Recently I have been talking to people/reading about how to get a programming job after you complete school. One guy who was talking about trying to find a Java developer said that a lot of people only had class coding assignments to show at an interview and that doesn’t really cut it.

The thought of doing more work outside of class to make code I haven’t learned yet is a little discouraging!

There are some ways of getting code out there. You can contribute to open source projects, put code on GitHub, write an app that will go on the App store, etc…

Right now I am inclined to try to write an app. I am slightly uncertain about how to contribute to an open source project. If anyone has advice it would be greatly appreciated!

Also still trying to wrap my head around what GitHub is. I have a very basic understanding of what it is and why it would be useful to other people, but need to figure out how I can utilize it.

I would really like to be able to write an audio app utilizing Core Audio. I have the Core Audio book by Chris Adamson and I get to see him in less than two weeks talking about Core Audio. I am not sure if I should try to plow through his book before seeing him or if I should wait. I am thinking I should try to make some headway into the book so that I can ask intelligent questions or at least have a base of understanding of what he is saying.

Right now just ruminating about what I need to do to prepare for the future. I know I need an internship. I have applied for a few, but I guess it is still pretty early. I haven’t heard anything back. It’s understandable that no one wants to think about this at this point in time.

The person hiring did say that an internship is helpful because it gives you some experience that you can put forward as a coding job.

I don’t understand why every company wants someone with two years of experience. How do you get two years of experience if you can’t get an entry level job? If it is so hard to find programmers then why would you turn away a person who has student experience and not professional because no one will hire you due to a Catch-22?

Hopefully all will become clear in time!