No Software Degree? Don't Let It Stop You!

I saw a an article over on freecodecamp.org where the author tells his story about getting a development job without a degree.  I think it is so inspiring when people share their stories.

I also am an un-degreed software engineer and I’ve been working in the industry for more than 30 years.

I assume that if you are ready to jump in to software development without doing a 4 year program, that you are passionate about writing code! If that describes you, read on!

Here are some tips.

• Don’t let anyone tell you that you NEED a degree. You can go and get one, sure and if that’s what you want, great. Go do it, but it will take you years and a lot of money.
• Read a lot. Consume as much programming literature as you can. Read conference proceedings. Read code. Read the History of Programming Languages, read archives of Dr. Dobbs Journal. 
• Learn several programming languages in different paradigms. I’m familiar with BASIC, 6502 assembly, Forth, C, Objective-C, Java and Smalltalk. Don’t be a one trick pony.
• Make your own software. Participate in open source projects so you can learn team programming skills. Code with friends. Create your own applications. Write some video games. Try your hand at programming tools. I wrote Liberty BASIC (a popular programming language) in my spare time and now I sell it. If you have a dossier of interesting stuff that you’ve done, it will be easier to get hired. Haven’t done anything interesting? The degree may not be enough.
• Network like crazy. Almost every job I’ve landed I landed because of people I met at the store, at church, at conferences (that I paid to attend myself), etc.  Join some programming groups on Facebook and meet local people using meetup.com.  This can be really important.
• Be ready to explain what you know. When you do get that interview, who will hire you if you can’t show on the whiteboard what you learned from your work. Give them a post mortem on your own code. Be ready to say what you could have done better.

Good luck and please check out my Liberty BASIC product!  http://www.libertybasic.com

See you around!

Win a free Liberty BASIC software!

We are having a referral contest until the end of October!  You can win a copy of the Liberty BASIC programming software.  All you need to do is tell five friends who you think will enjoy Liberty BASIC to email us saying they learned about Liberty BASIC from you!

    Read more about it here!

New Liberty BASIC Projects Area

I've created a new area on the Liberty BASIC Community Forum over at Proboards here:

    http://libertybasiccom.proboards.com/board/20/community-projects

Here is copy from a post I made there about the purpose of the board:

I created this area of the board for a specific reason.  I want to create libraries free code for specific purposes and also some programs for the specific purpose of promoting Liberty BASIC.

So, for example:

• A game framework and some examples. Side scrolling games, platform games, etc., with sprites, sound effects, background music that can use the keyboard, mouse, or joystick. etc.
• A business application including forms, an ODBC database, printed output (tables, forms, bar charts, histograms)
• A graphical editor - a mini CAD program or similar
• Hardware interfacing - a monitor program for experimenting with serial devices

Suggestions welcome.  Is there any particular thing you know how to do well, or that you would like to be able to do in Liberty BASIC?  Let's make these things into actual reusable code  that people can use, and that can be included with Liberty BASIC.

I will also blog here about these projects as they progress.

New blog - The 6502 Shack

I'm a big fan of the 8-bit computers based on the 6502.

I've created a new blog dedicated to the MOS 6502 microprocessor and the computers that are built on it, and also a new Facebook group for it.  Read more about it here.