What was your first programming job like?

Question

When you landed your first job programming:

1) Which language was it in? How well did you know that language? Did you know it well enough to write a book on it, or did you barely know how to do "hello world"? I imagine most people graduate from a CS program knowing one language pretty well, and a few other languages just kind of well. Is this correct? Was your first job using the language you knew best?

2) What was your general level of understanding in relation to the kind of programming that job required? For instance if the job was working with GIS systems, how well did you know GIS stuff? Were you an expert, or did you not know diddly squat? If you hardly knew anything, did the company train you? Or did they expect you to know pretty much everything already when you joined?

3) where were you located, and where was this first job of yours located? Did you, lets say, go to college in Colorado, live in Colorado at the time, but get your first job in Florida? If you did get your first entry level job in a way that required airline travel for the interview, did that company pay for your travel? What was it about you that made them select you and not some other entry-level applicant that was local?

Answer 1

I just got my first job programming about 3 months ago, so this'll be fresh, heh!

1) We have an online product that is a Java servlet using Spring, running under Tomcat. It also uses Velocity templating to present information through the browser. Other than that, the installer is in shell script and Perl, and there are shell scripts for other purposes. My college worked with Java a lot, but this is far and above what I worked with. I had a little bit of Perl and shell scripting, but this job has increased my ability in both.

2) I just graduated from college a few months before they hired me, so I'm sure they didn't expect me to know everything. I've been gradually working into the position, I still am. They seem happy with my progress, though.

3) I went to college in Radford, VA, and found a job in Blacksburg, VA. I had lived in Blacksburg for almost my whole life before going to Radford for school. In fact, when I interviewed with the company, I was living in Blacksburg again. So no, I didn't need any fancy travel, heh.

Answer 2

I had just gotten out of the US Air Force, as an aircraft technician, and went back to school. I had been learning C on my Amiga, so the week before classes started I applied for a job as a computer programmer. The interview was short, I had to describe how to search a binary tree, and I got the job. It was in C/C++, then I learned to program in Postscript, as well as learning to do X11 programming, before I started on Java.

So I didn't have to travel, and I spent the next 12 years at USF, until I became the senior architect for the academic side of the university.

Answer 3

1) PHP/Javascript/Html - my background was in c/c++ and I didn't know php at all really

2) Was working on CRM/Business process software (web based) and only knew the basics, was working with a business analyst so I didn't need a high level of knowledge already.

3) Brisbane Australia - was doing a completely different type of job and got referred to the programming job by a friend who had been asked if he knew any programmers

Answer 4

1) C++ in Visual Studio 6.0. I knew a little of C++ from my Operating Systems course using the NACHOS micro C++ stuff. I could do a little more than "Hello World" but didn't know MFC or other funky stuff used for ISAPI extensions or even what IIS was or NT Server really. Then there was the propietary markup language used for coding web pages on the site. I graduated knewing a few languages well, but I wouldn't think most of them are actually used in the real world, e.g. Modula-3 or Pascal on a Mac. Heck no was C++ my best language, that would be Watcom BASIC that I had in high school for a few years.

2) I got trial by fire in the job though I did survive for a few years and went through a few generations of technologies as there was classic ASP then ASP.Net 1.0 then ASP.Net 1.1 that I had all from within the same company. I didn't know much web stuff beyond the basic HTML of a web page. I didn't know CGI or even ISAPI when I was hired, which was in December 1997 for when I accepted the job. I got trained by adding to the system that the server guy, who was the CTO of the company, had written which included lots of macros for adding things.

3) I was in Chatham, Ontario looking for work and got a job in Seattle, Washington. The interview took place at the CEO's parents' home on December 23, 1997. I was the only applicant from Chatham, as the other 2 applicants were from somewhere else.

Answer 5

My first programming job was over 25 years ago.

I started working as a staff programmer, in C-MU's Graduate Computer Science Department, over the summer before I started as a C-MU Freshman. I got the job 'cause I was smart, I knew a little bit about UNIX, and I was attending C-MU that fall.

I was programming in C, csh, and sh. I got to fix bugs and implement minor enhancements in various 4.1BSD utilities like dump and restore, tar, and even csh.

I also documented lots of "Goslings Emacs" and did some minor stuff with e-lisp, but that all stopped when Jim privatized the whole thing and sold it to Unipress.

Did I know what I was doing? Hell no... but I sure thought I did at the time!

Answer 6

I was still in school (though my second comp related program - so it was still 6 years after starting) and I got hired to do a contract position creating Inventory Management Software in C#1.1/SQL Server.

I knew C# 1.1 quite well, probably well enough to write a book, my sql was pretty good as well. I lacked experience of how to develop software though (as opposed to write code) - still do.

I didn't totally understand the business the company was in, but I asked enough questions that I fully understood it by the time the software was starting to be written. It changed often as well, as the client often changed their mind about things (and I didn't know better to get a signed requirements doc from the get-go).

The site was a couple hours drive from where I lived, and I'd go there about once a week or so.

Eventually, the client kept on adding features that were beyond the scope of the project, and I had to insist that nothing more could be added to it. They weren't happy about it, but I had delivered what they had initially wanted.

Answer 7

1) Which language was it in? How well did you know that language? Did you know it well enough to write a book on it, or did you barely know how to do "hello world"? I imagine most people graduate from a CS program knowing one language pretty well, and a few other languages just kind of well. Is this correct? Was your first job using the language you knew best?

I got my first programming job a few years ago at the at 19 using VB.NET C#, and I knew it well enough. At the time, I didn't have a good handle on design patterns, functional programming, threading, etc, but I knew enough not to write utter garbage.

As a hobbyist, I had experience with classic ASP, PHP, ASP.NET, C#, many flavors of VB, Perl, Python, and C++. I was not an expert in all of these languages, but had the minimum amount of hands on experience with them that I felt obliged to include them in my resume and hope my employer never needed me to write in these languages. Interestingly, I had quite a bit of OCaml experience because I never really dated or had a life because I was fascinated with functional programming.

At the time, I didn't have a degree -- in fact, I didn't have a degree when I got my second programming job either. I got my 4-year degree a few months ago, not because I needed, but because I hoped it would make me more marketable.

I chose a C# job because, at the time, I knew the language best. To get the first programming job, its important just to get your foot in the door, so choosing a popular language like C#/VB.NET, Java, PHP, or C++ are good choices. Demand for Ruby and Python seems to be slightly lower (at least here in the Midwest), whereas demand for entry-level Lisp or Erlang hackers is practically non-existent.

2) What was your general level of understanding in relation to the kind of programming that job required? For instance if the job was working with GIS systems, how well did you know GIS stuff? Were you an expert, or did you not know diddly squat? If you hardly knew anything, did the company train you? Or did they expect you to know pretty much everything already when you joined?

My first job was writing bank software, a domain which I knew absolutely nothing about. I think you'll find this is usually the case: as a developer, you job is to implement algorithms, handle database design, etc. Domain expertise is confined to business analysts and business users at your company.

3) where were you located, and where was this first job of yours located? Did you, lets say, go to college in Colorado, live in Colorado at the time, but get your first job in Florida? If you did get your first entry level job in a way that required airline travel for the interview, did that company pay for your travel? What was it about you that made them select you and not some other entry-level applicant that was local?

Went to school in Bellevue, NE (actually I took a lot of online classes), got first job in Lincoln, NE which is about an hour away. I still live in Bellevue, and presently work in Omaha, NE.

Although I like the suburban sprawl and being within a stones throw away from a cornfield no matter where I'm at, I choose to live and stay in Nebraska because we have a large IT community here. There's a low cost of living, so programmers are much less expensive; as a result, fortune 1000 and 500 companies like ConAgra, Google, TD America, Werner Trucking, Berkshire Hathaway have been setting up shop here. Lots of jobs are moving from the coasts to the Midwest, which probably explains why we haven't been hit especially hard by the economic downturn.

In general, if you're single and don't have a family, then travelling isn't a huge deal, but I recommend minimizing your travel by moving to a IT city. Omaha, Boulder, Des Moine, NYC, Seattle, Redmond, and San Franciscos are the big dogs, so much so that you could probably make a career in any of those cities without ever having to relocate.

Answer 8

My first real job can be described in one word (you'd better sit down for this):

FoxPro

I built travel booking sites in it for about 2 years when I finally got my boss to switch to .NET. It was connected to a desktop application used at the travel agency. That app was also built completely in FoxPro. When we moved to .NET and SQL Server for the web stuff my boss (the "inventor") built an export mechanism to get the data from the FoxPro db into SQL. The FoxPro db had no "real" referential integrity..... Nuff said...

Answer 9

I made a video of my first job... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqTaqVi9J8k

Answer 10

1) Standard C++ for cross-platform development. I was a beginner and I had a lot of things to learn!

2) My first job was in the animation industry. I work for a software editor and developped features for 2D animation maker applications. This was really interesting but I was a newbie in this domain! During 3 years I've learn a lot of things about animation, animation's technics, and so on. I had even my place in the commercial team on meeting where I was able to discuss with animators comming from big companies all around the world (like Disney, Dreamworks, etc...).

3)My first job was in France. In a little company with international customers.

Answer 11

1. I was primarily a Pascal programmer, which served me well in my summer internships. I probably could have written a book on it. My first project at my first job was also in Pascal, but I started learning C on-the-job immediately thereafter. Years later, I learned C++ on-the-job as well.

2. I was a noob in the field at my first job (and several times since in my career). Over my career, I've changed fields dramatically several times.

3. I was local to my first job. I have been flown out for job interviews several times, including just a couple years out of school. That was more of a boom time, though. I wouldn't expect a company to fly anyone out for an interview until they'd had a couple good phone conversations first.

Answer 12

1) Heh, actually the language(s) when I started were undetermined.

In 2001 I was brought in as a web designer for an IT consulting company. As my brother put it, they specialized in fixing broken Windows (bad pun) for other companies. But they were tinkering with the idea of starting a web development division. So when I started out I only had basic HTML & CSS skills and some basic graphic design ability. I had a decent amount of prior programming experience involving QBASIC, Turbo C++, and Visual C++, but I'd say my overall web development skills were at an embarrassing level.

As we ramped up for the first big project we brought in a consultant to help us out. He was a Linux guy. It was looking like we were going to start building this website with PHP and MySQL so I started learning those technologies to get ready. But then there was a butting of heads with management and they let him go.

We then hired another consultant who had ASP and Microsoft SQL experience. We all liked him so he became the lead developer. And since I was there as a full-time employee I was given the awesome opportunity to learn from him as we built the site. The tools of choice: ASP and SQL 2000. From then on I was a web developer.

2) The first project was to build a website that sold church music. I knew basically nothing about the subject. But I showed a willingness to learn and eventually became the lead programmer.

3) Luckily I didn't have to move. I was born & raised in the Dallas, TX area and at least at the time there were plenty of IT jobs to be found around here. I landed the job a week after graduating high school. They saw potential in me of course, but at just 18 years old they also knew that I'd work for cheap. In fact I started at $8/hr.

Answer 13

I'd taken a year off after two years of a three-year Maths degree, and interned for about 8 months at a telco equipment manufacturer (during which I still didn't do any programming): who then told me to go and finish my degree and then come back to them, which I did.

When they hired me I had never done much programming at all: the most was a Monte Carlo simulation in Pascal, maybe a 100 or 200 lines of code (during my internship). I never went near a computer at university.

In my first year of working for them after graduating, my training+job was to fix bugs. They used a proprietary language, similar to C or Pascal. They let me read the source code, gave me access to the compiler, and gave me some bug reports.

There was a QA person who would test my fixes when I submitted them. He set up the test equipment, and created the automated test cases for scenarios I'd fixed (tests were automated by connecting a programmable protocol generator, which he programmed, to the system under test).

When I started, someone gave me a lecture on the system architecture; and there were reference manuals for the functional specification (e.g. for the network protocols, whose implementations I was debugging). The idea of packet switched data networks (which was their product, and the 'domain') wasn't new to me, because of my internship with them (during which my job had been to model the performance of their network, for example throughput and queueing delay). I had never seen a lot of source code before, but they let me read it and gave me time to figure it out. They were a pro organization, their software was good.

Oh, they sent me to one university course, part time, when I first started, during my first semester there: a "data structures" course, I think (I seem to remember some "linked lists").

The company was in my home town. I'd gone to university elsewhere.

Answer 14

1) It was a C++/Matlab gig for a scientific company. I knew C++ not very well at all but thought I was an expert while I could have written a book on Matlab having practically taught a few courses on it. How times have changed...

2) I knew enough to make the program work but not enough to make maintaining it easy. I think if I saw what I wrote back then now I'd cry myself to sleep. Then again, every time I look back at what I wrote more than a year ago I am thoroughly disgusted by my C++/Java code.

3) My home located within the same state as the job. I think my price point and education were the appealing things about me. Everyone hired were fresh out of school and thankful for a job. I think our superiors were less thankful for our inexperience.

Answer 15

1) C++ with Qt and GCC on Windows. Since I've got a few years of hobby-style experience in C++ plus some time in programming contests, I've had little trouble with it. Qt wasn't a hard nut either, it's an awesome GUI library / framework.

2) I'm still undergraduate and got to work on a project in my university to build a monitoring system for some network devices. TCP/IP, XML, JSON, nothing serious from a technological point of view. The problem was that I was working in Electronic Engineering department where people had little knowledge about more advanced programming concepts. Furthermore my "programmer team" consisted of two more first-year students with minimal programming experience, so it was a tough start.

3) I've got the job at my university where I'm an undergraduate applied mathematics student. My whole team was recruited in two days with little screening.

Answer 16

I was a Jr. Programmer at a software company in the same town that I went to college. It was a great first job because I was on a team of developers more experienced than I was, we had clearly defined process and documentation, and it taught me a lot about being a professional programmer and not just writing code.

I left for unrelated reasons and will apply there again if I move back to the area.

Answer 17

1) C++(MSVC)/Matlab - Calling matlab engine to perform array processing and 3d-spline interpolation. Opengl visualization and an MFC Gui was part of it all. I was doing my internship and had decent knowledge of C++ and Matlab but none about the integration. A few papers were published on the application built on this.

2) The domain was orthodontics - I had done 1 year of Medicine before moving to Engineering so it was not that difficult to understand buccals and occlusals.

3) The job was countries away - in Singapore and I live in Australia. It was more alive and cheaper than back home, so I enjoyed every bit of it.

Answer 18

20 years ago I was a programmer in a department in Bell Communications Research that was trying to make one of the first desktop-computer-controlled voicemail/telephone switching system. They had a back end written on servers that spoke a messaging protocol. I wrote a UI proof of concept of the front end on a Lisa to be run on a Macintosh (128K). I used C which I knew well enough at that point and the Macintosh which I knew not at all, and at that point most Macintosh programmers were using Pascal and all the documentation was Pascal-centric.

My end product was a demo they used for several years after and a book on how to write to the Pascal API in C.

I went to school in Ohio. The job was in New Jersey where I grew up.

Answer 19

I was programming in Visual FoxPro for one of the largest companies in sport wear and appear in México, I was in the school at the same time, but was great because my boss was a woman and teach me a lot about business relationships.

I was in the different cities, I live in the same town that I work, but I study in a different location.