Get into ASP.NET web development. C# in particular seems to be in higher demand.
I’m an ASP .NET web developer using C# - had tons of job offers coming out of college since I already had experience with it.
General advice isn’t gonna get you far because what you’re gonna make the most money at is what you’re best at and what you enjoy most. So figure out what kinds of things you enjoy and what level of technical experience you have. Computers are a broad broad field and even someone who isnt extremely technical can find their niche.
Options though -
ASP .NET and C# aren’t too difficult to pick up and you can definitely get away without having a C or C++ background. Java is along those lines as well. Good for people who are fairly technical but don’t like details as much.
If you are much more technical and detail oriented, C or C++ is the way to go. These will always be around for embedded systems and the like, so it’s not a skill that you will regret having.
Database development or administration is valuable and pays a ton. I like it but I think it takes a bit to break into - I don’t see many jobs for database devs or admins when I was looking after college.
If you’re a graphics oriented person consider learning photoshop, html, and CSS - good designers who can build out their designs are pretty valuable as well. You can also freelance fairly easily if you’re good (and even if you’re not actually…lots of shitty web designers making money out there).
Things to avoid -
Avoid IT work if you can help it, although it might be a good stepping stone and resume builder if you are just starting out. The IT industry tends to be less stable and the skills you learn at one company often arent easily transferrable.
Brings up another point - make sure whatever skill you learn is actually transferrable. I was hired as a java developer intern for a certain company one summer, and was pretty pissed because they had me do NO java. Instead I was developing in their ERP System, JDEdwards, and I HATED it, not to mention it was a pretty worthless skill - I wish I had that summer back so I could have used the time to learn something I could have actually used. Avoid things like powerbuilder or cobol or anything else that’s old tech.
Regardless of anything - the most important thing you can learn is how to learn - you will never know any of these top of bottom, they are too big and are changing too rapidly (except for C and C++ I guess, but this still applies). Know how to read man pages, or find help on the internet, or read API documentation, whichever is applicable.
-
Hardware is the easiest to be self taught
a. You can do basic computer fix it stuff but…
b. Who wants a newb working on their $$$ server
c. Tons of people have these skills -
Web Development is probably pretty easy, and you can grow with it quite a bit from being a basic HTML page developer to a super flash blah blah business pages
a. Damn technology changes all the time
b. Damn hackers you have to protect against -
Programming is awesome for the self learner. The problem isn’t the learning it is learning the RIGHT stuff that is applicable to the job world.
a. Can be redundant
b. You may do more code fixes or tweaks then you want
c. Unless it is a small time shop you won’t be creating many raw from scratch apps (at least early in your career) -
Graphical stuff… I don’t know much about this ie. photoshop
I graduated 5 years ago with a degree for software development, these days you won’t catch me doing anything programming wise.
(I work as a data analyst now, so only SQL for me)
[quote]nephorm wrote:
I taught myself basic C and C++ programming when I was in middle school. I don’t think it’s that big a deal to learn.[/quote]
Totally agree with you there mate. It’s no big deal but then I have a certain skill with languages so maybe that’s why.
Many (MANY) years ago I started with BASIC and mastered it quickly. It didn’t do what I wanted so at the time my only real alternative was Z80A Assembly language. Again - assembly language was a doddle too, just long winded to produce what I wanted.
Then came Turbo C from Borland - And I never looked back!
To the OP - In the IT world, quick to learn probably does not equal profitable unless you have a propensity for the subject and excel over the thousands of others that can do it.
Why not have a look at routers - if you can set up VPN’s and WAN’s you can make a lot of money.
Even more basic though - Cat5 and Cat6 cabling - Price per point in the UK probably wouldn’t drop below £50.00 per point (Cat5) and personally I can do 15 points in a day even at ±90M without a problem. After expenses that would still work out at over a thousand dollars per day. You’d have to be your own boss to make this though. However working for somebody else you could still expect 30-40% of that.
Running fibre you can make even more.
If you like numbers and number crunching and stats, I recommend starting with Excel, then complement with a basic overlay of VBA Excel (code).
My experience is that I can move around in different corporate organization levels using basic and advanced spreadsheet skills.
Its a killer for breaking out and analyzing the lab test science stuff on this forum.
Excel is a building block to then tackle the more complex developer skills and technologies such as .Net, SQL etc.
Raff
[quote]Dweezil wrote:
There’s nothing wrong with .Net stuff, [/quote]
Nothing?
I don’t know about you, but getting tied up to a language that’s tied up to a corporation scares me to death. They might wake up one day and decide to ditch it to sell you a new product. You’re left with whatever documentation and info they deigned making public.
And I don’t think I’m alone to think that.
Cobol Rules!
heheh.
Nevermind.
[quote]btm62 wrote:
Cobol Rules!
heheh.
Nevermind.[/quote]
lol - Not used that for a while. Is it really making a come back 
In agreement with lixy on the .Net angle - although I do use it regularly I have the attitude that it’s just another add on to the C++ language that should be used and abused but that does not negate the need for a good solid understanding of the underlying language.
Never rely on the bolt on’s.
[quote]lixy wrote:
Nothing?
I don’t know about you, but getting tied up to a language that’s tied up to a corporation scares me to death. They might wake up one day and decide to ditch it to sell you a new product. You’re left with whatever documentation and info they deigned making public.
And I don’t think I’m alone to think that.[/quote]
Microsoft has too strong a position in the corporate world to ever really put .Net aside, and I am sure they are aware of the consequences of a great, out of left field transition to something totally different. You should never pigeon-hole yourself, but to ignore the framework of the most popular operating system in the world just because it’s tied to a corporation is kind of stupid.
Programming is not what I would focus on. This is the easiest outsourced career there is. Any Indian can program from India for a lot cheaper than an American. Because of the ease of learning basic web development (javascript, php, etc.) it is much harder to get work doing it. It is a very competetive field.
I would learn networking, specifically Cisco related technologies. Anyone who can obtain a CCNP can earn $100K plus a year.
An other good option is data base administration. Just about every company who operates on a network requires dB admin. A good top level dB admin can earn $100K plus a year. SQL is very easy to learn, too.
If these are too difficult I would go for systems administration. These are the guys that keep application servers working, etc (just like here on T-Nation). They don’t make as much as network or dB gurus but it doesn’t require as much time or effort. Anyone that can learn UNIX/Linux systems can become a system administrator. Also it is a good idea to get familiar with network architecture and web containment applications.
If I could do it again I would of went the Networking or DBA route. I had more fun doing programming, but six years post graduation I don’t do any programming anymore.
[quote]Renton wrote:
btm62 wrote:
Cobol Rules!
heheh.
Nevermind.
lol - Not used that for a while. Is it really making a come back
[/quote]
I believe this is still widely used on mainframes; though I don’t know why!
[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
Programming is not what I would focus on. This is the easiest outsourced career there is. Any Indian can program from India for a lot cheaper than an American. Because of the ease of learning basic web development (javascript, php, etc.) it is much harder to get work doing it. It is a very competetive field.[/quote]
At the entry-level, yes. If you honestly think “programming” = Javascript and PHP work you are way, way off base though. Web programming != programming. There are plenty of web programming firms that are doing exceptionally well, though, as maintenance and the design phase are much easier to deal with working with a stateside firm.
You’re confusing the CCNP with the CCIE. Believe me, there are a lot of CCNP’s out there who aren’t breaking 6 digits. A CCIE is a whole different story though, that’s basically the doctorate of networking. A CCIE could walk into almost any company with a large, dedicated IT division half-drunk with track marks down his arm demanding a job for 120k with a full benefits package while slurring and cursing out the secretary at the front desk and he’d get it.
DBA work can be very, very hard–and it expands well beyond SQL. Getting a CCNP is a hell of a lot easier than being a good DBA at large company.
Python and Ruby are definitely good to start with. Java isn’t bad either. I haven’t learned it yet but, i plan on learning C++.
[quote]Dweezil wrote:
At the entry-level, yes. If you honestly think “programming” = Javascript and PHP work you are way, way off base though. Web programming != programming. There are plenty of web programming firms that are doing exceptionally well, though, as maintenance and the design phase are much easier to deal with working with a stateside firm.
[/quote]
Java, C++, all that stuff is easily outsourced.
I would learn networking, specifically Cisco related technologies. Anyone who can obtain a CCNP can earn $100K plus a year.
There are less than 5000 CCIEs in the US. CCNP still pays well and it usually take a couple of years of CCNP to get CCIE. I know two CCIE people.
[/quote]
DBA work can be very, very hard–and it expands well beyond SQL. Getting a CCNP is a hell of a lot easier than being a good DBA at large company.[/quote]
I wasn’t suggesting that DBA only need SQL, just commenting that is one of the skills that is needed. Oracle, DB2, all that stuff still require more knowlede.
I would still argue with you that networking is easier than being a DBA. It isn’t.
I was going to start a “Bodybuilding for Programmers” thread to see who the programmers/IT folks of T-Nation were, but I’ll just resurrect this thread.
OP- Did you ever decide what you wanted to learn?
I’m platform agnostic myself, I use whatever language my clients need to satisfy their requirements, but I work in a pretty broad, yet specialized sector.
I am working on my CCNP now. That and a CCSP and a security clearance and I am done studying for a while
To add to the original topic, I would say that learning a language is second to learning data and language structures.
If you have a grasp of language structures it carries over into any language, since programming is really just logic instructions-- For example IF-THEN-ELSE clauses, DO WHILE loops, FOR loops, etc. Understand ata structures like hashes, queues, trees, arrays, etc.
These days Object Oriented programming is expected, so you need to understand CLASSES and their METHODS.
These things carry over into most languages. Kind of like learning Spanish, then leaning Portuguese or Italian-- different, but the same.
Most languages in their latest iterations. For example PHP uses OO methods now. PL/SQL (Oracle) has object structures available. If you can learn Java, you can learn C#-- they are so close.
I cut my teeth in VB and DELPHI (ie Object Pascal). That was fortunate because the guy who designed Delphi for Borland was the same guy who architected C# for Microsoft-- he took the best of Delphi, C++, and Java and C# was born. At face value, it’s a useful and robust language.
I wouldn’t get caught up in the ‘evil corporation’ details as Microsoft isn’t going anywhere and there’s carry over into other languages (if you happen to start in a Microsoft shop). C# Express is available for free (as well as the other Visual Studio languages) for learning. Additionally, there are open source projects for C# development so you’re not tied to MS (if that’s an issue).
Like I said, I’m platform agnostic and on any given day, I’m programming against Oracle, PostgresQL, SQLServer or MySQL databases, or diving into VB or C#/ASP.NET code, or PHP. Whatever customer is screaming the loudest that day
Oh, one other thing-- Listening is the most valuable skill you can have as a programmer/analyst.
Your project will FAIL if you’ve not gathered and understand the requirements of the project. The quality of the requirements analysis of a project can make or break a project. Some of the most sought after skills in the industry are Systems/Business analysts who can understand both the technical and business details of their clients and produce requirements. The truth is programming really shouldn’t even happen until a set of requirements is produced. We can get into Agile development and iterations, but even then you need something to start with.
I love developing software…I just worry that the higher up jobs will require me to get away from development and more into people management. 
Anyway, learn Java!
I’m currently learning GWT (Google Web Toolkit)…very interesting. It’s basically web programming, but with the added benefit of programming all your code using Java. Basically, it takes the Java code and converts it to JavaScript. It makes web development a hell of a lot easier since you can use object oriented principles to develop everything.