Becoming a Junior Software Developer

If your boss wants you to become a junior developer then tell him to make you one. One of the best ways of learning is by doing. Just be sure to learn while you are doing it. You and your boss will soon know whether you are cut out for it.
 
Andaeriel said:
My boss doesn't seem to be terribly keen on the idea of throwing money at it at this stage. I have yet to discuss the matter with our head of development: he may be able to motivate for it better than I can.

I did study through UNISA this year, however I do not qualify to register for any more modules next year as I did only one this year: the reason for that being that I have not studied since 1994 and wanted to ease myself back into it and see whether I could manage sitting down and working at my desk when I get back from work.

I did dabble in C once, many years ago, but lost interest as I was still a data capturer at the time, and unlikely to move beyond that then. I have also played around with Python, but dropped it for similar reasons.

I shall have a look at w3schools.

For the most part, the company I work for builds solutions around databases, mostly for government.
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Nothing wrong with improving your self.

I think that the issue is that most people struggle to convince their bosses that they can move from a another potion to a developer position. You don't have to worry because your work is happy to make a dev out of you. The language can be learned without doing a course... seems you have background anyway.

Get some books, e-books, pdf's and start cracking... the sooner you learn the easier you will be able to do the work.

I think the only problem is that at some point you will want to leave your company and when you do you will struggle to find a similar position. So eventually you will have to do the degree or a course.... just to have the paperwork.
 
You should start learning C++ or C# as it's relatively easy to learn - I'm learning C# at the moment.
There are loads of online info on this to help you learn.

Start with an introductory course that teaches programming basics such as if statements, for loops etc.
Then apply it to console apps since they focus more on code and understanding and less on pretty gui's.
Once you are competent and confident enough, move on to developing forms.

It helps to treat each app you create as a goal. So conceptualize an app you think would be cool then create it from start to finish.

Write down a basic overview of your app on paper and just start coding. Research every time you get stuck and move forward swiftly.
You will be surprised at how much you learn along the way. The goal of finishing your app will help keep you motivated. Then move on to bigger apps and involve database connectivity later on.

Whichever language you choose, less talk more code lol good luck :)
 
Really enjoyed reading this thread as I have been wondering myself what was more important Experience or a Degree.
My senior once said to me that I was hired on passion and talent; and if I had studied I probably would not have gotten the job as the company doesn't want people who were taught to think a certain way but rather creative and logical in how they find way to solve problems.

My 2 cents..
 
Pho3nix said:
Really enjoyed reading this thread as I have been wondering myself what was more important Experience or a Degree.
My senior once said to me that I was hired on passion and talent; and if I had studied I probably would not have gotten the job as the company doesn't want people who were taught to think a certain way but rather creative and logical in how they find way to solve problems.

My 2 cents..
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Your senior had a good point there - I know of many talented folk that had their creativity stumped by theory. Rather learn to do it, then learn to do it properly. ;)
 
Pho3nix said:
Really enjoyed reading this thread as I have been wondering myself what was more important Experience or a Degree.
My senior once said to me that I was hired on passion and talent; and if I had studied I probably would not have gotten the job as the company doesn't want people who were taught to think a certain way but rather creative and logical in how they find way to solve problems.

My 2 cents..
Click to expand...

If this approach really worked I believe degrees would be considered worthless nowadays... Everyone to their own.
 
Pho3nix said:
Really enjoyed reading this thread as I have been wondering myself what was more important Experience or a Degree.
My senior once said to me that I was hired on passion and talent; and if I had studied I probably would not have gotten the job as the company doesn't want people who were taught to think a certain way but rather creative and logical in how they find way to solve problems.

My 2 cents..
Click to expand...

Getting job and having a career are two different things. I was hired without any experience and I had just received my degree, now I have both experience and a degree and they still want to know what I studies at university when I apply for jobs.

Degrees help you further your career, so at some point everyone should have some sort of qualification.... otherwise at some point you hit the glass ceiling.
 
Pho3nix said:
Really enjoyed reading this thread as I have been wondering myself what was more important Experience or a Degree.
My senior once said to me that I was hired on passion and talent; and if I had studied I probably would not have gotten the job as the company doesn't want people who were taught to think a certain way but rather creative and logical in how they find way to solve problems.

My 2 cents..
Click to expand...

That doesnt make sense at all - its fallacious in fact.

How would being taught to program make you a worse or less creative programmer? Utter bool sheet!

What a degree does do, is allow a mediocre programmer to program. Good programmers will be good programmers, no matter how they learn. Mediocre coders will always be mediocre.

Let me guess - your senior doesnt have a degree and is biased against them? Absolute stupidity, sorry but it is.
 
I'm guessing all for degrees already have one, and those against, don't. :D

I have just finished studying for my piece of paper - and I have almost 13 years experience behind me. I'm all for degrees, but in my experience uni + exp <> exp + uni.

We can all say what we want - at the end of the day you want to end up with both experience and paper. How you get there is up to you. :)
 
Raithlin said:
I'm guessing all for degrees already have one, and those against, don't. :D

I have just finished studying for my piece of paper - and I have almost 13 years experience behind me. I'm all for degrees, but in my experience uni + exp <> exp + uni.

We can all say what we want - at the end of the day you want to end up with both experience and paper. How you get there is up to you. :)
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I have a degree but I'm neutral on them. They are good to have, but not the only way to go around learning how to program. You can learn on your own, and still be successful and a good programmer. Equally, you can be taught and still be a creative programmer.

Anyone who says its one or the other is stupid.
 
I have a BSc with distinction (not honours) and 8.5 years development experience. The degree was obtained in parallel with the experience. While the degree certainly has merit, for me it was mostly a personal challenge I set for myself. I understand that it can be difficult to get a job in the development industry without a degree and I'm certainly advocating obtaining one, but don't see the degree as the only thing you need: there is no substitute for experience, commercial or otherwise. I found the degree interesting and certainly changed my way of thinking in some respects, but at the same time it taught be almost nothing about actual real-world programming, the kind of software you'll more than likely work on. That kind of knowledge, way of thinking and ability to handle situations or problems can only be obtained by working in a commercial environment. But if you don't have that commercial experience that's so valuable, your next best is to get that degree but at the same time, become a great programmer: no piece of paper can make you that, only you can do that for yourself.
 
I agree, my next step is to get my degree and luckily the "company" is behind me all the way.
 
We always go into this University Degree vs extra 3/4 years experience debate.

Honestly its all very circumstantial. you can be very successful without one. but if you get retrenched you can find it harder to find another job if you have no qualifications (you can blame the job market for that)

I honestly just decided to do a degree because I wasn't really sure what i wanted to do with my life yet, and i did not feel like becoming a big boy. And varsity life appealed to me somewhat.
 
C# is a great language, as far as it comes to experience vs degree I think that all depends on what the company hiring wants to do with you. Some want someone completely blank slate and see how it goes, some want a bit of real world experience.

The real world and a learning environment are quite different areas, things are a lot more serious in the real world and many more curve balls thrown at you, extra responsibility, initiative, ability to contribute to a team, these all come with experience. There is also a lot more to development than your application just working as in the real world as things need to be stable, efficient and maintainable.

All I can say is that C# is a quite language, you can do a lot with a little so once you have your base knowledge down your'e good to go. Degree or not that's really much of a muchness don't let deciding over it stop you from learning in the meantime.
 
I would say that c# is the best language to start off with (im not a c# developer). It really gives you a foundation with all its support as well. But you have to make your mind up and choose your poison. I say c# to start off with.
 
In the industry the client expects everything to be perfect. There are millions to be made if you have the knowledge, but some times it's best to swollow your pride.
 
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