Computer Programming.

[Barbra]

Well in life so far i've been good at two things, bikes and computers. I can already code very basic html and other bits and bobs, but that was stuff i did for fun, now i'm gonna get serious on it. My next door neighbor is a computer programmer and he has no qualifications what so ever (computer wise) and he makes a fair bit of money to my understanding, he said to me just earlier that, if i can show an employer some of my practical work they are more likely to take me on than someone who has a handfull of qualifications, but (relatively) no practical history. So my kerfuffle is, whether i should go to college and study computer programming get some qualifications, or make like my neighbor and teach myself (which i'm more than prepared to do) and show an employer my practical skills in the form of a website/(online portfolio?) ???

i have neccesary skills like touch typing (when i have both hands fully functional etc )

responsible answers only please, try not to clog the topic, i would prefer only people to reply that have gone through the same perdicament or are computer programmers themselves (i think simon is a programmer is he not?), but if you think you have something that will do well in contributing to my perdicament please post, many thanks.

Edited February 3, 2007 by Barber

[Smo™]

Both. You're far more likely to get work if you have qualifications. You'll need a portfolio anyway, you might as well have an official certificate at a professional level to reinforce an employer's faith in you.

[sUm]

As an undergraduate student in Computer Science I can tell you that going to University/College to "learn programming" is far more than professors teaching you the syntax of languages. In fact in many cases, it is partly up to you to learn the syntax on your own. What they do teach you is language-independent programming patterns, algorithm efficiency, structures, etc. That's not to say that you couldn't also learn these on your own, but they are for the most part far more complex than simply learning a language.

We've all heard of those who get very successful without going to school. When it comes to programming though, those who do go to school for it and those who don't will basically be involved in different areas of work. If you're interested in simple web design or some forms of industrial code that aren't heavily memory-hungry then you may be just fine without going to school. The advantage of being a "computer scientist" is that employers know they have been provided with extensive training in how to problem-solve, use memory efficiently, use efficient algorithms, etc.

To sum up, different approaches work for different people. I will tell you though that I've so far had great experiences with Computer Science in University and would definitely recommend it.

PS regardless of how you go about it, I encourage you to keep persuing programming. You seem very interested in it, and it can be quite rewarding

Edited February 3, 2007 by sUm

[Gavyn.]

Well in life so far i've been good at two things, bikes and computers. I can already code very basic html and other bits and bobs, but that was stuff i did for fun, now i'm gonna get serious on it. My next door neighbor is a computer programmer and he has no qualifications what so ever (computer wise) and he makes a fair bit of money to my understanding, he said to me just earlier that, if i can show an employer some of my practical work they are more likely to take me on than someone who has a handfull of qualifications, but (relatively) no practical history. So my kerfuffle is, whether i should go to college and study computer programming get some qualifications, or make like my neighbor and teach myself (which i'm more than prepared to do) and show an employer my practical skills in the form of a website/(online portfolio?) ???

i have neccesary skills like touch typing (when i have both hands fully functional etc )

responsible answers only please, try not to clog the topic, i would prefer only people to reply that have gone through the same perdicament or are computer programmers themselves (i think simon is a programmer is he not?), but if you think you have something that will do well in contributing to my perdicament please post, many thanks.

Simon's a web designer is he not? i'm pretty sure there quite different from computer programmers, if i were you i would got to college and get the qualifications but i would also build up a portfolio of my work which i could show the employer proving that you're practical aswell as qualified.

[sUm]

Simon's a web designer is he not? i'm pretty sure there quite different from computer programmers, if i were you i would got to college and get the qualifications but i would also build up a portfolio of my work which i could show the employer proving that you're practical aswell as qualified.

Funny, that's pretty much what I was trying to say but you were able to do it in a couple lines. Well done sir haha.

[UrbanPoet]

A third option would be to do a home learning course in whatever language you wish. Although, most are in Visual Basic .NET, which can be used for both web development (ASP.NET) and 'normal' computer programming. It all depends on what area you want to go into, and what's available to you.

[tomturd]

As has been said 'Both'.

If you teach yourself you'll be likely to avoid the more boring parts, which are usually the most important too. Employers will want qualifications.

Liking HTML doesn't necessarily mean that you'll like programming though, I've got my computer science degree now - and I hope I never need to use it. Try and learn some Java or something (it's all free) before you decide, and see if you like it first.

[poopipe]

As has been said 'Both'.

not least because teaching yourself the right words and learning the libraries is only half the job. Design is a large part of programming and there are commonly accepted ways to do things that you'll probably only learn by being told.

I'm no expert on this - I've only ever been a pro at web and database development and the closest i've gotten to proper windows app development is in writing specifications and designing GUI - but I have seen the results of a developer getting "clever" and not writing code the way he was supposed to and it isn't pretty (we're still suffering 18 months after sacking the f**ker)

edit::

touch typing - you won't need that. most developers I've worked with type one fingered at about 2 words a minute, they'll copy and paste individual characters to avoid actually hitting a keyboard if they can get away with it.

also, qualification wise.. about 10 years ago when I first started working with developers almost none of them had computer science degrees - most of them were electrical engineering or maths/physics types so that might be why neighbour doesn't have a computer qualification yet still makes money programming.

Edited February 3, 2007 by poopipe

[Token]

I was in the same situation as you a year or so back. I decided to take the college option, it bored me too much and wasn't motivated to do huge write-ups of unrelated rubbish so naturally after not doing the boring work I got kicked out. So if I was you I'd almost definitely teach myself because if you are genuinely interested in it then you'll pick it up in no time, you'll enjoy it more and get more out of it so eventually you'll be a better programmer for self-teaching.