Advice for IT Graduates

Over the years, we've had lots of graduates (both young and old) turn up at our door asking for work as software developers or system administrators. Most come from the local Polytech with an IT Diploma of some sort. Generally, they don't have sufficient experience or theoretical understanding to be helpful to us at Egressive. More troubling, however, is that they often seem to think that a) their study will get them a high paying job, and b) it's my duty to hire them, despite the fact that they don't really seem to have a deep interest in IT... They don't tend to get hired, but some do receive some advice, something along these lines:

• Install Linux on your main computer, use it exclusively for development.
• Research open source projects on the 'net, find an interesting project and get involved - and don't just code... work on documentation, submitting patches, taking part in strategic discussions.
• Learn how to work in a real development team, using tools like issue tracking systems and source code control - those are "real world" development technologies.
• Recognise that all the records of open source development activity - mailing list archives, forum posts, source code repositories, commit messages, etc. - is part of your portfolio - you can show prospective employers hard evidence of your capabilities.
• Seek out industry internships, even if unpaid, because they'll help you make connections, gain skills and perspective, and clarify what sort of role you want to seek.

Looks like this article on Linux.com seems to echo my sentiments, and even cites our favourite web application framework as a prime example of a worthy open source project, with which it's easy to get involved! The article goes into depth about lots of great opportunities for recent graduates, like Google's Summer of Code (GSoC), and other initiatives by large open source friendly corporates. It also talks about programs at Microsoft.