Ask HN: 2010 CS graduate here, where are the jobs?

us · on March 13, 2011

1. There isn't a shortage of companies including startups looking for programming talent. They are everywhere.

2. Just because the above fact is true does not mean they will hire just anyone, degree or not. Having a CS degree is great, but that doesn't make you or anyone else a great programmer. People have graduated from CS with a high GPA no less and still can't program worth squat.

3. Not talking about large companies, startups in particular, look for more than just raw programming skills. They look for culture fit, are you a passionate hacker, fast learner with great potential for more than just writing code, etc... At the end of the day, there are TOO MANY FACTORS to consider beyond just the simple fact that you have a CS degree to determine whether or not you fit the position in which these companies are hiring for.

My best advice here is find out what you may not be seeing and keep trying. You will eventually find that programming position but you first must understand what it is you may not be seeing that's preventing you from landing that job.

Where are you located and what type of position you are looking for?

dluchi · on March 13, 2011

There are a lot of different things to touch on here, too many to adequately be digested in this thread, but I will try to get you going in the right direction.

I found myself in a similar situation about 6 months ago. I graduated from the University of Michigan three years ago with a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan and a 3.5 gpa. After college I got an amazing job opportunity in a rotation program at Intel, the mecca for aspiring computer architects and I had the world at my finger tips.

Fast forward two years: the rotation program had come to an end and I had come to the conclusion that working on hardware wasn't what I thought it was and what I really wanted to do is software. I was working in a post silicon validation group writing C++ on a tool used for Random Instruction Testing, but I felt like I wasn't growing. No one that I worked with was a good coder and I felt like I was getting worse and not better.

On the recommendation from a few friends I read The Passionate Programmer (http://www.amazon.com/Passionate-Programmer-Remarkable-Devel...) and it changed a lot of how I thought about my career. I highly recommend it.

I started thinking a lot about what I really wanted to do, what kind of place I wanted to work and what kinds of skills were in demand at those places. I spent every spare minute that I could for several months learning Ruby, Rails and everything I could about web development. I've been going to Meetups, meeting other developers, and making as many connections as I can. I am happy to report that I just quit my job last week and am starting at a startup working on Ruby and Rails full time in a couple weeks.

Find interesting new technologies that you are excited about and start building something outside of work. Look at the job postings for places that you want to work and work towards building those skillsets. Keep at and don't get discouraged. Find other like minded people to work with.

Keep a positive attitude and good things will happen.