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sniffy

sniffy

sniffy

Soldato
Joined
12 Dec 2003
Posts
8,141
Location
East Sussex
Hey guys,

Just looking for some site recommendations to help me land a development job. I currently use reed and wiredsussex (looking for a job in Brighton) but a lot of the positions require commercial experience :( Ideally I'd like to be doing web development but I'm not overly fussed any more, I just need something.

Thanks for any help.
 
Unfortunately (for employers) I think a lot of developers go to recruitment agencies to make the job hunting process a bit easier. Employers then pay a fee (£5-10K is typical for most of posts I've filled) to the recruiter for finding them a candidate which they employ. Quite often, the recruiter will post their ad in a number of places including all the usual ones (Total Jobs, Monster, Reed, CW Jobs) too, so you may need to check lots of places.

As you've found, I think most of them will want someone with prior experience. One way to get that, if you can spare the time, is to take up an internship where you basically work for free in return for on-the-job training. It's a good way of picking up skills in different areas and is an excellent thing to put on your CV, because employers know you're keen to invest your own time in improving your skills.
 
Thanks for the response.

Perhaps "recruitment sites" was incorrect, I just want to be able to directly contact any firms looking to fill positions. I'll check out total jobs and the others you posted so thanks for that. I've considered an internship and I certainly won't rule it out if the situation doesn't improve but there's gotta be something out there for a CS graduate with a 1st. Maybe I'm being too picky about the type of work.
 
Where's your 1st from? What are your specific computing skills?

There are some software user groups, e.g. ASP.net groups, that arrange regular meetings, and conferences, e.g. yearly PHP conference. Attending one of these will let you met industry professionals and you'll get the insider knowledge on job opportunities.

Rgds
 
Kent. Not the greatest uni but it's a red brick and was higher in the league tables when I applied. I should have gone to Sussex :/ Well I'm relatively good coder. I really like OO and Java was used to teach a lot of the concepts at uni so I'm alright with that. I know PHP but I'm a bit rusty with it now. I really enjoyed and done well at concurrent programming but unfortunately it doesn't have much relevance within the industry. I started to learn JS after I graduated. When it's used properly and alongside a nice library like jQuery I really enjoy coding with it hence my interest in landing a web development role. I'm not a great designer but I know HTML + CSS good enough to get stuff done. Well those are the things that interest me. Obviously I have all the generic DB, algorithms and other stuff one would expect a CS graduate to know.
 
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I wouldn't worry about not having work experience. If you are good at a particular coding skill, you should be able to find a job in it. My view is that good coders are thin on the ground, so the work is there, it's just finding it.

How much do you initially want to earn?

If you could specialise in one or two areas of coding, what would they be?

Have you seen relevant jobs for these areas?

Do you have a special interest in any particular industry?

If you say what you've seen going, maybe some of us here could say whether it's worth going for.

Rgds
 
Add me up on linked-in mate, got a small few connections in Web Development that might be interested in recruiting you :) We're based in Leeds, but that might not bother you that much, its up to you.

We're currently short on Developers in my company and we're rapidly expanding (we've recently expanded to New York) so its a good chance... It depends on what you are skilled at and how good you are of course..

Give me a message in trust so I can give you an email addy so you can add me up
 
I'm not at all fussed about wage at the start. I just want to feel like I'm picking up new skills and progressing in my career so I can land a better paying job in the future.

Well for the time being I would like to specialise in JS and PHP. I really like doing web stuff although there wasn't much of it covered during my degree. I'm starting to knock-up some sites to show potential employers and learn some new skills. I'm not sure what level of quality they are expecting though.

I've seen a couple of jobs geared at front-end web developers but the majority require commercial experience. Positions aimed at junior developers/graduates are certainly seldom but they have come up. I applied to one but unfortunately the position had been filled by the time I got in contact (day before the closing date). The others seem quite generic (they don't specify what they actually want, just that they're looking for a graduate). Maybe I should just apply and see where it takes me.

Thanks for your response :)

Edit

Thanks doiks14. I would say I'll go where the work takes me but considering I'll probably be on a poor wage I need to be living at home until the situation improves.
 
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No worries mate.

Just keep applying for Junior positions, I see quite a lot in Linked-in atm, give them a shot.. Don't forget to have something to show, few small projects that you have up and live online somewhere so you can give them a demo of what you've got once you're in the interview room ;)

Good luck mate
 
How many projects do you think I should have? I've only got one that I'm comfortable showing to a potential employer and it's hardly great. I do find it difficult thinking up pet projects that would be suitable. Like I said quality is a worry too. I don't know what they think is acceptable. I've got a little API mashup I done at www.dan-bower.net/mashup I appreciate it's still pretty unpolished but is something like that good enough to walk in with?
 
That is definitely something that will definitely put you ahead of the curve mate :) most students applying for interns don't even have anything to show, so it definitely puts you ahead.

You'd probably want 2 or 3 more though, showing more variety of what you've got to offer, but shouldn't stop you from applying though, as you've already got something to show

edit:

Just for example as to what I showed (Which I don't have online anymore due to lack of maintenance)

written from scratch search suggestion script using core JavaScript and PHP and mySQL for the web service

Multi-country/language survey website that allowed translation of pre-existing international question (english) and answers to be translated to different languages and be used for different cultures/countries, countries could also have their own independent questions and answers... custom CMS and Administration all written in core PHP with various design patterns applied and makes good use of MVC, this was incomplete and didn't have anything for statistic analysis, so had a couple of SQL snippets for analysing survey stats

Another custom CMS written in core PHP which got into an unmaintanable state due to poor collaboration with my fellow students :o completely dumped the code afterwards, but submitted it to university as course work anyways after it was almost complete, lol
the idea was a social networking for the community, along with a blog, road damage reporting, Administration for reports, blog comments, road damage analysis etc. this took 3 weeks of writing with 3 other fellow students
-Had to get the postcode for the whole town for this so found a website, it wasn't available as a web service so I wrote a parser that parsed this for me so It could be entered in the database as bulk, my fellow students actually suggested entering them one by one... MADNESS !!

Also created 3 wordpress themes and one plugin - nothing too special but showed them anyways

Couple of Web Designs in PSD that I had created

Should give you an idea
 
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Cool. Thanks for the input. Not sure what else to do though :) I could do millions of little things like implementing iterative deepening within JS to solve the 8-tile puzzle but stuff like that is rather generic and academic whereas the mashup is a bit more personal.
 
Aren't american express huge in brighton? Must be some developer positions going? I turned down a job with them last year for a technology graduate programme. Think it was 21k, they pay for a 2 year part time masters (in quite odd subjects though) and you do 30hours a week I think it was. The masters is at sussex by the way.

If that is no longer going I'm sure they'd have a ton of development positions. Though not web development, I'd say you stand a chance of earning much more than if you were doing web development
 
Might be worth looking into some start ups?

I've recently formed my own limited company and will soon be looking to take someone on part-time or on a freelance basis. Most of the time they will not be able to afford a full time position but it's a great way of gaining work experience that can boost your portfolio.
 
Thanks for the edit doiks. Certainly food for thought. I like the sound of doing something CMS related so I'll look into something interesting I can do with that.

Thanks for the heads-up too Shicky. I totally forgot about American Express. I certainly wouldn't say no even if it's not web-related.

Edit

I've actually seen a few freelance positions advertised but not too sure what freelancing actually involves. Something to look into.
 
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Do something that shows a good understanding of design patterns, that will definitely put you at the top of the rest... CMS is good as you get to apply quite a lot of design patterns for different problems.. If you can show a good understanding and application of various design patterns, you'll put the competition to shame ;)
 
It's probably worth looking at the following books, which go over good software development practices.

Code Complete
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...mp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B004OR1XGK

The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...mp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B000SEGEKI

Keep doing small projects and make sure you tailor your CV to the job description, this will help you get past HR and hopefully an interview. Then just demonstrate that your passion/ interests.

Might be worth ringing up a company first and try and speak to the hiring manager.

Here's an interesting article about getting your CV read:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ResumeRead.html

It'll also be useful to read a few software development blogs and maybe look at sites such as http://stackoverflow.com/ and http://programmers.stackexchange.com/. (the latter has lots of useful info on job searching.)
 
Thanks for the links smyth. Very handy.

General software development techniques is something I'm definitely lacking. I've started going over design patterns after doiks mentioned it. Stuff like this just didn't come up during my degree :/ Don't think I'll touch code for a couple days, I'll just soak in this stuff.
 
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