Am a 3rd year student in Australia studying computer systems and would like to gain some programming experience preferably under the supervision of an experienced programmer. Am competent in c and java. I would like to gain solid skills before i graduate and i think working under the guidance of someone experienced could accelerate that process. I would work completely for free to gain some more experience and maybe a reference.
Don't sell yourself short. With knowing a few languages there's no reason why you can't get an entry-level programming job that you can get paid to do. You'll get experience and you'll get paid. Giving it away for free doesn't necessarily sweeten the pot.<p>The real trick is going to be finding a place where you will have a good mentor. You might be surprised to know that many programmers who are employed are not very good at programming even though they get paid for it. You don't want to be learning from someone like that.<p>Another option might be to talk to some of your professors at school. They might have their own projects going, or know someone who does. They would also better know people who might be good mentors.
You need to put a email address in the profile notes section of your profile. I was going to send you an email to ask you a few questions.<p>While it's illegal to not pay someone for useful work in my country (US), if you were a match I'd look into internships and paying intern wages once you showed any capacity to do work we could use after bringing you up to bare competence via starter projects.
My first reaction on reading the title is that you don't need to work for anyone in order to work for free for experience. Just work on some project of your own. What you want is to work for free in exchange for mentoring.