I admit… I’m getting a bit worn down looking for a job. To be honest, I’ve never actually searched for a job before. When I was in Salt Lake, I was always pulled toward jobs just by people telling others about me. My first ‘real’ job was a programmer for Salt Lake County. It was all in VBA and I thought it was slow and annoying, but it was a good start. I got that job by talking to a random person at Brainshare (which I snuck into… 🙂 After that I went to work as a System Admin for my Uncle. This was a awesome job and I wish I would have stayed. I was 19 or 20, and thought I could take on the world, so I quite after only about a year to start my own company with some friends. This was FG&A design. I wanted to program, and nothing else, so I became the lead programmer. This was real fun and probably the time I’ve enjoyed most just from the thrill of being able to write code and see an actual product appear. Sadly, since I wanted no part in management, I didn’t get a say when my friends said we were going to start working on spam email “since that’s where the money is.” I refused, and was out of work once more. About this time I looked into the Air Force and enlisted. I worked for MSN doing tech support for a few months until I left for boot camp, but that wasn’t a real job.

So, long story short, this is the first time actively searching for a job. The thing that worries me the most is that the last six years of my life have been doing nothing to further my job experience. I still love to code, and have actively pursued this, but I have no proof to show anyone that I really can do what I say I can do. I have some assignments I wrote for school, and those are nothing on consequence. I finished a B.S. degree and am 15 hours shy of a M.S., but education != experience in everyone’s mind. In fact, I choose software engineering because I wanted to program, and have yet to program anything for my degree. (Well, this semester we have to write one application, but it’s not a common activity. In fact, more than half of the other students admit to not knowing how to program at all.) A masters degree is more management related, which makes sense, but it leaves me with wondering if I should try for a management position or for a position where I should actually write code.

I really should have spent more time on open source projects instead of gaming/relaxing. I guess if I really loved to program as much as I say I do, I would have rather spent time writing code instead of playing warcraft or final fantasy. Oh well, at least I know my skill, and can call upon it if I ever need it. I can honestly say that I can write anything given enough time. If I don’t know how to do it, I’ll learn, that simple. In fact, it’s the projects that I don’t know how to do that I find the most exciting because it allows me to research and learn something new.

Along those lines, I decided to write a linux driver for the USB Rocket Launcher my little brother gave me for my birthday. I’ve never written an application to control a USB device and it looks interesting. I also want to add a little window so I can attach a camera to it. Acquire and attack without showing my face. Sounds fun to me. But in the end it’s just another game…

I have three months until I get out. I have a few job offers, but my inexperience leaves me to wonder how reliable they are. I guess we’ll see.

---

Filed under: Uncategorized - @ September 20, 2007 1:32 pm

Tags: job search, programming