The QA thing has passed my mind, and for the same reason you mentioned, being able to sneak in some clojure/clojurescript into the automation.
I may need to look more into the whole contracting thing. It is a bit scary when I've got so little real world experience. On Wednesday, July 23, 2014 6:47:56 PM UTC-6, Alan Moore wrote: > > Many of us started out in non-development jobs and worked our way into > full time coding. Tech support jobs are ok but I would focus more on QA > jobs. This might allow you to do some automated testing using > clojure/clojurescript and given that test code isn't given the scrutiny > that dev code goes through, you might be able to justify clojure to mgmt. > > I started out in Product Support - a role between dev and the rest of the > organization - these positions are usually only found in a very large tech > organizations with a physical product (our company invented automated > attendant voicemail.) As a product support engineer, I managed alpha and > beta trials, wrote documentation, tested features, gave feedback to > engineering, etc. This might be something you could try. > > A third alternative is to do contract programming/consulting. This might > be a harder sell but often can get you around geographical restrictions. > Travel might be involved... > > Good luck! > > Alan > > > On Tuesday, July 22, 2014 6:03:13 PM UTC-7, VaedaStrike wrote: >> >> TL;DR - Got as close to a dream job as I could have wanted, after 6 >> months lost it. Now, with only experience in Clojure and Scala, and >> seemingly stuck in Utah, not sure what's the best next course of action. >> >> I'm putting this out there because of all the good experiences I've had >> over the years with people in the Clojure community. I very much value what >> you all have done and do. As best I can tell you're the salt of the earth. >> >> I'm a rather newly minted programmer. Six months on the job. >> >> I claim Clojure as my first language simply because I never saw my >> initial tryst with VB.NET and Visual Studio as being much more than >> tinkering/not really understanding. >> >> It's kind of a long and convoluted story as to how I got here, I can >> share it if anyone's interested, but for now let's just say that my 6 years >> of trying to learn Clojure in my spare time landed me my first official >> programming gig ... learning Scala. >> >> Being a bit tied to Utah (fiscally and family-wise at the moment) this >> seemed to be the best chance I had at starting my professional programming >> career on as close to my terms as possible, so I took it. >> >> I still like Clojure better than Scala (though I've learned a lot using >> Scala), but these last six months programming in a professional environment >> has cemented for me that I absolutely love programming. Being able to work >> in a code repository of functional, industry oriented code and doing real >> stuff that made a difference, I'll just say I never thought work could be >> so enjoyable, nor that I'd ever have the chance to work with so many smart >> and good people. >> >> Unfortunately, as an outgrowth of my newness, company politics and a >> change in team management I was told to look for a job elsewhere. >> >> I got right to work and applied to everything that looked anything close >> to what I then had. >> >> I was amazed, the first four I applied to all responded well. And as a >> plus they all were either using, or experimenting with either Clojure or >> Scala. >> >> Unfortunately, as unexpected as the job loss was for myself, it hit my >> wife even harder, we've not had an easy time our first 4 years of marriage >> on the economic side of things and emotionally she was rather paralyzed by >> this news. This combined in an unfortunate way with the fact that all four >> places quickly responded to me and, also in a difficult way, with a few >> decisions in how to approach the coding challenges I was given. In short, I >> was not terribly impressive for any of the four companies. Ironically the >> one company where I felt I did the worst has been the most understanding >> and is willing to give me a second chance after I take a couple of >> challenges they've given me. >> >> The problem I'm looking for help with is to know how to approach this in >> the best way that keeps me bringing in food for and keeping a roof over >> the head of my wife and son, all this hopefully without sidelining my >> career goals, to the extent that that's possible. >> >> While I can't go and do a hard ruling out of anything, the whole >> relocation idea to where jobs are would be an insanely tough sell. I'm not >> sure if anyone would take on a remote worker as green as myself. And here, >> where I'm at in Utah, is hardly full of companies ready to take some guy >> who has 6 months of Scala experience and only self-taught (and what most >> would consider 'hobby' experience) with Clojure. Aside from the fact that >> very few even know what those languages are is the fact that since I've >> been so focused on functional programming I'm really hard pressed to show >> people what I know and what I can do. And then finding someone willing to >> take a chance on me. >> >> I'd like to avoid the tech support jobs I've had before as they would >> both pay substantially less AND they would be significant distractions on >> the time for me to move forward and learn. I just feel like I'm on the cusp >> of being a very productive and capable programmer and, at the same time, >> like it's all trying to get away from me. I'm trying to learn and apply >> what I know in the time between applying for work and handling all the >> other miscellany connected with that and keeping my little family going. >> And while I can't rule out school I'm having a hard time justifying it in >> my mind when I feel like I'm so close to being a very capable programmer. >> >> I've really studied a great deal on a significant number of things, >> everything from Relational database theory to things like REST and HATEOAS >> as well as having used a little of Instaparse a previous job (one of the >> big helps in getting the Scala job). Most recently I've been dabbling in Om >> and Pedestal in my own time, I've also gotten my hands wet with a bit of >> CSS & SASS. And, while not entirely connected to coding, I grew up around >> Illustrator and Photoshop and am very conversant in Graphic Design (but >> most of my experience is for printed mediums). >> >> Any advice or suggestions? >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
