Interested in the Computer Science Field

[halo71]

In my experience, employers care about other work you have done, not what academic qualifications you have. They care about your skills.

I've never been asked in an IT job about my degree. No one cares.

Maybe it's different there than it is here in the states. In my experience, if you dont have that little paper saying you graduated, your not getting very far. I have seen SO many department managers, with a degree, that were about as sharp as a bag of wet mice. Yet they make $75k+ a year.

Just my .02 though......

 

[Phantasm66]

Oh, and if you want a job working for a bank doing IT, good areas are:

J2EE programming (JSP, EJB, XML, SOAP, etc...)
SQL / Oracle, Sybase.
Firewalls (Cisco )
Microsoft Certs (they always need a domain for IT staff to log into and use)

Learning to program in Java and write J2EE apps is probably best, even if you now you limit yourself to running on Tomcat and Mysql, both of which you can download for free. Learn SQL also and JDBC so you can write apps that talk to a database. Then you can get a job as a Web Applications Developer.

Why not get into Networking instead? Try one of the Microsoft certification Networking courses, then do some Windows Domain administration. Maybe learn some Cisco stuff too, which will include setting up routers and working with IP subnets.

What I am trying to say is have a look about and then pick an area like Networking or programming or databases and then get into it full steam ahead. That will stand you in much better stead than any degree.

Maybe it's different there than it is here in the states.

Yes, that is entirely possible.

 

[halo71]

Actually I really need to learn more about SQL myself, other than doing simple queries and the like. Got any suggestions?

 

[greatman05]

OK.....so I should expand beyond C/C++ programming? Wow, all of this stuff is making my head spin.....So, while working on my degree, I should also try to get certifications?

 

[Phantasm66]

Knowing a programming language isn't enough these days - you almost certainly need to know about SQL and you also need to know about the kind of platform that the applications will be running on, i.e. UNIX. You will need to be able to use test and UAT systems that are similar to the environment that the production servers are, therefore learning UNIX - even just the basics - is going to be important.

So, while working on my degree, I should also try to get certifications?

No, do either or. Doing both at once is too much.

 

[greatman05]

OK....so what do you guys suggest I do? Go to college, or work on certification? P.S. I go to Detroit Renaissance High School, if that makes a difference...

 

[halo71]

I would say go to college.

 

[Phantasm66]

Probably go to college. You're only young once, so have a nice time, but try to keep your mind on your goals, as there are many distractions at college.

 

[Billion]

Hmm, I hope this is on-topic enough for this thread. Seems like the best place to ask.

I'm new around here, and as I just stated in my introduction post recently, I'm a university student from Canada whose field of study has nothing to do with CS. My real passions are what I'm studying in school, (Theatre, Film, Language etc.) but I'd also like to learn computer sciencey stuff. Not only am I genuinely interested, but I see it as something I could possibly be employed in, until I get my big break in the entertainment industry. (ie. once I'm finished school.)

So my question, I guess, is really about education. How likely is it that I could teach myself enough to be eligeble/desirable for entry level jobs in the field? Do those of you with experience think that employers would even consider somebody not taking CS at school, even if my resume says I know X, Y and Z?
By the way, when I say "entry level job" I'm talking things like doing HTML work for a certain department at my local university, or doing IT work for a charity group who need a pro around for when they can't figure something out in Word.

And if it is likely that I could teach myself things, then what things should I focus on? Right now I'm still brushing up on my html knowledge and tinkering around with Dreamweaver. I have both a Windows and a Mac computer, but I'm considering downloading Ubuntu Linux on my PC and figuring out how to use it. Is that an asset, or a waste of time?

Thanks for any advice. =D

 

[Boogityboo04]

It depends on the employer, but I was able to tech myself enough to get a job at the Uni writing a program to control stepper motors in a optics experiment.

Learning Linux would definatly be a plus, but Ubuntu isn't really the way to learn. Install Gentoo by hand compiling from source and you will learn considerably more about how Linux works, and as a bonus you will know how to fix your system when something goes wrong.

 

[Billion]

Yeah, ok, I don't know where I got the idea that Ubuntu would be good - I guess I just read about some of the main distributions and thought it sounded the most appealing, but I'll check out Gentoo for sure. Thank you!

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Actually I really need to learn more about SQL myself, other than doing simple queries and the like. Got any suggestions?

Teach yourself SQL functions and programming languages such as PL/pgSQL.

Also, if you know the "basic" SQL queries, then start combining them, create nested queries, union, intersect, inner/outer join etc.

Optimize the queries, find out the fastest and most efficient queries with, for example, "explain analyze" command.

Use transactions (begin - commit - rollback on error).

I'm thinking about PostgreSQL when providing command examples, but they should be common enough to be the same in MySQL, Oracle or whichever database(s) you use.