leaving college early, what now?

unwashed potato! · 20 May 2008 at 22:36

really lost with what I'm going to do with my life and need some help and advice. First want to say i only have myself to blame

to put it simple i have been doing a college course for 1 year, because of a lot of complications i am not doing as good as i should and now will not get what i wanted from the course so have decided it would be best to leave now and get a job rather then stay a year to get okish grades at a course that is already considered a bad course by university's. Trouble i have is that i really don't know where to turn to now. Ideally i would love to work in a company that at first would start low but allow me to really get into programming and show how good i can be and how committed i am with things i really love and enjoy doing. So where do i turn to with this? do i just look in a newspaper for advertisements or something? join an agency?

I am sure a degree isn't going to be needed for what i want to be doing for my life, programming, as iirc users have said they want into work rather then uni route and from a lot of hard work have ended up better off really good.

hope you guys can help me out even if just a little bit

shauncr91 · 20 May 2008 at 22:38

College ends in like a month? Why did you choose to drop out now ?

Tom|Nbk · 20 May 2008 at 22:40

I left last week and am in a similarish boat but I've done 2 years and haven't dropped out. Should get my expected results though.

Looking for a new job atm.

Tom|Nbk · 20 May 2008 at 22:40

Double post

semi-pro waster · 20 May 2008 at 22:46

Do you already have anything to demonstrate that you can program (and program well)? If not it might be difficult to apply 'on spec' and get a job by simply saying "but it's what I want to do".

It is entirely possible to get a job programming without a degree but as far as I am aware you really need to be able to demonstrate ability and application (both literal meanings), preferably with experience. If you don't have that then you might need to take a fairly low level job and work your way up from there.

unwashed potato! · 20 May 2008 at 22:48

shauncr91 said:
College ends in like a month? Why did you choose to drop out now ?

sorry forgot to say as i wrote a load more but removed it as wasn't needed but forgot to add this part again.

i am in year 1, so another year left, and after visiting uni's (i went early so that i could secure my place) turns out the course isn't as well thought of as i had been told by the teachers and i wouldn't get the offer i what i wanted from uni and the only thing they could offer was if i was to have perfect results from this course which turns out because the course is designed around report writing and nothing to do with the actual subject i haven't been getting top distinctions and now it is too late.

unwashed potato! · 20 May 2008 at 22:50

yeah unfortunately i can't "prove" my knowledge as i have nothing from previous eduction to do with programming, only work i have done myself.

semi-pro waster said:
If you don't have that then you might
need to take a fairly low level job and work your way up from there.

any suggestions as to what i should be looking at?

semi-pro waster · 20 May 2008 at 22:55

Mammalian said:
any suggestions as to what i should be looking at?

My 'experience' is mainly limited to mates in the games industry but I know of a few people who have got jobs as testers and proved their worth to work up to a programming position. It is worth looking into as an option but it still won't be particularly easy, you'll need to demonstrate interest and probably a bit of potential as well. Good luck.

Raymond Lin · 20 May 2008 at 22:58

Start applying, work your way up. Sometimes if not what you know and who you know, and most important thing is foot through the door.