

Ask HN: Will working on open source projects get me hired? - pfb28

I'm a mathematics undergrad who will be graduating in December. I have no job/internship experience and a mediocre GPA. It took a lot of neglect for me to get into this position, but there's nothing I can do about the past at this point.<p>I am interested in finding a job that involves coding, but right now I lack any experience other than a couple semesters of programming classes. However, I'm very enthusiastic about learning and I think there are enough resources to teach myself.<p>I am seriously considering dedicating a year to independently learning programming languages and working on personal/open source projects. I have enough money to live for several years actually, but I don't anticipate taking that long.<p>This seems like a better idea than dedicating all my time applying for scarcely available jobs that I'm not really qualified for due to lack of experience. I know people who have done that for a full year and had nothing to show at the end of it.<p>An alternative would be applying for graduate school in computer science. My 3.2 GPA and lack of undergraduate research would probably disqualify me from any good graduate schools. It would take me 3 years to get a master's due to prerequisite classes I would have to take first. Honestly, I think I could learn more practical knowledge on my own in less time and for less money.<p>Does my plan sound reasonable? Do you have any suggestions on what I should work on? If I start a blog/github account and post tons of code, will an employer care that I had a gap year after graduation? I keep hearing programming jobs are in high demand, and anyone who can FizzBuzz can get a job. If that was the case, I should be able to get a job immediately, but I doubt I will be able to get anywhere with my blank resume. However, with a year's worth of projects and code available for employers to look at, I hope I will be able to get somewhere.
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patio11
Dirty secret: getting hired requires a skillset entirely orthogonal to
programming. You can get hired as an engineer with a 3.2 and no experience -
that isn't too different from probably half of HN at their first job.
(Absolutely nobody cares what mine was, but if I ever remember my university
password to check with the registrar, I think it will be somewhere in that
neighborhood.)

Throwing code onto Github is not time-efficient for self promotion. Meeting
people with authority to hire programmers and convincing them to hire you is.
Experience is NOT A PREREQ even when they say it is. Shouted for emphasis.
Experience is a convenient filter applied to winnow the stack of resumes that
they receive from bozos. If the COO recommends hiring you, you don't need to
be filtered. You may not be even asked for a resume.

You're not in an industry that cares about gap years.

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blacksmythe
A CS graduate with a GPA in the low 3's is quite employable. The math field is
full of seniors graduating with GPAs in the low 3's that can't find jobs. Lots
of them have done a little programming, so it is hard to stand out. There is
an excellent chance you will be sending out resumes for a year without a job
offer, looking less employable all the time.

If you can get into a CS Masters program (doesn't have to be a top school),
you would be much more employable after a year of CS classes than you are now,
even if you are far from getting a degree.

Alternately, can you delay graduation a year? Is it feasible to spend another
undergraduate year minoring in CS?

