As the economy gets worse and worse, it is harder for me to find any kind of job in my normal line of work.
I have been thinking of attempting to find employment in some kind of programming field, however I am unsure which programming language(s) would be the most help to find and keep employment with a company.
I have been hobby programming for over 11 years now, and can competently program in 6 different languages ( 100% self taught ). The issue is I am afraid that my programming skills are not good enough to even try to apply for work. I will have to focus on 1 or 2 languages to improve in.
Languages I am "competent" in:
Python 2.x - 3.x
Java
PHP - SQL - HTML
Visual Basic
C++
C#
Any advice on what I should focus on, would be a great help.
- Thanks
[Note 1:] I have never had any tech related jobs in the past
[Note 2:] I have no college credits in any tech related field
[Note 3:] I do not have the money to go to school for tech education
(( I am not sure how accurate this link is on the subject http://jobstractor.com/monthly-stats ))
Best Programming Language(s) For Employment ?
In general, the language depends on the platform. C++ is the language most used for console and PC game development. Other languages are used for smartphone and social game development. I'll let others expand on that.
If you're not focussed on games, and getting work is more important than anything else, your best bet is to look at the job ads in your area and get some ideas from that.
In my area, the vast majority of programming jobs involve C#. If you live near a big cosmopolitan city there's more likelihood of slightly more esoteric things like PHP or Python. Almost all entry level programming jobs (in my area, in my experience) involve web development - so knowing a decent amount of HTML, SQL, JavaScript and CSS could be worthwhile too.
The only people offering entry level C++ jobs tend to be startup games companies - this can be a great break if you're young enough, but don't count on it. There aren't many startups doing anything but web or mobile at the moment.
The general trend among the younger programmers I know is to work in web dev at first, gradually moving towards more low level stuff and keeping up their hard-earned skills in more technical areas in their spare time, until they can break out into something they find a bit more interesting.
With no qualifications though, your best bet is probably to get a 'general IT dogsbody' job in a small local firm, do as much coding on the job as you can justify, and then move into full time programming later. At least that's how I've seen people in a similar position do it
In my area, the vast majority of programming jobs involve C#. If you live near a big cosmopolitan city there's more likelihood of slightly more esoteric things like PHP or Python. Almost all entry level programming jobs (in my area, in my experience) involve web development - so knowing a decent amount of HTML, SQL, JavaScript and CSS could be worthwhile too.
The only people offering entry level C++ jobs tend to be startup games companies - this can be a great break if you're young enough, but don't count on it. There aren't many startups doing anything but web or mobile at the moment.
The general trend among the younger programmers I know is to work in web dev at first, gradually moving towards more low level stuff and keeping up their hard-earned skills in more technical areas in their spare time, until they can break out into something they find a bit more interesting.
With no qualifications though, your best bet is probably to get a 'general IT dogsbody' job in a small local firm, do as much coding on the job as you can justify, and then move into full time programming later. At least that's how I've seen people in a similar position do it
Check out the Tiobe Index (http://www.tiobe.com...tpci/index.html). It provides a list monthly of the most used programming languages0. The list is not specific to any industry, but you can at least gauge what kind of languages employers are looking for (to include the game industry).
If you want to sharpen your programming talent, i.e. the ability to write *good* code, you might want to use C# (or Java) to study things like patterns, algorithms, and code refactoring.
If you on the other hand is looking for experience, i.e the ability to avoid *bad* code, maybe C++ is a good choice, as it allows for high level code as well as lower level code. Consequently there are more ways to avoid *bad* code.
If you on the other hand is looking for experience, i.e the ability to avoid *bad* code, maybe C++ is a good choice, as it allows for high level code as well as lower level code. Consequently there are more ways to avoid *bad* code.
( 100% self taught )
That actually tends to scare potential employers somewhat.
Self taught programmers can for example be oblivious to code quality or obsessive about code quality.
Getting a programming related job (in any field) is probably the best thing you can do for your 'training'.
Real world experience is much more valuable than self taught experience.
This would be a better way to invest your time than spending more on self-teaching trying to land a job in the games industry right away.
Of course, after hours you can still spend your time on learning c++ or other languages commonly used in gamedev.
Well right now the trend is:
C#, PHP, Ruby on Rails, Objective C and Java.
But what's most important to me,personally it's not the number of languages you know, it's your ability to solve problems, languages can be easily learned, the ability to solve problems can't
You have a good skill set. Try learning about databases and client side scripting languajes like javascript and the jQuery library
C#, PHP, Ruby on Rails, Objective C and Java.
But what's most important to me,personally it's not the number of languages you know, it's your ability to solve problems, languages can be easily learned, the ability to solve problems can't
You have a good skill set. Try learning about databases and client side scripting languajes like javascript and the jQuery library
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