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  • How can I transition from a front-end career to back-end career?

    - by jexx2345
    Hello, In 2004, I received my B.S. in Computer Science using mostly Java for programming. Since then, I have been hired for purely front-end positions in large companies through recruiters, doing primarily HTML/CSS, Javascript/jQuery, and OOP Actionscript 3. While I definitely have respect for the front-end, and have learned much, I feel very unfulfilled and would love to move into back-end for the more complex programming I was doing in school. My target platform of choice is ASP.Net 3.5 (C#). With a resume that has absolutely no .Net or back-end experience, how can I transition into a junior back-end job? I am currently freelancing a .Net e-commerce site, and plan to build a portfolio showcasing some apps (e-commerce mvc, blog, etc), while learning the technology. Is having a Bachelors in CS enough or should I look into getting .Net certified? Is showing course-work still relevant to an employer even though it was from 6 years ago? Thank you

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  • Taking a break from programming harmful to career?

    - by Chris
    I'm currently taking a year out from University to do an internship at a large (well known) software vendor. I'll be returning to Uni next September for a year to finish my studies. I really want to take a year out after graduation, I won't be doing any programming in this year. Will this make me less competitive when applying for programmer jobs when I get back from my year away? I'm looking to work with the Microsoft technology stack, my internship has been all Java and Unix thus far. The assumption is I won't be taking up a full time offer with the company I interned at (despite the offer).

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  • How can you ask a sensitive work question anonymously but still inform readers of your credibility a

    - by Rob
    I would like to request opinions about my career/situation at work with a software development project. I would like to ask anonymously or created a new stackoverflow.com account because I think I may be identified by co-workers at my employer since I have referred them to (non-sensititive) technical questions I have asked here. So they might know my account and be able to follow my activity. If I create a new account it will have no reputation and some readers may ignore it, for example, because they might think that the user only wishes to take ideas from here and not contribute, i.e. not a committed stackoverflow poster. What are your thoughts? (I do feel that it is appropriate to ask such pogramming career/situational questions here as many others have and there are some good questions -and answers and it seems that the stackoverflow community accepts such questions even thought the site's strict guidelines are for specific answers and not discussion, and non-subjective questions. And thank goodness that is the case - not all problems faced by programmers are about the craft but also the human factors around it - where else would folks go?)

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  • What's the Build and Release Dev doing?

    - by Yongwei Xing
    Hi all I need someone give a career advice about the Build and Release Dev. I don't know what's exactly the uild and Release Dev do. What's the different between the Build and Release Dev and the regular product Dev? Do they have the same requirement? Or the regular product Dev need higher requirement? What do BRE dev do in their work? Best Regards,

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  • Career-Defining Moments

    - by Robz / Fervent Coder
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/robz/archive/2013/06/25/career-defining-moments.aspx Fear holds us back from many things. A little fear is healthy, but don’t let it overwhelm you into missing opportunities. In every career there is a moment when you can either step forward and define yourself, or sit down and regret it later. Why do we hold back: is it fear, constraints, family concerns, or that we simply can't do it? I think in many cases it comes to the unknown, and we are good at fearing the unknown. Some people hold back because they are fearful of what they don’t know. Some hold back because they are fearful of learning new things. Some hold back simply because to take on a new challenge it means they have to give something else up. The phrase sometimes used is “It’s the devil you know versus the one you don’t.” That fear sometimes allows us to miss great opportunities. In many people’s case it is the opportunity to go into business for yourself, to start something that never existed. Most hold back hear for a fear of failing. We’ve all heard the phrase “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?”, which is intended to get people to think about the opportunities they might create. A better term I heard recently on the Ruby Rogues podcast was “What would be worth doing even if you knew you were going to fail?” I think that wording suits the intent better. If you knew (or thought) going in that you were going to fail and you didn’t care, it would open you up to the possibility of paying more attention to the journey and not the outcome. In my case it is a fear of acceptance. I am fearful that I may not learn what I need to learn or may not do a good enough job to be accepted. At the same time that fear drives me and makes me want to leap forward. Some folks would define this as “The Flinch”. I’m learning Ruby and Puppet right now. I have limited experience with both, limited to the degree it scares me some that I don’t know much about either. Okay, it scares me quite a bit! Some people’s defining moment might be going to work for Microsoft. All of you who know me know that I am in love with automation, from low-tech to high-tech automation. So for me, my “mecca” is a little different in that regard. Awhile back I sat down and defined where I wanted my career to go and it had to do more with DevOps, defined as applying developer practices to system administration operations (I could not find this definition when I searched). It’s an area that interests me and why I really want to expand chocolatey into something more awesome. I want to see Windows be as automatable and awesome as other operating systems that are out there. Back to the career-defining moment. Sometimes these moments only come once in a lifetime. The key is to recognize when you are in one of these moments and step back to evaluate it before choosing to dive in head first. So I am about to embark on what I define as one of these “moments.”  On July 1st I will be joining Puppet Labs and working to help make the Windows automation experience rock solid! I’m both scared and excited about the opportunity!

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  • Can working exclusively with niche apps or tech hurt your career in software development? How to get out of the cycle? [closed]

    - by Keoma
    I'm finding myself in a bit of a pickle. I've been at a pretty comfortable IT group for almost a decade. I got my start here working on web development, mostly CRUD, but have demonstrated the ability to figure out more complex problems. I'm not a rock star, but I have received many compliments on my programming aptitude, and technologists and architects have commented on my ability to pick things up (for example, I recently learned a very popular web framework that shall remain nameless since I don’t want to be identified). My problem is that, over time, my responsibilities have been shifting towards work such as support or ‘development’ with some rather niche products (afraid to mention here due to potential for being identified). Some of this work, if it includes anything resembling coding, is very menial scripting in languages such as Powershell or VBScript. The vast majority of the time, however, a typical day consists of going back and forth with the product’s vendor support to send them logs and apply configuration changes or patches they recommend. I’m basically starved for some actual software development. However, even though I’m more than capable of doing that development work (and actually do a much better job at it than anything else), our boss is more interested in the kind of work I mentioned above, her reasoning being that since no one else in the organization wants to do it, it must mean job security. This has been going on for close to 3 years, and the only reason I have held on is on the promise that we would eventually get more development projects assigned to us. Well, that turned out not to be true at all. A recent talk with the boss has just made it more explicitly clear, as she told me in no uncertain terms that it’s very likely that development work (web or otherwise) would go to another group. The reason given to me is that our we don’t have enough resources in our group to handle that. So now I find myself in the position that I either have to stay in what has essentially become a dead end IT job that is tied to the fortunes of a niche stack of apps, or try to find a position that will be better for my long term career. My problem (is it a problem?), however, is that compared to others, my development projects in the last three years are very sparse in number. To compound things, projects using the latest and most popular frameworks, amount to the big fat number of just one—with no work of that kind in the foreseeable future. I am very concerned that this sparseness in my resume is a deficit, and that it will hurt my chances of landing a different job. I’m also wondering how much it will hurt me, and whether that can be ameliorated with hobby projects of my own. I guess I’m looking for opinions. Thank you very much for reading.

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  • Program Managers: Do you exist? How do I become you?

    - by sixtyfootersdude
    I am a Computer Science major who is interesting in exploring a career as a program manager. I knew since starting my degree that that was the role that was interested in but I just found out the actual job name recently. Q: Is this a common position? Do many companies have "program managers"? What should I do/read to improve my chances to become a project manager upon graduation? I have already completed three co-op terms at different companies none of which had this position.

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  • Am I a dinosaur programmer?

    - by dlb
    I have been a professional programmer for more than 30 years, and have chosen a career path involving hands-on programming. Programming is something that I love, and I take great pride in the fact that I have continued to keep up to date with current technology. Projects on which I have worked include large enterprise projects as well as smaller desktop programs. The problem I am facing is that I do not have any web-based experience other than some web services. Most of the jobs now available have some web component. I have now been out of work for a year and a half, and have been keeping busy by studying technology that will bridge that gap: CSS, Java Script, JQuery, and Ruby on Rails; AJAX is next. Hiring managers give no consideration whatsoever to the studying that I have been doing. I know that I cannot compete at a senior software level, but companies will not hire someone with my experience at a more junior level. Is there any way to break out of this Catch 22?

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  • Spotlight on a career path: Paul, Business Development Consultant

    - by Maria Sandu
    I came to work for Oracle in November 2012 as a Customer Intelligence Representative and since then I was promoted to a Business Development Consultant, for Commercial Industries in the UK, based in Dublin. My background was primarily in Logistics, working for such companies as Indaver Ireland, Wincanton and P&O. I spent 10 years working in this industry and gained experience in negotiating with customers and suppliers in order to meet the needs of both, monitoring the quality and quantity of goods as well as the efficiency and organisation of the movement and storage of products. I decided to move from my logistics career in 2009 to study Information Technology in D.I.T. This was a challenge for me to move my career path; however the lectures at the college helped me significantly with the ability to understand how IT can have an effect on how businesses operate. Following on from college I came to work for Oracle. This also presented challenges but the training I received and the encouragement from management helped me understand that the same business rules apply no matter what background you come from. I have also learnt that using my past experience in working with customers and suppliers in Logistics has helped me understand how to meet customer’s needs. Oracle has offered me excellent training such as Sandler Sales Techniques and John Costigan. I continue to get all the training that I need to develop my career. If you’re interested in joining the Business Development Group visit http://bit.ly/oracledirectcareers or follow our CareersatOracle Facebook Community! /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

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  • MSCC: Career & IT Fair 2014

    Already a couple of weeks ago, I've been addressed by Ibraahim and Yunus to see whether it would be interesting to participate in the 1st Career & IT Fair organised by the UoM Computer Club. Well, luckily we met at the Global Windows Azure Bootcamp and I wasn't too sure whether it would be possible for me to attend after all. The main reason is given because of work demand and furthermore due to the fact that the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community currently has no advertising material at all. Here's the brief statement of the event: "The UOM Students' Computer Club in collaboration with the UOM Students' Union and UOM CSE Department is organising a 'Career & IT Fair' on the 23rd and 24th April 2014. This event has for objective to provide a platform to tertiary students, secondary students as well as vocational students, the opportunity to meet job recruiters." Luckily, I was reminded that the 23rd is a Wednesday, and therefore I decided that it might be interesting to move our weekly Code & Coffee session to the university and hence be able to attend the career fair. As it turned out it was a great choice and thankfully Pritvi, Nadim as well as Ishwon volunteered to be around at the "community booth". Thankfully, the computer club gave us - the MSCC and the LUGM - one of their spaces in the lobby area of the Paul Octave Wiéhé Auditorium. My impression about the event Very well and professionally organised. Seriously, the lads over at the UoM Computer Club did a great job in organising their 2 days event, and felt very comfortable at any time. Actually, it was kind of amusing to some of the members constantly running around and checking everything. Even though that the whole process went smooth and easy off the hand. There were a couple of interesting pieces of information and announcements during the opening ceremony. For example, the Computer Science faculty is a very young one and has been initiated back in 1988 only - just by 4 staff members at that time. Now, after 25 years they have achieved quite a lot and there are currently 1.000+ active students attending the numerous lectures and courses. But there is no room to rest on previous achievements, and I was kind of surprised to hear that there are plans to extend the campus, and offer new lectures in the fields of nanotechnology, big data handling, and - crossing fingers - the introduction and establishment of a space control centre. Mauritius is already part of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and hopefully there will be more activities into that direction in the near future. Community - Awareness and collaboration As stated earlier, I could only spent one morning but luckily other members of the MSCC and the LUGM stayed during the whole two days and provided answers to any interested person. As for me, I took the opportunity to get in touch with the other companies in the lobby. Mainly, to create some awareness about our IT communities but also to see whether there might be options for future engagement in common activities, too. So far, I was able to speak to representatives of the following companies: ACCA Mauritius Business at Work Infomil LinkByNet Microsoft Indian Ocean Islands & French Pacific Spherinity Training Institute Spoon Consulting Ltd. State Informatics Ltd. Unfortunately, I only had a quick chat with an HR representative of LinkByNet but I fully count on our MSCC members like Nitin or LUGM member Ronny to spread our intentions over there.  So far, all of the representatives were really interested in our concepts and activities and I'm currently catching up with an introduction flyer for the MSCC that I'm going to send out to all those contacts via mail. It would be great to have more craftsmen as well as professional support on board. Some pictures from the event MSCC: Fantastic outlook for the near future. Announcements were made on Big data, nanotechnology, and space control centre in Mauritius. Interesting! MSCC: The lobby area was cramped with students. Great way to exchange and network. Good luck to all candidates! Passing the relay staff to... I recommend you to continue to read about the first Career & IT Fair on Ish's blog. He has a great summary and more details on those two days of IT activities than I have. Thanks and feel free to leave a comment (or two)... 

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  • Career Advice: masters degree or work experience [on hold]

    - by user95488
    I graduated about four years ago with a degree in mathematics and I currently work as a Software Developer/Business Analyst, but more Business Analyst. I've been working for about 4 years and and I am concerned with my long term career path. I would strongly prefer to do much more software development but to continue on my current path would lead me to an analyst role. I was thinking of getting a masters in computer science to help refocus my career toward core software development. Does anyone have any advice here? Is this a bad idea?

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  • New White Paper: The Career Benefits Of Certification

    - by Harold Green
    Is Certification Worth It? The answer is a resounding YES for IT professionals who are looking to boost their career. While there are no guarantees, certification has been shown to enhance various aspects of an IT professional’s career, including: Employability Salary Job Effectiveness Job Satisfaction With the economy in a slump and unemployment at record levels, it’s tougher than ever to stand out in the competitive field of IT. Numerous research studies have shown that certification can provide IT professionals the knowledge & skills they need to succeed. This new white paper from Oracle and Pearson VUE summarizes the key advantages of certification and provides examples from IT professionals on the benefits of certification. Download your copy now.

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  • Is "Systems Designer" the job title that best describes what I do? [closed]

    - by ivo-rossi
    After having worked as Java developer for almost 3 years in the same company that I currently work at, I moved to a new position associated with the development of the same application. I’m in this new position for more than 1 year now. My official job title is Systems Designer, but I’m not sure this is a title that expresses well what I do. So my question here is what would be the most appropriate job title for me? I see this question as important for my career development. After all, I should be able to explain in one word what I do. And it’s no longer “Java Developer”. Well, in more than one word, this is what I do: The business analysts gather requirements / business problems to be solved with the clients and then discuss these requirements with me. Given the requirements, I design the high level solutions to be implemented in our system (e.g. a new screen on the client application, modifications to existing reports, extension to the XML export format of some objects, etc). I base my decision on the current capabilities of the system, the overall impact that the solutions would have on the system and the estimated effort to implement them (as I was a developer of this same application for almost 3 years before I moved to this position, I’m confident in my estimates). The solutions are discussed iteratively with the business analysts until we agree that they are good. The outcome of this analysis is what we call the “requirements design” document, which is written by me, shared with clients for approval and then also with the team that is going to implement the solutions and test them. Note that there are a few problems that I need to find a solution for that are non-functional. If the users are unhappy with the performance of a certain tool, I will investigate what can be done to speed it up. I will do some research – often based in the Java code itself - to identify possibilities of optimizations. But in this new position I no longer code, the main outcome of my work is really the “requirements design”. Is “Systems Designer” really the most appropriate job title?

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  • What does a Software Developer actually do?

    - by chobo2
    Hi I am graduating from my Computer Science degree in a few weeks from now!! I started to look for my first job. For the last couple years I gotten really into web programming(Asp.net). My first choice would be to get a junior asp.net MVC developer but I don't any companies in my area use MVC yet or if they do they are not hiring. So my second choice would be a junior asp.net Webforms developer. My other choices after that would be forms applications, mobile applications using .Net and C#. As you can see I am looking for something with .Net. I spent the last couple years doing .Net projects for school, on my free time and love the Language and it would pain me right now to switch to something like php. So now I found a posting in my area for an Entry Software Developer. I like the fact that they are using .net and that it is entry job(I never worked in this industry and never had more then like a tutoring job so I want to for like intermediate jobs). Posting Are you looking for an exciting challenge within a dynamic, people-oriented culture where you can launch your technical career? Company Name Inc. is a technology consulting company, located in Canada, that designs, develops, and delivers real-time interactive applications accessed via the Internet as well as back-end tools to support these applications. Company Name provides a combination of out-of-the-box and customized solutions to an expanding list of partners and customers. POSITION SUMMARY As a member of our team, the successful candidate will be responsible for helping us increase the quality and stability of our software systems by working jointly and directly with both the Software Development teams and the QA Team. The primary mission of this role will be to substantially enhance our test automation suite. The incumbent will design and program automated tests (unit, integration, system, stress and load) in Visual Studio using C# and will develop sound processes that help us identify and resolve defects as early as possible. The successful incumbent will help us improve and enhance system functionality, reliability, performance and scalability. This role is specifically designed for an eager, bright, new graduate who is looking for a stepping stone into a software engineering role. We promote from within and invite new graduates to apply for this important position - which may lead to new opportunities. We also offer a generous professional development plan to help you on your way. You will be a key part of a team of experts that is responsible for improving the quality of our software by: • Designing, writing, and executing test plans and programmatic tests in Visual Studio using C# and NUnit for functional testing of our code, new features, regression, and performance test procedures. • Working with the engineers to design and build the stress and load testing framework which emulates tens and even hundreds of thousands of concurrent users via a distributed network interfacing with our Load Testing Lab. • Interfacing with both the Development Team and the QA Team to ensure risks are identified and managed. • Mentoring and leading the QA Team in programmatic test automation technologies and tools. MUST HAVE SKILLS / QUALIFICATIONS: • Diploma or higher Degree in Computer Science, or equivalent formal training. • Fundamental C# programming skills. • Knowledge of Internet technologies and Microsoft Windows platforms. • Knowledge of PC hardware. • Excellent communication skills (both oral and written). • Self-starter who takes initiative, requires minimal supervision, can handle multiple simultaneous tasks. • Detail-oriented, able to concentrate, and work quickly. • Proven diagnostic, analytical, and problem solving skills. NICE TO HAVE SKILLS: • Exposure to Visual Studio Team System or Visual Studio Test Edition. • Exposure in C# using NUnit. • Exposure to NUnit, HTTPUnit, and other automation tool suites. • Exposure to Performance/Stress/Load Testing. • Good understanding of relational databases (MS SQL Server). • Familiar with video and online multi-player games. As part of our team you will have the opportunity to work with a supportive team of experts, drive your own success, and ride the wave as we continually expand our team of experts. If you are interested in this opportunity, please send your resume to [email protected] with “Entry Level Software Developer” in the subject line. So that is the posting. To me it sounds like it is QA job. I don't have anything against QA jobs but alot of them seems to be your just clicking buttons and running scripts. Is this what a typical software developer does? Like I am so on the fence to apply for this job. On one side I am not sure how much programming I would be doing. Like I want to be at least half the time programming otherwise my skills will never improve since I will never be programming in teams and stuff. At the same time I have no experience in the industry so on the other side I am thinking just go for it and then maybe a year later try to get a full programming job(provided that I got the job). Yet if I am not programming in that job then that experience will not help me for the next job I find as I will be back a square one.

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  • 5 ways the Exceptional DBA Award could boost your career

    - by Rebecca Amos
    Winning the Exceptional DBA Award won’t just get you full conference registration for the PASS Summit – it could also change your life and career. With a little help from our past winners, here are the top 5 ways the Exceptional DBA Award could take your career to the next level: 1. Recognition from your peers As 2009 winner Josef Richberg says, “Being recognized by your peers is the highest honor one can receive.” Whether you enter yourself, or are nominated by a friend or colleague, the fact that the winner is selected by the SQL Server community is a great chance for your peers to recognize your achievements as a DBA. 2. Boost your CV Winning the Exceptional DBA Award not only shows that you excel as a DBA, but that SQL Server experts think so too – a huge vote of confidence for any prospective employer. 2008 winner Dan McClain agrees, “It brings another level of 'wow' to my resume”. 3. Networking opportunities within the community Whether you want to increase your experience as a writer, speaker or blogger, winning the Exceptional DBA Award can open up new opportunities within the SQL Server community. Plus you’ll make new friends along the way, as Josef has discovered: “It is an unbelievable community that has become an extended family.” 4. Award ceremony at the world's largest technical SQL Server conference The Exceptional DBA Award is presented at the PASS Summit, giving you great networking opportunities and a chance to be seen by people throughout the SQL Server community. 5. Increased personal confidence Finally, the Exceptional DBA Award should give a huge boost to your personal confidence. Last year’s winner, Tracy Hamlin has certainly found this: “The recognition has given me new confidence and the drive to accomplish even loftier goals.” Read the full interview with our past winners to find out how why they’re encouraging you to enter this year’s Exceptional DBA Awards. Already inspired? Then why not get started on your entry straightaway: www.exceptionaldba.com

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  • Advices fo starting a video game design career

    - by Allen Gabriel Baker
    I'm 24 and have a passion for video games and game-design. I've decided I want to design video games as my career. I have no experience with designing video games or coding but I'm interested and willing to learn. I want a job at any level but what would I need to land a job? I have no college experience and I have no money. What is a cheap school, or do I really need to go to school for this, or can I learn on my own? Is it possible to do this with no money? I'm literally broke but I want this so bad I feel like its the only career I'll enjoy. I want to call up company's and ask them what they are looking for in someone they want to hire, is that a good idea? Also I don't know the history of video game design and I don't want to sound like a dummy when someone says something about this field or talks about a famous designer and I have no idea who they're talking about. So what is key info when it comes to this field and where should I find it? Hopefully some of you guys and girls can help me out: I know in the future I will create something everyone will enjoy and you guys will remember when you gave me advice and I will always remember you guys for helping me. I'm gifted I know I am and I want to share my gift with the rest of the world by making games that change the Industry. Help me out please.

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  • I need some career guidance, please.

    - by user18956
    Hi, I have been a teacher of guitar and music theory for the last ten years or so, and I have decided to get out of it and pursue something involving computers, but I am very confused about it all. I have no training related to programming besides a knowledge of xhtml and css - which I realize are not even programming languages. My problem is that I know I want to do something with either making video games, computer/online applications, or some other programming job, but I haven't a clue how to begin. I picked up a book from the Head First series entitled, Head First Programming that uses Python to teach programming concepts, but after that, I don't really know what is a good direction for me in terms of balancing career satisfaction with job availability and acceptable pay. I am not looking for a huge salary, I just want to be able to survive doing something I love, and which challenges me. I don't know even a single person involved in a related field, so I am in need of guidance. The first thing I would like to know is whether pursuing a career as a programmer for video games is a realistic option. I love video games, and play them all the time, and I have always wanted to make them. If this is an option, what would be the recommended course of action? What is a good language or technology to get involved in for the job market now? I have read that PHP/MySQL is a good place to find a job for some. Can I find a job without school, or do I need to got o college? Also, will the Python I learn in this book translate into any other language I need to learn? If it is anything like music, then I am sure it will, but I don't know much about programming - yet. And last, yet perhaps most important, is thirty years old too old to take such a radical redirection in careers? Thank you for any help you can offer. I really need it.

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  • How long can you be out of the MS market before it affects your career [closed]

    - by dave
    I've been working with .Net since it first came out and have done my best to use the latest and greatest things from Redmond. That being said, I've been working for the past year in the Python/Unix/Web world. In order to keep myself relevant in the MS world, I've been working part-time on a WPF project but I do not know how much longer that work will continue. So my question is: If I were to move totally to the Unix/Python/Web world, how long could I stay there before it starts getting hard to get another MS job? I am trying not to burn bridges in my career as I've found MS jobs pay better and tend to be more plentiful. PS: I like my Python job since it is something new and I get to work from home. It has provided a different view on coding that I've found useful. EDIT: I was out of the MS market for 12 months before attempting to get another MS job. No-one said "Gee you've been gone a while" but I did get a conspicuous lack of responses to job applications. My feeling is that the head-hunters do not bother to look beyond your last job. In the end, I got employment via my own network rather than the pimps. So, to answer my question: "not long, especially if you trust your career to head hunters."

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  • Advice for Future Programmers?

    - by Nate Zaugg
    I have a buddy that is going to be giving some presentations to high-schoolers. Specifically he asked: What would you be looking for if they approached you about work? Perhaps you are in that age group right now. What do you want to know? Perhaps you are just a few years into the workforce. What do you wish someone had told you but never did? Perhaps you have children, relatives or friends in or soon to be in that age group. What are you worried they don't know about? I'm sure there are other perspectives and questions I'm not even thinking about. I'd like to hear what you have to say about it. Here was my list: Don't be afraid to try! Don't let the perception that something is too difficult stop you from experimenting. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but an un-inquisitive person is mostly useless. Stolen from Einstein: You don't really understand something until you can explain it to your grandmother. It's never enough to be smart, you also have to work well with others. Before you can be really smart, you must learn how to learn. There will always be someone smarter than you are -- Become their buddy! Get to know great minds and learn all you can. Some knowledge can only be expressed this way. Communication, Communication, Communication! Projects rarely fail because of technical reasons and the difference between good programmers and outstanding programmers is how well they communicate. A good work ethic never goes unnoticed. Know when to ask for help and when to figure something out for yourself.

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  • How do I explain this to potential employers?

    - by ReferencelessBob
    Backstory: TL;DR: I've gained a lot of experience working for 5 years at one startup company, but it eventually failed. The company is gone and the owner MIA. When I left sixth-form college I didn't want to start a degree straight away, so when I met this guy who knew a guy who was setting up a publishing company and needed a 'Techie' I thought why not. It was a very small operation, he sent mailings to schools, waited for orders to start arriving, then ordered a short run of the textbooks to be printed, stuck them in an envelope posted them out. I was initially going to help him set up a computerized system for recording orders and payments, printing labels, really basic stuff and I threw it together in Access in a couple of weeks. He also wanted to start taking orders online, so I set up a website and a paypal business account. While I was doing this, I was also helping to do the day-to-day running of things, taking phone orders, posting products, banking cheques, ordering textbooks, designing mailings, filing end of year accounts, hiring extra staff, putting stamps on envelopes. I learned so much about things I didn't even know I needed to learn about. Things were pretty good, when I started we sold about £10,000 worth of textbooks and by my 4th year there we sold £250,000 worth of text books. Things were looking good, but we had a problem. Our best selling product had peaked and sales started to fall sharply, we introduced add on products through the website to boost sales which helped for a while, but we had simply saturated the market. Our plan was to enter the US with our star product and follow the same, slightly modified, plan as before. We setup a 1-866 number and had the calls forwarded to our UK offices. We contracted a fulfillment company, shipped over a few thousand textbooks, had a mailing printed and mailed, then sat by the phones and waited. Needless to say, it didn't work. We tried a few other things, at home and in the US, but nothing helped. We expanded in the good times, moving into bigger offices, taking on staff to do administrative and dispatch work, but now cashflow was becoming a problem and things got tougher. We did the only thing we could and scaled things right back, the offices went, the admin staff went, I stopped taking a wage and started working from home. Nothing helped. The business was wound up about about 2 years ago. In the end it turned out that the owner had built up considerable debt at the start of business and had not paid them off during good years, which left him in a difficult position when cashflow had started to dry up. I haven't been able to contact the owner since I found out. It took me a while to get back on my feet after that, but I'm now at University and doing a Computer Science degree. How do I show the experience I have without having to get into all the gory details of what happened?

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  • What's it like being a financial programmer?

    - by Mike
    As a student who's done an internship at a Silicon Valley company(non-financial), I'm curious to know what it's like working for a financial company doing software development. I'd expect the hours to be longer, and the pay to be higher. Specifically, I have the following questions: What's the work/life balance really like? Are you expected to work 80 hours a week most weeks? For those who have worked in non-financial software engineering jobs, how does being a financial software engineer compare in terms of work/life balance? How much does it pay? I'm curious as to starting(i.e. just got a BS) pay, as well as "top out" pay. (I'd prefer concrete numbers - ballpark is fine). Also, bonuses would be useful information. What jobs do financial programmers typically have? Are most just general software engineers, or do people typically have very specialized(i.e. AI or systems) backgrounds? Also, do most programmers have PhDs? Are programmers typically required to be at work, or are financial companies generally flexible about letting programmers work from home? When at work, do programmers have to dress formally? What are the technology environments like? Are finance companies using state-of-the-art hardware and software, or are they generally more conservative in upgrading their equipment? What programming languages are typically used? If VBA(shudder) is used, is it a large part of a finance company's workflow? If you could turn back the clock, would you still be a financial programmer? I'm going to keep this post open a little bit longer to get some more responses.

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  • Technology path for ASP.Net C# SQL server programmars ?

    - by isthatacode
    I am working on ASP.Net 3.5, C# , SQL Server 2005 and would like to enhance my skills to technology which is in high demand at present and atleast for another 2 years may be. I need your advice on which skill should i ADD or ENHANCE being an ASP.net, C#, sql server programnmar ? Thanks in advance for ur expert advice!!

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  • Job conditions conflicting with personal principles on software-development - how much is too much?

    - by Baelnorn
    Sorry for the incoming wall'o'text (and for my probably bad English) but I just need to get this off somehow. I also accept that this question will be probably closed as subjective and argumentative, but I need to know one thing: "how much BS are programmers supposed to put up with before breaking?" My background I'm 27 years old and have a B.Sc. in Computer engineering with a graduation grade of 1.8 from a university of applied science. I went looking for a job right after graduation. I got three offers right away, with two offers paying vastly more than the last one, but that last one seemed more interesting so I went for that. My situation I've been working for the company now for 17 months now, but it feels like a drag more and more each day. Primarily because the company (which has only 5 other developers but me, and of these I work with 4) turned out to be pretty much the anti-thesis of what I expected (and was taught in university) from a modern software company. I agreed to accept less than half of the usual payment appropriate for my qualification for the first year because I was promised a trainee program. However, the trainee program turned out to be "here you got a computer, there's some links on the stuff we use, and now do what you colleagues tell you". Further, during my whole time there (trainee or not) I haven't been given the grace of even a single code-review - apparently nobody's interested in my work as long as it "just works". I was told in the job interview that "Microsoft technology played a central role in the company" yet I've been slowly eroding my congnitive functions with Flex/Actionscript/Cairngorm ever since I started (despite having applied as a C#/.NET developer). Actually, the company's primary projects are based on Java/XSLT and Flex/Actionscript (with some SAP/ABAP stuff here and there but I'm not involved in that) and they've been working on these before I even applied. Having had no experience either with that particular technology nor the framework nor the field (RIA) nor in developing business scale applications I obviously made several mistakes. However, my boss told me that he let me make those mistakes (which ate at least 2 months of development time on their own) on purpose to provide some "learning experience". Even when I was still a trainee I was already tasked with working on a business-critical application. On my own. Without supervision. Without code-reviews. My boss thinks agile methods are a waste of time/money and deems putting more than one developer on any project not efficient. Documentation is not necessary and each developer should only document what he himself needs for his work. Recently he wanted us to do bug tracking with Excel and Email instead of using an already existing Bugzilla, overriding an unanimous decision made by all developers and testers involved in the process - only after another senior developer had another hour-long private discussion with him he agreed to let us use the bugtracker. Project management is basically not present, there are only a few Excel sheets floating around where the senior developer lists some things (not all, mind you) with a time estimate ranging from days to months, trying to at least somehow organize the whole mess. A development process is also basically not present, each developer just works on his own however he wants. There are not even coding conventions in the company. Testing is done manually with a single tester (sometimes two testers) per project because automated testing wasn't given the least thought when the whole project was started. I guess it's not a big surprise when I say that each developer also has his own share of hundreds of overhours (which are, of course, unpaid). Each developer is tasked with working on his own project(s) which in turn leads to a very extensive knowledge monopolization - if one developer was to have an accident or become ill there would be absolutely no one who could even hope to do his work. Considering that each developer has his own business-critical application to work on, I guess that's a pretty bad situation. I've been trying to change things for the better. I tried to introduce a development process, but my first attempt was pretty much shot down by my boss with "I don't want to discuss agile methods". After that I put together a process that at least resembled how most of the developers were already working and then include stuff like automated (or at least organized) testing, coding conventions, etc. However, this was also shot down because it wasn't "simple" enought to be shown on a business slide (actually, I wasn't even given the 15 minutes I'd have needed to present the process in the meeting). My problem I can't stand working there any longer. Seriously, I consider to resign on monday, which still leaves me with 3 months to work there due to the cancelation period. My primary goal since I started studying computer science was being a good computer scientist, working with modern technologies and adhering to modern and proven principles and methods. However, the company I'm working for seems to make that impossible. Some days I feel as if was living in a perverted real-life version of the Dilbert comics. My question Am I overreacting? Is this the reality each graduate from university has to face? Should I betray my sound principles and just accept these working conditions? Or should I gtfo of there? What's the opinion of other developers on this matter. Would you put up with all that stuff?

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