To the VB teenagers out there

I must say there are so many young people out there who have great experience and knowledge. But ya gotta ALWAYS remember today's hot thing could be tomorrow's extinct programming language. I don't think VB will go away. It appears that the ability to code and produce something useful and fast and in a short amount of time will rule the day. What I fear right now is JAVA, which is somewhat harder to learn but could be THE language depending on how applications run tomorrow...i.e. wireless stuff, etc.


I'm only 4 months into learning and applying VB. I definitely need more time to master it, and really appreciate everyone here who replies and gives their suggestions. Without this site, I think for a junior like me it'd be hard to get my apps working! :cool:

Hello,

I am 18 years old and have been working with VB for about 3 - 4 years. I have been working for a distribution company for about 2 years. I also have been heavily involved in the creation of their distribution software which uses VB and ASP. I also have created several commercial web sites.

Everybody keep up the good work!

Stephen Gauntt
[email protected]

I feel like I want to leave a little something about myself.
I'm 27 years old. I have a degree in a Computer Science. Up until 19 years old I was living in Kiev, Ukraine.
At that time I was right out of the college, so my knowledge was still raw. Came to Philadelphia in 1992. From 1993-1994 I was sent to a computer school to learn VB (at that time it was VB3) by company I was working at. Right now I work as a consultant.

And i have to agree that you have to learn, learn, learn...

Also, if you want to work as a VB programmer, then learn Databases too. If you look at the job ads, 90% of all VB jobs are database oriented, so keep that in mind.

I love helping other people who got stock with a problem (even though I never like to teach).

Good luck to all.

Whow! Someone who doesn't require a college degree!? :eek: I've been programming for almost 9 years now, and whenever I went down to Indianapolis to find a job doing either programming (VB) or web design, the rule was, "No degree, no experience, no job" It's just a big loop I've found myself in. I'm 20 (21 in June), graduated from high school middle of the class, tried college (if you want to call it that) and find myself now working for Pizza Hut. Don't get me wrong, I love working with pizza, but computers are my passion for life. I have (possibly) a job starting in the next year working for a dentist with 2 other programmers to make a few programs out to help him, but nothing big. If you are still looking for people, a move might be in order for me and my fiance. ;) Just email me if you'd like to talk further.

Hello,


I've probably been playing with anything got to do with BASIC since about 12, I'm 15 now and only started VB several months ago after I conviced my parents to get me a copy of VB. Since then...I've written a program for my parents shop (can't get money outta that!), programs that my friends wanted (hey nothing bad going on here), some mods for games...and now trying to do some utilities for my home network. Sadly...still in high school, at least i do come first in the grade for computing studies and electronics :)


Sunny
Sydney, Australia

i am 4 and i am a genius. I program every language under the sun and i live in new york. you are all old.

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Originally posted by amanda
Well, I search and I search, but I just can't find many Aussies out there.
I am not a teenage VB programmer... more like a late 20's one, but all the same I like to read about other learners advice and problems so I may be able to fix mine.
I have just decided to take the big jump and look at a carrer change. I am an Environmental Chemist and with Australia being so environmentally aware (choke) there are not that many jobs around.... and if there are, they pay like crap. I am teaching myself VB with about 50 billion books. The courses were too expensive and seemed a complete rip off so I am giving it a go by myself.
Other people out there who are teaching themselves... keep at it and all will fall into place one day! ;)

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Why did you chose VB to learn did you have a specific job in mind? Have you done any other programming or is this your entry into the software world?

i must say this thread is very good, a lot of good advice to us teens, i myself am 17 at college in the UK and have been programming in VB heavily for appropiamately 1.5-2 yrs, i am also now learning VC++ nad have also had experience in ASP, SQL, DAO, ADO.

I'm 17 and have been using C since I was 10, and Basic (in many forms) since I was 6 :eek:

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Originally posted by parksie
I'm 17 and have been using C since I was 10, and Basic (in many forms) since I was 6 :eek:

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:eek: 6? I only started with 9 years

Do you think a carear in computer programimng , repair, and reselling and being an electriction at the same time will make me alot of money. I am currently 16 and i have to be 18 ( i believe) to get my electrician lisence. Can someone make a type of palm pilot oonly in vb ? or someother piece of hardfware. I want to make my house the house of the future (hehe) ill make appz that controll power and refrigeration and stuff. Does that sound good ?

I'm 15 and I know perl, and decided I wanted to get onto programming my own applications (I know perl can too, but I only know unix, and that also requires the end user to actually have perl!)

I learnt perl mainly to online scripts, and it just snowballed into an obbsession to out do myself everytime I made a script

I know perl to a level Im satisfyed with and wanted to learn some proper pregramming. As in, the end result is a nifty program you can pass round registration on 3.5 inch floppies and buzz away in class :D

Still, Ill be there soon... Altho I might be getting Visual Studio, which I believe has VC++ on it, which I would rather do, but I might stick with VB and see what comesof it.

Other people offering free adivice have said that vb is altogether slower at runtime the vc++, which is another reason.

Anyway, Im 15, I live by Liverpool, England and Im way to geeky for my age :o :D

I tought myself everything to pass all the MCSE couses with ease ive taken up learning VB as a way to provide solutions my theory is the more you know the more your worth unfortunatly most companies dont give a #^$* about what you know but instead care about what degrees you have an example the network adimin where i work has the iq of a flea (sorry flea's) but he was hired soley on his college degree and my MCSE and 20+ years PC exprience didnt mean anything so my advice go to college even if they dont actualy teach you anything useful learn on your own for real world knowledge and go to school for the piece of paper

yeah thats what i thought too, get a degree and do as much programming in ur spare time as u can, that way u have a degree and enough experience to get a good job straight away.

How many people here have read the true (and highly entertaining) book "The Soul of a New Machine "?

It's about the US company Data General secret project to build a new class of computer using "kids" - i.e. brilliant but inexperienced 'hackers' (not crackers) straight out of school and college to do things that had never been done before in hardware and software (by getting people to do them who didn't 'know' that they were impossible).

Its a brilliant read and essential background to anyone thinking of a career in the tech sector. It really gives a feel for the excitement (and stress) of working on a hot computer project - I first read it while doing my first job and found it very edifying.

Oh - it also won a Pulitzer prize.

Im only 14

I got into programming because thats what my Dad did for a living, but he was old so he didn't know Vb or C++, only Fortran, Pascal, and similar launguages.

I started working with Quick Basic when I was I think, 9

I knew very little and never really got anywhere with it although I tried, I didnt have a compiler. Hey, I didnt even know what it was.

So then my Dad picked up a copy of VB6, I was still playing around with QBasic, didnt even know about VB : /

Any way, I got the basic basics from the start but never really went anywhere with it, my knowledge only encompassing the Learning Edition tutorial.

But then I really slacked off......didn't touch it for a while at all.

Then I ordered a new computer for my 14th b-day and wanted to get back into it. Thankfully, I knew some fairly good people at it. I recently got an upgrade to VB6.0 Professional edition, in which Microsoft very helpfully packedged the FULL thing, and part of the contents of Visual Studio :).

So now Im still discovering the posibilites of VB, what the tutorial didn't teach me, the great resources here, and the possibilities of adding more components.

Still a novice in QBasic after 5 years, a learner in VB 6.0 after 2 years, and a very hopefull monkey forever: ME

I'm 14 and I am already an HTML,DHTML,and Javascript guru. I know a bit of MySQL and CGI. I am a begginer with Visual Basic 6 though, I just started about 3 weeks ago. You might have seen some of my newbie questions in this forum. ;)

HTML, JavaScript, CSS, VB, C++, PHP, MySQL, Perl, ASP, Python... :eek:

what is it with the word "newbie"? Can't we use proper English like "I've just started programming with VB and....." All I see is "newbie questions" or "please answer this and be nice i'm a newbie". Even the bloody Sims has Betty Newbie. It's rapidly becoming one of the most annoying words..

Sorry, bad day:(

hmm.. I'm 17 and started programming 2 years ago!

Another Girl? That makes... 4!

Sounds like all of you young fellows & gals out there have good attitudes, and bright futures :). Don't do as I did: I'll be 39 next month, and just last year decided to program for a living full-time. I started working at age 14. I am an Alaska Airlines Academy graduate, an A.S.E. certified Automotive Technician, an SBE certified Broadcast Engineer, and hold a few credentials in other fields that I can't remember at the moment. I spent 5 years in the Airline industry, 7+ years off-and-on in Broadcast Engineering, 10 years and still going as an Auto Tech, and 22 years amoungst it all as a casual programmer in various forms of Basic and C/C+/C++. I finally discovered last year that Programming is my true love, and now I'm doing it. My point and advice is to not wait until you're crowding 40 years old to try to realize your goals/desires. Start on it now. I sometimes feel that its too late for me cause I'm too old now and things in the tech world change so fast. So, if this is what you want to do, then go to school for it, or teach yourself, or get a job and learn from it, or whatever way you wish to persue it. Just don't wait almost too long like I did:)

Radar!? your an AAA Graduate? that means you lived im my state :) just thought i'd point that out as i have nothing better to do right now, whare did you live/how long?

ive been here for about 11.6 years (born in AK and moved down to wisconson at 7 months old and moved back when i was 5) and im stuck in Fairbanks, so meeting someone who has been in Alaska is kinda like running into a celebrity :) gawd this is a small town...

Only started programming properly about a year ago so compared to most I'm a total novice

BTW I like the word newbie :p

I started on a commadore PET (all basic programing)thats what got me hooked

I am 15 and started programming in QBASIC when I was 12. I did really crap stuff then. I can now use all kinds of languages. I fyou wnat to see some of my early stuff, go to my website below. I did write more, but I was disconnected as I was sending this last time and lost my last message. :(

Hi Deathfrog - Nice to meet u!

I attended AAA in Anchorage in the spring of 1987, during the Alaska Air/Horizon Air merge. I had actually started working for Horizon about 2 years before the merger, and had done most of my PSA training such as Hazmat, Reservations, ticketing, bag tracing, air freight, etc. training at the Horizon Air training center in Seattle. So a group of 7 of us from Horizon that went to the AA Academy mostly just had to get familiar with the Alaska Air way of doing what we were already trained for, and their company policies, etc.. Anyway, it was alot of fun in Anchorage, but our group only had to stay for three weeks cause of the Horizon training. After that, I went to Portland, Or. for some Dispatch training, then back home to work, grad certificate in hand :) BTW - I live in Klamath Falls, Or. I left the Airline industry in July 1988 to accept a better job(at the time)as Chief Engineer at KAGO radio. Never went back to the airlines. Anyway, this post is getting a little long so I better quit. I have some friends in Soledotna AK. - they are pretty cool.
Gotta run...........

I am 14 and have been programming for about 6 years in QBasic and then in VBasic.:cool:

I am learning C++ (not too hard) and assembly language(fairly hard) in an attempt to write my own O/S. I don't know any Java, but I think I may start learning that. Is it arelated to C++ in any way?

I also know HTML, DHTML, JScript, VBScript etc.

arcadia:rolleyes:

It has it's similarities, yeah, instead of include it has import and stuff. The one problem is, unlike C++ you can't compile to a stand-alone .exe file. You always need a Java interpreter on the machine running your program. The main use of Java is in applets on webpages.

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Originally posted by ricmitch_uk
It has it's similarities, yeah, instead of include it has import and stuff. The one problem is, unlike C++ you can't compile to a stand-alone .exe file. You always need a Java interpreter on the machine running your program. The main use of Java is in applets on webpages.

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I'm told by the head of the SUN Microsystems 'Incubator' that the main use of Java is as applets on servers. There is a real-time version of Java out soon apparently this should extend Java functionality. I recommend anyone wanting to improve their employability learns C++ to start with.

Hey gang..
i am not normally in this forum, but i stumbled across it...
i have some food for thought for many of you. so here goes...(yes it is long, but it is worth it...)

Oh, First... in regards to VB Teenagers and learning Programming... here is an article that i wrote, i might suggest you read it....
http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.p...light=learning

and if you youngsters want a break ? seriously... if you are good, you may consider volunteering your computer services to some organization. Find a need and fill it. for your first "job" your only real concern is what you can learn and what type of experience can you (honestly) put on you resume. it only takes one person to recognize that you are good, and it can be all gravy from there.

ok,.. well...
before i get into all of this. the bottom line is KEEP GOING !!! your dream job is out there !

when i first started out i got all of teh standard replies "no degree, no chance." i remember one time, i did a mass mailing of my resume to about 250 companies... NOT ONE would look at me for the lack of a degree.
i hate it when people do not look at the person i am, and instead look for something that is supposed to "justify" me, or "validate" me. i am more than a piece of paper.

since then,
now I am 35. have been doing computer stuff since i was 14. (yes, 21 years) i never attended college, the only training i ever had beyond high school was only a 4 month specialty program when i was 18. (1985)
they placed me with a software company in Ohio. the owner hired me specifically because i did not have a degree... in his words "you dont have any bad habbits i have to break first"

in the past 15 years, I have ran my own computer business for 7 years, taught computer classes at 3 different colleges for 10 years (yes, time frames are overlapping) have learned (on my own) how to design board level electronics and have a complete understaing of electrical wireing (electronics and household / industrial wireing)
i also assist an organization where we teach kids (ages 10-16) computer skills. www.thecomputeracademy.com (go to "about this website" for some good info on online databases and their capabilities)
i can write software in 7 languages, i have worked with every possibly piece of hardware and most software packages taht you can think of.

I now work for a company in indianapolis where i do waht ? PROGRAMMING !!! (about 75 K a year)

the bottom line is... KEEP GOING, NEVER let someone tell you that your not good enough. but make sure you always keep learning new skills. learn to be a problem solver. think different. (no, not "outside the box", what a lame saying) think outside reality sometimes... be the best at what you do. regardless of what you do. i had an older friend tell me one time. find what you love to do, (and would do it for free if you could) and DO IT. the money will come naturally.

you think that i let the fact that i dont have a college degree stop me from TEACHING at, not one but, 3 colleges ? when you are REALLY good at what you do, someone will see that. you only need ONE person in your life to understand you and your abilities / capabilities in order for you to get going in the right direction.

Just One. FIND that ONE !

By the way...
when i was contacted about this job ( a headhunter called me) and after i told them i was interested, i made it know, (with absolute certanty) that there were 2 questions i do not want to be asked when i interview with them... if they have a problem with these 2 questions, i should not even bother showing up.
1) i do not have a degree, they need to know this. dont ask me about it.
2) do not ask me how much money i make at my last job. my ability to solve your problems has nothing to do with how much money i am getting paid. i do it because i love to do it.

They did not have a problem (surprisingly.)
They spent $5,000 to fly me out to interview with them, paid for a hotel room at the airport for 3 days, a rental car, and bought all my meals. once i accepted the job, they spent an additional $5,000 and paid my movnig expenses.
(it only takes one person to recognize you for waht you are.)

There are about 400 people (globaly) in our IT department, 250 at my site. I find out that my boss does not have a degree, his boss does not have a degree, and the VP in charge of global computing... does NOT have a degree.

NEVER SURRENDER.

for you guys that are interested, i have the names of several headhunters that have contacted me. the one that got me this job deals specifically with the medical industry. it only takes one.


also, one last thing in closing...
there is this book i read. when i first got it i expected something different, and didnt think i would make it past the first chapter (i hate to read) .... after i finished reading it ... for the 4th time, i bought 50 copies and gave tehm away one year as Christmas Gifts.

it is called "The Law Of Recognition" by Mike Murdock $10, USD
http://www.mikemurdock.com
Goto "Bookstore" (4th item down on the left)
last item on the 1st page.
and DON'T Worry, all you people taht go and see this site.. this book is not about religeon. it is a book about recognizing the obvious and wounderful things that are in front of you, that people overlook all the time. (sound familiar ?)

Product Description:
Anything Unrecognized Becomes Uncelebrated. Anything Uncelebrated Becomes Unrewarded. Anything Unrewarded Eventually Exits Your Life. The Law of Recognition can turn a lifetime of failure into instant success.

FIND that ONE !