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Ask HN: Jobs for an aspiring hacker

11 points by dkokelley ↗ HN
I'm fairly new to programming, having never fully learned a language to the point of making anything particularly useful. (My crowning achievement is a python script that lists prime numbers.) I am learning, and plan on becoming half-decent some day (I just finished Learn To Program, by Chris Pine). The thing is, I fear I may have started too late to make a career out of it. I recently graduated from college where I studied marketing and economics, to give you some idea of where I am in life.

My question is this: what sort of jobs are available to sub-hackers/aspiring hackers? Ideally, I would like to work somewhere that I can learn and use computer programming, but having no practical experience, I am at a loss.

What sort of work would you recommend for someone in his early 20's who is learning to program? Alternatively, what was your introduction to programming as a job or career?

Edit: I guess I should clarify a bit. I plan on continuing to learn and expand myself as a programmer. Where would you recommend I look for work while I learn?

6 comments

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petervandijck
You'll need to self-study to a level a little higher than "a python script that lists prime numbers" before anyone will consider giving you a job.
dkokelley
I know I can't (or shouldn't) get a programming job with my abysmal experience, and continuing to learn (in several respects) is important for me now that I'm out of school. But what sort of work would you recommend for someone like me, who can't yet program, but is learning?
entrepreneurial
In my experience you should challenge yourself to build scripts that "do" something. Like, create an image with a watermark, or a multi-step script like scrape images from a website and repost them to another. Try tutorials as well. Good luck!
dkokelley
Thank you for your response. At this point I know that I need to keep learning. I wanted to know what sort of work would be a good "stepping stone" job for someone who can't yet program.
zmitri
One way would be to get a job as an analyst, and just start trying to automate the tasks you perform, or any other inefficiencies you see in the workplace. I know atleast 2 or 3 people who have become "sufficient" in programming from this.

I'd also suggest reading O'Reilly Books, and actually programming the examples. Then when you have a cool idea try to build it. Don't tell yourself you're too busy, or its too hard, just do it.

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