

I'm Not Employable, But That's OK - brewerhimself
http://brewerhimself.posterous.com/im-not-employable-but-thats-ok

======
eaurouge
_When I program, I’m playing chess with the computer. The board is wide open
and there are tons of moves to make, but which move is the right one? Typing
commands into my terminal to compile and run my latest masterpiece is just
another turn. A runtime error means I’ve lost a pawn. A cryptic, nonsense
compiler error? The computer just took my Queen._

Wrong analogy, I think. I would say when you program, you're expressing, or
describing, an idea/design/thought to a computer. The computer is your ally
and 99.999% of the time it does exactly what you tell it. I think, on some
philosophical level, that this matters. The computer isn't out to get you,
steal your pawns or whatever. It's sole purpose is to bring your ideas,
however flawed they may be, to life. And yours is to harness that power and
learn to express your thoughts as effectively as you can.

~~~
brewerhimself
I understand what you're saying, and I agree that a computer should be your
ally, but that isn't usually how it feels for me. For me it usually feels more
like the computer is trying to do everything it can to best me, which I can't
allow to happen. Perhaps that speaks to my (in)abilities as a developer. :)

~~~
dimva
If you stop thinking about programming as a competition and instead
internalize your perception of it as a collaboration, your abilities will
improve.

~~~
brewerhimself
I'll work on this. :)

------
readme
I was in a slump. Then I worked on my own project and published it. Something
I'd never done before. Almost immediately after I was given a nice contract
paid in full up front for what amounted to not even that much work. Shortly
after I published something great on github and it got forked a ton of times.

Sometimes you need to take a break and worry about _your own_ projects. Those
are the ones you'll definitely have to show for yourself.

~~~
brewerhimself
Mind sharing what the project was? Just a general idea would be great if you
don't want to give out the product's name.

~~~
readme
It was a fairly simple Android app.

------
sanderjd
Good post, but I'll say this: You are _very_ employable and your concern about
lacking a Stanford or MIT degree is laughably misplaced. Don't fall into the
trap of thinking that silicon valley start-ups are the entirety of the
programming employment world, it is far from the truth.

------
shalmanese
With the state of the current job market, if you can code, you pretty much
need to be an ax murdering psychopath who has publicly bad mouthed previous
employers to be unemployable. And there are companies who will overlook the ax
murdering so long as you keep it off company time.

~~~
dasil003
> _...be an ax murdering psychopath who has publicly bad mouthed previous
> employers..._

And in that case you just found your own company and go straight for your
series A, the VCs'll eat that up.

------
cjy
"Each win reassures me that as long as I refuse to give up, I can never lose."

I can totally identify with this. Nothing is sweeter than the taste of victory
after slaving away on a problem for hours. In fact, minutes ago, I just had
one!

~~~
brewerhimself
I'm taking a break from my Clojure adventures for the night. I'll get some
sleep and hop back on for another win tomorrow. :P

------
toadi
I enjoy programming. I was a developer working several years for different
companies. I partnered in a software company where I was the technical guy.

I lost fun in programming and now I'm a freelance project manager. For
programming I didn't had a off switch. When there was a problem to solve I
solved it even if it was until 3 in the morning. When having a wife and kids
this is not what they expect from a husband or father. As a project manager as
soon as I'm home the switch is off.

Lessons learned is that what you do with passion can consume you. Which is not
for everyone.

~~~
brewerhimself
Staying up until 3 am working on something describes me perfectly. I can't
sleep until it's done or I just pass out.

------
sparknlaunch12
> I’ve been programming on and off -- mostly off -- since I was 12 years old
> and I continually find myself in situations where programming is just
> downright boring to me.

> I will continue to program but, from now on, it will be purely for fun.

No need to put pressure on yourself. The market is crying out for talented and
enthusiastic people. Don't know your job history but imagine if you're
willing, there is a job or project out there to keep you motivated.

~~~
brewerhimself
I worked with a computer science professor a swarm robotics project last
summer. Aside from that, I have no professional experience. I work in retail
sales. :)

------
Peteris
The good news is that indeed many companies nowadays would show interest based
solely on a GitHub project. But you do need the ability to finish things off.

The truth is that many of the bigger coms out there have multiple
requirements, and will care more about your degree, problem solving ability
and familiarity with formal computer science. Perhaps because they get so many
applicants, they need to rely on metrics at some stage to cut down the bulk.

Even so, these things are worth knowing anyways and, speaking from experience,
you can pick them up comfortably outside of a CS degree.

~~~
brewerhimself
I am planning on picking up a copy of The Algorithm Design Manual soon.
Unfortunately, my local library doesn't stock it so I'll have to fork over the
cash, but it's worth it.

~~~
Peteris
Haven't read that one myself, I learned mostly from Introduction to Algorithms
and online tutorials. I would suggest having a go at TopCoder problems. It's a
bit of a pain to set up, but once you have, there are practice rooms with
problems from past contests. Written up solutions are available too. It helps
you learn to design algorithms for unseen problems, which is ultimately what
we're after. There are a lot of essential small tricks and methods that these
problems contain and algorithm books don't get to cover at all.

Also, competing is a good idea. It helps you evaluate yourself and there's
more motivation to do well. Having a rating of 1500, say, would place you in a
good position to crack even the most competitive phone interviews.

I did TopCoder for a few years in high school, and now I can confidently and
quickly get most of the algorithmic questions that companies ask. It takes a
while to get there, but it's worth it.

~~~
brewerhimself
I will get CLRS eventually, but I think I want something a bit softer to get
started with. The Algorithm Design Manual has a lot of little anecdotes thrown
in that I think will be fun to read. :P

I've heard of TopCoder before, but I never bothered to give it much attention.
I'll give it a shot though! Cheers.

------
jay_kyburz
"So here we are. I’m sitting here, with a cigarette in hand (I said slowly),
pondering what makes me tick. It’s a weird feeling. You think you know
yourself, but the truth is that people lie about how they feel so often that
they end up lying to themselves without realizing it. And, maybe, that’s what
happened to me. Maybe I’ve been kidding myself all along"

You have been lying to yourself and you are living in denial. That cigarette
is killing you. Your health is _everything_, why put it at risk.

~~~
brewerhimself
I did mention in the article that I'm working on my health. I didn't put much
emphasis on it in the post, but, believe me, it is an important goal. I will
have better luck if I slowly ween myself off of the nicotine. Thanks for your
concern though. :)

------
davyjones
This is more or less where I was a couple of months back. I still am a lot
skeptical on my marketability as a programmer. But I am in a better mental
position than where I was only because I was able to launch something, albeit
small. I am happy and feel a bit more confident in my abilities and see myself
working on what I love.

~~~
brewerhimself
Feel free to give me a shout on Twitter at @BrewerHimself. I'd love to chat.

~~~
davyjones
Sorry, I don't have a twitter account. My only social online presence is at
github (<https://github.com/davyjones>). I just started following you there.
Cheers!

~~~
brewerhimself
Just started following you! Sorry, my internet connection dropped right after
you posted this. Actually .. I lost it when I tried to open your GitHub page.
H4x.

------
aaronbrethorst
You don't have to go to the Valley if you don't want to. I'm sure that, with a
little time spent building and shipping code representing what you're capable
of, you'd be perfectly able to find a job writing code in Jacksonville,
assuming you're interested in staying.

~~~
brewerhimself
Don't get me wrong, Jacksonville is a beautiful city, but I'm not interested
in what the software scene here has to offer. There seem to be a lot of
business/enterprise software companies and that's just not my jazz. Hashrocket
looks legit though.

------
netpenthe
you should have a plan B, no matter what.

~~~
brewerhimself
My current job is plan B. Like I said in the post, I'm not bad at what I do
and I enjoy it. I'm perfectly content where I am until something better comes
along.

