Quote:I am really interested in computer programming

How do you know that?

Quote:I really do want to do this since I have been wanting to be in this field for years but never really thought it was a reality.

What do programmers do? What do video game programmers do?

Quote:I hear it is extremely boring and thats just not really what I want to do

Do you know what accountants do?

Quote:Original post by Palidine

Quote:Original post by sitdownson
Thanks for the input guys, I have looking around the past few days and I have decided that I will try out some programming stuff by teaching myself and possibly using the forums.

Why wouldn't you just take the Intro CS course at your college? Having the structure of a classroom and a group of peers with whom you can interact in real life is a resource that would be silly to pass up. Sure you can learn to program by yourself, but it's so much better when you have a teacher and TAs and other students to go to for help.

That way you also start acquiring credits should you actually wish to enter the major. Personally I also find that taking a course I already know is the most frustrating thing imaginable. If you do switch majors later it's unlikely that you'd be able to place out of the intro course.

There is obviously no harm in getting started before next semester starts.

-me

I am definitely going to take that next semester, I cant just jump into a class now so i am just saying that I am going to try it out by trying to teach myself now but next semester im definitely going to check out some computer science / intro to programming courses

Quote:Original post by Antheus

Quote:I am really interested in computer programming

How do you know that?

Well I am a huge video game fan, as everyone is, I would just love the satisfaction of making all these codes and see an end result even if it is a simple pong game...

Quote:I really do want to do this since I have been wanting to be in this field for years but never really thought it was a reality.

What do programmers do? What do video game programmers do?

Take what designers, artists, and such create and actually put the code in to make the game a possibility

Quote:I hear it is extremely boring and thats just not really what I want to do

Do you know what accountants do?

Do audits on companies and make sure all their transactions and financial stuff is in order... Or forensic accounting is investigating fraud and stuff like that.

Quote:Original post by remigius
Ideally, I'd try and wrap up accounting and see about diversifying to computer science later

I don't agree with that at all. If you don't like a subject, having studied it for one month shouldn't make you feel obligated to stick with it for four full years.

And it would be much, much easier to diversify from a computer science degree. Studying computer science is studying logic and computation, how to formulate problems and solutions. It's applicable to absolutely any field in the world. It's true that there are a lot of boring programming jobs out there, but if you look at any field of research or development (or even art) that you might possibly be interested in in the future, you'll find a way of applying CS there.

Quote:Original post by swiftcoder
It is easy to switch to anything freshman year. Aftyer that, the only subject which is easy to switch to (read: has significant course overlap) from Computer Science is Mathematics.

Well, I didn't mean to imply that CS has great overlap with every other major in terms of required classes. I just meant that CS is generally useful in other fields, so if you do decide to switch, and you end up with, say, a minor in CS, it will still be very useful, more so than accounting, I suspect.

Quote:Really? Most places computer science is about learning Maths. Logic and problem solving are across campus, in the Philosophy department.

Logic isn't limited to philosophical logic...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_logic

A lot of that stuff is at the foundation of computer science, and at least where I went, all of that was taught in the math and CS departments, not philosophy.

Quote:a Computer Science degree is overkill for your average programming career

That's like saying a college degree is overkill for the average person. It's true that most people get by without college degrees, but that doesn't mean that they're not useful or that they don't open up new opportunities.

I don't want to come off too strong here. I'm not saying "everyone should get a CS degree because it's the best and you can get any job with it." I'm saying try it out, and if you like it, don't worry about people saying that game programming is overrated or that business programming is boring, cause you can apply it to anything, and you're sure to find something that interests you. And if you suddenly discover that you have a second passion later in life, there's a pretty good chance that it will synergize well with CS, and having a background in CS will probably make it easier to get into that field.

My work involves using high energy protons to treat cancer. There are basically three backgrounds that can get you into this field: high energy physics, medicine, or CS. The first two are obviously relevant from my brief description of the field. CS is relevant because it's relevant to everything. :-)

Quote:Original post by sitdownson

Quote:Original post by Antheus

Quote:I hear it is extremely boring and thats just not really what I want to do

Do you know what accountants do?

Do audits on companies and make sure all their transactions and financial stuff is in order... Or forensic accounting is investigating fraud and stuff like that.

Close. :-)

Any job can be fun or boring based on lots of factors.

What is the field? Accounting for a large bank will be different than a CPA doing government tax forms. A fraud investigator will have a very different job than a tax auditor.

Even within the small business bookkeeper accounting, working for a small doctor's office is going to be a very different job than an accountant for a small gym, or an accountant for a small construction company, or an accountant at a game company.

In each case the job of processing numbers is similar, but the job itself will be radically different.

The people you work with, the values of the group, the work conditions and dress codes, the salary levels, and many other factors will vary dramatically.


The same is true with programming. Programming at a small game studio is very different than at a large studio. Working in games is very different from working in business database software or business analysis software or military software or web development or rocket launching software or kitchen appliances software.

All of them write code, but the people, values, working conditions, dress codes, salary, and other factors are dramatically different.





Perhaps a better question is to figure out what you are passionate about. What is your own mission in life, and what do you want from it?

What fields interest you? What holds your interest? What can you bring yourself to complete, even after you have lost interest? What kind of people do you want to work with? What abilities and aptitudes do you have that you want to use in your career?

If you can't come up with answers, one excellent book is "What Color Is Your Parachute". Your library will have several copies, and the book is a must-read for many reasons. For now, skip to the end of the book. One appendix chapter is about finding your personal mission, another other is the flower diagram. Work through both.

People have left game development for lots of reasons. One former co-worker left to return to school for a music education career. Another co-worker left to start a flower shop. I have read about many others, one guy started an exotic vehicle rental company. Discovering that your passions are elsewhere is a very common event.

There is even a "mid-life crisis" where many people discover they need to re-evaluate their passions.


You are just beginning your college education. It won't hurt to finish your current semester as is. Find some mature folks who went through a mid-life crisis and are open to discussion; They can be an invaluable asset to help figure out what you actually want out of life.