Like others in this thread, I would suggest he participate in open source projects to get some real-world experience under his belt. At the very least it will give him some extra lines to put on his CV and some code which he can point to for reference. Also, since participation in such projects is mostly done via public mailing lists, prospective employers can get an idea of how he works together with other team members, which can be an important factor in the hiring decision.
I also think he should not be put off from applying for a job if he thinks he doesn't quite have all the qualifications. By this I do not mean he should disregard requirements which are essential to the job (applying for a Java job without ever having written any Java is not a good idea) and even less that he should lie about his qualifications. But job ads are often written by HR (or even worse, job agency) droids, who have certain keywords imprinted into their forebrain, a job ad that doesn't ask for "extensive experience" just does not seem complete to them. Once you get to the actual interview with the people making the decisions you find that lack of experience may be tolerable if it's compensated by a keen desire for learning and skill at what one has learnt already. He should be prepared to answer questions like "All your co-workers have n years of experience in the field, how do you expect to keep up" at the interview, but that's no impossible task. And at the worst he'll get interview experience which can be valuable for finally getting the right job.
In reply to Re: (OT) Programmer Job Search How-to
by tirwhan
in thread (OT) Programmer Job Search How-to
by bioMan
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