starting over in life, want to get into computer-related job

[IvyGreen]

FrankLDS, I hope you please reply to my questionaire. I'm really interested to hear more about the computer forensics field you are getting into. Best wishes to you with starting over, too. I love CSI and that whole idea intrigues me.

I am also very interested in online security and privacy and fighting cyber crime and all that. I'd love to know more about any jobs related to that.

 

[raross]

If you don't want to read the government's Occupational Handbook (I think it's your best bet -- job descriptions are going to be dry no matter who writes them), then we can start from the top. At the highest level, I think computer-related jobs can be broken down into two groups - those that are concerned with software development and those that aren't.

Software developers create applications and programs using programming languages like Java, C#, C++, C, and many more. Typically, these people work as programmers or software engineers. In terms of education, they usually have degrees in computer science, software engineering, or computer engineering.

Non-software development jobs deal with technical support, network design, IT management, and other jobs that are concerned with supporting, maintaining, and upgrading a company's infrastructure. Many of these jobs require certifications and possibly degrees in areas like management information systems and information technology.

Each of these areas can be further subdivided into more specific groups. I'm a software developer, so if you have any specific questions about that line of work, I can try to answer them. As for the non-software development jobs, someone else working in that position could probably give you a much better description. Maybe you should have asked forum members to describe their own jobs -- that might be more beneficial to you.

There are far more computer related jobs that are not in these groups that you describe. You are just scratching the surface of jobs that any typical person could list. For instance ALL of the physical sciences are taking on computing components which are far more sophisticated then programming or IT support. There are many other fields such as Bioinformatics and Neuroinformatics which use software engineering techniques to solve problems. From that standpoint it seems like programming is becoming a trade rather then a skill.

 

[jaeusm]

There are far more computer related jobs that are not in these groups that you describe .... There are many other fields such as Bioinformatics and Neuroinformatics which use software engineering techniques to solve problems.

That's what all software development is. Computers are tools. Programs are instructions for computers to execute in order to solve problems. For the sake of this discussion, the problem domain is irrelevant. I said "software developers create applications and programs". I specifically made no mention of the problem domain because the point of writing programs in the first place is to solve problems. Problems can range from network programming to mathematical modeling to bioinformatics or anything else you can think of.

(1) What is your official job title ?
(2) What are your actual job duties on a daily basis, and hours weekly?
(3) What kind of company do you work for in this capacity or are you self-employed, freelance or the boss ?
(4) What amount of education/ training do you have in general ?
(5) What education, training do you have that got you employed in your current job ?
(6) What's your work environment like ? Do you work in an office or travel around to do your job ?
(7) Are your details typical of people with your job title/ specialty or is your position unusual or different from the norm and how ?
(8) (If you wish to divulge) Approximately what is your salary ?
(9) Are there positions in your company (or elsewhere) to which you could advance with your current skills and some tenure ? Or would you need more training in your field to advance to what you aspire ?

(1) software developer
(2) 40 hrs/wk, mainly designing and coding
(3) medium sized company in the home automation industry (ie, smart homes)
(4) MS in computer science
(5) see above
(6) all the developers in my company have their own office
(7) probably typical
(8) just what it should be
(9) advancement is based on performance

 

[raross]

That's what all software development is. Computers are tools. Programs are instructions for computers to execute in order to solve problems. For the sake of this discussion, the problem domain is irrelevant. I said "software developers create applications and programs". I specifically made no mention of the problem domain because the point of writing programs in the first place is to solve problems. Problems can range from network programming to mathematical modeling to bioinformatics or anything else you can think of.

Absolutely correct, BUT you're missing the point! It seems programming or software engineering is becoming a trade in many other fields. For instance, you cannot solve a bioinformatics problem without being educated on biology and math/statistics. So to hand this problem to a software engineer cannot be done without educating him, which would take too much time. So they incorporate a component of programming within the education. This is the same for applied mathematics and other physical sciences.

This is where bioinformatics or any other field that you lacked to mention separates from software development. Because software development is with individuals who are specialized in software engineering and most likely nothing else. Bioinformatics also uses many theoretical CS approaches from coding theory to localization.

Beyond these, another group which you did not mention would be computing research. This extends from one spectrum to the other.

 

[jaeusm]

Absolutely correct, BUT you're missing the point!

I see what you're getting at. I misinterpreted your previous post.

It seems programming or software engineering is becoming a trade in many other fields.

(programming, yes -- software engineering, not so much)
I understand why you say that, but this activity (programming being integrated into research fields) has been going on for quite some time. You're getting exposure to research areas that you probably wouldn't have if you had skipped college. For instance, engineers have been implementing neural networks since the early 90's to solve specific system classifcation problems. Genetic algorithms were created in the 1970's as a non-calculus optimization technique for solving nonlinear differential equations. Programming is simply a tool that can be used by anyone. Typically, professional software engineers tend to have a specific focus in their work (embedded systems, AI, graphics, etc.)