Need help on entering CS field

[LingeringHope]

Hi there, I received a bachelors degree in computer science about 3 years ago, but since I did not have any experience, i could not find a job in the industry. I have been working at a law firm doing real estate closing for awhile now. However this is not what i want to do with my life. I really want to start a job in the computer science field.

Can anyone give me any pointers as to what I should be doing to better my chances of landing a job in the field. I do not mind to start low, as long as the job would teach me the skills needed to advance in the industry. I tried to refresh my programming skill, but I find it very easy to get out of practice, especially when you dont program much, as the current job is really taking alot of my time.

The only programming language i know is c++ and a bit of PHH. I know its not much at all, and honestly Im really starting to forget how to program

I do not know where to even begin. Should I try to learn other programming languages while improving my C++ skill? Is there any other languages that i should be learning instead? My current job is not leaving me with alot of time, but i know i need to start somewhere. Any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank You.

[Sensei]

You should write programs for YOURSELF.

Simply what you need, require, write instead of downloading ready from websites or warez.

 

Answer yourself "what program I would use everyday", design it, and write.

 

If you don't know- make calculator.

I was always annoyed by the fact that built-in Windows (at least in mine OS) calculator has no history, so there is not visible what I calculated minutes ago..

 

When you will write really useful stuff, you can make website, promote it, and start selling through f.e. PayPal.

 

You will be able to show programs in your portfolio to employer (if you won't get enough sales).

 

What are the most used programs made by me that I am using everyday?

1. Software for managing mine stock market shares. (With open API from broker it's even possible to make your own bots buying and selling automatically..)

2. Calorie calculator for showing how much fat, hydrocarbons and protein has been eaten (it has history and I can see f.e. 1 year ago what I ate ).

 

Learning language, just to learn language, without writing programs at least every week is waste of time. You will most likely forget everything waiting for job. Nobody is learning what functions have operating system and what fields have some structure or object in advance. You will most likely forget that struct WNDCLASS has member hCursor or hInstance anyway. When you will need it, you will have to check msdn anyway.

 

[SaganWannaBeWannaBe]

I'm surprised you're having trouble. Perhaps it's your location? Have you checked out dice.com? C++ is pretty heavy duty programming so your choices might be somewhat limited. Obviously the big moneymaker nowadays is anything related to the web. HTML, JavaScript is real big, Ruby, etc. The nice thing is, if you don't know these, it's not too bad to pick them up. You can set up everything you need for free...a web server, an app environment, etc. Think apache, php, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, MySQL for database programming. With a standard laptop you can get at Best Buy for under 500 you can have enough power to run all of these.

[Doremi*]

To get started, I recommend if you begin with handout of popular programming languages..like c++,PHP, Java, like that..and then if you master amy of these then you can get to lean more towards HTML, XML and such languages.

See, for the job i would suggest if you lean into software technology or software development. Actually, for software technology there are many fields but for software development there is a programming language in common. there you have to learn most of them, you can google it, find a print and ...This is because if you need a job in programming field especially Assembly languages then you can simply choose c++ and but mastery is needed.

 

No, it is not difficult to get a job like that but you have to take the knowledge, yes, knowledge for the field, you are talking about programming in common, so yeah knowledge is important than either strolling for that here and there..)

Do not forget to program,yeah, remember it. that's important.:

[AtomicMaster]

Well you already got into the Higgs field, how much more difficult can it be?

 

To be honest, degrees really don't mean anything without your understanding of whatever part of comp-sci you want to pursue.

 

This means that if you want to program, you should learn how to program, no not take a class and say "well i got an A in my C++ class", because that means diddly-squat; if you know C++, you must KNOW C++, and how to apply it to a problem. If i ask you how to solve the diamond problem, if i ask you how would you solve a problem where say i have a program that is a shell, and i want to keep command history, but i only want to keep 1000 entries, how would you approach this problem. You must know the language, you must know how to solve a problem you must know how the language works, and you must know how to benchmark and optimize code to be a good programmer. If you are a good programmer, degree or not, you will be able to find good work. If you know how to program C++, other languages are like new worlds, you have to discover them, spend time exploring them before you are worth anything in them. If you know how to program, any language is only a tool, all you need to do is figure out how to express your solution in that language's dialect, in a few hours you will be able to code in it, in a few days you will feel comfortable, in a couple of months you will be an expert.

 

Following this same logic, if you want to do systems, then you need to know systems, how to design them, how to build them, how to manage them, how to find the weakest link, how to scale them, what technologies there are for different solutions, how to apply them. You must reason through problems, like how would you design a system that would be able to aggregate logs from say a 100 different web-based applications your company is running in a way that is easy for all the developers to implement and use. How would you scale that for say 20-30-60Gigabits worth of transactions every second.

 

If you want to go into networking, you must live it, you must know protocols, you must know products, you must be able to quickly troubleshoot problems. Just knowing the names of the OSI layers don't help you, you must be able to, without thinking, answer questions like "what layer does MPLS use fit in?".

 

Etc...

 

The point i am trying to make is that the degree means that you went to classes and were able to answer questions, having been given those answers in a book. You must live what you want to do, and become an expert in something, or you must know a lot about a lot of things, and be able to constantly solve non-textbook questions and come up with new solutions to well-known problems. If you can go into a job interview and easily answer any difficult questions they throw at you, you will have a high chance of getting a job. If you can barely navigate your way out of a randomly sorted start menu, well, degree or not, you will not get a job.

[HalfWit]

Where do you live? If you are in the SF Bay area you can get a job easily. There's a huge tech boom right now.

 

If you live in a small town in a place with no tech, you will find it much more difficult.

 

Perhaps you might consider moving to where the jobs are.

[AtomicMaster]

SF Bay area, Seattle, Austin, DC Area, NC

[EdEarl]

I really want to start a job in the computer science field.

Why do you want a job in computer science? When I was young, I wanted to program and know everything possible about computers, and the first person to give me a job, noticed I was spending all my spare time programming and offered me a job without my asking.

 

I do not mind to start low, as long as the job would teach me the skills needed to advance in the industry.

Employers look for people who already know how to do the job they have to offer, and they are offering fewer continuing education opportunities to their employees. People who want to continue being employed, must continue their education with their own resources rather than expect help from employers.

 

I tried to refresh my programming skill, but I find it very easy to get out of practice.

If you don't care about your skills, who will?

 

The only programming language i know is c++ and a bit of PHH. I know its not much at all, and honestly Im really starting to forget how to program.

Sounds like me, after programming for 30+ years and becoming bored with programming. If you are passionate about learning and doing anything, programming, art, music, whatever, you would learn more and more about it and get better and better at it. When you are an expert, or nearly an expert at something, you are much more likely to find a way to earn a living doing it. But, most of all you will be happy doing what you like, which is better than wasting your time doing a job that you do not like.

[Endy0816]

Maybe look for an internship or working in a tech support role?

[AtomicMaster]

Or apply at the apple genius bar...