Starting into development

[Gemini-girl]

Hi all

Hope I'm in the right forum. I am currently working as an IT helpdesk manager and I am not happy at all. I have always wanted to do development but I have never had a chance to actually do it practically. My main question is where does one start, are there companies out there that are willing to take on an inexperienced developer and groom them?

By the way, I am currently doing my honours in BCom Information Systems and as most might know, it is more based into the business management and not technicality as in development.

Thanks in advance for the replies.

 

[semaphore]

Get online guides, go through some tutorials and see if its something you enjoy. Then read, read, read, read.

 

[Joker]

Your degree will be enough to get you into a Junior Dev position if you've learnt the basics in your own time, there are loads of online resources for this. Alternatively study a few short programming courses when you've completed your degree like http://www.newhorizonsct.co.za/courses/programming for example..

Edit: or http://www.damelin.co.za/part-time/it-programming

I'm sure there are better places out there, depends where you live.

 

[GoB]

Just some advice.. don't accept a job other than a dev (e.g. BA) if you are set on that. Also don't lose focus and get dragged into a field that you are not interested in. I have seen managers assign CMS management / admin tasks to .NET interns. They end up never programming and a year later it is difficult to break the cycle. Once you have year or so experience, then you are ahead of most candidates.

Not to be sexist, but being female should make your entry into the market easier.. from what I've seen.

 

[Beachless]

It starts with a passion for development if you really want to be a developer then start developing little apps and websites and just go for it. Your degree is fine for giving you an introduction but ultimately you need to do as much developing as you can to get experience and that means not waiting for someone to give you a dev job and to tell you what to do.

 

[Roxi_B4b3]

Not to be sexist, but being female should make your entry into the market easier.. from what I've seen.

I hate to admit it, but this is very true. I've never really had any difficulty finding a job. In my experience, there are quite a few companies that will take on juniors, but you will have to know your way around the language. I will be very surprised if there is a company out there willing to teach you from scratch how to program. Like the others said, be sure to develop in your spare time, then you will have no issues passing the competency tests they give you at interviews.

 

[Gemini-girl]

Thank you for your responses and links, I will certainly start practicing with smaller projects and do a lot of self learning.

 

[MartinMorrison]

Thank you for your responses and links, I will certainly start practicing with smaller projects and do a lot of self learning.

If you'd like to take some free online courses in programming, aimed at South Africans, check out www.hyperiondev.com

 

[noob_saibot]

Hi all

Hope I'm in the right forum. I am currently working as an IT helpdesk manager and I am not happy at all. I have always wanted to do development but I have never had a chance to actually do it practically. My main question is where does one start, are there companies out there that are willing to take on an inexperienced developer and groom them?

By the way, I am currently doing my honours in BCom Information Systems and as most might know, it is more based into the business management and not technicality as in development.

Thanks in advance for the replies.

Don't be too eager to drop your current job for a junior dev job. Juniors earn very little in SA and you may also regret jumping into the deep end on this career.

Test it out for yourself first. See what development is like by building tiny applications. You may end up preferring being a system/process analyst/designer.

There's a ton of resources out there to learn coding for free. I'd probably start by learning some frontend webdev stuff (as the immediate results will make you feel chuffed at your progress).

MartinMorrison

Quote Originally Posted by Gemini-girl View Post
Thank you for your responses and links, I will certainly start practicing with smaller projects and do a lot of self learning.
If you'd like to take some free online courses in programming, aimed at South Africans, check out www.hyperiondev.com

With no disrespect, the site itself (hyperiondev) needs a redesign. You should probably also make clicked links load in new windows and not load within popups. Great effort by the multiple programmers all over SA to teach coding though

 

[Gemini-girl]

Don't be too eager to drop your current job for a junior dev job. Juniors earn very little in SA and you may also regret jumping into the deep end on this career.

Test it out for yourself first. See what development is like by building tiny applications. You may end up preferring being a system/process analyst/designer.

There's a ton of resources out there to learn coding for free. I'd probably start by learning some frontend webdev stuff (as the immediate results will make you feel chuffed at your progress).

Great advise, I appreciate your valuable input. I will give it about 3 months to decide whether I am able to make a career out of development, if so then I guess the sacrifice for a decrease in salary would be expected. For now I will practice practice practice.

 

[MartinMorrison]

With no disrespect, the site itself (hyperiondev) needs a redesign. You should probably also make clicked links load in new windows and not load within popups. Great effort by the multiple programmers all over SA to teach coding though [/QUOTE]

Thanks for the feedback.