Your programming background...

[Quiver318]

I am curious to know how many of you have advanced degrees in computer science versus being self-taught. Perhaps you have a degree, but it is in an unreleated subject and you somehow found yourself programming for a living, one day? Also, do you deeply enjoy programming, or is it just a living?

There is so much talent around this world-wide forum, I just had to ask!

Thanks,

Quiver

[Shaggy Hiker]

I have an MS....in Zoology. Most of my career has been as a fish biologist, and most of my programs are still biologically related, whether for my job or hobby projects.

I suppose the fact that some of my most interesting and challenging projects are ones that I am not paid for (hobby projects), probably answers the second question, as well.

[kulrom^]

Good question. Actually i have an economics degree but i am working as developer (ASP.NET, T-SQL, VB.NET, C#, Graphic Design and have skills in C++, XML, MySQL, Crystal Reports, AJAX, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript and ActionScript). As you mentioned i am self-taught having some MS certificates but it means nothing.

Btw, it is both, enjoy programming and living of course!

[dsheller]

I've been programming since I was around 11, but my degree is in electrical engineering. I prefer having the hardware background as it allows me to do a lot of neat stuff and interacting with the physical world.

[honeybee]

I enjoyed writing programs and in general playing (with and on) computers. I have worked on FoxBase/Clipper, FoxPro, VB5/6, Delphi, VB.Net, C# and ASP.Net so far. Brief encounters with classic ASP as well.

I still like to dabble in programming but I am trying to move away from coding into management.

.

[opus]

I have a degree in economics, my current job is related with use of distributed simulations( not the coding).
All my skills (are there any) in coding are coming from the folks VBForums.

[Siddharth Rout]

I have a degree in BSc (Phy, Chem, Maths)
Basically self taught when it comes to coding. Doing fairly good as a freelancer.
Current Job: Operations Manager in a BPO (nothing to do with IT or Software )

Jack of all trades, master of some...

[I_Love_My_Vans]

I have a BSc degree in Applied Computing, but I self taught from such a young age that (at least with regard to web technologies) I didn't really learn much.

For me it is just a piece of paper, and the fact that I can call myself ILMV BSc

[NeedSomeAnswers]

I have a degree in Business & Information Systems, i have to say though most of my programming knowledge was gained since then in various jobs i spent far to much time having fun at university.

I have worked with numourous technologies over last few years including VB, VB.Net, C#, ASP.Net, Coldfusion, JavaScript, Flex, ActionScript & XML

Oh yes and i enjoy it most of the time.

[wossname]

I didn't go to University. I'm entirely self taught at programming, I used to love it before I started doing it for a living. These days I rarely do any programming at home, mainly because I'm more interested in Photography now.

My programming background is mainly Windows based, so (in chronological order) VB6, C#, assembly language (a little bit), C and C++. But for the last 4 years I've been mostly developing Linux server software in the R&D department of a major telecoms company.

My Linux skills are far and away more important to me than my windows ones ever were, mainly because it's a better platform to write code for in my opinion. I like the Linux philosophies of software design, support and availability. I have released my own open-source software under the GPL licence (link in my signature below).

I also co-wrote a book with 3 other guys, it was about creating C# user controls.

Languages I know well: VB, C#, C, C++, php, perl, RPN, bash, make and a few others.

[mendhak]

I started when I was 7, self taught. And it's a lucky situation like you said, I'm being paid for enjoying a hobby.

[Hack]

I have a degree in Literature...I got my first job with computers as an entry level data input operator and fell into programming with such lovelys as Lotus 1-2-3 and dBase II (anyone remember those? )

Then I got a job in network administration with Novel 1.0 and eventually got into Windows programming with VB3 and Access 2.0 around 1993. I've been through all releases of VB since then and moved on to SQL Server.

[akhileshbc]

I am a B.Tech(Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science) student. Now, it's second year(4th semester). VB6 is my favorite language, self taught.. (I have that language for studying, for the next semester...)
My hobby: programming in VB6, posting replies in vbforums (I am not good at it... But I try to express my ideas... Sometimes, I learn from mistakes... )

Languages known (so far ): C, C++, Java, VB6, Classic ASP

Thanks to this forum and the wonderful guys in here....

[FunkyDexter]

BSc in Computer Studies. I went to uni at the age of 28 because I was sick to the eye teeth of doing sales and customer services. I picked Computers on a whim really because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do and it turned out I enjoyed it and had an aptitude for it. Since then I've never looked back and love what I do. The only down side is that since I moved a bit more onto the management side (lead dev but round here that encompasses project management, business analyst, team leader etc) I find the politics tedious.

I still love coding but I don't really do any at home any more. After an 8 hour day I'm pretty much coded out. I love it when I get to spend a decent amount of time coding at work but that's changeable.

[techgnome]

No degree... been professionally programing for close to 20 years. Been using all forms of VB since VB3, all forms of SQL Server since 6.5, Lotus 1-2-3, dBase II (yes, Hack, you're not the only one), Pasacl (back when it was still called Pascal), Ada, .NET (VB & C#), plus a slew of web-based technology, HTML, XHTML, PHP, ASP, CSS, etc. And that doesn't include other languages that I've been exposed to.

-tg

[BackWoodsCoder]

I have my BSBA in Information Systems with a Minor in ERP development and implementation (SAP) as well as an associates degree in networking technology. I was a network admin for 6-7 years for various companies while doing free lance design and installation as a side business. Then the hardware world got boring, it just wasn't fun any more, and during my early years in school I was exposed to VB 6 (although the first version of .NET was right around the corner) and found I had a knack for it. So from there I nabbed my associates, moved into a four year uni, and began my bachelors. I learned some java and SQL as well as ABAP and COBOL (yuck), and when I was nearing the completion of my degree I realized the challenge of programming was much more satisfying the network/hardware world I came from. So I found a very small local start up company which has produced a piece of ERP software using .NET and signed on. It's my first professional programming gig and I love it, I get to apply my ERP experience and write code in what feels like a home setting. Only 8 of us in the whole company, 4 of them (including me) are developers.

Anyways, I would have never thought I would have shifted towards programming. But to me it's just more gratifying these days then building a server or creating a network.

[I_Love_My_Vans]

Good to know Woods, I'm currently working on an ERP system, granted on the other side of the proverbial programming fence (PHP, JavaScript, PostgreSQL etc).

Ciao!

[homer13j]

Throughout my adult life I have been paid to do the following:
TV Repairman
Baseball umpire
Photo lab tech
Hockey referee
Commercial photographer
Bartender
News reporter
Sports photographer
Carpenter/Electrician
Musician
Auto/motorcycle mechanic
Race mechanic
Race driver

Then at age 32 I earned a degree in Computer Science and worked many years as a Programmer/Developer. The bank bailout boondoggle cost me my last job when the bank I worked for was bought out by a rival using government money.

So I'm starting a business selling motorcycle accessories online.

[BackWoodsCoder]

Good to know Woods, I'm currently working on an ERP system, granted on the other side of the proverbial programming fence (PHP, JavaScript, PostgreSQL etc).

Ciao!

Nice! I don't think we do much web interaction, if any at all, the only thing I can think of would be our EDI function. But even then that's just data transmission/receipt through the intarweb. Currently we are looking at developing a currency conversion feature within our software so I imagine that will take a little bit of web work. I personally don't like web development but I really feel like I should learn PHP or something similar to keep current and relevant.

Anyways, I kind of stumbled upon the ERP thing. Originally I signed up for the ERP minor only because it was IT related, netted me a shiny cert at the end of it, and it was something that was brand new to the Uni. Once I realized what it was all about and how important it was in business I became really interested in it and began focusing on it as a career rather than an interest. SAP is powerful, but goddamn is it hard to use and maddeningly frustrating to learn in a restricted time period. I could pimp out our own software here, but I'll just say we've beaten out SAP and Microsoft a few times in contract bids

[Siddharth Rout]

Throughout my adult life I have been paid to do the following:
TV Repairman
Baseball umpire
Photo lab tech
Hockey referee
Commercial photographer
Bartender
News reporter
Sports photographer
Carpenter/Electrician
Musician
Auto/motorcycle mechanic
Race mechanic
Race driver

Then at age 32 I earned a degree in Computer Science and worked many years as a Programmer/Developer. The bank bailout boondoggle cost me my last job when the bank I worked for was bought out by a rival using government money.

So I'm starting a business selling motorcycle accessories online.

That is simply amazing.... I am impressed

[wossname]

Race driver

Seriously? Tell us more about this, this sounds frickin' awesome.

[SambaNeko]

Interesting thread.

I have a BA in art (the university calls it "Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts", a sort of art based around technological themes and materials, but its parent department is visual arts). I grew up drawing, painting, sculpting, crafting, and took interest in computers with Photoshop and Flash before delving into code.

Around middle school age, I learned the basic web stuff - HTML, CSS, Javascript - with "View Source" and some tutorials, so I could have a site to share my creative works. Over time my interest shifted from what was on the site, to how I could make the site. From there, I've pretty much learned anything that interests me: PHP, MySQL, XML, Actionscript (with one exception: ASP Classic was learned out of necessity).

At the moment I'm just getting my feet wet with C#.Net. I love getting into something new and learning it by trying to make what I want of it (rather than some silly "Hello World" example fed line-by-line from an instructor).

[Shaggy Hiker]

Pasacl (back when it was still called Pascal)

-tg

When did it change?

(some things are worth saving for posterity)

[visualAd]

B.Sc. Digital Forensics - I now work in the Forensic Technology department of an accountancy firm. I no longer work as a software developer (officially); but do get put on a few software development projects, someone got wind that was what I used to do (still do in my own time).

[homer13j]

Seriously? Tell us more about this, this sounds frickin' awesome.

The quick and not terribly exciting story: Raced dirt bikes as a teenager until my second major injury. Took the engine from my wrecked bike and bolted it to a go-kart frame and raced that for a couple of years. Little did I know at the time I was one of the pioneers of a sport that would become known as shifter kart racing. Unfortunately I sold off all my racing stuff when I moved out on my own.

In the late-'80s a friend started racing a stock car sponsored by the repair shop he worked for and I worked on his pit crew for three seasons. In 1991 I bought an '82 Olds Cutlass and rebuilt it as a Bomber-class stock car. I could never find sponsorship and quit after a year of pouring money into running around at the back of the pack.

In the summer of 2000 while living in Chicago I stumbled on a go-kart track in Norway, Illinois and I was so impressed with the technological advances and increases in speeds of shifter karts that a week later I was at Comet Kart Sales loading a brand-new CRG chassis powered by a Honda CR125R into my van and I raced regularly through the end of the 2007 season. If I was still racing a stock car there's no way I would ever get to run at classic circuits like Daytona, Road America, VIR, The Milwaukee Mile, etc, but a WKA Enduro license gets you on all these tracks and more.

I had to skip the 2008 and 2009 seasons due to financial difficulties.

Hoping to be on the grid at Mid-Ohio in April. If not, I'll be there wrenching for somebody else.

[JuggaloBrotha]

I've been programming since age 9 (basic & qbasic and I don't count all those batch files I made back then as programming.)

I got my associates degree a couple years ago in programming for business, for vb.net, vb6 and java.

I'm currently working on a bachelors degree in comp science: vb.net, java, php.

[techgnome]

When did it change?

(some things are worth saving for posterity)

First that first instance should have been "Pascal" not "Pasacl" I hadn't had any cafeene yety by that point. I'm not sure just when Pascal became Delphi. I suspect somewhere around 95 ish.... just as the Visual wave is starting to take hold. It's basically "Visual Pascal". I'm not sure why the name change.


-tg

[Shaggy Hiker]

Yeah, I just wanted to preserve that typo. Thanks to the second statement, the typo just struck me as a really slick comment.

[techgnome]

The only way that could have been funnier, is if I had misspelled it as Pescil ... but that would have been fishy...

-tg

[Shaggy Hiker]

D'Oh!

Just remember, one mans fish is another mans poisson.

[opus]

Je ne compris pas!

[kulrom^]

Throughout my adult life I have been paid to do the following:
TV Repairman
Baseball umpire
Photo lab tech
Hockey referee
Commercial photographer
Bartender
News reporter
Sports photographer
Carpenter/Electrician
Musician
Auto/motorcycle mechanic
Race mechanic
Race driver

Then at age 32 I earned a degree in Computer Science and worked many years as a Programmer/Developer. The bank bailout boondoggle cost me my last job when the bank I worked for was bought out by a rival using government money.

So I'm starting a business selling motorcycle accessories online.

I've been also Bartender and long time ago i worked as medical technician (high school degree) lol

However your list is very interesting. You deserve every honor!!

[oceanebelle]

I have a BS Computer Science degree and only got my first ever computer (p90 i think) during my 3rd year at University. Chose the course because at highschool we had a Basic course which dealt with drawing pictures on a screen by turning pixels on and off. I remember using 3.5inch floppy discs then (98-99); It really wasn't much. Suprisingly, I managed to do well at uni and eventually got a programming job which meant doing c/c++, vb6, vb.net, asp classic, java, php and a loads of other technologies required by each project for around 4 years. Jack of all trades but definitely not a master of anything. It's good but it's frustrating sometimes when a more specialist approach is required.

Now I work for a consulting firm as Systems Engineer and it's been up and down the past 1.5 years. Things are more specialist now as I'm actually having to delve in stuff (for enterprise applications) I didn't normally do which is exciting+rewarding and frustrating at the same time.

I plan to get an MS Degree in a few years. Leaning towards Computer Science although I might change that. The motivation being that I can take it easier when I'm 40-50 and possibly go back to university to teach. Management and Politics are beyond my capacity so I don't think that I'll be in the middle of IT for the rest of my employable age.

[SunshineBH]

Good thread

Have a degree in Economics and got into programming many years ago because the money looked good! COBOL and Natural Construct was my first languages.

Thankfully VB6 and then VB.Net came along and got me out of that lot!

More into information management at the moment than the actual coding (altho i still do a fair bit) and am busy with my Msc in Construction Management

[dclamp]

I will either have a BA in Film or Theater by the year 2014... assuming i graduate

and i haven't coded vb since... 2006? Now i just code php

[NickThissen]

I'm studying Applied Physics (almost got my BSc) but did a short (half year) 'minor' in computer science. Had not much to do with programming though.

I've been coding for something like 8 years at a guess. Started out in VB5/6 because my dad used it a little bit. Went on to VB.NET and later, after I got the basics down, I taught myself C#. We 'learned' java in the computer science minor though, but that was a joke really, I passed with full marks without ever having seen java in my life.
So yeah, I basically taught myself. Or actually: this forum taught me

I sometimes work for my dad's company where I'm officially called a 'junior developer'. Doesn't mean much, basically I just work there when I have time, which is during holidays. I started out doing easy repetitive jobs (changing all TextBox controls to a third party TextBox control, in a LOT of forms, things like that) but once they realized I knew some VB.NET too they've been giving me some more programming to do, like creating little pieces of their software or creating prototypes. The programming skill required isn't very high (I know much more than I need to use there) but I need to know much of their business model and their databases, which is a little hard as I hardly ever use them. I would like to do some more coding 'professionally' though, but I don't have the time for a real job (well, possibly in the evenings or weekend, but where do you find a job programming that's not during the work day?) so it's a little hard to find lol.

[Milk]

Not quite as rock'n'roll as Homer but...

• Kitchen Porter
• Climbing instructor
• Shop assistant
• Architectural technician (BA in Architecture)
• Archeologist / Archeological illustrator
• Abseiler (I helped build the hanger for this)
• Aid convoy logistician (6 months in Kosovo)
• Alcohol Licensing
• Builder/Developer (Buildings)
• Production runner for bands (last job, 10 days with Lady GaGa)

Programming has been an ongoing hobby since I was a nipper, started at around 8 with BASIC on the c64.
Currently I'm mostly playing with C# (net) C/C++ (MinGw). I would like to to get a job doing it.

[Atheist]

I'm self-taught in programming in general, and "university-taught" in other more "specific" areas such as AI and machine learning.
I don't have my BSc degree yet, but I graduate this summer.

[Nightwalker83]

Well, last year I finished my diploma in web development though now I am currently studying software development (including C# instead of VB.NET which is kind of disappointing). I haven't touched vb since about 3 years ago before that I spend 9 years trying to teach myself the basics and didn't get very far.

[GaryMazzone]

Basically self-taught, was working at a job where they wanted an app written and the IT department didn't have the time to do it. I said I can, and broke out the book. Learned Oracle and SQL Server the same way.

I've been doing it for 20 years now. Just got an Associates last year in programing.