However, just bear in mind that you are not alone in wanting
to start your computer programmer career by studying at home in your spare time. Actually a significant proportion
of computer programmers are self taught. What everyone who has started a programming career outside the
confines of college have in common is that they all focused on becoming as good as or even better than those who attended
college. If they felt dis-advantaged in the beginning, they ignored that and focused on sharpening their technical skills
until they became expert, highly skilled and competent programmers.
Do Employers Value A Computer Science Degree
Over Raw Programming Talent?
Now, let's get one thing clear. Yes, there are several careers where your formal
education or college degree will literally make or break your career. There are also several high paying careers where it's
illegal to practice without going through a formal education and training system. However, computer programming is not like
that at all. Computer programmers come from all works of life and all levels of education. There are computer programmers
with PhDs and there are computer programmers with a high school diploma. There are computer programmers with backgrounds in
arts, literature, music, law and even medicine. However, the one thing that programmers have in common is the ability to write
program code using a programming language. This means that successful computer programmers have mastered the art of writing
good quality code. So, whether you plan to study and become a computer programmer at home or get trained or enroll in a home
study course or go to college, make it your goal to be the best software developer you can possibly be.
The answer
to the question "do employers value computer science degrees over programming skills" is a NO. This is because it's
quite possible to study programming at a good college and still not be a good software developer. So, when it comes to programming,
your career is only as good as the code you write which levels the playing field for both computer science graduates and self-taught
computer programmers.
IT Is Easy To Study Computer Programming And Get A Job
One of the best kept advantages
of becoming a computer programmer is that you can learn computer programming at home and advance your skills to the level
where you become really good without first getting a programming job. When I realized this more than 10 years ago, I was excited
that I could just buy a computer, connect it to the internet and learn as much of programming as I want without
having to get a programming job first. Of course, I realized that I would still have invest in programming books, invest in
buying programming languages, and invest in training packages that will allow me to learn programming on my own. However,
I figured that the total costs of these investments in my computer programming training would pale in comparison to how much
I was sure to earn as a computer programmer and would also pay in comparison to how much it would cost me to study medicine
or law or engineering or even computer science in college. At the end of the day, I took my training and getting well-paying
contract programming jobs within 6 months. An opportunity I knew I would not have with any other high paying career.
Yes, You Can Get A Computer Programming Job Without A College Degree
After more than 10 years, spent working
several software development jobs, I have a lot of personal, intimate knowledge of how the industry works. I have worked with
talented software programmers who got into programming with a high school education or dropped out of college to begin a programming
career. So, I am always a bit surprised when someone that I am coaching or someone who runts into me on my blog at www.IT-CAREER-COACH.NET
tells me they can not start their programming career because they do not have a college education or a computer science degree. If you are saying this to yourself, then you are just making excuses for not taking action. Let me tell you that from my
experience as a software developer mentor, I have discovered that people make excuses to themselves because they are not ready
to hold themselves accountable to results. So, they either complain about how old they are or how poor they are or they complain
about the time it will take them to learn programming or complain that they cannot afford to go to college and study computer
science or complain that programming textbooks are too expensive and they go on like that. Okay, I am telling you now that
there is nothing stopping you from beginning your programming career if you really want to and it's not as hard as you
think it is.
So, Where Does This Leave You?
This leaves you without an excuse for not taking action.
I am granting you the liberty to pursue your passion, your dream and your personal excellence to learn or master computer
programming. As a software developer mentor, IT Career Coach and Contract Programmer, I have worked with people who overcame
all sorts of personal situations, handicaps and obstacles to begin their software developer career. On my blog at www.IT-Career-Coach.NET,
I coach, mentor and train individuals who want to transition to a software developer career or become an expert computer programmer.
From my personal experience and observation helping programmers from all over the world succeed in software development professions,
your success in programming boils down to how skilled you are at software development and how much experience you have in
solving real-world problems. If you gain a lot of practical programming skills and knowledge your software developer career
will go into overdrive. If you want to improve your programming skills and take your career to the next level, I recommend
you read "the street smart guide to computer programmer careers" book which explains how to master computer programming
in as little as 4 months. It will shave years off your learning curve by showing you how to learn programming fast, how to
prepare your resume so you get noticed by hiring managers, how to prepare for and excel at technical job interviews so you
get job offers more easily and how to consistently gain the kind of programming experience that keeps your career moving forward
Programming a computer has always fascinated me. To be able to type a few lines of english into a machine,
and then it does all sorts of things for me, was really exciting. It still is. If I need to do some task, I just write a programme
to do it for me and I can take the rest of the week off!
If you are a creative or lateral thinking person,
computer programming can be very satisfying; especially if you are doing it for yourself or freelance. I've been programming
in various languages since about 1987, and I still enjoy doing it.
So how do you become a programmer?
Where do you start?
First off, you need to be able to work a computer. How to use the mouse, keyboard,
move files, get around explorer and so on. You also need to have a reasonable ability in math. (You can learn it as you go
along as well.)
Then you need to decide what type of programmes you would like to write
- financial, games, operating systems, machine controllers, etc - because each type of programming has a particular type of
programming language that is particularly suited to it. For instance, Delphi is fine tuned for Databases, C++ is good for
operating systems, Visual Basic works well in web applications.
Then you need to select the programming language that you would like to use. eg.
Delphi, C++, Visual Basic, etc, etc.
You will have to buy yourself a Compiler, the
software package that you use to write your programs. (Or use one at your school or library, or borrow a friends computer
if he's got it installed. But eventually you will have to buy your own.)
Then you need to either
go on a course that offers tuition in this language, or start teaching yourself; in which case you will need books to refer
to. Courses are available via correspondence, at technikons or at universities.
Then you need a couple
of years (part time) to do all this studying. Maybe after a month or two you will be able to turn out programmes that are
kinda useful.
Programming is a bunch of
commands written in a "language" that is normal english words, but a small finite set
of them, together with symbols and punctuation that all has a particular function. For example:
This little bit of programming
would put the text "Hi there guys" into a little box on the screen; but note: This is only part of a larger programme,
and won't work by itself. If you leave out one of the semi-colons or a full stop, the program won't work!
So you have to write this "english" in a particular
format, so that the compiler can "interpret" it, and convert
it into machine code so that the computer can "understand" it and execute it.
A
compiler is the software that takes your programme, written in this pseudo english, and converts it into a computer
readable and executable form.
