4 ms·
From my own experience: One approach is to try software in academia. Look for departments that need web developers, and once there see about branching out into
by euvitudo 9y ago
From my own experience:
One approach is to try software in academia. Look for departments that need web developers, and once there see about branching out into other areas (they often like folks who are willing to learn new things that can be applied in their domain).
In addition to the ability to branch out, you'll likely have the opportunity as FT staff to pursue a degree at reduced tuition (depending on the university/college).
It's often the case that you take an income hit in academia (which is often a reason they're willing to hire anyone with relevant experience), but the learning experience can be beneficial.
Of course, I could be generalizing my experience.
Just a thought.
- mikekchar 9y agoI can actually +1 this. While I was getting my degree I worked in various departments at my university (I'm not the kind of person who can study without working, so I worked pretty much full time). I worked in Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy and even in the computer services group. Astronomy was probably the most fun because I wrote code to animate star fields with the planetarium projector. Lots of math! Downsides are that sometimes (well... lots of times) they need you to do trivial things. Often you are working with some stinky piece of code that a grad student wrote in fortran 10 years ago and that another grad student rewrote in C -- transliterating the design from one language to another. Nobody understand software development practices, so it's cowboy time every day (unless you are good at managing it yourself). And the pay is generally pretty low :-) Still it is probably the most fun I've ever had and I would go back if I was anywhere near a university.