Programmer's Jobs Search

Hello everybody (in the words of the great Dr. Nick)! It's been sometime since I've written here mostly because of work and school it's become my mission to regularly make contributions to this blog. While I may have failed in the regular part I will make posts because I need a brain dump for all of the programming concepts that I've learned recently.

I've noticed a trend about these posts and that's that they are only half about programming concepts and half about a programmer's lifestyle. This period is a transition from school to work but it's a subject that I can't seem to find very many blogs or posts about so I think it's excusable to be half and half on the subject matter. 

This week's post is about finding a programming job coming out of undergrad and the military. I'm going to try and tailor this more for just the undergrad experience because I don't think there are many computer science majors that joined the Marine Corps. For the last few weeks, I've been submitting applications and altering cover letters to fit the needs of each company and have received a rainbow of advice. I've heard a lot of weird advice lately but the most consistent and crazy one is that you should lie on your resume. Nobody that I've spoken to has told me to just lie but they all do the same chuckle and indirect head movements and say, "everybody embellishes a little bit." I can see somebody marking up their resume from something like, "programmed one time in C," to "familiar with C" as long as they have a large basis of programming knowledge because they could probably learn it quickly, but having programmed once in a language doesn't qualify you to say something like "Expert C programmer."

These statements seem like gross exaggerations of the truth and could be hurting the job market. Since so many people are embellishing and website all over the internet are suggesting to do it, it leaves the truthful applicant with only one choice; lie. If everybody is lying and you're an entry level programmer with barely any experience, it would be impossible for your, "I worked with Java once on a project" to compete with somebody else's "Java master-->barista he man."

While the last part might be a bit of a stretch, the problem still holds validity in a wave of applicants who are not sure to fib or tell the truth. I've decided to take the high road on my applications and only make claims that I can back with projects that I've hosted on Github. This seems legitimate because I can write an abstract about the project and if somebody thinks that I'm embellishing they can just check the project for themselves. 

Though I'm in week two of my job search, I remain faithful that my method will be rewarded even though my application might be against "master coders" who are fluent in every language imaginable. I've received a few reply's for my applications but they are interested in hiring immediately and I won't be out until early June so unfortunately I have to wait. If you happen to be an employer who is browsing through this to gauge me as a candidate, I'm legitimate! I've been practicing coding on a white board for the past few months to get ready for an interview so please give me a shot in your office and I promise you'll be pleased. If you're just another programmer facing some of the same issues, stay strong as there are many of us that I've spoken to from my college who are experiencing the same uneasiness; we'll prevail.  

Once again, I look forward to hearing back from anybody who has opposing or similar ideas or just wants to chat. I love networking and even if you're from a drastically different walk of the programming life, drop me a line. 

Thanks,

Joseph Priest