How To Enter a Career in Computer Programming

Perhaps you’re thinking of getting into a career in computer programming, but don’t know where to start. You’ve come to the right place! Read on for an intro to different types of programming, how to get into it, and most importantly, how to figure out if it’s the right step for you. Good luck!

What a Computer Programmer Does

Before you go ahead with any training or education, your first step should be to make sure you understand what a computer programmer actually does.

Basically, a programmer is someone who writes code that tells a computer, or app, or another device what to do. Like building a website, for example, a programmer takes the design that a web designer creates and writes the code that makes it live. Easy!

Becoming a Programmer

Like most digital careers, programming is a very fast-growing industry. This is great because it means there are more opportunities. But then, it can also make knowing how to get into the industry difficult, as there are so many routes to choose from.

The ever-evolving nature of digital also means that a career in programming means committing to lifelong learning, as technology develops quickly and new challenges arise.

Unlike some other career paths, the basics of programming can be learned reasonably quickly. You can get pretty good in a matter of months if you’re focused.

Do you really want to be a programmer?

When thinking about a career in a ‘hot’ industry, it can be hard to know if you really want to do it, or if you’re just excited about it because it’s cool at the moment.

A good exercise is to write yourself a few questions about why you’re attracted to this field, how much time and effort you’re willing to put in, and what you hope to achieve in it, and answer them honestly.

It will help you know if programming is where your passion truly lies.

At this point, it’s also a good idea to think about what type of programming you might want to do. You could go into back-end web development, become a software engineer, or even work with artificial intelligence.

Think on this early, and it will help you figure out what you need to learn to progress.

For an example of frameworks that exist to help programmers, check out https://softfamous.com/net-framework-4-0-4-5/

The Hard Yards

Once you’ve decided to proceed with a career in programming, it’s time to start learning how to do it. Like most things, being good at coding involves time, effort, patience, and practice.

Try writing your own code early in your learning to get used to it, test if what you’re doing works, and ask for peer critiques as these can be really useful.

Try and learn something new every day, and learn multiple programming languages – the more skills you have, the more employable you’ll be.

Showing Off

Once you have a set of skills, you can start building your portfolio. As you’re starting, you’ll have no substantial work experience. However, most employers will want to know what you can do. Save all your best work somewhere online and make it accessible to a potential employer.

Then comes a million-dollar question – where to start hunting for your dream job in programming? There is a wide range of options, but if we’d to recommend one, we’d recommend Jooble.

But before you take that step, make sure you keep that online portfolio up-to-date; you don’t want to under-sell yourself, now do you! Goes without saying that the more quality work you add, the more impressed an employer will be.

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