InkFlo
How to deal with the lack of jobs for learning Elixir
Hi everyone,
This year I’m graduated from Bachelor Degree (in computer science) from France (not really a bachelor, the exact term is “Licence Professionnelle”, but it’s pretty similar)
During my schooling at University, I learnt Ruby (and RoR) at home (we don’t learn Ruby at University, it was Java, PHP, Js etc.), and ofc over time I read a lot of positive reviews toward Elixir in the Ruby community.
That’s why I want to learn Elixir and especially FP programming in general, I like the concepts around this paradigm.
This year, I’m not looking for a job, I want to learn FP/Concurrent programming with elixir, but also Python and Maths.
But for the next year (September 2020), I will seek for a job to have professional experience.
The problem is that there isn’t a lot of Elixir jobs in France… It’s always PHP job offers or Java.
I want to have experience in FP because I think that if I start to be used to OOP paradigm, it’s not good to constantly pushing the opportunity to learn FP, it’s like procrastination, when you start to procrastinate it’s hard to go back and stop the habit.
The only opportunities are in Paris and it’s really far from my house… But I really want to learn elixir
So, do you think if I choose to stay in my area and find a job in PHP (or other language) it’s still useful ? or should I move ?
Is PHP experience could be benefit for learning Elixir in the future ? This raises a lot of questions in my mind
PS : I’m not sure if it’s the right section to post this topic
Many thanks
Most Liked
entone
Working as a professional programmer is quite a bit different than university and side projects. I would say find a job using a language you are most comfortable with. Ideally you can find a job where they are using some best practices, Continuous Integration, Agile, etc. Get comfortable with the processes.
Some good questions to ask while interviewing.
How is the software deployed?
How long does it usually take for a PR to make it to production? anything over a few days is a warning sign.
What is the planning like for new features, how are new features decided on?
How many people will be on your team? Is there a project manager? a product manager?
Who will you report to? An engineering manager? CTO? one of the managers above?
What’s the longest tenure on your team?
What is the on-call schedule like?
How do you document your code?
Once you are comfortable, start pushing Elixir 
Maybe a new application will come along that is a good fit for Elixir.
It’s also much easier to find jobs once you have some professional experience.
Nefcairon
Move. When you are young, there is a lot of experience waiting for those who do not stay at home.
dimitarvp
Hey.
Good for you that you jumped the shark to learn FP! As I guy who was 14 years neck-deep into imperative / procedural / OOP languages (C, C++, Java, PHP, Ruby, Go) I can tell you that learning FP is very, very worth it. It will make you a better programmer.
As for job, do not despair! Here are some links for you:
- Job ads on this very forum.
- HackerNews’ jobs section.
- HackerNews’ monthly “Who’s hiring” mega-threads. Please note: this search also includes “Who wants to be hired” / “Freelancers” as well. But it’s really easy to filter for “Who’s hiring” by eyeballing.
There are other outlets but I found ElixirForum and HackerNews the most efficient channels to find employers looking for Elixir programmers.
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