Leveraging hobby experience to get a job
- by Bernard
Like many other's I began programming at an early age. I started when I was 11 and I learned C when I was 14 (now 26). While most of what I did were games just to entertain myself I did everything from low level 2D graphics, and binary I/O, to interfacing with free API's, custom file systems, audio, 3D animations, OpenGL, web sites, etc. I worked on a wide variety of things trying to make various games. Because of this experience I have tested out of every college level C/C++ programming course I have ever been offered. In the classes I took, my classmates would need a week to do what I finished in class with an hour or two of work.
I now have my degree now and I have 2 years of experience working full time as a web developer however I would like to get back into C++ and hopefully do simulation programming. Unfortunately I have yet to do C++ as a job, I have only done it for testing out of classes and doing my senior project in college. So most of what I have in C++ is still hobby experience and I don't know how to best convey that so that I don't end up stuck doing something too low level for me.
Right now I see a job offer that requires 2 years of C++ experience, but I have at least 9 (I didn't do C++ everyday for the last 14 years). How do I convey my experience? How much is it truly worth? and How do I get it's full value?
The best thing that I can think of is a demo and a portfolio, however that only comes into play after an interview has been secured. I used a portfolio to land my current job.
All answers and advice are appreciated.
