship was the exposure it gave me. Before this internship I had always played at the desktop level. For the first time I had access to they types of toys enterprises use. Because I asked for access, and showed a willingness to learn, I was given root access on a couple of development boxes. I began by writing simple C++ programs to parse log files, and make my job as a Network troubleshooter easier. Before long I was able to answer questions from our customers better than the engineers above me.
Within a year I was promoted, and became the Operations Supervisor, and resident *NIX hack. The key of course was that I sought out an oppurtunity that would give me experience using my system admin skills/programming skills.
Let me summarize. Don't look for a job as a programmer if you don't have programming experience. Instead look for a job doing something else around programmers. Even if its licking their boots, and filling their coffee cups. Once you get in the office, if you show aptitude, you can gain access to the tools you need to learn. The idea is that after a year or two in that environment, if you've demonstrated your abilities, someone will eventully give you the oppurtunity to use your skills.
If you don't get that oppurtunity it is because a) you have a bad boss or b) you really don't have any talent. In either case the key is change jobs.
The other suggestion I have is to work for a small company. Small companies are key because they don't care what your qualifications are. If your a janitor at a small company, but you know how to program, it won't take long before you have the oppurtunity to use your skills.
Have you been to the Nerdshack yet?
I have been using Red Hat for a few days now... and my desktop keeps locking up! Gnome did it, to the point where even the num lock light stopped changing... so I tried KDE... and my launcher (start menu, whatever the equivalent in KDE is called) keep s locking up. Fortunately, just because the launcher locks up, I can still ALT+F2 a command prompt, and kill the process manually, allowing me to recover. But sheesh. I wish Red Hat would put out something a wee bit more stable than this! Its made me seriously consider switching to a different distro.
.doc files correctly.
On a side note, this is the first time I have tried Red Hat as a desktop OS. I've been using it as the core of my servers since 6.0... and I must say, its getting close. My big issues are no media support (mp3, dvds, mov files, etc), and lack of a good office suite. Face it folks, OpenOffice just doesn't compare to MS Office... and its killing me to use it. I might go back to the dark side, just so I can open
Anyone know of a good font package? I miss my TT fonts....