Ask HN: How can I offer to work unpaid in order to get my foot in the door?

GO TO MEETUPS

That's by far your best strategy. Ask to "drop by the office or join in for a standup. Most companies are really open (and interested) in having new talent come through.

IF MEETUPS AREN'T WORKING, THEN YOU HAVE TO CREATE AN ONLINE NETWORK.

Comment more on HN, stackoverflow, even Quora will get you into more conversations.

That's my two cents :)

If you learn the topics best by combining them, by all means keep doing that, but what I would stress that the technique which is the best way to learn is not always the best way to demonstrate understanding.

An employer looking for a junior or intern doesn't need mastery right now, they're simply looking for someone who can get started without too much hand holding and learn as they produce.

For example, if you say that you're studying computer science topics, and write a small blog post on sorting algorithms, I'll believe you.

If you say you're learning D3 and have a demo page with a few graphs or circles. I'll believe you.

If you say you're learning both, and combine it into a site which has lots of whizz-bang animations and vizualisations of data structures, I'll still believe you, but the bugginess of the site will lead me to be concerned that you'd power through the work without enough care.

The Js behind this (https://github.com/MKwenhua/petecvHeroku/blob/98643f3ac831b1...) reflects someone that is indeed scoping out different tech, but the code lacks some software engineering rigour (mixing jQuery use and native browser APIs suggests a copy/paste approach might have been in play to some degree, again, fine for learning, not for production code).

But that's ok. The rigour can be developed with time and mentoring when you have your foot in the door.

What I'm saying is that you can simplify a lot of your demos in order to get your foot in the door, don't feel the need to show that you can take on everything right away.

Instead of a site where everything flies into place with potential bugs in tow, simplify down to a more static site. You can still demonstrate your D3 skills with simple demos and your computer science findings with short blog posts.

If you'd like to chat more or have me elaborate, ping me on twitter or something as I don't like sharing email on HN.

Most good companies don't require a college degree, but "entry level" often assumes one. You've been studying CS for 10 months and are competing against those who've studied it for 4 years, perhaps with job experience to boot.

Your best bet is to become a contributor to a popular open source project. In addition to that, I agree you need to network with engineers and managers because recruiters won't feel comfortable submitting you at this point.

I want to disclaim that while some companies may say a degree is necessary, there are very few that actually enforce that. I've had several offers in principle (as in a written offer was extended) well before I had a degree, and from companies most probably wouldn't believe. While it's definitely harder to get in the door, it's likely not impossible.

However I'd also like to point out that as you may have read from several comment threads, the majority of a software-developers life doesn't revolve around Computer Science. I mean the last time I really had to consider whether something was Turing complete was, well, it was in hardware development, but that's beside the point.

There are many aspects of programming that aren't taught in CS books. Decomposing requirements, process & methodology, and so many others. I've read a lot of people say that when they interview, they look for fit.

So, with that in mind, I'd suggest stepping away from trying to show off just your CS chops, but actually solve interesting problems to you. It's sort of funny to me, because your headline sort of describes open source software. For me, contributing to open source allows me to write software that I'm actually passionate about, instead of just solving interesting problems for a company that I'm kind of ambivalent about.

As far as getting your foot actually in the door, I'd suggest looking for "software tester" positions. They are usually the low man on the totem pole, but they are the definition of a foot in the door. I'm sure some people disagree, but I've worked with several people who completely lacked a formal education, but started as a software tester somewhere, and worked their way up. Most of them, instead of just finding bugs & problems, would dig into the code and try and find out what was going on.

Not to mention, that will give you the chance to learn some of the soft skills, like communication, process, etc. You could even get your training done for Agile/Scrum/SixSigma/whatevs, and wind up with a great leg up on the competition.

Company wise, I'd advise avoiding larger companies, but avoiding true startups as well (and this may be where I diverge from a lot of people). I'd look for a company that is established in their field, but still small (30-50 developers, ish). I think most startups are looking for people that can give in excess of 100%, and while you're learning, it's probably not best to extend yourself that much.

Anyway, good luck with your search, you seem pretty passionate, and we can always use more people passionate about software development.

You always get what you negotiate.

So cut this crap with unpaid work. You'll only get non-existent clients.