I'm a 17 year old high school student going into his senior year. Should I make a Resume`&Portfolio

[timid ember]

Hi I've been learning c++ and opengl for a while now. I did a couple of projects( A 3D renderer, experimented with pbr and ibl, and a pong game) currently working on a game engine integrated into fps game. Recently I made a text based graphics debugger(referenced from learnopengl). Also I linked all the necessary libraries and dependencies. I commited the project into my github page. Now I'm wondering if I should make a Resume` documenting my project and the things I learned along the way. Please let me know thanks 🙂

[marble lintel]

It couldn't hurt, but a CS degree would really help you mature as a programmer.

[timid ember]

Yeah ofcourse I'm planning on doing a CS degree. But I mean in the mean time for internships and stuff like that

Also how should I structure my portfolio/Resume

[red forge]

if ur applying for internships then yea

u need it to apply

[tall spruce]

Internships don't usually hire people until after their 2nd year of university, if you want an internship you'll probably have to find a direct connection who can give you one, and it probably won't be graphics

[timid ember]

😦 no internships at all? So should I keep working on the resume` or just work on personal projects and upload them to github?

[red forge]

work on projects

imo

[tall spruce]

Tbh if you've already done all that other stuff I'd say go hang out with you friends or go to the gym lol

You're not really getting ahead much by being precocious in your studies

Do it for fun if you like

But don't sacrifice your childhood for it

[red forge]

true

[timid ember]

Yeah idk to be honest because I do go to the gym and hang out with friends. But I also enjoy doing projects a lot (especially games) I feel a lot more pleasure than watching movies and brainrot xD

[tall spruce]

Just keep doing them then

If you need money get some part time job

Internships aren't more fun that projects they are important because they teach you the unfun parts of working lol

[marble lintel]

If you're really eager to do something more advanced, you can always get in touch with a professor at a local university and see if they have any projects you can do. This happens more than you might think. When I judged the state science fair all of the contestants (high schoolers who'd won their regional science fairs) were working with a professor. And there was a high schooler involved in the lab I was in as an undergraduate. Can't hurt to reach out.

[dense wave]

I mean he is asking what he can do to get ahead. You are getting ahead by doing projects in your spare time that you can showcase. Hanging out with friends or going to the gym does not help your career if you want to build a career in software.

[tall spruce]

Debatable

Actually not debatable

Being a well rounded person is essential to success in your career

I've seen people do exactly what he's describing where they work super hard to "get ahead" and waste their whole adolescence doing only one thing, and then everyone goes to college and catches up to their 10 years of childhood experience in 4 years of their adult experience all while having done other things with themselves as a youngster

And the people that try so hard to get ahead end up burned out

So if he is enjoying doing projects then that's fine but striving for the sake of getting ahead is self sabotaging

[timid ember]

What are the unfun parts?

[timid ember]

Hmm, is there a computer graphics professor?

[red forge]

having to work 9-5, working on stuff u dont like

[timid ember]

Yeah I do a mix of these activities. I hang out with my friends and then sometimes we play video games together. I also go usually to the gym on weekdays. But most of the time learning stuff that's enjoyable xD

[timid ember]

As a graphics programmer do you work on other things than graphics? I heard in IT there's a lot of writing reports and dealing with unbearable people😅

[red forge]

im a student :p

[timid ember]

undergraduate?

[red forge]

yeah

[timid ember]

nice what major did you choose?

[red forge]

CS

[timid ember]

Is CS still worth pursuing? I heard that a lot of it is algorithms that's rarely used. Is it enjoyable too? I mean ofcourse there's some parts that are too abstract and theoretical to be enjoyable xDD

[red forge]

imo yes

algorithms & data structures are fundamental stuff for a reason

every uni has a different mix of theory and programming so i cant relly compare but ime i havent been taught "rarely used" algo's or too abstract/theoretical

[tall spruce]

Spending all day long working on someone else's stuff at their direction

Deadlines, pressure, workplace politics

having no free time

getting along with people you don't necessarily like

generally all these things aren't too bad but they're unavoidable

And yes a degree is definitely essential these days at least in the US, the issue with getting so far ahead is that 80% of the material will be stuff you already know so it will be hard to pay attention and catch the remaining 20% which is important theory

that's the risk of getting ahead

you don't want to get too far ahead

[timid ember]

What do you mean at their direction? Does that mean that you just do a task with techniques that he specified? I mean isn't doing graphics programming still fun even if you're not working on the things you want to work on? Like the results that you yield after continuously trying to make it work isn't satisfactory?

[tall spruce]

At work you're probably not going to be touching all the graphicsy parts you'll be made to work on some middle-layer of infrastructure code that sucks and needs to be rewritten but can't be because stuff relies on it

[red forge]

its not a magical job that is always fun

[timid ember]

Does gpa matter? I mean as long as you pass and finish all the credits. Does the recruiter usually look at gpa and stuff like that or just the degree?

[tall spruce]

Some do

some don't

I wouldn't say it matters if you have good practical skills as long as you do retain the foundational knowledge from the degree

[timid ember]

Rip so no actual visual changes to the stuff you programmed?

[tall spruce]

Idk I'm not a graphics programmer so I don't know exactly at what level people operate on average

I'm sure you see stuff sometimes

although shader programming is more of a tech artist thing

[red forge]

https://alextardif.com/LearningGraphics.html

[tall spruce]

but industrial-grade codebases are enormous and have a lot of parts so on average you're likely to work on some internal part that's not super visible

[timid ember]

Mmm, but isn't everything available online I mean all the information you need? Or do you mean while you're at it retain the things you learn?

[timid ember]

Then what's a graphics programmer?

[tall spruce]

mostly the host application stuff afaik

[tall spruce]

idk what you mean, in order to pass your classes you have to actually learn the stuff in class you can't just google it

a lot of it isn't necessarily online

[timid ember]

I thought a GP worked with shaders and and trying to come up with solutions for optimizing and getting rid of artifacts

[tall spruce]

I'm sure it depends on where you are

[timid ember]

Oh alright

[timid ember]

What do you mean like geographically?

[tall spruce]

Like what company

If you're working at a startup or contracting for some small component that you're mostly working on yourself, you might touch the whole stack

[timid ember]

Oh I'm aiming at a game dev company 😅

[tall spruce]

But if you're working on a million+ line of code industrial codebase for AAA games or something there is so much internal machinery I'm sure you could end up not touching the visuals much

I'm sure it depends

[timid ember]

But I know you need a lot of work experience before getting hired there right?

[tall spruce]

Idk listen to a real graphics programmer not me I just do it for fun because I like being in control of everything

You mostly need a degree and good skills, work experience just proves your capabilities

[timid ember]

The'res not a lot of startups right?

[tall spruce]

there are, they just often don't make it lol

but anyways really I don't mean to scare you off of your future career you will learn to deal with being an employee when you get there

[timid ember]

I heard it's very very difficult to land a job in a AAA company

[tall spruce]

you already have more project experience than you need at this point so I wouldn't worry about doing anything more that's intended to get ahead work/school wise

just chill

[timid ember]

Do you know someone that works as a graphics programmer in this server?

[timid ember]

Mhm

[tall spruce]

yes there are quite a few

what country are you in

[timid ember]

Yeah lol the thing that I have so much anxiety from is crunch time and overworking developers. Also layoffs and people yelling at me for making some mistakes xD

[timid ember]

Oh nice 😄

[timid ember]

Will do, but definitely can't stop from learning new stuff xD. There's this sense of joy when I learn something new and apply it

[timid ember]

Dallas, Texas

[tall spruce]

ok yeah was just checking if US since idk how other countries work education wise

[tall spruce]

sure as long as it's fun

[timid ember]

Also is it possible to get hired here from this server(when I finish my degree)

I mean if I showcased my projects and uploaded my resume are there people who would hire me if it's a remote job or they live in the same state as I do?

[tall spruce]

you can look at what gets posted in #job-postings

But you should generally look elsewhere

you don't really want a remote job

especially not as your first job