Career advice....

Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2003
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Cotham, Bristol
Ok here goes, let's hope this isn't too vague :)

I'm seeking some sort of guidance over what sort of direction I should/could take my career. I have 2:1 (hons) in Computer Science and I have been working for the past 18 months in a software company called Sefas.

Basically what we do is write software using our products which will create/format document information (such as BT Bills, 3 Mobile etc.) right down to management of bill runs at the major Astron print centres.

Since this is quite specialised I can't see my knowledge of Sefas products being of any anywhere else.

And since it's such a small company I can't see any room for any real career development.

I want to stick with development for the moment, but I also want real room for my career to develop in the future. My parents have suggested to me that perhaps the best thing to do would be to apply to large firms.

The only problem I can see at the moment is that they tend to ask for people with a few years experience in the commercial environment, with languages such as C,C#,Java etc.

Now although i've used all these languages and I can pick up an understanding of just about any programming language fairly quickly, I could hardly call myself expert or even proficient enough with any of them to be able to use confidentally in a job.

So the question is where do I go next?

/wonders if the above made any sense whatsoever :p
 
I'm a bit surprised that you didn't do any C or Java in your CS course? I've done C, C++, Java, Prolog, VHDL, etc in mine

Have a look at tutorials on the web. Jan Skansholm's C++ From the Beginning (Second Edition) is a good book, ISBN 0-201-72168-6. It starts right from the beginning and it's clearly layed out. It's got plenty of examples and useful explanations - definitely one of the best C books I've ever used

With a CS background you should be able to pick up these languages fairly quickly. There are a large number of similarities between C++ and Java too. You can then use these for your next job. You'll have the experience necessary from your current job
 
ajgoodfellow said:
I'm a bit surprised that you didn't do any C or Java in your CS course?

PaulStat said:
i've used all these languages

Just go for it. The experience they ask for is usually about working in a group/in the working environment and they should train you in whatever they feel is necessary.
 
ajgoodfellow said:
I'm a bit surprised that you didn't do any C or Java in your CS course? I've done C, C++, Java, Prolog, VHDL, etc in mine

Have a look at tutorials on the web. Jan Skansholm's C++ From the Beginning (Second Edition) is a good book, ISBN 0-201-72168-6. It starts right from the beginning and it's clearly layed out. It's got plenty of examples and useful explanations - definitely one of the best C books I've ever used

With a CS background you should be able to pick up these languages fairly quickly. There are a large number of similarities between C++ and Java too. You can then use these for your next job. You'll have the experience necessary from your current job

I have done those languages, just not for 18 months ;) (well apart from C, since it's very similar to the language we use in work)
 
Learn some Java, PHP, C++ as a start-off. Your current experience, and once you can program in another language should look good enough on your CV to get into a large firm.
 
A lot of firms will advertise for junior programmer/analyst posts. I'm pretty sure you would fit one of these roles.

You may want to consider a Graduate scheme or even a MA.
The larger firms seem to offer these quite regular, so have a look at the websites of say IBM, EDS etc.

My firm is always wanting MA's and Graduates.
And if you think its too late to apply for a graduate scheme its not. I work with a girl who is 48 and she applied for the graduate position two years after leaving her course ;)

Hope this helps.
 
If you're a real programmer you'd be able to pick those languages up easily even if you'd never done them. I did a little job in C# and I'd never even seen any C# before. With a few books and the net I got going on it in only about an hour, and by the end of the week I'd like to think I got a good grasp of the language. And I don't even have a computer science degree yet. Also recently I started doing Java at uni. Never done it before but I implicitly know it already because it's so similar to C# and some other languages I've done.
 
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