Anyone on this board a computer programmer? How would I get started?

[CanBeGrumpy]

I am a mechanical engineer, but I am looking for something new! I took one or two programming classes WAY back when (20 years ago) and really liked it. I want to investigate that as a possible career, but I'm not sure how to get started. The local community college has classes, but I'd rather not pay the $$ if I can learn a good portion of what I need to know from a book. Any recommendations for a beginner's programming book? Or do I really need to take classes? Thanks for any help you can give!

 

[ckay87]

2 factors -

1. How you learn best. I personally don't have the attention span or patience to learn something like that from a book. I need to be forced into a seat in a classroom. If you do have the patience for that, there are tons of books and I'd frankly start with the "Dummies" series...just to get started.

2. Your resume. Would a potential employer be okay to see that you are a self-taught programmer? I know that an engineer in my company could self-teach themselves programming, then DO something with that knoweledge (perhaps build and implement a small application or 2 for the company) and then get a job within the company.

 

[RealMickeysGirl]

I graduated in 86 with a BS in Computer Science so it has been a while and computers/computer classes have changed a lot since then.

I know where I work, the hot things now are vb.net (visual basic) and PowerBuilder.net. I know there are short - 1 to 2 week courses offered on them but I don't know how much sense they would make to a non-programmer type.

Do you want to program or would you be interested in something else? I have friends/acquaintances who have changed jobs mid stream and started working as a web designer (a former professional photojournalist), tech-support desk worker (former cad worker for an architect firm), computer office software teacher (former secretary), and several others.

You can pm me with questions if you want.

 

[janette]

I'm a self taught programmer, I started in computer ops about 20yrs ago and moved into different positions where I learned new things on the job. I do not have a college degree but had many hours of classes. I think it would be much harder now than in the earlier days of computers.

There are many different languages and almost all companies use them differently. It would be hard to pick a language that would be most beneficial. You could look in the want ads for your area and see if something is mentioned more often than other things.

Another option is LAN / Networking support, there are Microsoft certification courses you can take that can help. This is a pretty popular field right now and in high demand, not as much programming but seems like it would work well with a mechanical engineering background.

 

[Barb D]

I'm a computer programmer, but I've been in it for almost 25 years and things have changed since then. I think you might have a hard time getting a job as a self-taught programmer. You might want to bite the bullet and take some classes, especially if they can lead to certifications.