The paradox of not having a college degree, having programming skills, but not being able to get a job.

@Torbuntu. Tell me about it. I'm starting to wonder if my time is better spent freelancing locally on the side.

Get an internship first and then use that as leverage to further your career. Most if not all software engineering internships are paid, and don't apply to the ones that don't.

I have a degree but every job I apply for wants someone with at least 3 years of experience, even with junior roles :/

In other words they don't want to train anyone and expect you to just jump in guns blazing

What's the paradox? I don't get it

@simeg you need a job to get experience but you need experience to get a job

Every time I see someone whining about any job, I really believe that the only missing link is a really good mentor. Remember this, it's never about any job, it's only about THE very job you want to do. So tone up your programming skills for that one job you want and find a good mentor who is on that job or same domain. Now in my answer did you see anywhere that a degree is going to decide your future. A degree is like a glass door, everyone sees the other side very clearly but only some have the opportunity to cross the door. And by the way, sometimes there is no door as well.

@eatPrayCode I understand what you mean by working towards that dream job, my one is specifically game development but I want to work at any job for now to gain some more knowledge working with a development team, I definitely lack a mentor but in my spare time working on game development. New Zealand kinda lacks the big development culture that some other countries have, I'm working to get my skills to a professional standard for at least Android development.

Hopefully though your advice helps someone else out :D

@f03n1x Hmm. So I did some check and from your stats here it appears that you have been chasing this objective since exactly 3 months now. But that's not my point here.

Do not take 'mentor' literally. A mentor can be a book, a school kid, a neighbor, a shoe box, a gaming console , a television, a magazine , food, drinks, and many times 'time'. Game development is a hyped territory for super specialized forces. But I think it's an area where you play all the roles like sometimes you are chef, pilot, driver, cleaner, dreamer, everything.

If you are serious about game development then today there is no country or no company which can stop you. Everything breathes on internet. I am not trying to be judgemental on your skills and I can't be.

My 2 cents, get up and build something in a week, publish it online. Next Monday do the same and keep doing this for 3 more months. You will have 12 good decent games or stories to show your talent. Best of luck.

@eatPrayCode I started working on an Android game because it's a lot easier to prototype for this exact same purpose. I'm still working on my actual game at the same time, but I do think an actual mentor would help me, I've been working as a solo developer relying on the internet, which is okay but bouncing ideas of someone is definitely more beneficial, so I guess maybe not a mentor but just a team environment.

My VR game though has been an idea me and my brother have been thinking seriously for a couple months now, probably more.

He does the characters/assets/concept art/animations and I do the coding/multiplayer setup/level design and testing. It's slowly getting to an alpha stage. We also both do the planning and bounce ideas off each other.

I'd definitely love to make games on a full week basis just I don't exactly have the time to do so, I've been coding while commuting to/from work and during my weekends.

But thanks for your advice I do really appreciate it!

@maltedMilk I've been applying like crazy my emails are filled with job search websites for random jobs that are both in my line of work and not (fireman engineer somehow relates to software engineer lol),
I did do a game development paper at University, and go to the local game development meetup, where jobs are talked about but it's literally anything but a developer job that's asked (designers, sound engineers, business management roles) and the jobs up on the nzgdda website are mostly senior jobs. I'll keep trying though, haven't given up.

The job I have currently doesn't have the development team environment which is why I'm leaving it.

Sorry to take over this rant (I somehow keep doing that) that paradox that employers have is very irritating but you just gotta keep trying.