Son starting out in programming

Elax

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My son who is almost 20 wants to get started in development as a career. He's dabbled a bit in minor roblox games, but I think game development is such a niche market that getting in there is a long shot, so I'm looking for suggestions as to what courses/certifications he should be looking at to at least have a change of getting started?
 
I would suggest something like Python.

Lots of free training content on the internet for him to try and see if it tickles his fancy.

I believe with programming you learn the most when I figure out stuff yourself.
 
My son who is almost 20 wants to get started in development as a career. He's dabbled a bit in minor roblox games, but I think game development is such a niche market that getting in there is a long shot, so I'm looking for suggestions as to what courses/certifications he should be looking at to at least have a change of getting started?

I would suggest psychometric testing and career guidance and advice before commiting to a career choice.
 
I'm sure there will be a whole lot of people who will disagree here but if you can afford it in any way, he should really consider completing a degree.
There are tons of successful developers out there who never went through formal studies, but the doors a CS or Engineering degree opens when you're just starting out makes the 3-4 years so worth it.
As an example we took on a group of 20 grads beginning of the year who we've been training and coaching into specific roles and they've all moved into teams recently at salaries north of 500k p/a. They wouldn't even have got past initial screening without their qualifications...and recruitment competition was fierce - we struggled to find 20 candidates with the right aptitude.
 
I would also suggest Python as a good all rounder to start with. PyGame will allow him to build games relatively easily with it. Even if he doesn’t use it for his career, it’s picking up the concepts and language that counts.
 
I would suggest something like Python.

Lots of free training content on the internet for him to try and see if it tickles his fancy.

I believe with programming you learn the most when I figure out stuff yourself.
Solid advice to play around first with a popular language before making a call. Could also be Java or C# but Python is quite easy, quick and cheap to get going
 
I'm there will be a whole lot of people who will disagree here but if you can afford it in any way, he should really consider completing a degree.
There are tons of successful developers out there who never went through formal studies, but the doors a CS or Engineering degree opens when you're just starting out makes the 3-4 years so worth it.
As an example we took on a group of 20 grads beginning of the year who we've been training and coaching into specific roles and they've all moved into teams recently at salaries north of 500k p/a. They wouldn't even have got past initial screening without their qualifications...and recruitment competition was fierce - we struggled to find 20 candidates with the right aptitude.
I also agree that a degree is always best. @op - although if a degree is a non-go for him, it’s still not a deal breaker.
 
I would suggest psychometric testing and career guidance and advice before commiting to a career choice.
This, my youngest daughter started with her Bsc in physics in 2020 in the 2nd year changed to chemistry and finished her degree in mathematics. Now she is doing a course in software engineering... Which seems to be her actual interest.
 
stay away from using AI to learn or help code. it inhibits the way of thinking needed to get started. if the correct mentality is already there then AI can be used to help learn new syntax.

I believe the best direction to go in terms of studies at the moment is more database back end work, as front end work is going to become less and less available as more and more tools come in and AI starts making it easier for people to move into that space.

having a good understanding of data structures and data interpritation will create a foundation where when AI does eventually take over the space there will still be work in understanding the data that comes out and working with it.
 
Programming will be dead within the next 5 years, probably sooner.

Rather lean into the AI storm and use AI to write the code, while he provides the direction. Prompt engineering will eventually be replaced by structured inputs of some kind, but at least learning how these tools work will keep him relevant.
 
stay away from using AI to learn or help code. it inhibits the way of thinking needed to get started. if the correct mentality is already there then AI can be used to help learn new syntax.

I believe the best direction to go in terms of studies at the moment is more database back end work, as front end work is going to become less and less available as more and more tools come in and AI starts making it easier for people to move into that space.

having a good understanding of data structures and data interpritation will create a foundation where when AI does eventually take over the space there will still be work in understanding the data that comes out and working with it.

1. Some of the best students these days are using ChatGPT and other AI tools in the classroom. Your professor only has so much time for you, so if you have the keywords but still lack some understanding then the tools are great for filling in the blanks, giving you examples etc.

2. Not wrong. AI will replace all the easy/menial tasks first, so if that's the direction then make sure you're on the right side.

3. A lot of new devs these days have no real idea of how computers work on a low level anymore, so if the kid is ahead of that curve then they'll always find employment.
 
Honestly,

I would advocate for a non traditional approach here. Don't push him into a 9-5 and studying, explore whether there is an entrepreneurial mindset in there somewhere such that he can start his own thing?

See a gap in the market for the tech world, exploit it. He's young and can make the mistakes. We need to start getting out of the mindset that a 9-5 is the only way. It was the only way we knew back then and hence we continue.
 
1. Some of the best students these days are using ChatGPT and other AI tools in the classroom. Your professor only has so much time for you, so if you have the keywords but still lack some understanding then the tools are great for filling in the blanks, giving you examples etc.
you can only use that when you already have the mindset. you need to understand how to solve the problem and how to approach writing the code before you can get the syntax help.

if you start off by using an AI for help that base level understanding is not created. that is what I am saying. avoid using AI until you already have an idea of how to write the code even if you dont know the exact way. then when you already have an idea of what you want the code to do you can use AI to create the code, so you can at least see if the approach makes sense for solving the problem. so you dont fall in the trap of beliving that the code provided by the AI is correct and dont learn the basics.

if you only speak Afrikaans, and you keep asking an AI to translate into French, you will never learn to speak French. and we all know that using an online translator wont help you when you are on holiday in Paris.

same applies here. get the way of thinking sorted and then move on to having AI help get you to the next level.
 
I highly recommend starting with CS50x, which is the free online version of Harvard University’s CS50 course. It’s an intro to computer science that covers the basics in theory and practical coding really well.

CS50x - https://cs50.harvard.edu/x/2024/

From there, I’d recommend checking out either freeCodeCamp or The Odin Project. Both are great, and while there’s some overlap with CS50x, these are less in-depth and much more project focused.

freeCodeCamp - https://www.freecodecamp.org/

The Odin Project - https://www.theodinproject.com/
 
Playing around with roblox is far from actual game development, which can be incredibly challenging. I'd second the psychometric test suggestion...
 
A lot of new devs these days have no real idea of how computers work on a low level anymore, so if the kid is ahead of that curve then they'll always find employment.
Indeed, hence why they lose then plot when they have to interact with any kind of hardware, and give me blank stares when, I don't know.... talk about a stack frame or instruction pointer :laugh:
 
Honestly,

I would advocate for a non traditional approach here. Don't push him into a 9-5 and studying, explore whether there is an entrepreneurial mindset in there somewhere such that he can start his own thing?

See a gap in the market for the tech world, exploit it. He's young and can make the mistakes. We need to start getting out of the mindset that a 9-5 is the only way. It was the only way we knew back then and hence we continue.
Maybe so, but studying should still be the first step. Many successful entrepreneurs had their Eureka moment while studying...
 
So, I never intended to be a software developer. Never wanted anything to do with it. Yet today I have got a label attached.... Lead Developer (whatever that means)

In the 80s I wanted to use microcontrollers that were all the rage in the fancy overseas rags doing all the cool stuff, and that meant, okay well, let's put the effort in to learn assembly language. And I did that. In high school already.
And I had no computer to do this on, eventually I got my brother to help me press a Sinclair ZX Spectrum into doing the mundane task of blowing EPROMs

But I learnt how to make it work, by disassembling a snippet of code on paper, and that then led me to figure out how the instructions were coded. I had a book in which I did all of this. I wrote programs in assembler, by hand, and wrote down the hexadecimal on the right side, using an accounting book as I recall because it had the right layout.

So from the word go, electronic engineering and programming went hand in hand for me, 10 years later I did the same with learning C, and then eventually saw that IT pays 10x what the highest pay was for an electronic engineer so went into that. I was able to 'cause often the stuff I was designing needed software on a PC to either be tested, or for the B.O.F.H. using the product in the field that is too domkop to read the manual, so we provided apps on his PC to allow him to do configuration that way. All of that stuff was done initially in C++ Builder, then Delphi, and then C#

I couldn't study... well I did, but I did this stuff BEFORE matric. The problem was my parents and their dumb brain fart decisions, losing their money in ponzi schemes, and then being told in Matric - "sorry no money for you, go ask Telkom for a bursary maybe"
 
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This, my youngest daughter started with her Bsc in physics in 2020 in the 2nd year changed to chemistry and finished her degree in mathematics. Now she is doing a course in software engineering... Which seems to be her actual interest.
Kids should really figure out what they want to do beforehand. University should not be a tryout place.
There is a limited number of spaces, and some kids are denied a place because others first want to "check things out"
 
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