Code Justin

Posts Tagged ‘help with a beginner programmer career choice’

I’m making this post in hopes I will get feedback from the people reading it. I have been thinking about this every single day for the past few months and I have gathered a lot of opinions prior to this post. I have talked to a lot of different people from HR departments to company owners and programmers in all different fields from web development to game programming. Though I have gotten a lot of feedback and advice from all kinds of people I still have yet to make up my mind about mainly what college I should go to and also what path in programming I should follow. I will try and format my “wall of text” the best I can but once I start typing it I’m not going to stop so some parts might not be too clear but the post as a whole should make sense. I really hope you take the time to read this and give me your feedback in the comment section below.

Here we go…

My journey up to this point:

I’m 18 years old and about to graduate high school in June. I have always had a passion for computers since my mother bought me one from a garage sale when I was about 10. Well the computer didn’t work and when we went to go return it the people had already moved. So I than took apart the computer with no knowledge or manual and in a few weeks I had it working (too bad I had no clue how to install an operating system though). The next major event in my computer journey was my desire to create a web page. I was about 11 when I started programming HTML in notepad. I fiddled with any computer hardware I could find in the trash and from people throwing their computers away. I loved to build and repair computers. I used to be the families computer guy and I fixed their problems no matter how hard they were. I remember once fixing a computer that someone had super glued the mother board. I was 15 when I was able to build my first new computer. I over clocked it and had a lot of fun finding ways to lower the case temperature. That same year I started a programming class at the local tech school. I was in the class for about 2 years. The class opened my eyes to the fact that I knew very little compared to this one kid in the class. I realized that even though I knew a lot compared to the people around me my skills aren’t even close to those that share a passion for computers. During the 2 years at the programming class I didn’t do much. It was basically just read the text book and copy the code in it. Just simple console applications that I barley remember. I do however remember doing a few projects which we didn’t copy out of the book in QBasic. QBasic taught me about if statements and variables which was a lot of fun (I miss the “goto” command, ha-ha). I did not really do much coding outside of class besides making a lot of sites in my “quest to get rich online”. I regret the large amount of time I wasted making sites to earn money and spending countless hours playing World of Warcraft (among other mmorpgs). I never really thought much about what I wanted to do after high school. I just figured I would take an associates degree in network administration and live a happy life. It wasn’t until recently that I thought about programming as a career. I didn’t like programming when I was learning it at the tech school but when I started to see dynamic web pages and what they could do it got me interested. I thought it would be easy since I had learned just basic console code in my tech class and also did a lot of scripting in various game engines (like Realm Crafter). I was totally wrong. When I started to look over C++ I got really confused and only understood a little bit of the code. I than for what ever reason needed to code a new web site I wanted to make. I seen I would need to learn something besides HTML. I picked up PHP and really enjoyed the syntax. I have also learned a little bit of other various languages like Python. That about wraps up the major computer related events in my life till now.

My thoughts about what field of programming I might enter:

For some people this seems to be an easy one. From the people I have talked to some even say choosing a field before college doesn’t matter much. Well I have OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) and I worry about this a lot. I want to really focus on what I will be doing on the job. For that reason I “need” to decide what field I plan to break into. At first I was thinking software development. Seems like a pretty broad field with a lot of chances to break into it. Also the money and working hours seemed to have the best overall ratio. I than thought about game programming (game play or AI) because the whole team environment seemed like something I would want to be apart of. Also the fact I could be programming enemy AI instead of an input forms or databases was appealing. Some of the turn offs though was the amount of work to pay ratio. Also after speaking with a local programmer I realized that working 16+ hour days toward deadlines might not be too fun when I have a family. I had ruled out web programming from the start because for some reason I thought it was “the bottom of the barrel”. I had the mind set that web programmers got paid little and didn’t get to work on fun projects. To a point I still feel this way about web programming but looking into it further I see that websites are really becoming more like applications. It’s not the same old static pages I used to program. I would have the chance to work on all kinds of teams from internal sites to social networks and even games. Also something that might be a factor is what language I will be using. Like I said I have very little experience in C++ or any static language but I know that I actually enjoy programming in PHP. I just like the way PHP works and how the code flows. Than again this might not be so important when I compare working on a fun project in a language I don’t like much to working on a very boring and dull project in a language I love. (Do you think the language your programming in matters more than the project you’re working on?) I also realize that one of the biggest factors in real life that plays in to how much you enjoy your job is who you’re working for. It seems like if you’re working for someone that you don’t like it might ruin your enjoyment for the project. That’s a brief overview of how I feel about programming in the Software, Video Game, and Web fields.

What college I should go to for programming:

This has to be my biggest concern right now. Deciding what field of programming I plan to enter plays a big part in this choice too but I’m going to list my current options with the pros and cons of each. I should also note that I recently took my ACT to get a math score of 23 or better to instantly qualify for the engineering program at a college. Ironically I was above college level for everything but Math (scored an 18 in math which is really low). I scored high in science and reading though. My ACT composite score was 21 because I scored so low in math and English wasn’t too great either but it was at college level. I live in Pennsylvania so it is required that I pass the PSSA which has reading, writing, and math. I did well on reading and writing but I failed Math and had to re-take it (still awaiting scores). So to my surprise my Math level is really low. I know at some point I learned the material on the tests but I guess I just sort of forgot it.

Local 2-year Solutions Developer degree (Tri-State Business Institute): This is pretty much web programming in a nutshell. They teach HTML, CSS, Javascript, ASP.net, ADO, VB.net, C#, Flash/Action script 3.0, PHP, Mysql, Microsoft SQL, Database Design, Photoshop, XML, and others. I also recently got a chance to talk to the teacher face to face for a few hours (had to stop talking because he had another class coming in) but I really enjoyed him. He seemed very exited about programming and knowledgeable too. Even better was the fact that he loved to teach programming and he even explained all my questions in great detail I had. I told him about how I felt I might want to learn C/C++ and he said that they just recently took out the C++ 1 and C++ 2 courses. He told me if I could get 3 other students that wanted to learn it that he would teach C++ 1 and 2 and possibly a DirectX course as electives.

Pros:

I enjoyed the teacher and the degree gives you very good base level knowledge about a lot of the current web programming languages so I will be well versed in web programming and will get a good sense as to what language I might want to pursue as a career. Also the classes are “short” and the general education classes are “easy” which means I will have a lot of time outside of class to pursue my own projects. The school has a 100% job placement rate for programmers in programming jobs and I also get an internship while attending the school. I learn C# and Vb.net which are two good languages to get into possibly software development.

Cons:

Even though I will get a lot of knowledge in actual programming languages it seems that the degree will not be as in-depth with the theory of computers/programming as a BA in computer science would. They do not teach any hard math courses so my math knowledge may be lacking out of school. (On the other hand this means I will not have to struggle in school with math.) The fact I will only have a 2 year degree compared to a BA (though this means I will also have 2 more years work exp). I will be missing out on the “college dorm life” since they do not have dorms and I will be driving from home and living at home. The degree is 2 years straight through so I will not have the summers off to try and get any “summer internships”. Their credits don’t transfer well if I choose to pursue a BA after this.

Cost:

The total cost is 32k but after basic grants it is 18k and I think if I try hard I can get the total amount down to 10k or less (if everything goes right). Of course this does not include dorms since they have none or any other living related fees like meals. I will be living at home so those will not be a factor.

Out of state 4-year BoS in Game and Simulation Engineering Technology (Shawnee State University): This degree surprised me. The name is pretty deceiving because this degree is actually very much CS. The core is all computer science and computer engineering courses. Also 23% of the class is math. The main difference is that they have a very strong custom curriculum geared at game programming and also they cover a little bit of game design and modeling. The student projects seem really fun and for some of the projects I guess you get to work with the people taking the same degree but the art side (they have a science degree which is programming and art which is like 3d modeling). So you get to make some really neat projects. I talked to the professor via email and I enjoyed his answers and the fact he never tried to sell the college to me and was frank about the games industry. I also emailed a few seniors taking the degree and they seem to really enjoy the degree but the actual college isn’t really great otherwise. They just went to the GDC and the class majors sound really serious. They had 65 freshmen last year and only 15 were left by the end of the year.

Pros:

It is a BA not a 2 year degree. They teach a lot more theory than the local 2-year school. Their core curriculum is comprised of some great game related and general CS related courses. You get to make fun projects like operating systems, ray tracing engines, and games for different platforms. If I want to get into the games industry this will obviously give me a lot more game related knowledge than someone with a general CS degree. Have a chance at the having a fun “dorm life”.

Cons:

The fact that it has the word “game” in the degree title might scare off some employers if I choose to not pursue the game programming field. The actual college life isn’t too great around the area. The general education courses like Math might be so hard that it will require a lot of my free time to study it which will take away from my time to create side projects. No job placement service like the 2-year school has. Though I will try and don’t plan on it the failure rate is high and knowing I’m not good with Math this might really affect me.

Cost:

The cost will be ABOUT 18k per year before grants/scholarships. This includes meals and dorm and internet but it does not include the cost of odds and ends like toilet paper and shaving cream.

In state 4-year BoS in Computer Science: This is just speaking of any general college that is on the cheaper side (which isn’t many in Pennsylvania). Some of my most particular choices would be Edinboro University, IUP, and Slippery Rock University.

Pros:

Well it’s a general CS degree so employers that require a BA will like that. I assume I will learn lots of theory. This doesn’t really “limit” me to web or games programming.

Cons:

Possibility that I won’t learn enough programming in class to be job ready (I would learn a lot out of class of course). Just like the 4-year game degree I have that chance of failing because of general education or it might take up a lot of my free time so I won’t be able to spend as much time of side projects.

Cost:

It varies but in general it will range from about 15k to 19k a year with dorms before grants/scholarships and that doesn’t include my tooth paste or dish soap.

Find a programmer trainee position: This would be really great if I could find a company willing to hire me in a trainee position so I can get on the job training. I feel I would learn the best with this option but unfortunately opportunities like this are very rare in today’s economy.

Pros:

I would learn and retain the most programming related knowledge this way.

Cons:

I might lack some of the theory behind computers/programming.

Cost:

This would more than likely put money in my pocket and give me the experience I seek!

My top programming goals:

#1 my top goal hands down would be to make my own small applications or a small mmo game and be able to make a living off of it. This is not too realistic though but it might be if more platforms start accepting indie developers. Even with PC being a good platform the marketing factor and also piracy will play against me in making enough money to feed my family.

#2 my next goal would be to work for a small indie company that is really fun to work for and also make a good pay.

#3 knowing that finding a company that is fun and pays well might be a little hard too my next goal would be to work for a company I can do 9 to 5 and not have the same old task day in and day out.

#4 if those three fail than I’m willing to work for a company that isn’t too fun as long as the pay is very good (6 figures) and I can retain all rights to my own projects.

I want your advice about my programming situation:

First off I want to thank you for reading my post. I made this post hoping that people would come and comment on it giving me some advice. I made this post more so about statements than questions because I’m open to ANY and ALL advice/feedback! The underlining questions though are 1. What kind of programmer do you think I might be? 2. Which college choice do you think would be the best? 3. If you feel I might have something “wrong” about programming or a certain field than please do give me your input. I can’t wait to see what you guys have to say about this!

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