2/28/20
Finding Employment, Understanding Django, and more
Hello everyone! It took longer than expected to get the latest section posted, but that’s because there are so many different things that come up when trying to support people who are looking for their first programming-related job. I hope you’ve been well, and I hope you find something useful here.
Finding Employment as a (New) Programmer
I finally posted a new section that focuses on finding work as a Python programmer. If you’ve been reading Python Crash Course with the hopes of finding a programming-related job, you might find this section helpful. It’s a big topic, so the section is broken up into a number of parts:
- My background
- What kinds of things can you do as a professional programmer?
- How long will it take to find a job?
- How much do you need to know in order to find a job?
- Building a portfolio
- Applying for jobs
- Am I too old to become a professional programmer?
- Recommended steps
There’s a lot to think about if you’re looking for your first programming-related job, so the last section includes a downloadable checklist to help you keep track of the things you’ve done so far, and the things you might consider doing.
I would love to include profiles of a few readers who started with PCC and have already found a job, or who are currently in the midst of a job search. If you’d be willing to share your story, please feel free to reach out. (You can reply to this email, or send me a DM on Twitter @ehmatthes.)
Understanding Django
William Vincent is the author of Django for Beginners, Django for APIs, and Django for Professionals. When readers who are primarily interested in web development ask me what to read next after Python Crash Course, I refer them to these books. Will is also really active in the Django community; he’s a board member of the Django Software Foundation, he co-hosts a weekly Django podcast, and he co-produces a weekly Django newsletter. If you’re interested in Django, I highly recommend you check out his work:
- Django Chat - a weekly podcast, co-hosted by Will and Carlton Gibson
- Django News - a weekly newsletter about recent Django news, articles, and projects
- How Django Works Behind the Scenes - a recent post that explains some of the ways that Django is run, technically and organizationally
- Flask vs Django (2020) - I completely agree with the reasoning here, and this is why Python Crash Course continues to use Django instead of Flask
Coming Soon
I’m working on a number of different resources, and I’ll share them as they’re each ready:
- A cheat sheet for using Git to manage your projects
- Solutions for Chapters 12-14, and Chapters 18-20
- How to write a program that plays Alien Invasion automatically
Feedback
If you have questions or comments about these new sections or anything related to Python Crash Course, feel free to reply to this email. Thanks!
Eric