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migrated from stackoverflow.com Jan 14 '11 at 16:42

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"I consider myself to be more competent than a CS grad with no actual real-world experience"

Hmm, you do realise that studying Computer Science is not the same thing as studying programming?

There's also more to a programming job than churning out code. I'd be suspicious of someone who claims to have 7 years experience and then applies for low-level roles. How you'd proceed would really depend on your age. You're young, so any sane employer wouldn't expect you to step into the role of a Technical Architect, they'll give you a chance to get up to speed by making you work on fixing bugs before throwing you into bigger and better stuff.

It's a competitive market, you have to sell yourself. You'll be fine as long as you can back up any claims you make. List C++ as a language you know, and give examples of the projects you've worked on. 'Years of experience' only counts if it's been in a professional capacity.

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The coding I did during them time I taught myself with some help from teachers and professors from age 14 on up was complete junk compared to the professional work I did with the help of peer review by co-workers. Definitely an important point. –  justkt Jan 14 '11 at 18:10
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  • Volunteer web development (listed in a designer's portfolio)


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