Software Development and Programming Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[Data-Hawk]

yea I was contemplating a 3 month course. they supposedly teach you all the popular languages. and even for complete beginners you leave with a nice sized portfolio. work on group projects, individual. this is like 4-5 days a week, 8 hour days. but i was still really considering going to school to get at least an associates. maybe i'll look into math myself. I always hated it, but if I plan on going this programming route I know it would be a great foundation for me. is an associates degree in math good enough to get your foot in the door somewhere?

If you are hungry , yes it will help. I don't have a degree and i'm a Sr Programmer. It really comes down to the person. When I was at the help desk, I was working with a guy who had a degree in Mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland. He should of had no problems finding a job in the DC/MD/VA area, but he couldn't. He couldn't find one in his field or land a better position within the company. He was your typical "book smarts", but lacked common sense. I told him several times, with your background try writing some programs to help us out, he'll reply with " Naw man, I don't like management"... I told him don't go above and beyond for "them", do it so you'll have something to put down on your resume. He started at the help desk straight out of High School ( he had connections through his mother ), making $20/hr. Truthfully he was probably spoiled...lol

 

[AwkwardHand]

Anybody use the Java language in their work/career?

I'm in school studying software dev with emphasis on Java, an internship is included in the program of study, ya'll think the internship will help a little when it comes time to apply for jobs?

Also, been learning and playing around with Android Studio, would be dope if I could create and ship an app while in school, that would look good on the resume.

 

[ccna123]

Is it worth getting a masters degree in computer science

 

[Type Username Here]

Anybody use the Java language in their work/career?

Yes but not daily.

I'm in school studying software dev with emphasis on Java, an internship is included in the program of study, ya'll think the internship will help a little when it comes time to apply for jobs?

Absolutely.

Also, been learning and playing around with Android Studio, would be dope if I could create and ship an app while in school, that would look good on the resume.

Yes it would.

 

[Type Username Here]

Is it worth getting a masters degree in computer science

Depends on circumstances. Did you just get your bachelors? Are you paying for the grad degree? Are you in need of income right away? Do you plan to on doing academic work?

Not really cut and dry answer

 

[AwkwardHand]

Yes but not daily.



Absolutely.



Yes it would.

Dap + Rep.

 

[Type Username Here]

Dap + Rep.

Check out a post I made several pages ago. I go into detail about how to get started with Android Studio and your first app. The best thing to do while learning to code and refining your skills is to pick up "Real world" scenarios and tools, and then implement them.

 

[AwkwardHand]

Check out a post I made several pages ago. I go into detail about how to get started with Android Studio and your first app. The best thing to do while learning to code and refining your skills is to pick up "Real world" scenarios and tools, and then implement them.

I appreciate it breh, I will definitely take a look. You're right about the real world scenario thing, I feel like the little that I've learned was from actually building something that helped me out in some way (for example I built a twitter bot in Python).

 

[Malik]

So far, I have familiarity with PHP and MySQL but, I"m not proficient. So the last two months, I've started relearning everything from scratch. I'm halfway through HTML5 (and CSS). I want to get into JavaScript (JQuery) next, which should last about a month or two. Pretty much, I have a goal of learning HTML5, CSS, PHP, Android, iOS and JavaScript this year. I'm just not sure if I should bother with PHP or learning Ruby and Python (which I'm leaning more towards) instead. PHP would just be easier as I have some experience with it.

 

[Richard Wright]

I have a big project and potential start-up coming up. I had an internship over the summer and im saying screw working for the man. Ill keep you guys updated as I make progress.

 

[Sane]

I have a big project and potential start-up coming up. I had an internship over the summer and im saying screw working for the man. Ill keep you guys updated as I make progress.

 

[kevm3]

So far, I have familiarity with PHP and MySQL but, I"m not proficient. So the last two months, I've started relearning everything from scratch. I'm halfway through HTML5 (and CSS). I want to get into JavaScript (JQuery) next, which should last about a month or two. Pretty much, I have a goal of learning HTML5, CSS, PHP, Android, iOS and JavaScript this year. I'm just not sure if I should bother with PHP or learning Ruby and Python (which I'm leaning more towards) instead. PHP would just be easier as I have some experience with it.

Give Javascript a year, not a month or two. On the PHP, Ruby/Python front, PHP typically has more jobs, but they pay less as compared to Ruby and Python/Django. Are you more for stability or seeking the higher paycheck but more willing to move around for the jobs?

 

[kevm3]

would anybody recommend these programming boot camps?.....I know some of yall are thinking why pay when you can learn on your own. but I guess the whole appeal of the boot camps is that they teach you so much in only a few months time. and a lot of them have a great job placement rate, and even offer partial refunds if they don't find you a job within 6 months of finishing the program. seems like it could be a great experience

I'm personally skeptical on those bootcamps, which often claim a 90%+ hire rate and guys just coming out making 80 to 90k. Unless there are absolute geniuses just going through those camps, it'll take a lot longer than 3 months to really make someone competent starting from the ground up.

 

[Richard Wright]

Im learning 'R' now. I want to self study machine learning before I take the grad class next year. Statistics compliments computer science so well.

I'm personally skeptical on those bootcamps, which often claim a 90%+ hire rate and guys just coming out making 80 to 90k. Unless there are absolute geniuses just going through those camps, it'll take a lot longer than 3 months to really make someone competent starting from the ground up.

I am skeptical as well. I bet a lot of the people contributing to those great placements are people who majored in 'x' at a top school and ae using the bootcamps to add a marketable skill to an otherwise solid resume. Only person I know who did one was a rich jewish kid from a top LAC.

These bootcamps are like everything else in the technological world: they help those who need the least help the most. Either way there is no way you write your first line of code then 3-6 months later you understand the inner workings of a linux kernel. Sure, you learn skills for today. But what about when the hot language changes and these bootcampers dont know any theory? Seems so temporarily useful to me.

 

[Malik]

Give Javascript a year, not a month or two. On the PHP, Ruby/Python front, PHP typically has more jobs, but they pay less as compared to Ruby and Python/Django. Are you more for stability or seeking the higher paycheck but more willing to move around for the jobs?

Well that wasn't really my main intention to be honest. Me and best friend have been floating around ideas for an app for 4 years now (all of college). We've had about 5 so far. We thought we could just pay developers to build for us because we didn't want to take the time to learn everything ourselves. Now we realize in 4 years we could've learned all this stuff ourselves by now So that's where we're at. We started last month. He's farther along than me, already delving into JavaScript. I'm finishing up Html/CSS and just wanted to know the best programming language to learn. I want to learn too because of job opportunities. Would it be too difficult to learn both Python and PHP? I'm going back to the DMV/DC area in a few weeks and that's where I'm going to probably stay for the long term. The area is crawling with computer jobs from as far as I can remember. I'd want to stay there.