Considering going back to College for Programming

[jedidiahAJ]

“I just feel more motivated now to accomplish it” There you go!

Programming is def not something new for you and since you have been in the field you bring a better understanding of how school works fits well with the real market out there (something a lot of kids going to college have no clue). I didn't when I went to school. I always knew I wanted to do something related to Engineering (as I hated Biology growing up ) so I got myself into community college. I worked all my way through community college (part time kinda jobs) but I was very focused on getting all the necessary credits to move to a 4-year school. I have to be honest I didn't know how it would all work out in the end with a real job in a real market. I worked hard to keep my GPA high and was easily accepted into University of Washington's Computer Science program as I realized during my community college that I wanted to do something related to computers.

In my Junior year of college, I really wanted to get an internship so I like everyone else put out tons of applications (almost 70 - everyone wants someone with experience and I didn't have any at that point). I got 2 offers from all those applications one at Premera Blue Cross in IT and the other at Philips in Software Development. Given my major was CS and my interest in Software engineering I choose Philips. It was a great fit for me, as an intern they paid me well, I was racking up lots of experience and yes they even gave me college credit that counted to my senior project. 3 months into my internship I knew that I had landed in a career job that was fulfilling and had amazing growth opportunities. I signed on to come full-time and work for them after I graduated and have been here at Philips for the past 3 years now.
I work on Software for premium ultrasound devices and have had huge opportunities presented my way in the course of these 3 years (and yes the pay was pretty good too).

 

[MillField]

We have learned a large amount of programming languages as part of my Comp Science degree. The trouble is we tend to spend only about 3 months at a time on each, so I find some tend to go over my head. I'm looking forward to getting work once I finish up and focusing on one area of the field

 

[carnageX]

We have learned a large amount of programming languages as part of my Comp Science degree. The trouble is we tend to spend only about 3 months at a time on each, so I find some tend to go over my head. I'm looking forward to getting work once I finish up and focusing on one area of the field

I really dislike when schools do this. IMO they should teach 1 language to get you to understand all the concepts and critical thinking/logic skills. Then either switch to a different language for a new concept or allow students to choose their own language in higher courses. that's how my school did it, I felt I learned better that way.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[MillField]

I really dislike when schools do this. IMO they should teach 1 language to get you to understand all the concepts and critical thinking/logic skills. Then either switch to a different language for a new concept or allow students to choose their own language in higher courses. that's how my school did it, I felt I learned better that way.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Totally agree. I understand that a degree must cover a certain amount of topics and languages but it doesn't really prepare you for the work ahead.

 

[carnageX]

Totally agree. I understand that a degree must cover a certain amount of topics and languages but it doesn't really prepare you for the work ahead.

IMO, not necessarily a degree has to cover a certain amount of languages... because picking up a new language is easy once you understand the logic behind programming. It's all just syntax and looking in the documentation and such. That's fairly easy to do. It's understanding and being taught the concepts of programming (comparison operators, if statements, loops, functions, parameters, procedural vs OOP, inheritence, polymorphism, etc.) that's important and what a school should be teaching, because those concepts span across all languages. But while learning those concepts, sticking to 1 language would help more because then you don't have to worry about learning a concept AND syntax.

 

[Reapt]

IMO, not necessarily a degree has to cover a certain amount of languages... because picking up a new language is easy once you understand the logic behind programming. It's all just syntax and looking in the documentation and such. That's fairly easy to do. It's understanding and being taught the concepts of programming (comparison operators, if statements, loops, functions, parameters, procedural vs OOP, inheritence, polymorphism, etc.) that's important and what a school should be teaching, because those concepts span across all languages. But while learning those concepts, sticking to 1 language would help more because then you don't have to worry about learning a concept AND syntax.

This is 100% true. Like I said previously once you know and understand one language. Learning others is a breeze.