

Ask HN: What's the minimum software experience required for a real dev job?  - jjallen

I have a few friends that have been to web development school and now have a few months of programming under their belt.  I&#x27;m curious as to the minimum amount of time learning to program it would take to get hired at a software-focused company, whether it&#x27;s a credible startup or major tech company, and whether they went to a school or just learned on their own.&lt;p&gt;Measured in days, or perhaps hours if someone kept track or had a reliable way to estimate hours.&lt;p&gt;Something like: &quot;I know this guy who did a three month development program, spent three more months programming and then got hired by XX&quot;.
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HeyLaughingBoy
Depends on the job, depends on the business.

Here at a medical device manufacturer, a minimum 4-year degree in a technical
subject with enough experience to show you know what you're doing. Or a CS or
Engineering degree and no experience and having good software dev. skills
coming right out of school.

In theory if you don't have a degree but do have the experience we're looking
for, we might hire you, but I have yet to see a resume with no degree cross my
desk. Even for a phone screen.

If only I could get back all the time I've wasted interviewing people who
couldn't even write a for... loop properly I'd probably be adding years to my
life!

~~~
phantom_oracle
>"I have yet to see a resume with no degree cross my desk." >"If only I could
get back all the time I've wasted interviewing people who couldn't even write
a for... loop properly I'd probably be adding years to my life!"

Putting these 2 together tells me that your company is hiring CS or
Engineering grads who don't know the basic foundations of programming?

Something doesn't add up there.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
Close, but not quite.

We _interview_ people at all levels of experience, many of whom can't program
their way out of a paper bag. Happily, those generally don't actually get
hired.

~~~
phantom_oracle
Okay, I guess the word hiring wasn't a good fit there. However, aren't CS
grads supposed to know what a for loop is? That seems like first semester
CS100 to me.

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eddyparkinson
be able to write 1000 line of good quality code. have seen enough code to know
what good code looks like. able to learn how to use a new api without any
help.

although the best way is to get a friend with good coding skills to recommend
you.

