Entry Level Python Jobs

[steve]

Hi Jonathan,

On 09/02/2009 10:22 PM, JonathanB wrote:
> Ok, so what I'm hearing is "Get a code portfolio together and watch
> the job board on python.org." Thanks for the advice!
>
> I've been watching the python job board 3-4 times a week and I've been
> working my way through the Project Euler problems in my free time. I
> also have a trade generator that I wrote up to support a Traveller
> game I was running a while back, but that code is old (the first non-
> trivial program I ever wrote) and really fairly buggy. The user
> interface is basically an infinite recursion that I sys.exit() out of
> when I'm through, which means the code slows considerably as you do
> more stuff in it because each trip back to the main menu is a
> recursive call to the main() function. Hey, I was young and naive. I'm
> working on cleaning it up right now. Any other tips?

- Keep an eye out for jobs which are not directly programming related -- things 
like system administration (which might involve scripting), that's the way I 
started.

- Bid for some projects at places like odesk.com, rentacoder.com, 
getafreelancer.com etc. A lot of people here might be averse to the idea (and 
they'd have good reasons for it too), but doing this will pay off in the long 
run. You might get a feel of why people might be averse to the idea by reading 
these:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001190.html
http://www.examiner.com/x-1652-Gadgets-Examiner~y2008m11d14-oDesk-Guru-Elance-and-RentACoder--Are-they-worth-it

Basically, these kind of jobs might end up being more trouble than their worth. 
However, I personally found that it is possible to build long term business 
relationships, which you can then take external to these sites, quite quickly if 
you are any good.

Here is a comparison chart in case you decide to go for it

http://thethriftygeek.com/2008/11/comparing-the-online-consulting-sites/

Wish you the best,
regards,
- steve
-- 
random non tech spiel: http://lonetwin.blogspot.com/
tech randomness: http://lonehacks.blogspot.com/
what i'm stumbling into: http://lonetwin.stumbleupon.com/