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Programming Career?

Started by leeming Nov 7, 2005 at 6:05 PM 6 replies 1.5k views
Original Post
leeming
leeming
Hey, sorry if this isnt the right place, please move I am just asking for some advice for future development of my programming skills, i am hopefully wanting to take it onto a profesional career. I have not desided if i want to go either software or games, just thought i would ask the pros and cons for each.. My background and experiance as i am young (17 yrs old) i am looking to my future, (oviously) and i am currently studying computing and ict at (english standard) 'A level', i have minimum experiance with programming languages, only just under a years expereiance with one. The one i know is php, and i found it a good intro into programming, but now i would like to extend my knowlege of programming... i currently have a few books for 'teach yourself' but am still looking for direction. One of these books is a c++ one, since i understand c++ is a main programming language for games... i am also learning turbo pascal for my course. Like i said, i would like to take this past my current education, and take it up at university level. But in the mean time what steps could i take to prepare my self for a future career in programming? i know there may be a few things ive missed out , about that explains my questions more, but this is what i have at the moment. I would really apreciate any kind of help / links :) Also as a last question, if there is any people on here from england who has a career in programming, which uni's are the best for programming? and the difficulty of actuly getting a secure programming job (not working freelance from home) thank you for your time :)
kevmo
kevmo
I can't speak on the England part of the question as I live in the states, but I can give my experience on the rest. I am currently a senior computer science major looking for a job, so I have an idea of what companies are looking for.

There are a few recurrent themes that are showing up in my interviews. What to focus on really depends on what industry you are looking for, but I think one aspect that pretty much any company is going to look for is whether or not you can work in a team. About half my interviews have not asked a single technical question, and instead focuses on behavorial questions.

As far as what languages to study, you should probably look at both C++ and Java. Both were used extensively throughout my time at college. C# is popular in the workplace, but so far every company that uses C# accepts applicants that know Java.

As you get past the basics of programming, another thing you may want to look at is studying design and software engineering topics. I have found this is not something heavily covered in school, yet is a topic that companies are interested in.

I don't know how things work in England, but here in the US getting internships is important. Companies like to see that you are applying your education to the real world.

I hope this helps,
Kevmo
leeming
leeming
yes it does help a bit, thanks :)

i have good past experiances with working well in teams, so with that i should be ok for now, and yes i totaly forgot about java. suggestions for a begginner like me to learn in order? (im learning turbo pascal for my college course, but i would like to learn another as an intrest) but which language is easier for breaking in a begginner? java or c++ (or c#? but ive read bad thing about learning c# then c++).

I know some one who is a java programmer (i know him in real life) so yes, maybe i should ask him a bit about how he got his edcuation etc :)
i dont understand very much about how graphics work in c++ or any other programming lanauges... should i not know about now to implant them at this stage? (not designing them, just implanting them) or is it a more of an advanced stage of programming for me?
ukdeveloper
ukdeveloper
Most Universities (particularly here in Scotland) make you do loads of Java in the CS degrees. They try to make you graduate fluent in it where possible, so it's a definite bonus.

And also, many Java concepts are concepts which pop up in other object oriented languages, so you're broadening your skill set at the same time. You'll also learn stuff about loops, variables etc. that appear in all languages, OO or otherwise.

Good luck with your studies!
leeming
leeming
ok i have done a bit fo research into bradford uni (my local uni, and soposed 2 b really good any way) but i am still undecided of which area to go into programming...

if there is any experianced software and game programmings, i would apreciate help on making a dicision between them... like pros and cons etc :)

my intrests in programing might help: i live to create things (my current courses im doing involve art aswell as my computer subjects) so i thought game programming would go with that, but im also intresting in making software (though i have no current experiance doing this).
The only thing i have agenst game programming is, that i feel its a bit of an unrealisit career path.. ya know, like children want to be astanoughts or firemen (its relaly hard).....
any advice on how some one already in the game programming industry, how you got there, and the dificulties etc.

i would love to do either, but at the moment i sway a bit more towards gaming. but still.. both intrest me alot. im just asking this now because i would love to get a head start researching into what im wanting to take onto uni before i get there :)
kevmo
kevmo
Again, I can only speak from my own experiences, but game programming isn't really something you learn at a standard university. Rather, you will learn about the field of computer science in general at school. If you are interested in game development, it can be something you learn on your own, but as part of your school work you would be focusing on general programming/software engineering topics.

Basically what I am saying is that you don't need to "specialize" in one specific area of computer science/programming right now. Your school should teach you what they think is important for you to know, and in your own time you can study what interests you. A good place to start for any path you want to take would be to start learning Java or C++ (Java would be my recommendation to start with), and work from there.
leeming
leeming
yes i think i will learn java 1st, even though i own a c++ book... as for the uni course, well the uni im looking into (bradford) it does a "Design for Computer Games" course so that will b fun :)

i only asked for the specialised area just so i could research it a bit more and give me a bit more direction, but yes i think for the time being, i wil focus onto my general studies of computing and game programming as a side private bases learning.

I will most certianly look for a java book, and see if i can learn it :)

thanks for your help, it has helped
Dogs
Dogs
A degree in computer science is a great step towards a programming career. As for the best university though, it really depends on what you want to do afterwards. The courses are very different, so you need to do some research to choose one that interests you. Equally important is how you feel about the university and town. Actually, it's probably more important in a way: university is about developing as an individual for 3 or more years, and I promise you that if you're an average student, you'll spend more time outside of your course than you do studying.

The best place to start research is university fairs (I presume that they still do them) where you can walk around a room picking up a prospectus for each university. This should give you a very broad idea both of the place itself and the courses. The more you can visit the better, though it's quite hard to fit in too many open days when you're studying for A-levels. I managed to visit about 3 before I made my applications, and then made sure I took up all the invitations to visit when I received offers. You'll be amazed how much you can get a feel for a place in one day.

And for the record, I went to Exeter, loved the place, course and people, and received 4 job offers as a graduate programmer. I should probably point out that I don't work in the gaming industry, but you can't have everything [smile]

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