Advice getting first job

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Don't know if my title is right for this but here it comes.
What do you guys think would be my chances of getting C++ related job if I would have a pretty good knowledge of the following :

C/C++
TCP/IP
Oracle SQL

When I'm looking for C++ Job offers I always see ton of other stuff that one must know besides C++. At freelance jobs its the same. So I'm asking for some advice what would be best starting kit to land C++ related job with best success rate.

I don't have an IT degree and I'm learning everything on my own( with the help of this great forum of course ). Planing to finish learning C/C++ in a few months. Next I'm thinking I could learn some TCP/IP from this book
The TCP/IP Guide: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Internet Protocols Reference
because real world code probably needs to communicate with some other stuff like databases (which I'm thinking to learn after internet protocols).

Would appreciate some ideas what I could change in my plan!
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Software or app dev is only what I can think of, although that requires degrees.
I don't believe that every place requires degree if u have knowledge. Of course good if u have 1
true, true but most computer related jobs require one, and finding one that doesn't is very hard!
Ok its probably hard but lets focus on the important part of the question :D

would this be a good starting kit to have or would you change it and how?

C/C++
TCP/IP
Oracle SQL
closed account (z05DSL3A)
What do you want to do? 'getting C++ related job' is a bit vague.
would this be a good starting kit to have or would you change it and how?
Yes, that would be a good starting point.

The only way that you get a job without a degree, that a see, is that you proof your knowledge. I. e. create projects [on GitHub] and show them interested parties.
What do you want to do? 'getting C++ related job' is a bit vague.

I don't think I can be very picky without a degree and a job experience. The idea is to have some pretty universal base knowledge with what I can go to many places and offer them my skills, not just go to one place and if it fails I'm pretty much useless elsewhere.

Yes, that would be a good starting point.

Nice to see that. Specially excited about learing TCP/IP. Still if anyone wants to add something I'll be very happy!

The only way that you get a job without a degree, that a see, is that you proof your knowledge. I. e. create projects [on GitHub] and show them interested parties.

This is actually a great advice. Also Kind of cool to test your knowledge not just with standard exercises from books but with some much cooler project.

Thank you very much :)
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I would think knowing GUI (QT/wxWidgets/...) is required in a lot of fields.

For embedded devices knowledge about Arduino/RasperryPI. Generally linux.

You should also know about boost. If you want to get into TCP/IP it would be boost asio.
Yea I was always interested in making some great QT GUI's, just figured that 1st it would be more interesting to really understand what happens beneath it. Books about QT and Linux was definitely on my list just not the priority at this moment.

About boost - I was looking at it another day and saw that there are no books that covers it all but there are a lot of good documentation about all the libraries in their website. I think if one knows C++ well enough it wouldn't be too problematic to check the documentation there and than be ready to use them. Than again - maybe I'm wrong.

Tnx a lot for another advice man! I see your name in a lot of my posts :D Another thing - If you are working in this field and I assume you do - could you tell what are the most important things you must face on the daily basis and what is that you do. I mean what kind of knowledge is required for you to do your daily tasks (C++, Linux, QT? ...)?
Out of the blue, you could make C++ libraries...
coder777 wrote:
The only way that you get a job without a degree, that a see, is that you proof your knowledge. I. e. create projects [on GitHub] and show them interested parties.


I like this advice. If I were hiring someone I couldn't care less about a degree, all of the folks who have gone through uni to become programmers that I know in the mid-west have been absolute garbage when they got spat out with a degree. A portfolio is way more indicative of your overall potential than a degree from a university with a variable tech program.

When I got my first programming job- it was because of a particular program that I had written to interact with the software of the company in question. If you demonstrate a good understanding, people will want you on their team.

etrusks wrote:
If you are working in this field and I assume you do - could you tell what are the most important things you must face on the daily basis and what is that you do.


The company that I currently work for has 1 main product and a series of satellite products- the priority list I use:

1. Do we have any bugs that absolutely must be addressed? Here I consult our support team and look at our bug tracking site for anything urgent.

2. Do we have any features that haven't been implemented? Here I consult my list of approved features.

3. What changes can we possibly make to improve our product? Support team helps a lot here.

4. What products do our customers need to improve their lives. What are we missing in our current set of products? A good brainstorm, talking to customers, and administrative decisions will affect this step.

The programming languages, tools, and operating systems we use depend entirely on the products we have to create or support. Right now my time is spent 25/25/50 iOS/Web/windows production.

The most important tool you have is your brain, once you think like a programmer you can program in any language with a little research. You can create any product with a little effort. You can implement any feature with a little forethought.
When I wrote this post I didn't expect that I'll get such a good info, I was so wrong.Now I feel like I know what to do. Than you guys so much!
A portfolio is way more indicative of your overall potential than a degree from a university with a variable tech program.


I couldn't agree with you more.

The bigger your portfolio the more likely you would be hired, just keep working on that.

I've got a friend who used to work for a university, just managing their website and databases etc. He had no degree.
Tnx for your thoughts man! Also as I see it working on your portfolio is a lot more fun and productive than gong to university.
Actually, now that I think about Github, it actually seems reasonable, that a portfolio would get you somewhere.
Lets hope so, now it kind of depends on me :)
You know what, Why limit yourself up to github? Doesn't Bitbucket or really any software that provides a repository good enough? It's up to you which one you want! Hope this helps? ;-)
Probably it's good enough but 1st I have to learn some other stuff before I can actually start writing some projects :)
GitHub is nice because 1) Its popular and very well known, and 2) It offers an activity log so employers can look and see how often you actually write code.
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