Why? Was it so awful...???

My personal motivation in replying has been to stay sharp on Linux, by regularly being reminded of common problems and solutions. LinuxQuestions is an excellent learning tool, in that way, for both people with questions and people with solutions.

Someone else pays me to be a Linux software engineer -- and there are a million ways to make money like that. Spending time on this forum pretty directly maps to real-world skills that can land you jobs.

Yeah. And I'm still too traumatized to talk about it. I thought I had nerves of steel before seeing that.

Care to share some of those ways?

How would you put "Linuxquestions time" on your resume? Have you already done this? Care to share how?

I think jhwilliams means that browsing LQ and contributing to LQ builds Linux skills that can get you higher paid jobs.

I learned C by browsing a C BBS and thus learning enough to begin answering progressively more complex questions. Using the knowledge gained, I wrote C programs. I applied for a contract as a C on UNIX programmer with no commercial experience of either C or UNIX -- in a recession -- and got the interview. The client asked to see some of my C code and, on receipt, offered the contract.

During periods of user and system support, especially as a contractor working with a variety of organisations, I learned more than during periods working as a developer because of exposure to a wide variety of technology and methods. LQ participation provides similar exposure.

...so he didn't ask for ANY qualifications? ...AND this happened IN INDIA?!! You're giving me hope, bro!


... and how did you put "BBS time" on your resume?

Did you miss the part where they asked for (and received) samples of his code?? Showing you can do the work is showing your qualifications.
You put in how much time you've had programming/learning. You can start to program in a language today, and in three years (if you've kept learning/programming), you can then honestly say you've had three years working with that language, right?

Actually, yes I recently did. It's in a line like:

Sorry -- it wasn't in India and was at a time when the computing industry was expanding so fast (recessions aside) that simply being able to do the job was enough. It was before product-specific certification (Microsoft started that). Degrees were helpful but did not need to be directly related -- there were many degree-holding physicists, engineers, mathematicians in computing. Language degrees were also popular.

It helped that I had ten years computing experience using other OSes than UNIX and other languages than C.

I do not recall if or how I put BBS time on the resume.

Not in THIS country! They looooooooove pieces of paper around here.

This is a raw nerve, so I would appreciate it if you drop this conversation. Thanks.