C++Talk.NET C++ language newsgroups   Archives   FAQ   Search   Memberlist   Usergroups   Register   Profile   Log in to check your private messages   Log in  [OT] getting your start          C++Talk.NET Forum Index -> C Language View previous topic :: View next topic   Author Message Andrew Clark Guest Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 5:07 am    Post subject: [OT] getting your start hello everyone, my name is andrew clark. i used to post sometimes to this NG a while back, when i was still in school. now i am an alum and i have less time on my hands, so i am a lurker. i try to read every day and solve at least 2 problems by on my own. my question is this: i am recently out of school with a new degree in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really* frustrating to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and a job to get experience. so, i was wondering how most of you got your start and whether that start has led to you to a calling in life. thanks for reading! andrew -----= Posted via Newsfeed.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =----- http://www.newsfeed.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! -----== 100,000 Groups! - 19 Servers! - Unlimited Download! =----- Back to top Dan Pop Guest Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 4:44 pm    Post subject: Re: [OT] getting your start In <Xns944B192F48ECasdfjkl (AT) 208 (DOT) 33.61.211> Andrew Clark <anclark (AT) syr (DOT) edu> writes: Quote: my name is andrew clark. i used to post sometimes to this NG a while back, when i was still in school. now i am an alum and i have less time on my hands, so i am a lurker. i try to read every day and solve at least 2 problems by on my own. my question is this: i am recently out of school with a new degree in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really* frustrating to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and a job to get experience. so, i was wondering how most of you got your start and whether that start has led to you to a calling in life. thanks for reading! I got a lot of experience from the "toy" projects I was working on as a student, experience that I could both claim and demonstrate to the prospective employers afterwards. Many of the real world projects I worked on later proved to be simpler than my earlier toy projects... Dan -- Dan Pop DESY Zeuthen, RZ group Email: [email]Dan.Pop (AT) ifh (DOT) de[/email] Back to top CBFalconer Guest Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 4:57 pm    Post subject: Re: [OT] getting your start Andrew Clark wrote: Quote: .... snip ... my question is this: i am recently out of school with a new degree in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really* frustrating to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and a job to get experience. Having experience doesn't necessarily get you a job in todays economy. In the US at least under Bush we have seen programming positions disappear, along with a 45% depreciation of the dollar WRT the Euro, not to mention impingement on basic freedoms, the use of the Gitmo concentration camp, and increased concentration of wealth in the rich. Note that the so-called economic boom does not include jobs. If you are in some other part of the world things may be better there. -- Chuck F (cbfalconer (AT) yahoo (DOT) com) (cbfalconer (AT) worldnet (DOT) att.net) Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems. <http://cbfalconer.home.att.net> USE worldnet address! Back to top John Bode Guest Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 11:06 pm    Post subject: Re: [OT] getting your start Andrew Clark <anclark (AT) syr (DOT) edu> wrote Quote: hello everyone, my name is andrew clark. i used to post sometimes to this NG a while back, when i was still in school. now i am an alum and i have less time on my hands, so i am a lurker. i try to read every day and solve at least 2 problems by on my own. my question is this: i am recently out of school with a new degree in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really* frustrating to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and a job to get experience. so, i was wondering how most of you got your start and whether that start has led to you to a calling in life. thanks for reading! Connections help. I got my first job because one of my professors put in a good word for me with some people he knew. I started out (and eventually wound up back) working in defense, which is one of the few sectors that won't be offshored and can expect to see some sustained increases over the next few years. You might look in that area. There are openings for bright and enthusiastic entry-level programmers (after all, *somebody* has to do the dogwork), it's just that they're not advertised. Quote: andrew -----= Posted via Newsfeed.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =----- http://www.newsfeed.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! -----== 100,000 Groups! - 19 Servers! - Unlimited Download! =----- Back to top Mark F. Haigh Guest Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2003 5:51 am    Post subject: Re: [OT] getting your start Andrew Clark wrote: Quote: hello everyone, my name is andrew clark. i used to post sometimes to this NG a while back, when i was still in school. now i am an alum and i have less time on my hands, so i am a lurker. i try to read every day and solve at least 2 problems by on my own. my question is this: i am recently out of school with a new degree in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really* frustrating to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and a job to get experience. so, i was wondering how most of you got your start and whether that start has led to you to a calling in life. thanks for reading! snip Using all lowercase reeks of "student". If you expect anybody to take you seriously, ditch that habit. Find something that you're interested in, and dive in head first. Be open to miserable failures, and every time you end up with one, step back and figure out where it all went wrong. When you find that point, try again from there. Over time you will become better at identifying the warning signs that signify an impending miserable failure. Alternate between breadth-first and depth-first searches of knowledge. In other words, it is important to know the breadth of options available, but it is equally important to master a certain subset of these. Find a balance. Finally, spare no expense in acquiring good books. Only buy excellent books. Read and understand them. If your employer offers to buy them, make sure they are *yours*, not theirs, when you part ways. Mark F. Haigh [email]mfhaigh (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net[/email] Back to top Joona I Palaste Guest Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2003 10:22 am    Post subject: Re: [OT] getting your start Mark F. Haigh <mfhaigh (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) ten> scribbled the following: Quote: Andrew Clark wrote: hello everyone, my name is andrew clark. i used to post sometimes to this NG a while back, when i was still in school. now i am an alum and i have less time on my hands, so i am a lurker. i try to read every day and solve at least 2 problems by on my own. my question is this: i am recently out of school with a new degree in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really* frustrating to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and a job to get experience. so, i was wondering how most of you got your start and whether that start has led to you to a calling in life. thanks for reading! snip Using all lowercase reeks of "student". If you expect anybody to take you seriously, ditch that habit. In any case it's much better than USING ALL UPPERCASE, which reeks of "Nigerian spam". -- /-- Joona Palaste (palaste (AT) cc (DOT) helsinki.fi) ------------- Finland -------- -- http://www.helsinki.fi/~palaste --------------------- rules! --------/ "O pointy birds, O pointy-pointy. Anoint my head, anointy-nointy." - Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr Back to top Mark F. Haigh Guest Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2003 10:34 am    Post subject: Re: [OT] getting your start Joona I Palaste wrote: Quote: Mark F. Haigh <mfhaigh (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) ten> scribbled the following: Andrew Clark wrote: hello everyone, my name is andrew clark. i used to post sometimes to this NG a while back, when i was still in school. now i am an alum and i have less time on my hands, so i am a lurker. i try to read every day and solve at least 2 problems by on my own. my question is this: i am recently out of school with a new degree in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really* frustrating to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and a job to get experience. so, i was wondering how most of you got your start and whether that start has led to you to a calling in life. thanks for reading! snip Using all lowercase reeks of "student". If you expect anybody to take you seriously, ditch that habit. In any case it's much better than USING ALL UPPERCASE, which reeks of "Nigerian spam". It also reeks of other things, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. :-) Mark F. Haigh [email]mfhaigh (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net[/email] Back to top Dave Vandervies Guest Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2003 7:34 pm    Post subject: Re: [OT] getting your start In article <3FD5A59E.2020308 (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) ten>, Mark F. Haigh <mfhaigh (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) ten> wrote: Quote: Joona I Palaste wrote: Mark F. Haigh <mfhaigh (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) ten> scribbled the following: Using all lowercase reeks of "student". If you expect anybody to take you seriously, ditch that habit. In any case it's much better than USING ALL UPPERCASE, which reeks of "Nigerian spam". It also reeks of other things, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. But is it a THING-IN-ITSELF? dave, bookshelf -- Dave Vandervies [email]dj3vande (AT) csclub (DOT) uwaterloo.ca[/email] Actually when you try to parody Karl you realise how seriously amazing his programmer was. --Nick Keighley in comp.lang.c Back to top Christopher Benson-Manica Guest Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2003 8:39 pm    Post subject: Re: [OT] getting your start Andrew Clark <anclark (AT) syr (DOT) edu> spoke thus: Quote: my name is andrew clark. i used to post sometimes to this NG a while back, when i was still in school. now i am an alum and i have less time on my hands, so i am a lurker. i try to read every day and solve at least 2 problems by on my own. my question is this: i am recently out of school with a new degree in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really* frustrating to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and a job to get experience. Where did you graduate from? A CS degree from Podunk State U. isn't going to get you very far. Hopefully your GPA is at least decent and you got some good coursework in - barring those, and without experience (as you suggest), you're going to have a rough time. I don't see how you can have *less* time on your hands after graduation, unless you're working some in-between job to stay afloat. In any case, you've absolutely got to find a way to get good at something in whatever time you do have. Quote: so, i was wondering how most of you got your start and whether that start has led to you to a calling in life. thanks for reading! I graduated May from Georgia Tech with a 3.6. I had some pretty good coursework to play up on my resume (with C being my favorite part of said coursework). I still ended up spending two months looking fruitlessly for work before I got my current job (for an inveterate C/DOS hacker - we write C-style C++...) and I'm enjoying it. Don't give up. -- Christopher Benson-Manica | I *should* know what I'm talking about - if I ataru(at)cyberspace.org | don't, I need to know. Flames welcome. Back to top Nick Keighley Guest Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 4:42 pm    Post subject: Re: [OT] getting your start [email]dj3vande (AT) csclub (DOT) uwaterloo.ca[/email] (Dave Vandervies) wrote in message news:<br583a$jm4$1 (AT) rumours (DOT) uwaterloo.ca>... Quote: In article <3FD5A59E.2020308 (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) ten>, Mark F. Haigh <mfhaigh (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) ten> wrote: Joona I Palaste wrote: Mark F. Haigh <mfhaigh (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) ten> scribbled the following: Using all lowercase reeks of "student". If you expect anybody to take you seriously, ditch that habit. In any case it's much better than USING ALL UPPERCASE, which reeks of "Nigerian spam". It also reeks of other things, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. But is it a THING-IN-ITSELF? dave, bookshelf from the sig:- Quote: Actually when you try to parody Karl you realise how seriously amazing his programmer was. --Nick Keighley in comp.lang.c I only have to be quoted in a sig 5000 more times before I catch up with Richard Heathfield. -- Nick Keighley -pedantic This option is not intended to be useful; it exists only to satisfy pedants who would otherwise claim that GNU CC fails to support the ANSI standard. (Using and Porting GNU CC) Back to top shanmu Guest Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 10:13 am    Post subject: Re: [OT] getting your start Joona I Palaste <palaste (AT) cc (DOT) helsinki.fi> wrote Quote: Mark F. Haigh <mfhaigh (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) ten> scribbled the following: Andrew Clark wrote: hello everyone, my name is andrew clark. i used to post sometimes to this NG a while back, when i was still in school. now i am an alum and i have less time on my hands, so i am a lurker. i try to read every day and solve at least 2 problems by on my own. my question is this: i am recently out of school with a new degree in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really* frustrating to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and a job to get experience. so, i was wondering how most of you got your start and whether that start has led to you to a calling in life. thanks for reading! snip Using all lowercase reeks of "student". If you expect anybody to take you seriously, ditch that habit. In any case it's much better than USING ALL UPPERCASE, which reeks of "Nigerian spam". why Joona (often) makes derogatory comments about some country or other? -- shanmu with curiosity Back to top Joona I Palaste Guest Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 10:26 am    Post subject: Re: [OT] getting your start shanmu <shanmuha (AT) mailinator (DOT) com> scribbled the following: Quote: Joona I Palaste <palaste (AT) cc (DOT) helsinki.fi> wrote Mark F. Haigh <mfhaigh (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) ten> scribbled the following: Andrew Clark wrote: hello everyone, my name is andrew clark. i used to post sometimes to this NG a while back, when i was still in school. now i am an alum and i have less time on my hands, so i am a lurker. i try to read every day and solve at least 2 problems by on my own. my question is this: i am recently out of school with a new degree in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really* frustrating to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and a job to get experience. so, i was wondering how most of you got your start and whether that start has led to you to a calling in life. thanks for reading! snip Using all lowercase reeks of "student". If you expect anybody to take you seriously, ditch that habit. In any case it's much better than USING ALL UPPERCASE, which reeks of "Nigerian spam". why Joona (often) makes derogatory comments about some country or other? Have you ever actually seen Nigerian spam? I don't know if it really comes from Nigeria, but it's called "Nigerian spam" because it claims to come from Nigeria. You know the type: TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I AM GENERAL SUCH-AND-SUCH FROM NIGERIA. I KNOW WHERE $10,000,000 (TEN MILLION DOLLARS) IS BURIED. TO GET MY GRUBBY MITTS ON IT I NEED SOMEONE TO ASSIST ME FINANCIALLY. PLEASE GIVE ME $10,000 AND I WILL MAKE SURE YOU GET HALF OF THE LOT. PLEASE TREAT THIS WITH THE UTMOST CONFIDENTIALITY... Now, this may all be written by someone living comfortably in his industrial West world apartment, but it *claims* it's from Nigeria. *I* didn't invent the term "Nigerian spam", it's in common use. -- /-- Joona Palaste (palaste (AT) cc (DOT) helsinki.fi) ------------- Finland -------- -- http://www.helsinki.fi/~palaste --------------------- rules! --------/ "The trouble with the French is they don't have a word for entrepreneur." - George Bush Back to top Mark F. Haigh Guest Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 11:42 am    Post subject: Re: [OT] getting your start shanmu wrote: <snip> Quote: Using all lowercase reeks of "student". If you expect anybody to take you seriously, ditch that habit. In any case it's much better than USING ALL UPPERCASE, which reeks of "Nigerian spam". why Joona (often) makes derogatory comments about some country or other? And why are you so clueless? Can't you at least be bothered to type "Nigerian spam" into Google? Joona even quoted it for you. You would have found sites like this ([url]http://www.scambusters.org/NigerianFee.html)[/url]. It's standard usage. I'm really sick of this kind of oversensitive PC BS. There's a couple acronyms for ya. ;-) Mark F. Haigh [email]mfhaigh (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net[/email] Back to top Dan Pop Guest Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 2:29 pm    Post subject: Re: [OT] getting your start In <e7d3e302.0312120213.4c53b212 (AT) posting (DOT) google.com> [email]shanmuha (AT) mailinator (DOT) com[/email] (shanmu) writes: Quote: Joona I Palaste <palaste (AT) cc (DOT) helsinki.fi> wrote Mark F. Haigh <mfhaigh (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) ten> scribbled the following: Andrew Clark wrote: hello everyone, my name is andrew clark. i used to post sometimes to this NG a while back, when i was still in school. now i am an alum and i have less time on my hands, so i am a lurker. i try to read every day and solve at least 2 problems by on my own. my question is this: i am recently out of school with a new degree in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really* frustrating to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and a job to get experience. so, i was wondering how most of you got your start and whether that start has led to you to a calling in life. thanks for reading! snip Using all lowercase reeks of "student". If you expect anybody to take you seriously, ditch that habit. In any case it's much better than USING ALL UPPERCASE, which reeks of "Nigerian spam". why Joona (often) makes derogatory comments about some country or other? If you think that Joona made any derogatory comment about some country or other above, you're either an ignoramus or a patent idiot. Furthermore, your statement is about as abusive as Joona's comment about Indian programmers that started a monster thread recently: how often does he make such comments? Please support your reply with quotes from his posts. Dan -- Dan Pop DESY Zeuthen, RZ group Email: [email]Dan.Pop (AT) ifh (DOT) de[/email] Back to top Les Cargill Guest Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 6:31 pm    Post subject: Re: [OT] getting your start shanmu wrote: Quote: Joona I Palaste <palaste (AT) cc (DOT) helsinki.fi> wrote Mark F. Haigh <mfhaigh (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) ten> scribbled the following: Andrew Clark wrote: hello everyone, my name is andrew clark. i used to post sometimes to this NG a while back, when i was still in school. now i am an alum and i have less time on my hands, so i am a lurker. i try to read every day and solve at least 2 problems by on my own. my question is this: i am recently out of school with a new degree in CS on my wall looking for a job, and it is *really* frustrating to say the least. it seems i need experience to get a job, and a job to get experience. so, i was wondering how most of you got your start and whether that start has led to you to a calling in life. thanks for reading! snip Using all lowercase reeks of "student". If you expect anybody to take you seriously, ditch that habit. In any case it's much better than USING ALL UPPERCASE, which reeks of "Nigerian spam". why Joona (often) makes derogatory comments about some country or other? -- shanmu with curiosity The phrase "Nigerian spam" is not particularly dergatory against Nigeria. There have been a whole bunch of these "Spanish Prisoner"/"pigeon drop" SPAM messages received by just about everyone, so it's an apt description of that phenomenon. -- Les Cargill Back to top        C++Talk.NET Forum Index -> C Language All times are GMT Page 1 of 1 Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2006 phpBB Group