

Ask HN: Programming Advice. - jkaykin

I am a 19 year old student and all the jobs I have held at startups have been BD&#x2F;Marketing&#x2F;Sales. I have always been interested in programming and have taught myself HTML&#x2F;CSS and the barebones of Javascript. In the recent months, I have also started to pick up Ruby on Rails and although building small apps is fun, I really want to work on interesting problems.<p>I feel like being able to work with existing code with a team of people will allow me to learn the most. I really want to solve interesting problems with Javascript and Ruby on Rails. So what should I do?
======
dolphenstein
Working with existing code doesn't necessarily help you much in the learning
process. Just have a read of thedailywtf.com. Those stories are more common
than you'd think. Just keep working on little apps you find interesting and
put them out there! Eventually you'll have a portfolio to show prospective
employers. There's plenty of sample code out there for "proper" way of doing
things. Search through github for real examples.

~~~
jkaykin
Thank you!

------
CyberFonic
I think you are in a very fortunate position. You should be able to get into a
startup doing "interesting problems" on the strength of your
BD/Marketing/Sales experience. Then work take on programming tasks with the
dev group. In a smallish startup, being versatile, i.e. doing BD one day,
cutting code the next should be prized.

