Programming as a career? Other IT careers?

[GLaDOS]

Hello everyone,


I have been spending this summer researching different career paths in IT. One of the careers I have been considering is going into programming (and maybe even programming for mobile devices, more specifically). I don't have any formal training as I graduated with degrees in business management and marketing but if this was the career path I chose for myself, I'd certainly be willing to take night and weekend classes. I was just hoping to get some insight from people who have worked as programmers (or currently still do) as to what the job is like? I'm just curious about things like stability, growth & demand, as well as pay; I'm not looking to know anyone's salary, I just want to know is this something you can really do as a long-term career; the cost of living in the tri-state area (NY, NJ, Conn.) can be high, which I always try to take into consideration.

Any insight, advice, or resources you could provide would be greatly appreciated! If you have a career in IT, I'd love to hear about it too - there are so many choices and I'm trying to get as much research as I can before I commit to a field of study (should it be required). Thanks so much, this really does help me a lot!

[GLaDOS]

Im not sure I understand buddy?

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

Im not sure I understand buddy?

Either you're talking to yourself, or the SPAMmer that I just decimated...either way, your post doesn't make sense now.....

[GLaDOS]

Lol it was a spammer? Shoot, haha! Well thanks for deleting!

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

Wasn't sure at first, but then they updated their profile and some of their comments suggested that they were trying to use us to SPAMvertise their stuff...

[de_day]

I have seen the industry change a lot over the last 30 years. The trend I see is coding things in Java, which would work for your mobile apps. We also have a shift, here where I work, to build things in C# and use wsdls (pronounced whiss-dells) to access everything through web driven applications. There are still a lot of "old school" mainframe apps with COBOL and the like, but remaining flexible is the name of the game in IT. You see things change very rapidly. The pay for most positions where I am is from $50k to $125k depending on experience and need. I've learned most of my skills on the job as things change, so not sure how to tell you to get educated. I actually have an HR degree.

[ShyguyXPC]

spammer gone.

[GLaDOS]

I have seen the industry change a lot over the last 30 years. The trend I see is coding things in Java, which would work for your mobile apps. We also have a shift, here where I work, to build things in C# and use wsdls (pronounced whiss-dells) to access everything through web driven applications. There are still a lot of "old school" mainframe apps with COBOL and the like, but remaining flexible is the name of the game in IT. You see things change very rapidly. The pay for most positions where I am is from $50k to $125k depending on experience and need. I've learned most of my skills on the job as things change, so not sure how to tell you to get educated. I actually have an HR degree.

Well at least it is good to know that you don't need to study computer science or some related field to succeed as a programmer! Thanks for the info!

[ShyguyXPC]

may not NEED it, but it sure can help. myself, I started schooling in Computer Programming, COBOL, C++, etc, all in my first year of college (16 years ago), I already knew BASIC and some others that I had learned since 4th/5th grade on up.

But I grew bored with it, not that it wasn't challenging, just that I realized how much you'd have to learn and memorize, as well as keep in practice or you tend to forget things. So I gave up on the idea of Programming, and figured I'd try to just finish out my 2 year BS in Computer Science, and just use that as sort of a spring board into other areas, whether it was Computer Graphics, Repair, Networking, or whatever.

I can't speak for how the job is like, even if I did finish school for my degree, there just isn't much demand for Programmers around my area, Travel North, South or either East/West of where I am, and you can find various programming jobs, but since I live out in the more rural areas of the state, just not much of a demand.