Moving from IT to programming/development?

Question

I graduated with a BS in CS around the time of the tech stock crash. Unable to find a programming job in the flooded market, I went into IT. Here it is, ten years later, and I am ready to take aggressive steps for getting into the career I want. Unlike other questions here, I have not had the option to program in a work situation. I don't have that to put on my resume.

I already have a degree in CS from a smaller college, so what do I do? Get another bachelors from a more prominent college? Pursue a masters? Just take some online/night classes? Just keep on chipping away at personal programming projects? Apply blindly to Jr developer positions and pray? If you were considering my application, what could I add to interest you?

Answer 1

This question may be of interest to you:

From admin to dev

Answer 2

Open source development on a relatively large project is probably your best bet. It shows whoever is hiring you that you can work within a team and that (to some extent) your code is solid because the rest of the team/community will review it. I'm a hobbyist who just moved into a full-time dev position from a non-tech field, and my open source work was a huge help.

Answer 3

The surest way to become a programmer is to program yourself out of your current job! In other words, look for ways to automate your daily tasks. There should be many opportunities to do this if you're already in IT. This not only shows your superiors you can program, but it also gives you time to become better (since you'll no longer be spending time doing those things manually).

Answer 4

As someone who could not afford to finish my CS degree, I highly recommend finding some free/open source software project that you might enjoy joining.

You have these benefits:

• XX number of people liked your code enough for it to become part of the project (indicating you play nicely with peer review)
• You work well with others
• You write code when you are home, relaxing

I've seen people who hold a masters or higher rejected in favor of someone who demonstrates a strong ability (and works well with others).

It can't hurt, it can help you brush up .. and you might just meet some people who can help get you in a job that you want.

What you need to do is fill an experience gap on your resume prior to someone hiring you. Launch some solo projects .. or (preferably) get involved with something established and larger.

Answer 5

This might not be a popular answer but how about going down the programming cert route? If you have a CS degree then you already have the chops, you just need to brush up your skils.

Taking some Java or .Net certs would get you up to date and would help get through the recruiter filter and into some programming job interviews.

I know some people look down on Certs but I think in this situation it would be appropriate

Answer 6

I mentioned this in another similar question - perhaps see if you can find a charity or non profit group for whom you can do some development work for free. This will allow you to get some real word production experience in a more open environment.

You could also look at developing some free or low priced iPhone or Andriod apps since they offer a fairly open structure for selling and distributing real word mobile apps.

If you actual programming skills are not up to speed you may also want to take some evening classes or similar focus training or development camps.

Answer 7

Read as many books as you can in the specific technology areas you want to work in. Create a "Books studied" section on your CV and list the books you've completed on there. It can't hurt, and shows you are self-motivated.

Answer 8

See my answer here.

Answer 9

Programming is experiential. Start programming, get the experience, find a mentor, go to monthly user groups and network. It's the only way you are going to get that first programming job.

Answer 10

Here is my first question: Do you want to stay within IT or go into a product development role that involves programming/development? This is an important question as it helps to frame which way are you going and thus which answers may be more relevant.

In either case, I don't think more education is likely to be a good answer here though I would check to see if that smaller college has some sort of career services or programs for alumni to apply for jobs where the employer seeks graduates from school X. Consider what you have in experience and how can this be pitched to companies looking to hire developers, e.g. could you handle configuring a firewall or setting up an Active Directory security policy. There are a few circles I would investigate as your next step or two:

1) User groups. Do these exist for the type of programming you want to learn? Some places may have .Net or Java groups that could be a resource both in terms of giving ideas on what to do to apply for positions, offering positions, and general networking to some extent. Also, there can be some for software development methodologies or IT workers that may be useful for networking in addition to learning about various tools out there.

2) Contracting firms. Robert Half comes to mind as a big one though there may be others in your area that specialize in the types of positions you want so consider applying to these with a cover letter explaining which role you want and why you think you could be a good fit for that kind of work. This may mean you meet a bunch of recruiters and have to track applications in a spreadsheet, but it is a way to get out there and see if there is anything useful.

3) Social Networking sites. LinkedIn is probably one of the biggest and sometimes there are recruiters you could run into here and find out about some jobs. This is also a good tool to use continually over time as you never know where your next job will come.

4) Job fairs. Do schools in your area have technical career or job fairs? Do organizations have these that may be of interest to you?Sometimes these can be good as even though you did graduate a few years back, there isn't any reason to think you couldn't apply for some of the same jobs and see what happens.

5) Job sites. Granted this may be a bit of a trial and error and likely not work, you could try putting your resume up on monster.com or Careerbuilder or other sites to see if you can get recruiters finding you. Government job sites are a bit better as I did get one of my jobs this way and it worked fine as long as I had my visa. I am a bit disillusioned by these sites in terms of finding something good as they are used by so many people that it isn't likely to get you into the situation where you are among the few applicants for a position rather than in the avalanche of resumes for a job.

Just my bits of cybersense on this that I have gone through a few times now...

Answer 11

I suggest considering a job at a really small company, or at least one with a very minimal IT budget. At many of these companies you have to wear a lot of hats and the network guy, programmer, janitor all tend to wind up being the same person. In such a position you can steer things as much as possible towards the dev side and as the company grows you can encourage them to replace the networking tasks with new hires leaving you to do primarily the type of work you enjoy. Another benefit is that this approach gives you some experience to put on your resume to bootstrap the new career direction. Experience tends to outweigh education pretty heavily in my experience for hiring managers in software development.