Finding dev jobs...

[Kevs68]

Hello all,

Ive been working with VB6 for about 5-6 months now, and I feel comfortable now to start finding projects from customers to build.

My question is, How do you go about finding customers? This is for programmers at home, I guess.

Thanks

[hellswraith]

Your not ready to do it for money yet in my opinion.

What I would do is go out to your local community and find a small business owner that needs a application built for them. Do it for free, or for a trade (like if they rented videos, you would ask for 25 free rentals or something). This will give you experience, trust me, 5-6 months with VB doesn't give you experience. Do this for a while until you notice your skill starting to improve to the point that you think you can actually do a good job on a regular basis.

Good luck though, working for a customer besides yourself will expand your skills ten times what you could do by just building your own projects.

[Memnoch1207]

I have to agree with Hellswraith, 5-6 months isn't nearly enough experience to start getting professional work. You would just be setting yourself up for failure and an eventual bad reputation.

What areas are you comfortable with?
When looking for professional work, most 75% or more will require extensive database knowledge, which includes not only being able to program for their business logic, but also being able to effectively design and implement their database structure.

If you aren't experienced with databases, and with 5-6 months I would say you aren't. Then you should invest more time learning them and learning how to create data-driven applications.

[Kevs68]

Ahh, Sorry...

Im 27 years old, I have been programmingin PHP for 4years, OOP for round 2 years. Used MSSQL, MySQL and Access. VB 6 was not that hard to really learn.

No offense to any of you, but if someone asks a simple qustion such as mine, I don't think its fair for you to jump to the conclusion that they are not qualified for the job... due to actually not knowing them. I do understand why you suggested what you posted again not trying to rude to any of you. I think it would be very good advice if someone asked do I have enogh skill

[hellswraith]

Sorry about the assumption, but you must understand how many people start using VB for 5-6 months and think they are programmers. It really is amazing how many people this is. So our general assumption on this board is that they are a newbie to programming, and they think they can get in the game professionally. If you need to change that assumption in your post, you need to add your past experience.

[szlamany]

You're lucky Memnoch1207 didn't say "Get a job in retail" - that's his favorite advice

But to be serious...

I've been in programming since 1980 - had the good fortune of working with a talented group of developers and marketers just as I got out of high school. The marketers ended up being selfish and greedy (no surprise) but the inroads that I made into municipal and educational software development have allowed me to make a good living on my own since around 1986.

Currently I take in ambitious high school kids and make them part of our team. They benefit hugely from getting a first hand glimpse as to how to take "business logic" from a customer and making it into software. We benefit by getting fresh ideas - always great.

I would highly recommend looking around for small development shops and seeing if they have any openings for coders.

Also, although I really dislike headhunters - you can go to an employment agency and they will find you hourly temp work based on the skills you have now. Please note that these people are car-salesmen of human bodies - never, ever believe they have your best interest in mind.

One of my old business partners found a small oil delivery company and wrote an app to help them track deliveries - do billing. I've seen programmers find "produce" delivery companies and give them app's to track orders - bill customers. Small video rental stores...

But, from my point of view, our strength is in our nearly 3 decades of working K-12 school districts and small town halls.

Potential customers love when you can really talk there lingo - know how their world works...

[Kevs68]

Originally posted by hellswraith
Sorry about the assumption, but you must understand how many people start using VB for 5-6 months and think they are programmers. It really is amazing how many people this is. So our general assumption on this board is that they are a newbie to programming, and they think they can get in the game professionally. If you need to change that assumption in your post, you need to add your past experience.

Yeah, I understood it that way, thats why I was explaining that I as not trying to be rude in my last reply as I figured a lot of people post here saying they are great programmers but have little to no experience.

Thanks

[Memnoch1207]

From your post you didn't hint to any other experience.
So our replies were based on the assumption that you only had 5-6 months total experience.

You would have gotten a completely different answer, if you had added your additional skills and experience.


Oh and I would strongly advise against a programming related career...I recommend, and so does forbes.com, that everyone seek to fill all of the openings in the retail industry....I'll do my best to hold down the IT/Programming industry, while the rest of you enjoy your rewarding retail careers!