Ask HN: Desperate Python Hacker Seeking Help and Suggestions
Your description really isn't enough to give you advice.  You should post your resume online somewhere and link to it.<p>But, based on what you said, I can tell you:<p>Using Python in school and at a job doesn't make you a Python Hacker.  From your description of yourself it sounds like you mostly play with programming.  It may just be the way you worded it, but what was the last 'major' software project you have worked on, either for work or open source?  Have you been a developer professionally, or have you skirted on the edges of the industry?  I interview candidates and review resumes all the time, and nothing sets off my spidey senses more than someone who overestimates their skills.  If you don't know a topic well and know you don't, that is totally fine, but when a candidate says they are an '8/10' in a language, but I gauge them to be a near beginner, it tells me they are blissfully unaware how much they don't know.  That means that they probably have never learned any language or topic with a high degree of mastery, and that they aren't aware of how much more is out there in the language in question.  That means they aren't very curious, and they aren't passionate (or worse, they aren't smart).<p>It also sounds like you have a graduate degree in some non-technical field.  Did you graduate recently?  The courses you list are not very advanced, and coursework doesn't really matter for employment anyway.<p>We are hiring aggressively (like most big tech companies in the valley) have an engineering challenge up at: <a href="http://codeeval.com/public_sc/48/" rel="nofollow">http://codeeval.com/public_sc/48/</a> . If you do it competently we <i>will</i> call you back.  We pay well, have great benefits, offer relocation, etc.  However, it is fairly challenging and the majority of people who attempt it are not able to complete it.<p>Honestly, FizzBuzz is meant as a test of basic programming competency.  It's disqualifying when an engineer can't do it, but it's not anything to brag about. A competent engineer should be able to implement FizzBuzz in any computer language in a few minutes, even if they've never seen the language before, so long as they can get documentation.<p>No matter what happens, you aren't going to find work in Michigan.  You aren't connected and from the sound of it your resume is very light, and you don't have a network, so contracting and freelancing just isn't realistic for you.  Based on your description of yourself, you would be a fairly junior level engineer wherever you go.  You have to start somewhere, though.  Good luck!