Programming - Advice?

[maskedmelonpai]

Curious what the best avenue is to enter this field. Are there many freelance opportunities? Independent contracting? Remote opportunities? What sort of education is necessary? What sort is suggested? What are most popular languages? Which are most useful? Which most needed? What sort of drawbacks are there?

What else?

[dafier]

I'm where you are. Someone I work with (not directly) gave me the same advice I read in a C# and C++ book. Just program. Explore what you can do with it and don't give up.

Books are books, but you need to program in order to train your mind to think like a programmer. It's a way of thought, simply put.

Languages don't matter until later. I personally started with Basic back in the 80s.

[bigjerry]

my X point plan for success in the field: read a c# book, play a lot of videogames so you can type fast and look semicompetent, lie on your resume, lie in interviews, use performance-enhancing drugs for high pressure social situations, learn jedi mind tricks, have visible abs, learn statistics and use them to write reports so you can suck up to the execs, figure out the psychology of ppl who can remove technical responsibilities while increasing your pay and abuse it, convince everyone to love you

[dafier]

Originally Posted by bigjerry [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

my X point plan for success in the field: read a c# book, play a lot of videogames so you can type fast and look semicompetent, lie on your resume, lie in interviews, use performance-enhancing drugs for high pressure social situations, learn jedi mind tricks, have visible abs, learn statistics and use them to write reports so you can suck up to the execs, figure out the psychology of ppl who can remove technical responsibilities while increasing your pay and abuse it, convince everyone to love you

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limitless_(film)

[dafier]

Haynar is a great person to engage! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]


HAYNAR! (On page 25 of the member list, under H)

[Izmael]

There's plenty of jobs for GOOD programmers in pretty much any language.

If you're new to it, I'd probably suggest trying out Javascript because you can get started really fast and need nothing but a web browser and notepad.

[paulgiamatti]

Originally Posted by maskedmelonpai [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Curious what the best avenue is to enter this field.

Varies based on lots of stuff, but if you want a generic answer, save up for some courses in a specific language such as C# .net and get certified. A certification is pretty much a guarantee that you'll get your foot in the door at the entry level.

Originally Posted by maskedmelonpai [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Are there many freelance opportunities?

Not really. I'm sure there is such a thing, but it's rare, and there's almost always going to be a contract involved if you find work with an actual company, which brings us to

Originally Posted by maskedmelonpai [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Independent contracting?

which you more or less need a proven track record to find gainful work in. Independent contracting is something programming veterans will find success in because they'll have a desirable skillset and an extensive resume.

Originally Posted by maskedmelonpai [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Remote opportunities?

Another thing I wouldn't exactly count on at the entry level, or in general. If you're on salary you may be allowed to work remotely if you've proven reliable, but almost all companies are going to require a physical presence at a location at least some of the time, if not all of the time.

Originally Posted by maskedmelonpai [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

What sort of education is necessary?

None.

Originally Posted by maskedmelonpai [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

What sort is suggested?

Again varies based on lots of stuff. If you have a particular interest in one language, get a certification for that language. If you have a more generic interest in programming without a specific goal in mind then you might want to enroll in some college-level courses to learn the fundamentals and then find out what interests you from there.

Originally Posted by maskedmelonpai [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

What are most popular languages? Which are most useful? Which most needed?

C# .net and Java are really popular these days, and probably the only two I'd recommend for object-oriented programming. There's still huge value in learning C++, but if your primary concern is landing a job I'd worry about that later. JavaScript is also hugely valuable and definitely the most widely employed for web development.

Originally Posted by maskedmelonpai [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

What sort of drawbacks are there?

Hard to say, and I'm probably not qualified to really expound on which languages excel at doing what, but I've seen programs consisting of a bunch of lua scripts compiled in C, such as Zaela's EQGExport, hugely outperform C# programs like Shendare's EQ-Zip. Drawbacks are mostly contingent on programming knowledge and skill level, and the better understanding you have of fundamental programming concepts the better you'll be able to utilize a language and write functional code.

Originally Posted by maskedmelonpai [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

What else?

You don't need to be an expert programmer to understand programming concepts. I've found it's easier to learn a language by researching how to do something specifically - I'll have a specific, simple idea in mind, and set about researching how to do that by performing a flurry of Google searches and by studying the code of software that might be instructive so as to achieve that goal. http://stackoverflow.com/

[dafier]

In regards to C# and C++:

If you learn C#, you'll learn C++ basically. The only difference is garbage collection and memory allocation with C++ that you don't get with C#. C# does those two for you, which has its goods and bads.

EDIT:

What CaveTroll says. Except I disagree. I've been a manager of Microsoft based systems for years. There is money in it (not the same as 10+ years ago). If you have a clean life style, go government. It's guarantied work and the pay isn't as low as commercial industry.

[mgellan]

Start out building some web sites in HTML5, PHP and Javascript with Netbeans. Learn some Java. Then, get the free version of Visual Studio and learn some C# and build some sites in that. If you find you enjoy coding and debugging / testing, then take some courses. Do some sites you can use for a portfolio to show potential customers.

As for bullshitting your way through interviews, I'm a programmer with 30 years experience and now at a Director level, so I'm the guy across the table from you at an interview. It will take me 10 seconds to figure out if you're full of shit. In fact I've probably made you write a test before you ever get to sit at the table.

If you want to try to freelance feel free but you're competing with 1,000,000 Asian people who charge $6/hr. The good news is they generally have some communications challenges, don't have high quality, and are in timezones diametrically opposed to North American customers. So if you provide good service have good references and sample sites, you can probably get some customers freelancing. I just paid a firm in India $1200 to do some work on the GLPI help desk system and it wasn't particularly a positive experience, I'd pay $3000 to a North American I can talk to on the phone and who understands a simple spec... I'm talking about work coming from sites like eLance.com versus locally obtained work of course. If you have some way to get in with a few customers locally all the better, I certainly started out that way.

Regards,
Mg

[Jerin]

Originally Posted by mgellan [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

As for bullshitting your way through interviews, I'm a programmer with 30 years experience and now at a Director level, so I'm the guy across the table from you at an interview. It will take me 10 seconds to figure out if you're full of shit. In fact I've probably made you write a test before you ever get to sit at the table.

im learning this more the rule and not the exception. know your shit