As someone with a degree from a reasonably well known school and 2-ish years of employment who is looking for a job yet again, I can say that the prospects for entry-level positions are generally dim. Most of the so-called entry level positions that I see advertised -required- at least 3 years of experience. The job market is such that they can make these kind of demands, at least in my region of the world. In my admittedly limited experience, it is easier to land an interview with smaller companies. They tend to want someone long-term and are more willing to train or let someone grow into their job. The GE's and Time Warners of the world want someone with solid experience who can step into a development team today. Some larger companies, IBM for example, have some good entry-level positions but only if you're willing to move halfway across the country.
I've refused to block ads for well over a decade. I want to support the sites I visit. I grumble, but endure the slow downs caused by hitting up ad servers. The ads on my girlfriend's site give us some extra money each month. However, twice in the past 6 months I've been infected with horrible viruses through someone's compromised ad network. Each time I was on a perfectly reputable site running third party ads from third party servers. So now I have ad block and no script and all of that. Sending slashdot a couple bucks isn't worth hours and hours of virus removal. (Yes I have a virus scanner. No it didn't stop it. Yes, I could run Linux, but my TV card isn't fully supported.)
I dunno what planet submitter is talking about, but on my world, when I was looking for my first real programming job at 25, no one was super excited to get the next big young person. Interviewers were suspicious of my research university education, skeptical of my time in grad school and generally unimpressed with my short resume. "You have less than 10 years of paid C++ experience?" A lot of people were working with dated languages (Cobol, Cold Fusion) and technologies and didn't want some kid just out of school. I had to seriously lower my salary expectations and take a job with a really small firm who simply couldn't get anyone better than me.
Submitter: you're not the only one biased toward older applicants. Some of my interviews started winding down when I walked in the door until I decided to grow a beard.
Learning a foreign language is never a waste of time. Even if you never do anything with it, it changes the way you think in a way that can be valuable as a programmer and engineer. As a gainfully employed computer programmer, I think learning a language was one of my better decisions. And, if nothing else, language processing is always something you can pursue as a Comp Scientist if you find you have an aptitude for language.
What language?
If you want something straight forward that your programming and computational skills will be assets, I'd suggest Latin or even Ancient Greek. You might be surprised how readily some ideas transfer over. I say this as both a former student and a former teacher.
If you want to actually converse with someone alive, you can't go wrong with Spanish or German.
If you want it to be a genuine asset in your future employment, than some dedicated study to
Chinese or Japanese, while intense, can be very valuable.
If I had a teenager I wanted to keep away from naughty sites of one kind or another I would just drop into casual conversation a couple times that all of the sites visited by any of our computers is logged, and that I look at the log periodically "to look for anything suspicious make sure we're not getting hacked or sending out viruses or anything." You don't have to actually do anything, just leave your kid with the impression that you might be watching.
Slashdot Mirror
As someone with a degree from a reasonably well known school and 2-ish years of employment who is looking for a job yet again, I can say that the prospects for entry-level positions are generally dim. Most of the so-called entry level positions that I see advertised -required- at least 3 years of experience. The job market is such that they can make these kind of demands, at least in my region of the world. In my admittedly limited experience, it is easier to land an interview with smaller companies. They tend to want someone long-term and are more willing to train or let someone grow into their job. The GE's and Time Warners of the world want someone with solid experience who can step into a development team today. Some larger companies, IBM for example, have some good entry-level positions but only if you're willing to move halfway across the country.
I've refused to block ads for well over a decade. I want to support the sites I visit. I grumble, but endure the slow downs caused by hitting up ad servers. The ads on my girlfriend's site give us some extra money each month. However, twice in the past 6 months I've been infected with horrible viruses through someone's compromised ad network. Each time I was on a perfectly reputable site running third party ads from third party servers. So now I have ad block and no script and all of that. Sending slashdot a couple bucks isn't worth hours and hours of virus removal. (Yes I have a virus scanner. No it didn't stop it. Yes, I could run Linux, but my TV card isn't fully supported.)
Washington Post to become most read online news source in early 2011!
I dunno what planet submitter is talking about, but on my world, when I was looking for my first real programming job at 25, no one was super excited to get the next big young person. Interviewers were suspicious of my research university education, skeptical of my time in grad school and generally unimpressed with my short resume. "You have less than 10 years of paid C++ experience?" A lot of people were working with dated languages (Cobol, Cold Fusion) and technologies and didn't want some kid just out of school. I had to seriously lower my salary expectations and take a job with a really small firm who simply couldn't get anyone better than me. Submitter: you're not the only one biased toward older applicants. Some of my interviews started winding down when I walked in the door until I decided to grow a beard.
Learning a foreign language is never a waste of time. Even if you never do anything with it, it changes the way you think in a way that can be valuable as a programmer and engineer. As a gainfully employed computer programmer, I think learning a language was one of my better decisions. And, if nothing else, language processing is always something you can pursue as a Comp Scientist if you find you have an aptitude for language. What language? If you want something straight forward that your programming and computational skills will be assets, I'd suggest Latin or even Ancient Greek. You might be surprised how readily some ideas transfer over. I say this as both a former student and a former teacher. If you want to actually converse with someone alive, you can't go wrong with Spanish or German. If you want it to be a genuine asset in your future employment, than some dedicated study to Chinese or Japanese, while intense, can be very valuable.
Submitting an 'ask Slashdot' and the first words are 'a girl'. This has to be a hoax; no one in right mind would expect a straight answer.
If I had a teenager I wanted to keep away from naughty sites of one kind or another I would just drop into casual conversation a couple times that all of the sites visited by any of our computers is logged, and that I look at the log periodically "to look for anything suspicious make sure we're not getting hacked or sending out viruses or anything." You don't have to actually do anything, just leave your kid with the impression that you might be watching.