Programmer as a career!!

Hello All!!

I have recently been bitten by the programming bug and would love to one day make it a career. What kind of certifications do/should I need to obtain in order to open up some doors? I assume that Microsoft has a plethora of certifications that one probably would need to get, but am familiar with none. In addition to Microsoft's, which are some other ones out there? Guidance is needed!!



~darknailblue

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Highly esteemed, excitied, knowledge-thirsty n00b

My personal feeling is that those certifications are not necessary, though they may open some doors. It seems to me that people around here have had mixed views on their use. If I was hiring a programmer, I might give some weight to a certification, but only as a last resort.

Thanks for the feedback. What do you suggest I do to gain some experience then?

I'd say knowledge and experience together probably open the most doors. If you have the skills, it's just a matter of putting in the work. I think many employers would value real world experience over paper qualifications.

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Originally Posted by darknailblue

Thanks for the feedback. What do you suggest I do to gain some experience then?

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Heheh, we posted at the same time.

What do you know and what have you done so far?

Get up to speed on .NET as by the time you get the knowledge it will be 100% dominate language.

Then its just getting an employeer giving you the chance. If you have a MS cert. then that can always count for something especially when your lacking experience.

See well, that's the thing. I have no experience in programming but came across it as a hobby. I find myself falling deeper and deeper into to it, so why not turn something that is both mentally stimulating and fun into a career? As far as where I am now what should I do? Is a certification worth it if I have no experience? What should I do to gain some experience?

Most of us started out doing it as a hobby.

Many people including myself wrote programs for ourselves, and learnt from the help files (or the forums) as we went. Others prefer to learn from books (or tutorials etc), or in classrooms.

There is no alternative to "getting dirty" tho, so in whatever way suits you best, keep programming, and learning as you go.


I'd recommend leaving certifications for a while - if you haven't got the knowledge, you wont pass. You'll just waste the money (and time) it cost you.

Once you have the knowledge tho, certifications are very useful for getting employed.

For the most part...

1 year of work-related experience = 2 years of education

A good way to get started is volunteering. Go to your local library or some kind of a charity and offer your services. You probably won't get paid, but it is good for the resume.

The other thing you can do is offer feasible ideas at work. Make sure you can accomplish what you say you can, and then mention it to your superiors. Eventually, after so many apps have been made, they'll need a full-time person to support them. If they didn't have a dev person before, they will now.

If you can, find an internship.... even better if you can find a paid internship.

-tg

Thanks for all the suggestions guys!! The fog is starting to clear up... Just a little bit though :/

Sometimes you can fall into programming by doing other things. I'm a biologist, but once I started programming, it turned out there were plenty of programming needed in biology, so it began to take over my career.

A bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering won't hurt either.

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Originally Posted by JPicasso

A bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering won't hurt either.

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Especially if you want to be able to interface hardware in software. After an EE, most hardware interfacing in software is trivial. But a CS wouldn't hurt either - understanding how software is done makes actually designing it much easier.