Two years ago, I completed a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. 
Then followed a long and arduous job hunt, where I tried --
unsuccessfully -- to get an entry-level job as a programmer.  After a
year or so of this, I decided to go back to school and am currently
working on my Master's degree.

Grad school has been great, but it has recently occurred to me that
unless I take some initiative, I'll be in the same situation -- that
of being unable to find the job I want -- when I graduate in a year or
so.

Any computer professionals reading this know how irrelevant a college
degree is to a programming career.  I wish I had known this when I was
an undergraduate!  Unfortunately, I was a bit lazy and figured I would
just learn "on the job."

I'm much more motivated now.  My aim is to learn as much as I can
while I'm in school, so that I'll have a better chance of attaining my
goal -- becoming a UNIX programmer -- when I graduate.

My question is, what specific steps can I take to attain my goal?  I
assume the answer to this involves a combination of book-learnin' and
practical programming experience; and while I have gotten some advice
on the former (although more book recommendations would be very
welcome!!), I have no idea how to achieve the latter.  Exercises that
you find in books are usually trivial and don't offer the learning
opportunity that struggling for hours with technical problems does.

I've thought about joining an open-source project, but my skills are
probably too rudimentary for that.  My current plan is to flesh out my
knowledge of UNIX fundamentals, then proceed to shell scripting, and
finally learn more about UNIX programming.  Then maybe I'll know
enough to do open-source.

I've also looked into getting a summer internship, and have sent out
my resume to 30 or so companies.  I'm not betting on getting one,
though.

I have about the skillset you'd expect from a college graduate (C/C++,
Java, OOP, SQL, etc. -- all at a basic to intermediate level).  Any
ideas, book recommendations, similar experiences, etc. would be
greatly appreciated!!

---

Request for Question Clarification by mathtalk-ga on 15 Jan 2003 11:16 PST

Hi, domitian:

Let me ask some of the questions I like to use in programmer
interviews:

1. What kind of personal computer(s) do you have?  If more than one,
have you set up a network between them?

2. What was a recent challenging program you wrote?  Describe the part
that was most challenging or most interesting about it.

The economic downturn has made it a good time for many to go back to
school and get additional training.  When the economy begins to
recover, I hope your investment will pay off for you.

regards, mathtalk-ga

Hello,
Here is an answer from my personal experience, I graduated 3 years ago
(at the
height of the bubble) and was able to get a job without any hassle.
But I do not attribute my success strictly to the bubble economy. I
did many things to ensure that I had a job when I graduated.

You have already mentioned many things that you should do to make
yourself
employable. The first thing you should do is get an internship or a
co-op with a company. Your school probably has a co-op office where
they will help you find a job, by advising you on your resume, and
giving you information about
companies that they have a relationship with. So if you feel that you
many not
get an internship on your own, you should certainly check out the
co-op office.

Another thing I did which really helped me get a grasp of C++ was
tutor, most
universities have a student tutoring program. At my school if a
student achieved a high grade in a class then they could go down to
the tutoring office and sign up to tutor other students for that
class. When I did it I got paid $10/hour to goto a room on campus one
night a week and answer questions about programming assignments they
were working on. I tutored freshman intro C++ class one semester and
then the next semester I tutored a the next level C++ class. During
this time I learned alot about more advanced topics in C++, I found
that I studied C++ more as a tutor than as a student. Things that I
was just familiar with previously, became common knowledge during this
year of tutoring. It is also a great resume builder, because if an
employer sees that you actually tutored others in an advanced C++
class they will think "hmmm I can hire this entry level guy, and I
won't even have to teach him what polymorphism is!" To find out more
about this just search your university web site for "tutor" or
"tutoring program" or something like that.

You also mentioned joining an open source project but said "my skills
are
probably too rudimentary for that". That is total non-sense! ANYONE
can write
open-source software. You don't have to be RMS to do open source, you
can start
your own project. Its simple, all you need is a computer a compiler,
and
preferably a high speed Internet connection... and you are off!
Starting your own open source project is easy, and it allows you to do
whatever you want!
So what I would advise is the following: Get a domain name, doesn't
have to be
a .com, just find a cheap one (lots of good cheap ones are available
in the .info domain), then find somewhere to host your web site. For
something like this you shouldn't have to spend more than $100,
probably closer to $70 for both the domain name and the hosting. Once
you have the web site up use it as a portal for your open source
project (and make it look kinda nice, get advice from your peers on
the look and feel of your web site, it doesn't have to be too complex,
just don't do all of the cheesy stuff commonly associated with
personal web-pages (i.e. don't make the background an image of your
favorite girl from baywatch).

Then start writing programs. They don't have to be mammoth programs,
they can be anything. But make them interesting to you and make them
programs that you can learn from, for example if you are interested in
graphics, then start with
simple OpenGL programs, and learn all about programming with OpenGL.
If you are
interested in GUI stuff, then get kdevelop and start figuring out how
to use it
to write nice GUIs, if you want to be a script kiddie, then start
hacking away in perl, or bash. :) Whatever you do make sure that it is
A) interesting and B) a learning experience. Put them all up on your
web site, and add the URL of the
web site to your resume (call it your "Online Open Source Portfolio"
or
something cheesy/catchy like that). This will demonstrate that you
know your way around computers on many different levels, and will put
you ahead of other
candidates who do not have such a web site. 

Note:
This online portfolio idea worked very well for me when the bubble
burst and I
was laid off, I was out of work for about 6 weeks this spring. I went
on one
interview, and I got the job. Many other people were interviewed, but
I was the
only one with an online portfolio, and everyone who interviewed me
said it was
"really cool" or a "great idea". I feel like it really put me ahead of
the pack. So I strongly advise it no matter what you do!

Hope this helps, if you have any questions, or need anything else,
feel free
to ask.
Thanks
--jld

Some good ideas, but didn't really address any UNIX specifics