You need more projects. In the past I got a job even more easily than other candidates by simply having a shitload of projects.
Discussion
That was the past. 5 years ago you could do that. The market is highly saturated today. Having several high quality projects and a degree will definitely get me a job
Nowhere on my public profile did I put my degree and yet I'm still getting a bunch of job offers. 🤷♂️
And it makes sense. Even with saturated market, there's still so many different skill levels. AI can perhaps take the lowest skilled ones already. You need to do hard projects to shine.
How did you get your first job and how did you know how to do your first project?
My first project was a computer game, something I enjoyed at the time. I knew nothing, the code was terrible and I even knew it was terrible. But it worked at least a bit. Then I made two more games and some tiny random things.
Then I learned another language, made some more random stuff and a very simple game. Later something more useful. Then I learned how to make GUIs, made a bunch of tools my code was considerably better at that time. Then I learned Linux and bash. Made a bunch of scripts and stuff. In total it took about 8 years.
Then I went to a university to learn CS. I did learn a few interesting and useful things but I believe a bunch of that time was wasted and I was still doing side projects and some school project. Oh and yeah, one of them was a game. 🙂
One of the side projects was Arduino. I already knew a bit of electronics and with Arduino I got better. Then I randomly met a guy doing some electronic stuff and he paid me to do a few projects for him. I couldn't do full time because of school.
At some point I got fed up with how horrible the university system is and went around searching for a proper job. With all that I found it pretty quickly and it was a good one, so I quit the school. The only thing I regret about it is not doing it sooner.
For two reasons.
1) bitcoin, obviously. If I did it sooner I would've had more than I could possibly earn in that time frame.
2) There was a lot of stuff that was taught inefficiently or I haven't used yet. I learned maybe 10x more and more valuable information about some topics in a private course in two days than I did in an entire semester in school.
Don't get me wrong, some school subjects were great and the teachers too. But it's just inefficient.
Well I do intend on building things but I need to learn a little more about the basics before I can get to that point. I can only do basic html and JS stuff at this point, and I built a calculator for Android with Java, but that was almost 10 years ago.
I’m not going to a regular school. What I’m doing is all self paced and should take less than a year and cost less than $10,000.
Trust me, I know how important a portfolio of projects is. I was original just going to learn on my own and build projects, but I think a degree program will help force me to stay focused on the goal, plus the degree is an obvious plus on a resume, especially if I decide to get a masters or get degrees in other fields like cloud or cybersecurity.
After I have a better understanding of basic CS, I’ll start messing with more complex things like building Nostr clients.
Like who would you hire, a guy with no degree, 5 certs, and 10 projects, or a guy with a BS in CS, 15 certs, and 5 projects of higher quality?
If it's a private, unregulated course then it should be fine. I assume you researched the reputation properly.
Higher quality of projects is obviously better but it's not guaranteed by education. And nothing will ever replace you getting your hands dirty. The theory is useful but it's maybe 20% of success. The rest is practice.