Re: How do you become a programmer? Please read!!

There is no best way. All I can say is that for the past 3-4 years there have been FAR more applicants out of the training schools than available jobs. Now I can estimate that its probably 1 job for 100 people. These are the 100 people that fall into your category. No other experience in programming or a related field. No security clearance.

Your lack of a college degree absolutely kills you. Simply because there are alot of people your age with your experience that have degrees that are taking these classes. There are alot of immigrants in this countries who got experience in there home country and came over here. You have to compete against them too. No this is not an anti-immigrant post. Just pointing something out.

There are quite a few people with computer science degrees who cannot get jobs in this economy. Now I can safely assume that in the next 1-2 years things will pick up again, but not right now.

First off, noone gets a job as a database designer to start off with. That is a good 5-7 years down the road ATLEAST. Design really isnt programming anyway. Your are laying out the foundations of the database. 99% of people start as developers. This is the main programming job. There are NO entry level DBA jobs and NO entry level data modelling(design) jobs.

Keep in mind... people who got in 5 or more years ago had a much easier time. Its gotten alot harder to get started in the last 5 years. In large part because the industry is maturing. The longer that Oracle or other relational databases are around the more experience it takes to be considered senior. Now it is still very lucrative, once you get your 2 years... but its incredibly hard to get those two years.

You could take training to get started and see if you get a job.... Id recommend a 3-4 month Oracle developer course. Id also recommend some training in Unix. Since most of the biggest budget Oracle projects are run in a Unix environment. Now you dont need to be an expert in Unix, but employers want to know that you can get around. These classes are VERY expensive.

To see if you like it, Id recommend going to your community college and taking the first level programming class(almost always C++). This is generally VERY hard since they throw you right into it. Most of the time they want you to be able to do calculus at the same time, but you may be able to convince the professor to let you in since your an adult. See how you do. This class will be alot harder than any Oracle class you take, because they use it to weed people out. The training schools dont want to weed people out, they want more sheep to steal money from. Now, I also think that C++ is a pretty lousy language to get started in and I dont like the way they teach it to beginners. Its a blowoff if you program for a year or more, but for someone totally new to it? Its REALLY hard. Worth a try and should be cheap. Classes at the Northern Virginia Community College are like $200. Now there training classes are not partially funded by the state and can get expensive.

Before you do any training, Id suggest posting a link to the webpage about it and whatever info you have on it. On here. If I see it, Ill tell you if its any good. Keep in mind that this takes ALOT of work to learn since its a different way of thinking. Once you do it for a while though... the actual programming is the easy part.

Alot of people come on here and say volunteer somewhere to get experience. I have yet to find a place looking for volunteer Oracle programmers.

Ryan

"shawn gregory" <sgregor6_at_tampabay.rr.com> wrote in message news:nl2o8.265953$Dl4.33427948_at_typhoon.tampabay.rr.com...
> Im very interested in programming, but have no real background or
knowledge
> other than what I have learned on my own, not much yet. I ve posted one
> other time here about my interest in learning to be an Oracle developer
and
> recieved good advice on being carefull with the tech " school"
certification
> route as a way to get the education. Im convinced of my desire to do this,
> but unsure as to the best way to go about it. Im doing this backwards, as
I
> am 34 and have had my own business since getting out of high school. Ive
> always liked being in charge of my time and carreer, and I probably would
> like to do the same with programming at some point. But, besides being
> proffitable, I really have this bug that I just have to figure this
> programming stuff out, even though I am not sure if I can.
> Given the fact that I want to be a programmer, probably in the area of
> database design, what would be the best route to get the training, ( Real
> knowledge ), and the experience for me to pursue this, with possibly
> freelancing as an end goal? College, tech school, online learning, etc.
> Does my age matter in the real world as far as starting now? Do I have to
be
> Spock to do this? Any particular area of programming financially or
> creatively better? Were you as overwhelmed when you first started looking
at
> code as I am? How long did it take you to GET IT?
> I would love to hear from everyone who has an opinion. I thank you.
> Shawn
>
>
Received on Tue Mar 26 2002 - 16:45:49 CST