
Ask HN: How do you go from seasoned hobbyist to professinonal engineer ? - zabana
I&#x27;d like you to share your experiences with the community. If you went from being a passionate hobbyist to a professional software developer, how did you go about it ? Any tips, funny stories &#x2F; anectodes you&#x27;d like to share ? What would you have done differently looking back ? Cheers
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SonOfLilit
As a teenager, won 3rd place at a programming competition, after the prizes
ceremony went to the CEO of a sponsor company that gave a talk about "growing
the next generation of high tech workers" and told him "if you really want to
grow the next generation, don't donate laptops as prizes, give us summer
jobs". He replied "you're hired, get my secretary's phone number and give him
three names".

(Once you have job experience, you can get your next job easily)

Note: this was the second time I tried it. The year before I did the same with
the CEO of the Israeli branch of a sponsor who in the immortal words of
Douglas Crockford "I won't name to protect their identity, but I can give
their initials, I.B.M", and he also said "this sounds great, here's my
secretary's phone number" but then I got a call from a different secretary in
a different unit every few months where they tried to figure out what's this
weird thing that landed on their table and who they can forward it to in order
to get rid of it...

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dsfyu404ed
The most effective way is a piece of paper from some reputable organization
that says you've done something that makes you competent.

From a practical standpoint it's probably most effective. Whether it's an
ideal situation is a different discussion.

