An E-mail to Joel on Software

I said I was going to do this a while back. Well since I have a wee bit of time on my hands I finally got around to giving ol' Joel what has been brewing in my head for the past few months. Enjoy, and let me know what you think:

Joel,

I’ll be the first to admit I am a casual reader of yours, but I must say that a posting you made back in January 02, 2005 really stuck with me. What could have possibly stuck with me for such a period of time you ask, well it was the “Free Advice for Computer Science College Students”. If nothing else I found it entertaining, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that there is a major item missing from your seven items. Luck, yes sir – something as artificial as luck is needed because it seems that very few places are willing to take a chance on new graduates for positions within their company; this can extend beyond CS majors, but for personal sake I will stick with it.

So let me reiterate what you had posted:

• 1. Learn how to write before graduating.


• 2. Learn C before graduating.


• 3. Learn microeconomics before graduating.


• 4. Don't blow off non-CS classes just because they're boring.


• 5. Take programming-intensive courses.


• 6. Stop worrying about all the jobs going to India.


• 7. No matter what you do, get a good summer internship.

Now for the explanations, unless you're gullible enough to do all that stuff just because I tell you to, in which case add: 8. Seek professional help for that self-esteem thing.

So if you have read this far, and I have managed to keep your attention let me cut the fore play and get down to brass tax here, because I just may be a candidate for step eight. I graduated after you wrote this article, and after reading your suggestions I reflected back on my academic career. The following would be my reaction to the advice you offered:

• 1. I would like to think I learned how to write before I graduated. I am no published author, but I do enjoy ranting a bit on my own blog, and I am writing this email to you now. Granted just because I am writing this gibberish doesn’t mean that I know how to do it as well as Hunter S. Thompson or Kurt Vonnegut. Never the less I would like to think I can hold my own, that being said onwards…


• 2. I studied C extensively while in school, more so than a lot of my fellow colleagues, or ex-colleagues as it is. I was even given the prestigious title of a *** C Programmer by Dr. Steven Robbins, author of “Practical Unix Programming”, and “Unix Systems Programming”.


• 3. I one up’d you on this little tidbit – I went all out and obtained a minor in business. I figured this education thing was like the stock market, and to be successful you need diversification. So I had my micro economics, macro economics, finance, management, business law, and marketing among others.


• 4. I didn’t simply blow off those non-CS classes, even though I did find some of them to be boring. Instead I did well in each of them, and even learned something from each one I attended, no matter how trivial it is. For instance marketing is a scam, and quite frankly a clever scheme how to get people to spend money on your product.


• 5. I was crazy enough to take quite a few difficult classes which only had a few people enrolled in them, In hind-site the entire program at the University of Texas at San Antonio (I know, its no Yale) is pretty code intensive, but more of those when I could.


• 6. India, I am contempt with India. There are going to be jobs which simply can’t get outsourced to other countries for sake of national security and those companies which don’t want to invest in off shoring.


• 7. Finally I had a good summer internship, with Raytheon of all companies. The problem is, it was their aerospace division in Houston, which has since all but closed shop due to losing its contracts with other competitors.


• 8. Yes indeed, since I qualified all the others – I too fit into this category. The self esteem thing took a severe blow since I am now part of the ever growing population of Americans who get laid off. I was unfortunate enough to fall prey to a reduction in force movement which swept though my previous employers business. I have been looking for employment only to hear the gentle sounds of crickets on the background, or the occasional cough like when a comedian tells a joke which bombs.

So I will ask you what you recommend for those individuals looking for work as software engineer, who followed your seven step program, but don’t have either five years experience or a security clearance. Not that the latter guarantees anything, but certainly more opportunities open up if you are in possession of this little gem. I cant tell you the number of cover letters and resumes I have sent out into the black hole of HR departments. I have attempted to differentiate myself from others on my resume, but in the age of auto-replies and web-based resume submission what can I do to get my resume on an individual’s desk?

A starving software engineer would like to know – I am sure I am not the only one.

Regards,

Rainman (no I didnt really sign it 'Rainman').