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I'm going to give different advice. You should ideally try to get work at a software focussed SME, where you can learn from good developers, and slowly grow in

by shubb 13y ago

I'm going to give different advice. You should ideally try to get work at a software focussed SME, where you can learn from good developers, and slowly grow into larger and more difficult projects. There are lots of different small software companies serving different markets. HackerNews and SV seem to be full of consumer targeted ones, because of the potential for rapid growth. But a lot of SMEs do B2B or government work, and you may find that because they are less cool, it is easier to get them to take you on. They are also more likely more focused on making good software and actual money, than building perception of growth to get a good exit for the founders. At least round where I live, you can find these small companies in office parks and industrial estates. Find one that is doing something you think is cool, and vagually chimes with your portfolio. Then write them, and ask if you can do some kind of a placement with them. Try to talk to the engineering management, as HR just get in the way. Once you are there, and get on with the people, it should be pretty easy to get a junior role out of them at the end. If you are up front that you want this at the start, a lot of them will treat you more seriusly. Think about what you can offer them - they will have projects, ranging from adding unit tests to writing a better time sheet system, that they would do if they only had time / free resources. Get them to talk about those things, and then sell them that you want to give it a go. Other commenters - do you have any suggestions for a better way to make the initial contact?

gotrecruit 13y ago
to be honest, i actually did think about what you said (before you said it) - i wanted to apply for internships or even full-time jobs at the local office in my country for LinkedIn, and offer to work for them for free in exchange for being able to shadow an experienced developer and learn from him/her. however, i can't imagine being able to offer them anything in return to the point where they would agree to such an offer. all my friends tell me i should be paid for learning, so apply for jobs and learn on the job but again, i don't know how i can market myself to the employer where he/she feels like it's a win-win rather than simply them investing resources into training me and then me leaving after i learn them. but i will go ahead and contact some of these companies' engineering departments, i think it might be a good idea. do you have any suggestion as to how i should approach them?
- shubb 13y ago
  You mention linkedin. The reason I said SMEs is that things at a small company are less process driven. If you want to intern at linkedin, then you probably have to apply to head office, and probably then intern at head office. But at a small company, if you convince the chief engineer you are in. I got my start at 14 knocking doors on a local industrial estate. I came across a little company developing java accelerator chips for mobile phones. Later they got bought by arm, and that technology became jazelle, which I guess opened the way for running Android on a little mobile proccessor, but when I was there it was 10 guys in a lab. The CEO liked my enthusiasm, but I was pretty useless. On my first day, I tripped the power for the building, and on my second I injured myself soldering, and came in crying while they were negotiating with Samsung in the next room. Still got the scars. I hope at least they found me amusing. The best way to get in somewhere small as an intern would be through your personal network. Knocking doors is acceptable for children, but I think it would come across as for an adult. If someone you vaguely know asks their boss if you can come intern, they will probably say yes. I'm assuming, from the rest of this thread, that where you are at is you are in your late teens, and thinking of going to college in 6 months or a year. Being so young is actually a big advantage. People generally want to help young people. They have an expectation that you won't have much experience, but they will want you to succeed because they would have liked someone to help them when they were young. If you don't have many software engineers in your network, go to local events, talk to people, and be up front about what you are looking for. If they can't help you, they will direct you to people that can. Oh, and keep in mind that while at the moment web/apps are the big thing, software and engineering are bigger than that. It might be that in a decade, the big thing will be applying AI to data to help people make decisions. Or you might want to get into computational biology for drug development. Going to school is pretty important for that stuff.

by shubb 13y ago

gotrecruit 13y ago

to be honest, i actually did think about what you said (before you said it) - i wanted to apply for internships or even full-time jobs at the local office in my country for LinkedIn, and offer to work for them for free in exchange for being able to shadow an experienced developer and learn from him/her. however, i can't imagine being able to offer them anything in return to the point where they would agree to such an offer. all my friends tell me i should be paid for learning, so apply for jobs and learn on the job but again, i don't know how i can market myself to the employer where he/she feels like it's a win-win rather than simply them investing resources into training me and then me leaving after i learn them. but i will go ahead and contact some of these companies' engineering departments, i think it might be a good idea. do you have any suggestion as to how i should approach them?

shubb 13y ago
You mention linkedin. The reason I said SMEs is that things at a small company are less process driven. If you want to intern at linkedin, then you probably have to apply to head office, and probably then intern at head office. But at a small company, if you convince the chief engineer you are in. I got my start at 14 knocking doors on a local industrial estate. I came across a little company developing java accelerator chips for mobile phones. Later they got bought by arm, and that technology became jazelle, which I guess opened the way for running Android on a little mobile proccessor, but when I was there it was 10 guys in a lab. The CEO liked my enthusiasm, but I was pretty useless. On my first day, I tripped the power for the building, and on my second I injured myself soldering, and came in crying while they were negotiating with Samsung in the next room. Still got the scars. I hope at least they found me amusing. The best way to get in somewhere small as an intern would be through your personal network. Knocking doors is acceptable for children, but I think it would come across as for an adult. If someone you vaguely know asks their boss if you can come intern, they will probably say yes. I'm assuming, from the rest of this thread, that where you are at is you are in your late teens, and thinking of going to college in 6 months or a year. Being so young is actually a big advantage. People generally want to help young people. They have an expectation that you won't have much experience, but they will want you to succeed because they would have liked someone to help them when they were young. If you don't have many software engineers in your network, go to local events, talk to people, and be up front about what you are looking for. If they can't help you, they will direct you to people that can. Oh, and keep in mind that while at the moment web/apps are the big thing, software and engineering are bigger than that. It might be that in a decade, the big thing will be applying AI to data to help people make decisions. Or you might want to get into computational biology for drug development. Going to school is pretty important for that stuff.