Programming career?

How could I pursue a programming career?

• I need career advice from a veteran programmer. What is the best way *for me* to pursue a career as a computer programmer? Here are my constraints: * I wrote long (but simple) programs in BASIC when I was about 13, but never really got into programming after that, though I was always a "power user." (I'm now in my 30s.) * I know HTML, SSI stuff, CSS stuff. I have worked most of the way through Andrew Johnson's "Elements of Programming with Perl." I seem to have a pretty good aptitude for Perl; there's nothing in the book so far that I didn't understand pretty well (at least, after study--it was a little hard to get my mind around references to hashes of arrays of etc.), and I've written several long programs already (e.g., a url-and-title grabber-and-arranger, a wff detector (logic), a directory structure mirroring utility (using recursion, very cool!), and a few others. I'm comfortable on *nix systems and (I think) my next project will be to install Linux on a spare hard drive. I also want to "make" my own computer! * I have a taste for work online, which I have done professionally (just not as a programmer), but if programming opportunities were richer elsewhere, I'd go elsewhere. * FWIW, I have a Ph.D. in philosophy, and I'm unemployed. :-) But I don't expect to have a job as a programmer for several years at least. * Most of my friends are programmers, and I've asked them this question. So the answer I'd like to pay for should be a really good answer of the sort I wouldn't get from a casually concerned programmer friend! I'm not trying to ask more than one question :-), but very helpful as parts of an answer would be such information as the following: recommendations of books to read; links to online documents that might help with thinking this through; what language(s) to learn next; whether I should continue learning Perl in much greater depth or move on to another language; whether I should aim for an AA degree, certification, a bachelor's, a master's, a degree by examination (from Regents College e.g.), or whatnot; what programming languages/fields are likely to be in demand when I'm ready to be employed (in several years, I imagine). In short, I'd love to have a very well-informed opinion, in broad outlines, about the most effective things *I* could do in the next five years to make myself a professional programmer. I'm willing to "think outside the box"...

• Answer:

  Hello grasshop, First of all, thanks for using Google Answers and I hope after reading my suggestions and friendly comments, you'll be able to decide something for your new planned career. In this answer, whatever I'm suggesting, is from my own experience only. Though I'm not a career counselor, but I do have given this suggestion to a friend of mine, who owns a Masters Degree in Chemistry and wanted to shift to programming career. I've Masters degree in computers and I've been into this field from six years. In my six years of experience, I've seen this industry going with so many ups and downs. From the boom of dot com bubble to its burst, from evolution of Java and its burst and many others. So in answer to your question of "what programming languages/fields are likely to be in demand when I'm ready to be employed", I believe that no one can answer this as IT industry is very much volatile and unpredictable in nature. The language or any technology which is famous or in boom today, may not be available for tomorrow. But I must say that you should definitely try to get hold of C as this is a very basic language which I think every programmer should be knowing. As you mentioned that you already have a good experience of BASIC language, so learning C will not be difficult. In fact while learning any language, you should be strong in your logic. If the logic is strong, then learning a particular language is not a big task. With access to Internet, you can very easily learn any language. Now learning of the language depends on which field of IT you are looking for. As you mentioned your interest towards Internet, I'm giving you some of the sites from where you can give a start. Java Language http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/onlineTraining/JavaIntro/ C Language http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~j-hamer/07.211/C/C-Lesson/ and check this one too for C language http://www.strath.ac.uk/IT/Docs/Ccourse/tableofcontents3_1.html Advanced course in HTML http://wdvl.internet.com/Authoring/HTML/ Try this page to find courses on XML, DHTML, CSS, Javascript and many others http://html.about.com/library/beginning/bl_htmlclass.htm This page has a list of several languages with further links to their respective tutorials http://stommel.tamu.edu/~baum/programming.html You can also try something on Multimedia http://www.liacs.nl/~putten/mm/ VB Course http://www.free-ed.net/fr03/lfc/030202/120/ Something on Microsoft's .NET http://samples.gotdotnet.com/quickstart/ Now related to books, check out this link ( http://www.intelinfo.com/books1.html ). It has many books listed and you can purchase them from Amazon site. This article on Monster.com site really impressed me and I think it answers all your questions http://technology.monster.com/articles/10steps/ Have a look at this link. I found it very interesting and thought that it might help you http://www.embedded.com/story/OEG20020405S0049 Regarding your advanced learning in Perl, I would say that there is no harm in learning advanced features of Perl. It is very much used in industry and will definitely help you. About getting more education degrees, certainly this will add a value to your career. If you want to go for some certifications, you can try this site ( http://butrain.bu.edu/ccp/default.asp#Programming ) for certification courses. A Microsoft or Sun certification would very definitely help in getting you a better programming career. Check out this link in Google groups for a similar question http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&threadm=Pine.GSO.3.96.991024042104.20918B-100000%40marley.bitstream.net&rnum=2&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dhow%2Bto%2Bstart%2Bcareer%2Bin%2Bprogramming%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26selm%3DPine.GSO.3.96.991024042104.20918B-100000%2540marley.bitstream.net%26rnum%3D2 Search Terms In Google Groups how to start career in programming: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=how+to+start+career+in+programming&hl=en&lr=&sa=N&tab=wg In Google programming career: ://www.google.com/search?q=programming+career&hl=en&lr= I hope this will help you in deciding about your programming career. Feel free to ask for clarifications and if you are happy with my answer, please rate it. All the very best in your programming career :) Regards, netcrazy