Software developers. Talk to me.

[Davidhibler]

A bit of career talk on here lately. I know we have a wide variety of backgrounds represented here on THP, so I know I can get some good advice here.

I've been considering a career change, and this is one that keeps popping back up. I'm not even sure why. I don't even know anyone who is a developer...it just seems like it might fit my personality better than what I have been doing.
Yes, I realize it would be a TON of work to get to where I need to be to even interview.


I do have a degree, but not a CS degree(business/economics). If I decided to go this route, I would go mostly self taught, and maybe some certs.

For the last 8 years, I have worked for a Canadian bank, who also has a footprint here on the east coast. I am a Credit analyst/underwriter in the auto finance space.

My coding experience is minimal, and maybe 15-20years ago, so we will just say I have no experience.

So who can help me out with some questions-

Is this a dumb plan?
Do you EVER see middle aged guys starting as junior developers? I'm 39
What is your average day like at this level?
What am I not thinking about here?



Thanks, THP.

 

[BigDill]

I have no CS advice for you, but it’s cool to learn what your career is now, as I do a ton of legal work in the auto finance and lending space. It’s an interesting field, and one that not many people understand when they buy a car.

 

[Davidhibler]

I have no CS advice for you, but it’s cool to learn what your career is now, as I do a ton of legal work in the auto finance and lending space. It’s an interesting field, and one that not many people understand when they buy a car.

Yeah, lots of secrets.
Makes me never want to buy a car again

 

[RealPretendPsychic]

That could be fun!! I’m a financial analyst with minimal coding experience. My biggest strength is Excel (exciting, I know). I write my own macros to make my job easier and my data more effective. I’ve considered making the move full time towards more of a developer role, but I like the financials too much. Good luck!

 

[wadesworld]

I'm no longer a developer, but I am a software development manager.

Starting that late will be a bit of a challenge, but it would be the same challenge with any career path. You'll have to convince people you have enough passion and have successfully acquired enough experience. Some jobs may not be viable because they require a CS degree. You're probably not going to go work as a developer on missile guidance systems without showing a degree and lots of relevant experience. That said, there are LOTS of jobs that are not as stringent. I usually require a "degree in computer science or equivalent experience." You'd need a portfolio of completed projects to show me you have that equivalent experience. I don't care that much about your certs or bootcamps. I'll look at them, but I'll want to see the proof in your work. Small, home-based projects are OK.

Don't try to BS anyone. Be open and honest about your lack of real experience. Show them the projects you did that illustrate your skills and emphasize your willingness to work hard and learn.

Probably the easiest place to get started would be in web development. I'd learn Python & Django, and HTML/CSS & Javascript. I'd definitely learn about container technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes, and about cloud services such as AWS. Learn databases, both traditional SQL such a Postgres, and no-SQL such as MongoDB.

As for a typical day, it's not much different from a lot of positions. You attend way too many meetings, get some coding done in-between, and try desperately to keep up with the needed security patches. A lot depends on whether you work somewhere that has formal business analyst and QA teams. Many places don't. So you may spend your time wearing those hats too, trying to work with users to define requirements or come up with test plans.

It's a challenging career, but it certainly is never boring.

 

[Davidhibler]

I'm no longer a developer, but I am a software development manager.

Starting that late will be a bit of a challenge, but it would be the same challenge with any career path. You'll have to convince people you have enough passion and have successfully acquired enough experience. Some jobs may not be viable because they require a CS degree. You're probably not going to go work as a developer on missile guidance systems without showing a degree and lots of relevant experience. That said, there are LOTS of jobs that are not as stringent. I usually require a "degree in computer science or equivalent experience." You'd need a portfolio of completed projects to show me you have that equivalent experience. I don't care that much about your certs or bootcamps. I'll look at them, but I'll want to see the proof in your work. Small, home-based projects are OK.

Don't try to BS anyone. Be open and honest about your lack of real experience. Show them the projects you did that illustrate your skills and emphasize your willingness to work hard and learn.

Probably the easiest place to get started would be in web development. I'd learn Python & Django, and HTML/CSS & Javascript. I'd definitely learn about container technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes, and about cloud services such as AWS. Learn databases, both traditional SQL such a Postgres, and no-SQL such as MongoDB.

As for a typical day, it's not much different from a lot of positions. You attend way too many meetings, get some coding done in-between, and try desperately to keep up with the needed security patches. A lot depends on whether you work somewhere that has formal business analyst and QA teams. Many places don't. So you may spend your time wearing those hats too, trying to work with users to define requirements or come up with test plans.

It's a challenging career, but it certainly is never boring.

Really great stuff here. Thank you so much for taking the time

 

[Carolina Golfer]

A bit of career talk on here lately. I know we have a wide variety of backgrounds represented here on THP, so I know I can get some good advice here.

I've been considering a career change, and this is one that keeps popping back up. I'm not even sure why. I don't even know anyone who is a developer...it just seems like it might fit my personality better than what I have been doing.
Yes, I realize it would be a TON of work to get to where I need to be to even interview.


I do have a degree, but not a CS degree(business/economics). If I decided to go this route, I would go mostly self taught, and maybe some certs.

For the last 8 years, I have worked for a Canadian bank, who also has a footprint here on the east coast. I am a Credit analyst/underwriter in the auto finance space.

My coding experience is minimal, and maybe 15-20years ago, so we will just say I have no experience.

So who can help me out with some questions-

Is this a dumb plan?
Do you EVER see middle aged guys starting as junior developers? I'm 39
What is your average day like at this level?
What am I not thinking about here?



Thanks, THP.

Now, is a good time since most jobs are remote. Perhaps, there's a company located in a more rural area who has trouble recruiting talent that will allow you to work remote. You may want to identify a small development shop or Microsoft Partner where the consulting firm makes the hire not the end client. Either way, you have to show something, whether it is education, a cert and or a small project, maybe a mobile app etc.

 

[Carolina Golfer]

Np. I'd like to add if you target companies who match your current business knowledge that will help.

 

[camden_kid]

I've been a software developer for over 30 years and so can help you with many questions you may have.

First thing I would say is that age isn't really a barrier in the dev world. Experience, determination, personality and a good mind are often looked for over technical expertise.

We are in an incredible age for self learning software development as there are so many free tools and tutorials out there.

If you're interested in "front end" development, i.e. user interface driven software try the following:
Download a free IDE like Aptana - http://www.aptana.com/
Go through some React tutorials - https://reactjs.org/
Learn TypeScript - https://www.typescriptlang.org/

Good luck.

 

[DataDude]

Given your background you may really enjoy data and it would be a quicker transition than full on software developer. With Power BI taking off as the Business Intelligence application dujuer learning SQL will almost assuredly get you to where you want to go. Some organizations are more SAS and Tableau oriented but those 2 data packages are far more expensive than SQL Server Management Studio and Power BI and IMO outside of doing complex forecasting with regression they are limited in what you can produce for a customer (usually internal).

 

[Davidhibler]

I've been a software developer for over 30 years and so can help you with many questions you may have.

First thing I would say is that age isn't really a barrier in the dev world. Experience, determination, personality and a good mind are often looked for over technical expertise.

We are in an incredible age for self learning software development as there are so many free tools and tutorials out there.

If you're interested in "front end" development, i.e. user interface driven software try the following:
Download a free IDE like Aptana - http://www.aptana.com/
Go through some React tutorials - https://reactjs.org/
Learn TypeScript - https://www.typescriptlang.org/

Good luck.

Given your background you may really enjoy data and it would be a quicker transition than full on software developer. With Power BI taking off as the Business Intelligence application dujuer learning SQL will almost assuredly get you to where you want to go. Some organizations are more SAS and Tableau oriented but those 2 data packages are far more expensive than SQL Server Management Studio and Power BI and IMO outside of doing complex forecasting with regression they are limited in what you can produce for a customer (usually internal).

Thank you both. Good stuff here.

 

[Duffer Seamus]

I've been designing and writing software since about 1977. Much of that time professionally. (Hardly any, anymore, as I've been retired since 2017.) Software design and coding was my primary job for about fifteen years of that. For the last twenty-five it was an adjunct to my systems, network, and telecom admin. job. During most of that time I also contributed to open source software projects or was part of a project team. (I imagine code I wrote is still in Linux and *BSD distros.) I've designed and coded everything from operating system devices drivers, to system utilities, to embedded real time systems, to turnkey applications with GUIs--using everything from assembly language, to unstructured interpreted or compiled languages, to structured languages, to object-oriented languages.

The good news is that you can be self-taught and be a capable software designer/coder. You can also have a degree in CS and be horrible at it. Software design and coding is a craft. Some are good at it. Many are execrable. Most are mediocre.

The other good news is you can study and start playing with it inexpensively and get involved with actually writing production software by contributing to or joining open source software project teams. A great way to get your feet wet.

I will tell you this, and I concede the vast majority of software people disagree with me: IMO the best way to learn software design and coding is to start with the language that was designed to be a teaching language: Pascal. Then move on to a less-tightly-bound language such as C. Then on to an object-oriented language such as C++, Objective C, or *ick* Java.

The reason my colleagues nearly universally disagree with my take is it's a longer road to get there and nobody (well, hardly anybody) uses Pascal in production environments anymore. The reason I propose this path is Pascal is a fairly simple language that will teach you the precepts of structured programming right out of the gate.

It's kind of like how the golf swing is taught. Many people just want to get a club in their hands right now and start swinging. Others learn a swing by learning bits at a time, and putting them together.

Some claim that "modern" languages, particularly the OO languages, are so-tightly bound one doesn't need to understand structured programming techniques. The languages will force the necessary structure and/or save the designer/programmer from themselves. Some also claim that IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) render all that superfluous. That's nonsense and I've seen much code over the years, designed and written by others, to prove it.

Given your background you may really enjoy data and it would be a quicker transition than full on software developer. With Power BI taking off as the Business Intelligence application dujuer learning SQL ...

I simply love, love, love RDBMS' and SQL!

I'd been interested in SQL and RDBMS' for years, but, every time I approached it the syntax clashed so badly with the syntax I was used to from coding that I could not get it to click for me. Then, in 2004 (I know, because I still have my tutorial exercises here), I decided I was going to do it for real. And I did. Once it clicked I couldn't get enough.

SQL, whether you actually go down the kind of path @DataDude, recommends or you follow a software development path, is a very valuable tool to have in your toolbox.

Example: My last major software development before retiring was to work with a team to extract, wash, and prepare for import data from an old MRP (Manufacturing Resource Planning) system into their new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system. The database organizations and the business logic employed by the two systems were almost entirely unlike one another. Plus the MRP system had been highly customized over the years and it had a lot of garbage data in it. I used both custom-written software and intermediate SQL databases to accomplish the mission. Everybody was amazed at the data I was able to extract and make usable by the new system. They hadn't thought much of it could be done Had I not had both software development and SQL chops at my disposal much of it might not have been.

In the end, though, I will say this: Whether software designer or database guy: IMO it has to be a calling. They call these "sciences." Sciences they may be, but the execution of them requires an aptitude for it. Or at least the capable execution of them does. It's like woodworking, welding, or any other craft: Anybody can be mediocre with the application of a little effort.

 

[Davidhibler]

I've been designing and writing software since about 1977. Much of that time professionally. (Hardly any, anymore, as I've been retired since 2017.) Software design and coding was my primary job for about fifteen years of that. For the last twenty-five it was an adjunct to my systems, network, and telecom admin. job. During most of that time I also contributed to open source software projects or was part of a project team. (I imagine code I wrote is still in Linux and *BSD distros.) I've designed and coded everything from operating system devices drivers, to system utilities, to embedded real time systems, to turnkey applications with GUIs--using everything from assembly language, to unstructured interpreted or compiled languages, to structured languages, to object-oriented languages.

The good news is that you can be self-taught and be a capable software designer/coder. You can also have a degree in CS and be horrible at it. Software design and coding is a craft. Some are good at it. Many are execrable. Most are mediocre.

The other good news is you can study and start playing with it inexpensively and get involved with actually writing production software by contributing to or joining open source software project teams. A great way to get your feet wet.

I will tell you this, and I concede the vast majority of software people disagree with me: IMO the best way to learn software design and coding is to start with the language that was designed to be a teaching language: Pascal. Then move on to a less-tightly-bound language such as C. Then on to an object-oriented language such as C++, Objective C, or *ick* Java.

The reason my colleagues nearly universally disagree with my take is it's a longer road to get there and nobody (well, hardly anybody) uses Pascal in production environments anymore. The reason I propose this path is Pascal is a fairly simple language that will teach you the precepts of structured programming right out of the gate.

It's kind of like how the golf swing is taught. Many people just want to get a club in their hands right now and start swinging. Others learn a swing by learning bits at a time, and putting them together.

Some claim that "modern" languages, particularly the OO languages, are so-tightly bound one doesn't need to understand structured programming techniques. The languages will force the necessary structure and/or save the designer/programmer from themselves. Some also claim that IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) render all that superfluous. That's nonsense and I've seen much code over the years, designed and written by others, to prove it.


I simply love, love, love RDBMS' and SQL!

I'd been interested in SQL and RDBMS' for years, but, every time I approached it the syntax clashed so badly with the syntax I was used to from coding that I could not get it to click for me. Then, in 2004 (I know, because I still have my tutorial exercises here), I decided I was going to do it for real. And I did. Once it clicked I couldn't get enough.

SQL, whether you actually go down the kind of path @DataDude, recommends or you follow a software development path, is a very valuable tool to have in your toolbox.

Example: My last major software development before retiring was to work with a team to extract, wash, and prepare for import data from an old MRP (Manufacturing Resource Planning) system into their new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system. The database organizations and the business logic employed by the two systems were almost entirely unlike one another. Plus the MRP system had been highly customized over the years and it had a lot of garbage data in it. I used both custom-written software and intermediate SQL databases to accomplish the mission. Everybody was amazed at the data I was able to extract and make usable by the new system. They hadn't thought much of it could be done Had I not had both software development and SQL chops at my disposal much of it might not have been.

In the end, though, I will say this: Whether software designer or database guy: IMO it has to be a calling. They call these "sciences." Sciences they may be, but the execution of them requires an aptitude for it. Or at least the capable execution of them does. It's like woodworking, welding, or any other craft: Anybody can be mediocre with the application of a little effort.

Great stuff. Thank you for taking the time!

 

[DataDude]

SQL, whether you actually go down the kind of path @DataDude, recommends or you follow a software development path, is a very valuable tool to have in your toolbox.

Agree wholeheartedly on SQL. It's also free to learn and introduces any user to the logic of writing code. It's a great language and has not been dethroned as the king of data management code for a long time.

 

[Carolina Golfer]

Since we have a few IT developers and managers here. Why do IT managers hire candidates on a visa when clearly many candidates are lying on their resume? DevOps for example. Most resumes look the same, 3-4 years offshore, Masters Degree (while working) and another 3-4 years in the US. Of course the candidates list one year of Linux and one year of build and release experience at the beginning of their career to cover their bases. Every resume says they are working to present, even when they are not working? Why is this allowed? Do managers just look the other way because they are cheaper?

 

[camden_kid]

Check out the comment by "Heinzi" to this SO answer - https://workplace.stackexchange.com/a/171561/8068

 

[Acesteve]

From where you are to what you might want to do my reco would be the following

- add a graduate degree in Masters of Information Technology or an MBA/BIS combo.
- be self taught and the recommendations here are very good.

The truth is the master in IT won't be technical enough to be a coder but a degree in CS is theory overload and may not provide practical experience on things people care about now like container technology. In the end, your thirst to learn and apply is where it is at in 2021.

 

[Scorp]

That could be fun!! I’m a financial analyst with minimal coding experience. My biggest strength is Excel (exciting, I know). I write my own macros to make my job easier and my data more effective. I’ve considered making the move full time towards more of a developer role, but I like the financials too much. Good luck!

Man, I could use your help... if we were able to use macros that is. I've got 5 master spreadsheets that are interlinked.... some cells, some columns... that update other cells and columns. They have conditional formatting and all update a powerpoint slide deck. I've got 1 guy that built this whole thing over the course of a couple of years; he's always tweaking it... and he's getting close to retirement. Unfortunately I don't speak excel well enough to pick up and run with what he's done; I can barely move around in it and make necessary changes to an occasional formula when it's misbehaving (or is copied into a new spreadsheet tab for something else...)


As far as being a coder goes... there are as many possibilities for a coder as there are lawyers in the USA. Someone is still using PASCAL... or COBOL... or ASSEMBLY. And they need someone that knows about that language to support it... or PowerShell... There's a scripting language to learn if you want to do system administration for Microsoft stuff.

If you're interested in UNIX/Linux, get to know the different shells...
Bourne Shell
C Shell
Korn Shell
GNU Bourne-Again Shell BASH

Knowing these might help. Learning a basic UNIX text editor might be a start... if you can use VI then some of what you can use there will translate to other shells and editors.

I never moved beyond what would be considered dabbling in the UNIX/Linux world because by job never required it.

If you're into something like scripting but want to control HVAC in commercial buildings, then controls would be the place to look.

All kinds of opportunities out there if you're interested. Good luck!!

 

[Buckeyegolfnut]

I'm no longer a developer, but I am a software development manager.

Starting that late will be a bit of a challenge, but it would be the same challenge with any career path. You'll have to convince people you have enough passion and have successfully acquired enough experience. Some jobs may not be viable because they require a CS degree. You're probably not going to go work as a developer on missile guidance systems without showing a degree and lots of relevant experience. That said, there are LOTS of jobs that are not as stringent. I usually require a "degree in computer science or equivalent experience." You'd need a portfolio of completed projects to show me you have that equivalent experience. I don't care that much about your certs or bootcamps. I'll look at them, but I'll want to see the proof in your work. Small, home-based projects are OK.

Don't try to BS anyone. Be open and honest about your lack of real experience. Show them the projects you did that illustrate your skills and emphasize your willingness to work hard and learn.

Probably the easiest place to get started would be in web development. I'd learn Python & Django, and HTML/CSS & Javascript. I'd definitely learn about container technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes, and about cloud services such as AWS. Learn databases, both traditional SQL such a Postgres, and no-SQL such as MongoDB.

As for a typical day, it's not much different from a lot of positions. You attend way too many meetings, get some coding done in-between, and try desperately to keep up with the needed security patches. A lot depends on whether you work somewhere that has formal business analyst and QA teams. Many places don't. So you may spend your time wearing those hats too, trying to work with users to define requirements or come up with test plans.

It's a challenging career, but it certainly is never boring.

You have to know who you are trying to be hired by. My buddy was up for a job, and was denied because of his, "obvious lack of knowledge of DOS" just prior to the advent of Windows, and GUI front ends, which he knew all about. He felt that the guy was an a**hole, and got a better job somewhere else.

 

[GolfFest]

Been in software for a while as a dev then manager and now director of engineering. While a degree in a relevant field is nice experience matters a lot more.

It is a field that being self taught can work if you put in the work to learn. To get some experience you will likely need to do some projects on your own and start at an entry level. A boot camp can also be helpful, those can vary in both quality and price.

If you are good at it there is lots of opportunities out there.

 

[KingsKraken]

25 years as a professional software developer here.

I'm no longer a developer, but I am a software development manager.

Starting that late will be a bit of a challenge, but it would be the same challenge with any career path. You'll have to convince people you have enough passion and have successfully acquired enough experience. Some jobs may not be viable because they require a CS degree. You're probably not going to go work as a developer on missile guidance systems without showing a degree and lots of relevant experience. That said, there are LOTS of jobs that are not as stringent. I usually require a "degree in computer science or equivalent experience." You'd need a portfolio of completed projects to show me you have that equivalent experience. I don't care that much about your certs or bootcamps. I'll look at them, but I'll want to see the proof in your work. Small, home-based projects are OK.

Don't try to BS anyone. Be open and honest about your lack of real experience. Show them the projects you did that illustrate your skills and emphasize your willingness to work hard and learn.

Probably the easiest place to get started would be in web development. I'd learn Python & Django, and HTML/CSS & Javascript. I'd definitely learn about container technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes, and about cloud services such as AWS. Learn databases, both traditional SQL such a Postgres, and no-SQL such as MongoDB.

As for a typical day, it's not much different from a lot of positions. You attend way too many meetings, get some coding done in-between, and try desperately to keep up with the needed security patches. A lot depends on whether you work somewhere that has formal business analyst and QA teams. Many places don't. So you may spend your time wearing those hats too, trying to work with users to define requirements or come up with test plans.

It's a challenging career, but it certainly is never boring.

This is absolutely fantastic advice. These are all very relevant technologies to get a job doing application development. If you demonstrated basic aptitude through personal projects with that list of technologies, you could easily get a job as a junior developer somewhere.

It is absolutely vital that you have as many personal projects published as possible to have the best chances of getting a job. You’ll need to learn to use a source code versioning system to publish them. Git is the most popular one today. There are many places you can publish code for free such as GitHub, BitBucket, and GitLabs.

If you're interested in "front end" development, i.e. user interface driven software try the following:
Download a free IDE like Aptana - http://www.aptana.com/
Go through some React tutorials - https://reactjs.org/
Learn TypeScript - https://www.typescriptlang.org/

I am a front end specialist. Architecting/developing React apps is mainly what I do. I second all of these recommendations, except I’d suggest Visual Studio Code as an IDE (integrated development environment). It’s almost become the default choice for front end web development these days.

You’ll need to learn html, css, and JavaScript before learning React and TypeScript though.

I will tell you this, and I concede the vast majority of software people disagree with me: IMO the best way to learn software design and coding is to start with the language that was designed to be a teaching language: Pascal. Then move on to a less-tightly-bound language such as C. Then on to an object-oriented language such as C++, Objective C, or *ick* Java.

The reason my colleagues nearly universally disagree with my take is it's a longer road to get there and nobody (well, hardly anybody) uses Pascal in production environments anymore. The reason I propose this path is Pascal is a fairly simple language that will teach you the precepts of structured programming right out of the gate.

It's kind of like how the golf swing is taught. Many people just want to get a club in their hands right now and start swinging. Others learn a swing by learning bits at a time, and putting them together.

Some claim that "modern" languages, particularly the OO languages, are so-tightly bound one doesn't need to understand structured programming techniques. The languages will force the necessary structure and/or save the designer/programmer from themselves. Some also claim that IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) render all that superfluous. That's nonsense and I've seen much code over the years, designed and written by others, to prove it.

This is great advice as well. My own path isn’t too different than this. I went from Basic -> C -> Object-Pascal -> C++ -> C# -> JavaScript, with a smattering of other languages I used for a short time here and there. It is definitely a longer path to success, and certainly not necessary to get into the industry, but it will make you a stronger developer than most in the long run. For example, understanding how data is stored and managed in memory helps you write more efficient code. Most new developers these days have never had to manually allocate and manage memory because the languages commonly used today automatically manage it for them. That’s something you’d learn to do writing in C.

I would add after learning an OO (object oriented) language to learn a functional language like Scala or Haskell. It’s a very different mindset from object orientation. I approach JavaScript with a functional mindset more than an OO mindset.

Now for my own advice.

Whatever you decide to do, learn at least one programming language inside and out before you start focusing on any larger goals. For example, don’t make your goal to learn how to build a website using some programming language. Make your goal to understand all of the features of that language first. Then, when you can understand any code you read, go learn a web framework for that language and build a website with it. If you spend the time learning the language first, there won’t be any surprises when you try to learn how to use some third party code for that language like a web framework, or a data access library, or a library to make network calls. Though it may seem slower at first, you will learn everything else faster.

Also, since no one has mentioned it yet, if you have any mathematical aptitude, I’d recommend looking into the data science route (aka. machine learning/big data/AI). It has a massive future, and should easily be a highly in demand skill for the next 20-30 years. I’ve considered making the switch myself. Family life makes it tough to find the time though, and my specialty is already in high enough demand that I‘m not motivated enough to do it yet. If I was starting out though, I’d focus squarely on data science.

 

[KingsKraken]

What is your average day like at this level?

Figured I’d answer this as well. Here’s my typical day as a web application developer/architect:

1. Start work and check emails and instant messages.
2. Put out any fires that started since I left work the previous day.
3. Start coding on the highest priority feature/bug assigned to me, which could be a new ticket or a continuation of a ticket from the day before.
4. At some point in the morning, I’ll attend a “Daily Stand Up” meeting, which is a short meeting with just my project team. Each person says three things, what they worked on the day before, what they’re going to work on today, and if there are any “blockers” which are preventing them from making forward progress. If anything comes up that requires a more in depth discussion, it’s handled outside of the meeting with just the relevant people present instead of the whole team.

After that I’d usually spend most of the day coding features or fixing bugs. I might have a few meetings to attend as well. They would be mostly be related to the project, such as planning meetings, gathering requirements for upcoming work, planning a technological solution to a user request with other technologists, etc. I also might document the design of some feature, or work up a detailed estimate of the level of work to complete one.

That’s a pretty typical day for me. Rinse and repeat five times a week, and collect that sweet tech money paycheck. You probably wouldn’t be doing much solution design work as a junior developer, but your day would probably look pretty similar otherwise.

 

[Davidhibler]

Figured I’d answer this as well. Here’s my typical day as a web application developer/architect:

1. Start work and check emails and instant messages.
2. Put out any fires that started since I left work the previous day.
3. Start coding on the highest priority feature/bug assigned to me, which could be a new ticket or a continuation of a ticket from the day before.
4. At some point in the morning, I’ll attend a “Daily Stand Up” meeting, which is a short meeting with just my project team. Each person says three things, what they worked on the day before, what they’re going to work on today, and if there are any “blockers” which are preventing them from making forward progress. If anything comes up that requires a more in depth discussion, it’s handled outside of the meeting with just the relevant people present instead of the whole team.

After that I’d usually spend most of the day coding features or fixing bugs. I might have a few meetings to attend as well. They would be mostly be related to the project, such as planning meetings, gathering requirements for upcoming work, planning a technological solution to a user request with other technologists, etc. I also might document the design of some feature, or work up a detailed estimate of the level of work to complete one.

That’s a pretty typical day for me. Rinse and repeat five times a week, and collect that sweet tech money paycheck. You probably wouldn’t be doing much solution design work as a junior developer, but your day would probably look pretty similar otherwise.

Thanks for all the great info!

 

[KingsKraken]

Thanks for all the great info!

Happy to help!

One last thing, learn the basics of digital electronics. Computers aren’t much more than a huge bank switches (in this case a bunch of transistors, which act like a switch, crammed into a CPU chip) where a switch being on represents a 1 and a switch being off represents a 0 (aka. binary). Programming, in general, makes a whole lot more sense when you understand what’s going on at the hardware level.

 

[jazi95]

I remember @Davidhibler had started this thread some time ago. I have a bunch of free time in the evenings and a close friend of mine said I should look into coding.
I am no professional or computer guru, but I have the willingness to learn. I understand it might take years, but I am willing to take the challenge.

I am starting to learn python at Harvard's CS50's intro to programming in python to get my feet wet and start understanding the concept of coding and python.
The course is free and the course is about 9 weeks long. I wanted to see what other tools I can use to make myself python proficient. Is there a service I can pay for that will teach me A through Z on python and coding? Eventually, I want to reach the point of getting certified one day. I started doing some really basic coding last night and I did enjoy it.

Python pros out there, please lend me your help.

side note: I do not have a BS or MA in computer science. I have a BS and MA in communications.