What to learn?

[rostulya]

Hi.
I am in a situation right now when i NEED to fina a decent paying job. A while ago i finished pretty prestigeous computer school, but never found a job - wasn't motivated enough.
So, i feel that i'm capable of learning a new language on my own.
Is it even possible on today's market to kearn something to to get a job? If so, what should i learn? In combination with what? Any thoughts would be greatly appritiated.
Thank you.

 

[DrJavaJoe]

i finished pretty prestigeous computer school, but never found a job - wasn't motivated enough.
This may be a problem you must be motivated. If you want to be a programmer you need to start programming and get real world experience. You should begin writing a program for the company that you currently work for and this probably means that you'll have to do it on your own time. Wow these guys and learn as you go. When done you can now honestly add this to your resume and when you approach potential employers you won't be stumped so easily and you'll have some experience. Before my first programming job I was an operations manager for a home health agency and I had done this for 9 years. The last year and a half or so I began writing programs for the company and when I sent out my resume I emphasized the programming aspects of that job. So potential employers saw a programmer at the same company for 9 years and I got calls. Though I must admit I was pretty much a computer geek and was really into it so it made the interview process much easier. Hope this helps.

 

[Tracey]

I agree.. learn to be motivated. Every employer wants to hire a keen hard worker.

When I found myself "needing" to find a better paying job, I had no idea about computers. I studied for 2 years and after those 2 years i got the first job i applied for (with no experience) and was put in a "sole programmer", "sole webmaster" position. Its all in the attitude. Now after 3 years my employer considers me to be one of the few "un-expendable" employees and i have had a huge payrise every year.

Remember.. attitude is 90% of the ingredients to success



Tracey
Remember... True happiness is not getting what you want...

Its wanting what you have got!

 

[SemperFiDownUnda]

I won't question you being motivate but will focus on your question of "what to learn?"

1) Look around. See where the market you are at is going. It does you no good to skill up in the latest and greatest if all the positions in your area are looking for COBOL programers.

2) Browse around and find out what type of jobs are out there that you like. Agian no sense in getting a job in finance if it bores you to tears and you are more exsited about automated control systems

When you figure out a language and area you are interested in and there is a market for tailor your training towards that.

Its hard for someone that looks at this subjectfully to give you an answer. Those that give you specific answers are giving answers based on their preferences and location and marketplace.

I could say go .Net but if you are in a J2EE environment then .Net isn't going to do you much good and vise versa. I could tell you to learn C because you can develop cross platform applications but if your market is mostly web based you'll be sitting around doing nothing.

What I can tell you is after you pick an area of interest and language and go through the learning process produce some applications demonstrating your skill. They don't have to be 100% functional but something that is applicable to your target employment field. This is something that you impresses employers. You can talk a little about their business. Over the years you'll not have to do this or even reference those early projects because they will be superceeded by your actual work projects.

Hope this helps.

 

[Tracey]

If you learn Delphi then you will at least have a choice of .NET or Win32 or Web programming...



Tracey
Remember... True happiness is not getting what you want...

Its wanting what you have got!

 

[rostulya]

thank's all of you for your answers