Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee.
97
votes
16answers
8k views
Why are part-time jobs in programming an anomaly?
I've recently quit my full time developing job at mega-corp, and I decided that I'll look for a part time job. Since then I've talked to half a dozen potential employers, and every one of them had the ...
70
votes
37answers
3k views
How to handle people who lie on their resume [closed]
Moderator comment
Please note that this is a two year old question that has just been migrated from Stack Overflow. Please take your time to read all the answers and ask yourself "would my ...
61
votes
20answers
4k views
How forgiving do you need to be on new employees?
Recently we have a new developer in our team. We are getting him up to speed and he is picking it all up quite fast, but a new developer means new (foreign) coding styles and ways to solve things.
It ...
60
votes
28answers
646 views
Am I too young to be worrying about college right now? [closed]
I'm 19 and have been a hobbyist programmer since I was a freshman in high school (2002). I recently graduated in May of '08. Right out of high school I had my first job programming contract work for a ...
41
votes
17answers
2k views
How can I thoroughly evaluate a prospective employer?
We hear much about code smells, test smells, and even project smells, but I have heard no discussion about employer "smells" outside of the Joel Test. After much frustration working for employers ...
40
votes
12answers
2k views
How do I convince my employer to hire an additional developer without selling myself short?
I'm the only developer at a small company. I've slowly moved into development here; until ~4 months ago 50-75% of my time was spent on operations. Now, 50-75% of my time is spent on development, with ...
34
votes
16answers
5k views
Will a computer science college degree ever hurt my employability? [closed]
Too often, I can see that there are many viable programmers without college degrees in Computer Science, Informatics, etc.
Now that I've been reading more articles about underperforming education ...
28
votes
21answers
3k views
Working for free? [closed]
I came across this article Work for Free that got me thinking.
The goal of every employer is to gain
more value from workers than the firm
pays out in wages; otherwise, there is
no growth, ...
28
votes
6answers
796 views
Should companies consider remote employees or stick to local employees?
Elite developers can be 10x more productive than an average developer.
Clearly it's easier to find an elite developer around the whole world than in a company's backyard.
If a company is not ...
26
votes
21answers
1k views
Perception of a developer that uses a pre-packaged web implementation for their personal site?
Lets say you're a web developer/programmer and you want to set up a personal portfolio site.
Unfortunately, like most people with a full time job and a family, your time is hard to come by. You make ...
26
votes
9answers
976 views
Should I be paid for time spent learning a framework?
To give light to the situation: I am currently one of two programmers working in a small startup software company. Part of my job requires me to learn a Web development framework that I am not ...
24
votes
7answers
1k views
Establish/meet deadlines when I am constantly working with unfamiliar platforms and frameworks
I work for a product development organization that is in online advertising. The assignments I receive are almost always on platforms or tools that I have never worked on before. At first it was ...
22
votes
16answers
4k views
Do companies care about university grades when hiring programmers?
Most of my fellow students that I've talked to claim that aiming for good grades is useless as the companies don't care about them when hiring programmers. To them, it's enough to have simply attended ...
20
votes
10answers
5k views
What do employers look for in self-taught applicants?
I'm a self-taught programmer about to enter the job market. What I want to know is what is the best way to show my experience to employers?
What do employers want to know about my programming ...
19
votes
10answers
2k views
Struggling as a programmer. Need some advice [closed]
I've been a developer now for a number of years. I'm pretty good at what I do and can "get the job done".
But, there is a difference between "getting the job done" and "doing the job properly". Let's ...
17
votes
16answers
5k views
Why is it so difficult to get a programming job? [closed]
I Have been looking for a job in the past 10 years. Since I believe the subject I know better is programming, I have been trying to find a programming job.
I send my curriculum to a lot of companies, ...
17
votes
5answers
693 views
Do you contribute to open-source software?
Recently John Resig (creator of the jQuery library) wrote on his twitter that "When it comes to hiring, I'll take a Github commit log over a resume any day.".
As much as I respect that (motivating ...
16
votes
14answers
2k views
Should I ask/tell my boss before freelancing?
I am currently working as an intern at a consulting firm. I am soon to move to a full time employee once I graduate next semester, and I love working there. However, as a student, I lack money and I ...
16
votes
4answers
796 views
What to look out for in employment contracts
I thought of this today after a co-worker looked through the contract they had signed several years ago and was quite alarmed.
What should one look out for before signing a contract, as most ...
15
votes
11answers
894 views
From Slashdot: Does being a loyal developer pay? [closed]
I saw this question posted on Slashdot and thought it would make a great question here on Programmers.SE.
It's not my question, nor my situation.
Here goes:
"As a senior developer for a small ...
15
votes
8answers
2k views
How useful are IT headhunters/recruiters when looking for a new job?
Since they exist for several fields with varying degrees of usefulness, I'm curious as to the reputation of headhunters/recruiters that focus solely on IT professionals (e.g. programmers, software ...
15
votes
4answers
550 views
What modes of profit are open to programmers? [closed]
This is an important question because "apply for a job/internship" isn't a solution for everyone especially during economic stress periods when constant rejection can push good programmers into ...
13
votes
11answers
832 views
Are these company terms good for a programmer or should I move?
Here are some of the terms and conditions set forward by my employer. Does these make sense for a job like programming?
No freelancing in any way even in your free time outside company work
...
13
votes
7answers
18k views
How can I evaluate a candidate's knowledge of Html/CSS during an interview?
I am trying to determine some good interview questions to assess the ability of people coming in for a Html/CSS job, however that topic is extremely broad, and I'm not sure what sort of questions I ...
13
votes
4answers
653 views
What are good projects to create to show your future employers?
I'm finishing my last year of school while working full time and currently, I have a job that's completely unrelated to programming (student job to pay the bills...). I'm trying to find a job as a ...
12
votes
6answers
2k views
What stands out on a Junior's CV
I am looking for advice, hopefully from people more experienced that me. I am going to start applying for junior positions for .net development in the summer. At the moment the only thing on my CV is ...
12
votes
5answers
594 views
Doing a passive job search while employed, dealing with the barrage of messages from untargeted Recruiters, HR people? [closed]
I'm currently employed with what is basically a startup company, I took the job to gain more experience on the platform I want to work on. I want to entertain options for possibly moving into a new ...
11
votes
6answers
697 views
If you take a year or two out from being a developer, is it really that hard to get back into it? [closed]
I've been working as a developer for about 3 years now (straight from uni), I'm wondering, if I take a year or two out would it be impossible to get back into the industry?
I didn't get the gap year ...
11
votes
4answers
650 views
How to get people involved in your project?
I have many project ideas and unfortunately all require a team of at least 3-5 developers. I've started a project by myself too many times without reaching the end.
The point is to involve people in ...
10
votes
7answers
1k views
How employable am I as a programmer?
I'm currently a Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering with a concentration in computational biology and am starting to think about what I want to do after graduate school. I feel like I've ...
10
votes
4answers
463 views
I have a previous invention (software / framework) that I plan to use on my new job. What happens to my copyright if I improve it during the job?
I have filled that standard form where you list your previous inventions before starting your new job so the employer is legally aware you have the copyright over them. But if I want to use this ...
9
votes
15answers
734 views
Is it appropriate in a developer's job description to have “error free” as a key output?
As part of a review of all job descriptions, my company has decided to include the following as a key output:
website development completed on
time, within specification and error
free
Given ...
9
votes
10answers
6k views
What core skills does a new Computer Science Graduate need to be employable?
A computer science degree (like any undergraduate degree) does not prepare you to be productive immediately. And my sense is that employers are less and less willing to provide that initial training. ...
9
votes
6answers
815 views
Hobbyist transitioning to earn money on paid work? [closed]
I got into hobbyist Python programming some years ago on a whim, having never programmed before other than BASIC way back when, and little by little have cobbled together a, in my opinion, nice little ...
9
votes
7answers
778 views
How well should a fresh graduate know a language?
I am CS student and have just few months before I graduate. I can write programs, but use pretty many manuals in the process. It's almost 50% writing/50% reading (maybe even more reading). What I want ...
9
votes
3answers
241 views
Intellectual-Property Question
Like almost everyone here, I have a handfull of scripts and software that I have developed and am enthused about. I will be looking for my first job as a software designer / coder. It seems natural ...
9
votes
5answers
366 views
Experience With Similar Technologies: Convincing HR People?
Let's say that a job posting asks for experience in technology X. You have no experience in X but you do have experience in technology Y, which you're convinced is similar enough that the learning ...
8
votes
9answers
691 views
Will taking a year out reduce my employability
I'm just coming to the end of my BSc Computer Science degree, and I'm faced with a choice.
My dream has always been to do independent game development, and I'm considering taking the next year to try ...
8
votes
10answers
3k views
I've taken a job where there is no work to do! [closed]
This is related to the (closed) question New job - not got any work to do.
I'm a week and a half into a brand new job and despite asking for work to do I keep being brushed off. The set-up here is ...
8
votes
11answers
650 views
What repercussions a developer might expect after informing current employer that he is active in the job market? [closed]
A lot of developers, especially those that stay with the same company for many years and especially those working for large corporations with very healthy HR presence probably end up in this situation ...
8
votes
6answers
1k views
Should I go to a job interview even though I know I won't get it? [closed]
Here is the opportunity I've been given.
I'm currently a freelance web developer and completely self-taught. I have but an NVQ in Business Administration. However, I am passionate and committed to ...
8
votes
4answers
416 views
Bringing your previous intellectual property to your employer
Assume that in my free time I have developed library X before signing a contract or being employed by company A.
I then sign a contract with company A and begin working. It becomes apparent that ...
8
votes
5answers
456 views
How/where would I best advertise my open source project, in order to maximize my odds of finding collaborators?
I'm working on an open source project, and am looking to find collaborators. What's my best bet, in terms of advertising my project, with an eye specifically towards finding other developers ...
7
votes
8answers
775 views
Are you obliged to provide old employers with access to protected resources?
Firstly, a disclaimer. This question is not because I'm a disgruntled employee planning to hide some malicious code which I can later blackmail my employer with. I actually quite like the people I ...
7
votes
5answers
601 views
How do I choose between better salary and exciting job? [closed]
I'm a software developer that's on the market for a job. I was working on a contract with company X. Company X lost the contract and it was awarded to company Y. I spoke with my current employer (X) ...
6
votes
12answers
844 views
Any tips how to successfully job hunt?
I have been looking for a job for more than 3 weeks and have applied for about 30 vacancies. From all of these I only received few calls from recruitment agencies which didn't propose anything ...
6
votes
13answers
3k views
2 year degree plus experience vs 4 year degree
Alright, I have searched around a bit on this site and found two somewhat similar questions:
Computer Science Programming Certificate vs. Computer Science Degree?
Is it possible/likely to be paid ...
6
votes
7answers
452 views
Does not documenting code result in job security? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Should you write good documentation and clean code to increase the “Bus Factor”?
I often ask young programmers why they are not documenting their code. Their ...
6
votes
2answers
580 views
Where is the Spolsky article about employee agreements? [closed]
I think I remember reading an article written by Joel Spolsky a few years back about employee agreements. I've searched around for 45 minutes and can't find the answer.
There was a debate over who ...
6
votes
8answers
406 views
Is it better to be specialized in a few areas or have general abilities in many?
My situation is this. I will be graduating soon with a degree in Computer Science. I did have a job for a while working as a Web Developer for a small graphic design company. During this time, we ...
