How do I become a developer?

Posted by ATester on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by ATester
Published on 2009-03-21T03:35:30Z Indexed on 2010/12/27 14:58 UTC
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c#

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advice

Since many of you are already there I figured this might be a great place to invite ideas and suggestion for becoming a software developer.

My background

I have some basic knowledge of programming in VB and C++ from a course I had pursued 8 years ago. My main drawback is a lack of experience in software since I was in a teaching career until a year ago.

I am working as a QA tester and finally got a chance to write some automation tests scripts using C#. I didn't have any prior knowledge of C# but I was able to figure my way through it.

Questions

Given this context:

Would anyone have any ideas as to what would be a good approach to learn enough to actually be able to work as a developer?
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what kind of learning path to adopt and which approaches speed up learning curve?
Would pursuing university course be helpful in terms of knowledge gained?
Are certification exams a way to go for a beginner?
Are community college courses useful?
What about courses offered by private institutes/centers?
Any suggestion for some good books?

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