"But that experience is necessary to be a "rockstar" who doesn't need to go look for a job, and who is courted. Very few people fall into that category right out of college, and when you say that you can compete with them, that's either arrogance or ignorance which is speaking."
I didn't define rockstar that way, and I've realized I had a complete misconception how people would perceive the term.
I didn't mean that I can compete with Google's senior architects, or you, or anything of that grandiose nature. I'm positive I can't.
I meant in comparison to all other college Juniors, I think I can compete with the best of them.
You should read the Joel on Software article you referenced very carefully, specifically, the bit which says:
"Astute readers, I expect, will point out that I’m leaving out the largest group yet, the solid, competent people. They’re on the market more than the great people, but less than the incompetent, and all in all they will show up in small numbers in your 1000 resume pile, but for the most part, almost every hiring manager in Palo Alto right now with 1000 resumes on their desk has the same exact set of 970 resumes from the same minority of 970 incompetent people that are applying for every job in Palo Alto, and probably will be for life, and only 30 resumes even worth considering, of which maybe, rarely, one is a great programmer. OK, maybe not even one."
Did you see what Joel did there? He's basically admitted that rockstar programmers are present in the population that he's interested in hiring at a rate of less than 30 to 1. So don't focus on the rockstars; it was probably a mistake for you to mention it in your blog post, because the reality is, you (or anybody else) has no idea whether you have what it takes to be a "rockstar programmer". Just settle on being a solid, competent developer, and then build on it from there.
The reality is that to achieve true greatness in almost any profession, you need to be lucky (either in the genes you received in the case of atheletics) or getting the right opportunity, but you also have to work really, REALLY, hard. People don't necessarily talk enough about how the Beatles were perfectionists, and how hard they worked on their craft and on their recordings; instead it's a lot more fun to talk about being a rock star, and all of the bene's that come from being a rock star.
So I'll repeat what I said --- work hard. Make a name for yourself (and not as a whiner). Contribute to the community. Be passionate about you chose to work on, so that you think it's wonderful to spend 60+ hours of your free time working on it. If you're not passionate about your day job, then start looking ASAP to find a new working situation for which you can be passionate.
Then be patient, and watchful for your specific opportunity to come by. And grab it when it does.
I didn't define rockstar that way, and I've realized I had a complete misconception how people would perceive the term.
I didn't mean that I can compete with Google's senior architects, or you, or anything of that grandiose nature. I'm positive I can't.
I meant in comparison to all other college Juniors, I think I can compete with the best of them.