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In my experience, mainstream jobsites are awful for software jobs. Jobseekers are sitting there firing off CV's left right and centre, and the recruiters put th

by SandB0x 16y ago

In my experience, mainstream jobsites are awful for software jobs. Jobseekers are sitting there firing off CV's left right and centre, and the recruiters put things like "MUST have a BSc or MSc in Computer Science" to try and stem the tide. Good companies don't care if you have a CS degree as long as you can code and think. That said, someone may have embellished the job requirements and if you think you'd be a good fit for a job it may be worth applying anyway. I'm not sure what the situation is if you have no degree at all, or a degree with no scientific or technical element, but it helps to have evidence of your skills, and whatever your situation it really helps to know people who have a good impression of you and your abilities. For better jobs boards, look at: Stack Overflow Careers http://careers.stackoverflow.com/Jobs?searchTerm=&searchType=Any&location=boston&range=20 http://careers.stackoverflow.com/Jobs?searchTerm=&search... HN Who's Hiring threads. Eg http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1659409 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1659409 Also, check local user groups for whatever languages/technologies you're interested in.

KevinMS 16y ago
I'm talking about sites like craigslist and jobs.perl.com, and I'm aware recruiters put in all kinds of filters like a CS degree but I'm mindfull of that and I notice that the same problem exists without recruiters involved. Stackoverflow careers? Seriously? "34 jobs found near boston". How many candidates are looking at these listings? Thousands?
cletus 16y ago
While you can get a job (and a good job at that) without a CS degree it is my opinion that you are putting yourself at a significant disadvantage by not having one. One aspect is the theoretical foundation. You can of course get this by just reading yourself and a transcript doesn't actually prove you know anything but without a CS foundation, the onus is now on you know to prove somehow you're simply a "monkey see, monkey do" cut-and-paste coder. The other important part is practical. Companies get a lot of CVs. For programming jobs, the most common filter is "has a degree". If you have one, you go in one pile, if you don't, you go in the other (which is often filed in the big circular filing cabinet). What's more, hiring managers may have their hands tied on this one: it could be HR policy or the hiring manager may not even see your CV because HR has already filtered it out (this happens a lot). After I started working I went back and studied part time to get a degree. I'm glad I did, even if it's major use is to have one less barrier to being hired.
estel 16y ago
Whilst the average quality on those boards is clearly much higher, the number of jobs being posted is about two orders of magnitude lower than mainstream jobsites; and until they gain more traction, they'll never be the first place I check for any vacancies.

by SandB0x 16y ago

KevinMS 16y ago

I'm talking about sites like craigslist and jobs.perl.com, and I'm aware recruiters put in all kinds of filters like a CS degree but I'm mindfull of that and I notice that the same problem exists without recruiters involved. Stackoverflow careers? Seriously? "34 jobs found near boston". How many candidates are looking at these listings? Thousands?

cletus 16y ago

While you can get a job (and a good job at that) without a CS degree it is my opinion that you are putting yourself at a significant disadvantage by not having one. One aspect is the theoretical foundation. You can of course get this by just reading yourself and a transcript doesn't actually prove you know anything but without a CS foundation, the onus is now on you know to prove somehow you're simply a "monkey see, monkey do" cut-and-paste coder. The other important part is practical. Companies get a lot of CVs. For programming jobs, the most common filter is "has a degree". If you have one, you go in one pile, if you don't, you go in the other (which is often filed in the big circular filing cabinet). What's more, hiring managers may have their hands tied on this one: it could be HR policy or the hiring manager may not even see your CV because HR has already filtered it out (this happens a lot). After I started working I went back and studied part time to get a degree. I'm glad I did, even if it's major use is to have one less barrier to being hired.

estel 16y ago

Whilst the average quality on those boards is clearly much higher, the number of jobs being posted is about two orders of magnitude lower than mainstream jobsites; and until they gain more traction, they'll never be the first place I check for any vacancies.