bussiem

Hey everyone, I'm in a bit of a pickle, so I figured this would be a good place to ask this question. Here's my situation: I'm fresh out of college with my B.S. in Computer Science, and I'm looking around for jobs. I very much want to end up doing some kind of software development. However I am current talking with a company who has openings for a "Consultant" gig, the training of which includes programming, as does the job. HOWEVER, the job itself is not pur programming. According to the person I talked to, the job is only about 15-20% programming, the rest is client interaction, on-site support, etc. To top it all off, the actual coding is using proprietary software and language.

So here's my actual question: Say I were to take this job (If I get it). I spend 4 years there, and for some reason or another I decide to move on and look for Software Engineer jobs. Will ANY of this time spent as the Consultant count as what could be "Programming Experience" for a higher level developer position? Alternatively, would the situation be changed at all if I devoted spare time during the Consulting gig to contribute to Open-Source on github and the like?

Please help me if you can, I'm a bit lost on what to do, since I have very little experience with this sort of thing as of yet (and I'm not afraid to admit it.)

Regards,

Max