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When The Darkmod Contributes to RL:


Bikerdude

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After a conversation with Steve this morning it occured to I should be using TDM as way to demonstrate how it has improved or complimented some of my real world skills.

 

During my carreer as senior engineer I have mostly worked with-in a team and sometimes managed one, and what occured to me was that I have been doing exactly the same thing here. Only here here is far more enjoyable, despite not getting paid for it.

 

The nature of the business I'm in (contracts) means work is sporadic, so the plan is to get away from that into more reliable perm work. I have an interview tomorow and I plan to intergrate what I have done in the mod into my CV and any relevent interview questions I get asked.

 

So... not just a hobby (albeit, enjoyable) after all.

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I got my current job as a C++ programmer exclusively from my experience with DarkRadiant. My actual commercial experience at that time was entirely with Java web applications.

 

So yes, doing this kind of thing can make a big difference to your career options.

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It will be interesting to gauge their reaction when mentioning TDM, good luck!

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Absolutely you should do it. It makes an employer's day when they get a passionate enthusiast amongst their interviewees. It doesn't have to be directly relevant either. My brother got a good web dev job on the back of a poker playing robot that he and I had written (for fun not commercial use!) and talking about an open source project you work on will always make you stand out as passionate and hard working.

I have my tdm logo in pocket ready for this evening's talks :-) I mentioned this to biker already but I'm at a corporate event where we all have to bring along a meaningful object that we can hang a story off to say what inspires us to work. I decided to be a bit different and bring tdm into it -- although I'll have to be careful to sound equally as passionate about big data platforms! Not hard fortunately, they're almost as fascinating :-)

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I landed my current job in embedded programming by showing my employer projects that I worked on with hobby electronics like raspberry pi/arduino. They couldnt care less that my degree was in mechanical engineering.

 

I'm sure you'll land the job. Having such a productive hobby like working on TDM speaks volume.

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Thread would have been even better if it started with "So, yesterday's haul was two golden candlesticks, a golden pocket watch, a few fancy plates and a shiny ring...", but this is also cool! Hope you get that job! :)

 

Alas, my job is nowhere close to editing skills, although I do put "CAD experience" on my CVs just in case.

Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well it seems I sailed through both the first and second interviews, because I have been invited back in the new year for a meeting with the MD and the IT director to discuss salary! They had a fixed budget but I brought other things to the table they hadn't thought to ask for but now see as potentially useful.

 

And through all of this, The Darkmod was mentioned several times. Apparently my mapping skills might be useful somehow in bridging a gap they didn't know had, between the tech guys(guys like me) and the developers and designers who create the virtual 3D environments of the building that showcase etc.(3Dmax, sorta comparable to DR)

 

A friend this evening said its probably more a case of the fact I didn't sit on my arse all this time and showed enthusiasm when faced with a challenge... well the past a few of the guys what our website address makes me think it was a mixture of both!

 

So the plan is to stick to my guns, as its all about saving up to buy a place atm.

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I can relate. I was personally introduced to programming by my wish to contribute to open-source games, mostly to add new features. My first encounter was back in 2007, when I found Nexuiz (now called Xonotic) and learned QC code which is relatively simple compared to C++. It lead to me having below average programming skills... enough to contribute to some projects and add simple features or fix simple bugs. Someday it might help me get into programming to an even greater extent!

 

On a more joking note: If Darkmod contributes to any RL skills, I'd expect getting better at extracting letters from the drawers of your co-workers when the room is dark enough :)

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Congrats Biker, I wish you good luck. But it sounds like you got it already. :-)

 

I got my current job as a C++ programmer exclusively from my experience with DarkRadiant. My actual commercial experience at that time was entirely with Java web applications.

 

So yes, doing this kind of thing can make a big difference to your career options.

I did not apply for any job as a C++ programmer, however, in the timeperiod that I worked a little bit with the DR code, I really learned one hell of a lot of stuff and I was glad to be instructed by the mighty Greebo, who also tought me a lot of things. Today, I always tell my students that the best way to learn C++ is to help out on some professional project and I give them my DR experience as an example. Of course, I tell them that the DR team is always looking for capable coders. ;-)

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  • 2 weeks later...

During playing TDM, I learned that there are many ways to solve a problem.

And by creating softwareinstallation-packages for TDM, it gave me a job as a scripter (for preparing webbased products and servers, for publication)

Edited by freyk

Info: My portfolio and darkmod graphical installer
Amnesty for Bikerdude!

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  • 2 weeks later...

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