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"There are lots of jobs oriented around achieving specific goals with throwaway code that you might be happier in than being a slave to the CI server, and they

"There are lots of jobs oriented around achieving specific goals with throwaway code that you might be happier in than being a slave to the CI server, and they aren't less valuable." Hi, would you mind elaborating on this? I am a self-taught coder since this year with exactly one webapp project to show. I'm in no position to say for sure, but I think I would enjoy writing throwaway code more than highly technical code. That is, getting stuff done is more satisfying to me than the nitty gritty details. If left on my own I'd probably develop into a coder with a portfolio much like the OP. I think we're more interested in what we could do with code, than the technicals of it. So I'm wondering what kinds of jobs out there for people like me, or am I looking at building small but profitable projects to make a living. Thanks. Edit: If it matters I have an engineering background (MSEE) and can understand some of what's going on under the hood. If I had to pass a CS exam I would just cram like for any other test. But, I found I'm more motivated by the business end.

pfisch 14y ago
It is worth your while to learn OOP if you haven't and at least some of the technical stuff. I am a lot like you, engineering background as well. However, if you try to just freestyle even a medium sized project without any knowledge it will become unmanageable in only a few months. Most things you can just learn to do by doing plus some google, but there are better ways to do a lot of these things and you should at least try and do something like program chess in C++/C#/java/obj-c with OOP and inheritance. It will significantly speed up your ability to do subsequent projects and increase the scope of projects that you are capable of doing.
- nicholas73 14y ago
  Thanks for the advice and I agree with the chess idea. I'm familiar with OOP but my usage of it is very loose. Especially since my webapp is mostly, "if this happens, do this." The only objects I really created were to store into the database. I have learned Java at university 10 years ago (Python and Javascript self taught), so OOP was what I learned from the start.
jdminhbg 14y ago
Unfortunately I don't think I'm familiar enough to recommend a particular path, but I know that I run into lots of people at programming meetups and elsewhere who write code in their day job but it's not the finished product they're delivering. For example, working for an environmental sciences consulting company where the finished product is a report on arsenic levels in water, you might write a Python script to collate data for presentation, or a quick one-off web service for people to submit data to. In these cases, I think you'd need to develop some domain knowledge first, but with an engineering background, you should have access to a fair spectrum of possibilities.
ProblemFactory 14y ago
As some other commenters have mentioned, and I've experienced myself - there are a lot of "small but profitable projects" in the internet marketing and advertising space. The best approach might be to join or partner with an online marketing agency. They often have customers who want more than a simple web page, for example a Facebook game to go together with an advertising campaign. That said, most software engineers in the world do not work for big-team, Computer-Science-heavy software companies. They work everywhere building internal software to support the business in various other fields. However, finding or selling to these companies might be more difficult as an individual freelancer, as they might not even realise that their work could be optimised with software.

pfisch 14y ago

It is worth your while to learn OOP if you haven't and at least some of the technical stuff. I am a lot like you, engineering background as well. However, if you try to just freestyle even a medium sized project without any knowledge it will become unmanageable in only a few months. Most things you can just learn to do by doing plus some google, but there are better ways to do a lot of these things and you should at least try and do something like program chess in C++/C#/java/obj-c with OOP and inheritance. It will significantly speed up your ability to do subsequent projects and increase the scope of projects that you are capable of doing.

nicholas73 14y ago
Thanks for the advice and I agree with the chess idea. I'm familiar with OOP but my usage of it is very loose. Especially since my webapp is mostly, "if this happens, do this." The only objects I really created were to store into the database. I have learned Java at university 10 years ago (Python and Javascript self taught), so OOP was what I learned from the start.

jdminhbg 14y ago

Unfortunately I don't think I'm familiar enough to recommend a particular path, but I know that I run into lots of people at programming meetups and elsewhere who write code in their day job but it's not the finished product they're delivering. For example, working for an environmental sciences consulting company where the finished product is a report on arsenic levels in water, you might write a Python script to collate data for presentation, or a quick one-off web service for people to submit data to. In these cases, I think you'd need to develop some domain knowledge first, but with an engineering background, you should have access to a fair spectrum of possibilities.

ProblemFactory 14y ago

As some other commenters have mentioned, and I've experienced myself - there are a lot of "small but profitable projects" in the internet marketing and advertising space. The best approach might be to join or partner with an online marketing agency. They often have customers who want more than a simple web page, for example a Facebook game to go together with an advertising campaign. That said, most software engineers in the world do not work for big-team, Computer-Science-heavy software companies. They work everywhere building internal software to support the business in various other fields. However, finding or selling to these companies might be more difficult as an individual freelancer, as they might not even realise that their work could be optimised with software.