Am I cut out for programming?

DiscoDave

DiscoDave

DiscoDave

Associate
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Posts
1,856
Location
Cambridge
Good Afternoon all,

I'm having a bit of a career dillema at the moment. I currently work as a systems administrator, but this area of IT is proving to be quite stressful with very little recognition or appreciation.

I originally wanted to be in networking, configuring switches/routers/wireless equipment and so on, but it seems these jobs are quite rare these days for junior/graduate level, most networking jobs I've seen are for experienced individuals, mostly on a contract basis. Even still, very few pop up in job searches.

I started my university course with this ambition to work in networking, and I began a Computer Science degree course. I started off learning C and C++ which I didn't enjoy too much, which put me off programming.

I switched to Computing and Networks and got on well with networking modules.

When it came to doing my final year project, I decided to write a application. I wrote a workstation management platform with a database back end using C#, WMI and LINQ. I much more enjoyed this than I did programming in C or C++. I eventually got a first for my final year project.

So I've been thinking, has working with a specific language simply put me off programming all together? I understand that C/C++ and C# and Java are languages from two different eras, and maybe I should just give programming a shot.

What do you guys think?

Thanks,
 
I hate to tell you but programming is stressful and has very little recognition or appreciation.

Just try different languages and see which one appeals to you the most. C/C++ are 'the daddies' and can be very daunting, just give it a try, what's the worst that can happen :)
 
I love the problem solving aspect of programming but it can be a bloody nightmare for many reasons.

Clients and bosses are the worst thing when I am building applications.

Web sites tends to be a split between clients and IE being the biggest headaches but in general I love programming.

Give it a go and see what you think. Maybe have a look at web dev or java.
 
AHarvey said:
I hate to tell you but programming is stressful and has very little recognition or appreciation.
Click to expand...

I appreciate you telling me, I should have also mentioned that working in my current area is killing my passion for IT.

Just try different languages and see which one appeals to you the most. C/C++ are 'the daddies' and can be very daunting, just give it a try, what's the worst that can happen :)
Click to expand...

This is sort of what I've done at uni. Started off with C/C++, didn't like it, had brief stints at things like pascal, Oz etc, when I wrote my final year project in C# it felt a lot better. I have much more of an appreciation for OO programming than I did for C, for example.
 
fez said:
I love the problem solving aspect of programming but it can be a bloody nightmare for many reasons.

Clients and bosses are the worst thing when I am building applications.

Web sites tends to be a split between clients and IE being the biggest headaches but in general I love programming.

Give it a go and see what you think. Maybe have a look at web dev or java.
Click to expand...

Part of my final year project involved deveoping an ASP.net front end to my database, when I was doing it I quickly knew that I'm not really a web guy. Can program obviously, but a total n00b at design.
 
I was a senior software engineer for 15 years. Its bloody stressful and you ZERO recognition. Upper management and clients don't respect what problems a little tweak can cause :P Looming deadlines and the bug hunting are the bane of my life.

I had to take time out and do something less stressful. I for now just program for fun trying out new techniques and R+D.

Hey but don't let me put you off, these are simply my own opinions.
 
Fast forward to today, and it's much better. Get yourself a decent employer, working in a decent environment, and it'll be a complete blast. Use practices such as TDD to make bug hunting an absolute rarity, and if you collaborate with your bosses and clients, get them involved as much as possible, and you'll get recognised. In fact, you'll never not get recognised.
 
I would not let a bit of bad programming experience at uni believe anyone they are not cut out for programming. It can be very stressful at times, but depending on what you do it could also be boring or very exciting to work as a developer. It all really just depends on your environment and whether you just do maintenance or develop new applications.

Being a full time programmer is very different to the few hours a typical student spend writing something at uni - even though you might think working all night for 2 weeks is a lot. The number of hours you do as a full time developer gives you the opportunity to understand things and become good at it if you have the right attitude.

There are lots of potential and recognition if you go the extra mile including good pay.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

I've bought a C# book which I'm planning on working though. I'm going to see how much I enjoy doing it and will then decide if it's something I want to do full time.
 
Admittedly I have barely got out of university but in the few years since I left I have realised a few things.

My degree had no bearing on my computing career. I hated the course and felt that most of it was there just for the sake of making us jump through hoops learning arcane languages or things like javabeans which is pointless for most people. It was very much a theoretical course over practical programming. Most of the people that did well were not particularly good programmers.

The biggest deciding factor for job and career happiness is your company and boss. I had fantastic colleagues at my last job but that cannot make up long term for poor management and being in the wrong job. All workmates do is keep you in a job you hate because you dont want to leave them there and they are the ones that make it bearable.
 
I didn't enjoy my uni course much (computer science). I was pretty good at the programming practical assignments but I often struggled with more of the conceptual stuff...I found it hard to relate a lot of the theory to real world situations when learning by convoluted examples.

As fez mentioned, there is a lot of stuff I have never used but a lot of the theory really clicks into place once you've got a couple of years commercial experience under you belt.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom