How To Put your Career in Overdrive » programming languages http://www.it-career-coach.net IT Career Coach Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:21:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Free E-Book On How To Stay Ahead of the Technology Curve http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/09/21/free-e-book-on-how-to-stay-ahead-of-the-technology-curve/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/09/21/free-e-book-on-how-to-stay-ahead-of-the-technology-curve/#comments Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:03:59 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2517 Stay Ahead of the Curve!

Stay Ahead of the Curve!

Have you ever wondered how some people stay ahead of rapidly changing technologies while others seem to let their skills become extinct like the Dodo?

Well, apparently, someone in Dubai, U.A.E. wants to know the answer so badly that he sent in his question by postal mail!

If you need help with a Question or Challenge, be sure to ask it as a comment on this page and I will answer it fully just as I am answering this reader’s question below!

Please, send this post to your friends using the “Tell a Friend” Button button below. You earn points or cash each time you refer an article to your friends using the Tell a Friend Button.

Here is The Question on How To Stay Ahead of the Technology Learning Curve

Dear Kingsley,

Having come to be known about you as a pioneer IT Coach, I need some information from you if you can help me.

At present, I am reading a book Microsoft Office 2003 bible which includes all the basic and in depth functionalities of excel, word, powepoint, access, outlook, frontpage, etc.

It’s a huge book with 1200 pages. I’d like to know how I can memorize this book quickly and efficiently.

There are other books on programming to be memorized. in this age of information overload, everyday we are presented with lots of paperwork, reports and books to remember.

As an IT coach, could you please show me the techniques to remember this amount of information so as to get the job done on time and move along with the rapidly changing technologies.

Fahim, Dubai, U.A.E.

Don’t Underestimate The Effort Required To Keep Up With Information Technology Careers!

Years, ago, while considering a career transition, I was advised not to pursue Information Technology careers because of the rapidly changing technologies, literature, techniques and tools.

At that point in time, many IT professionals had shipwrecked their careers because they couldn’t transition from legacy skills in Cobol or Fortran or Mainframes to the smaller, more modern computers running windows.

My adviser pointed out to me that succeeding in an information technology career would be a tough challenge because many IT professionals with graduate computer science degrees from good schools had failed!

Some of the reasons why IT professionals fail in their career include:

  1. The Challenge of Rapidly Changing Technologies: keeping up with rapidly changing tools, processes and technologies is a hard job. Some vendors release multiple versions of their products within a year forcing users to upgrade their skills or become obsolete.

  2. The Challenge of Poorly Written Textbooks: many IT books are written by geeks for geeks. They’re difficult to understand, slow to read and intimidating in size. Many tech workers still find challenging, the effort required to keep up with technology by studying IT books.

  3. The Challenge of Information Overload: There are various skills, technologies, tools and processes that need to be mastered for every unique employer or job situation. IT workers end up buying and studying lots of reference books in a bid to stay ahead of all the problems they aim to solve!

I Transitioned My Career By Overcoming The Information Overload!

I transitioned my career by learning the skills required for my new career in six weeks! and by acing my first technical job interview

In six weeks, I navigated an amazing amount of technical literature and reference books … to discover the hidden path that leads to IT career success.

The lessons I learned in those six weeks have become some of the hallmarks of my career including:

  1. How to study new IT skills quickly, comprehensively and competently (I studied mine in under six weeks)

  2. How to ace IT job interviews (I scored above 90% in my first interview test)

  3. How to get hands-on experience without a job (I got the required hands-on experience before my first job)

A Free E-Book To Help You Stay Ahead Of Rapidly Changing Technologies!

Fahim, I understand where you’re coming from and the challenges you’re facing.

The challenges of succeeding in Information Technology (IT) Careers as pointed out in this blog post are real. However, I’ve solved them and I don’t see any reasons why you can’t after I share my success strategies with you!

I’m going to e-mail you a free e-book that details “how you can solve the same problem in your career” and in addition, you will also get any future updates to the e-book free!

I will also be giving away a free copy of the same e-book to the biggest users of my “Tell a Friend” Button or Link on any of my blog posts!

How To Get a Free Copy of My E-Book!

If you’ll like to get a free copy of the e-book including any future updates, start using the IT Career Coach “Tell a Friend” Button or Link on my blog posts and I will reward you just like I am rewarding Fahim and others who regularly invite their friends, contacts or colleagues to this community.

This post answers a question posted by Fahim on “how to study or keep ahead of rapidly changing technologies.“

if you have a question about your career, be sure to post it as a question on this discussion page and I will answer it for you!

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Share/Bookmark]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/09/21/free-e-book-on-how-to-stay-ahead-of-the-technology-curve/feed/ 1 How To Learn Many Programming Languages http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/09/10/how-to-learn-many-programming-languages/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/09/10/how-to-learn-many-programming-languages/#comments Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:20:35 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2397
learning multiple programming languages?

learning multiple programming languages?

This question was posted by a reader who needs advice on “how to learn many programming languages!”.

If you need help with a Question or Challenge, be sure to ask it as a comment on this page and I will answer it fully just as I am answering this reader’s question below!

Please, send this post to your friends using the “Tell a Friend” Button button below. You earn points or cash each time you refer an article to your friends using the Tell a Friend Button.

Here is the Challenging Situation:

I want to learn many programming languages including C/C++, Java, PHP and Microsoft .NET Framework because this will make be very good at programming and employable.

What do you suggest? Are there languages I should learn first or not learn at all?

What’s the best way to go about learning many programming languages?

How To Learn Multiple Programming Languages

There are benefits and challenges to learning many programming languages. Sometimes it’s better to master just one programming language and some other times it’s advantageous to learn more !

Learning many programming languages poses a special challenge. Part of this challenge is remembering the syntax or coding paradigms behind each programming language.

The challenge of devoting the time it takes to learn or master just one programming language should not be under-estimated.

On the other hand, the benefits of successfully learning many programming languages includes having more employment options because you can work on a wide variety of software developemnt platforms.

Here is additional guidance on when you may learn multiple programming languages:

Should Junior / Entry-Level Programmers Learn Multiple Languages?

If you’re just starting your programming career, then I would advise you to focus on learning just one programming language at a time.

This is because there’s little to be gained by listing many programming languages on your resume without really being good or highly skilled in any of them!

As a general rule, it’s far better to learn one programming language and master it well before learning other programming languages.

Beginner, Entry Level, Junior or Hobby Programmers are more likely to fall into the trap of learning on too many programming languages.

They are likely to dabble in multiple programming languages ranging from PHP to C/C++ to Java. Unfortunately, while they may learn a little of each programming languages they are good at none!

The danger facing newbies to computer programming is that they understimate their own powers and the challenges of learning a programming language. So, in a bid to prove themselves, they bite on more than they can chew!

Without a lot of programming experience, newbie computer programmers really have no idea of what they’re trying to accomplish.

In trying to impress others by working on many programming languges, they end up “A Jack of All Trades and Master of None”.

Should I Learn A Software Development Platform?

On the other hand, while beginner programmers should not worry about learning many programming languages, they should learn or master all the programming languages for a platform, one at a time.

For example, if you’re learning PHP, you should also plan to learn MySQL and vice versa.

The reason is because, employers or clients hiring for PHP skills will also expect or need MySQL Database Services.

Another example is that of programmers learning .NET Framework who should plan on learning the entire Microsoft .NET Software Platform including ASP.NET (for building web applications), SQL Server for building Databases and C# or Visual Basic for programming.

Should I Mix and Match Programming Languages?

Programmers should look out and learn other technologies within their familiar programming languages.

For example, both PHP Programmers and ASP.NET Programmers should take the time to learn or master HTML, CSS and JavaScript as these are useful for all programmers.

However, learning PHP and then jumping to Java or C/C++ is a different matter altogether.

Here is “how to to learn many programming languages”:

  1. Learn programming languages one at time.

  2. Master, become highly competent or become an expert at one programming language before attempting to learn another.

  3. Learn all the tools, technologies and programming languages in one family (LAMP, MICROSOFT.NET, JAVA) first before switching tracks.

  4. Employers hire for quality (competency) and not quantity. So, be clear to yourself on why you’re learning many lanaguages!

  5. Learning many programming languages requires dedication and time. So, be sure to plan adequately and budget the right amount of effort or time to your learning. Don’t under-estimate the required effort.

  6. If you’re a skilled developer or a senior programmer or a software architect, there may be some good advantages and fewer risks to you branching out and learning many other languages.

This post is an answer to a “question on how to learn multiple programming languages.
If you have a question, concern or challenge, click here to post it and I will answer it for you!

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Share/Bookmark]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/09/10/how-to-learn-many-programming-languages/feed/ 0 How to become a C++ computer programmer http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/14/how-to-become-a-c-computer-programmer/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/14/how-to-become-a-c-computer-programmer/#comments Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:49:55 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/14/how-to-become-a-c-computer-programmer/ I just got an email from one of my blog readers who wants to become a C++
programmer and works for a business that uses C++ to build web applications.
Here is an excerpt from the email (the name of the reader was removed to keep
the identity private).

… Still new to this but one of the guys from my group suggested C++
programing as a starting point. What do you think and whats the path to take
from the starting point to marketing myself as a programmer. I do various things
but just want to know how to ge myself out there to get at least 70,000. I have
some real lite help desk data center exp.

Okay, I have a question for you or anyone reading this right now. Do you
currently build web applications with C++? If you do, please drop me a line
telling me why you use C++ for building web applications instead of Java, C#,
VB.NET, PHP or Ruby.

Building Web Applications In C++

The answer to the question "can you build web applications with C++?" is
yes. However, my question to you is why the heck would you want to do that?
What special features, capabilities or requirements are you addressing with C++
that cannot be suitably addressed by C#, VB.NET, Java, Ruby or PHP? Read this
post I made on the suitability of C++ for building web applications

target="_blank" title="building software applications with C++">By Clicking
Here

How to Become A C++ Programmer

The answer to the question "can I become a C++ programmer?" is yes.
However, my question to this reader is why would you want to become a C++
programmer at this stage in the software development industry?

I understand that there are special reasons why you may want to become a C++
programmer. If you want to become a video game developer and develop computation
intensive rendering algorithms

target="_blank" title="Wikipedia on video game rendering algorithms">(click
here to read about rendering on Wikipedia) or develop device drivers

title="read about device drivers on Wikipedia">(click here to read about
device drivers on Wikipedia) or something of that nature, yes, you should
probably master the C/C++ languages. However, if you are really on that type
of career track, you should probably go to college and get a BSc, MSc and PhD in
Computer Science!

However, if you really want to make a career out of developing web applications
or software applications for businesses, C++ will NOT be your primary
programming language! If you are interested in learning more about this
topic, then read my informed advice about the suitability of C++ for building
software applications
target="_blank" title="how to build web applications in C++">by clicking
on this link to get more information

Should You Become A C++ Software Developer?

Hey, the primary language of choice for commercial web applications or software
applications is not C++. The software development industry has matured to the
point that other languages like C#, Java, VB.NET are better suited for building
enterprise, high-performing, scalable, reliable, maintainable web applications.
If you think C++ is a better candidate for building web applications, you may
be leaving in the past and it is time for you to wake up!

How To Become A Professional Software Developer By Following A Proven Path

If you want to become a professional software developer by following a proven
path or if you want to quit wasting your time by chasing rabbit trails,
get a copy of the book described here:
book/"
title="how to become a professional software developer">"how to become a
professional software developer".

If you get the recommended book, you can teach yourself programming or
you can let me help you become a professional programmer by following the proven
path described on this page: title="training to become a professional software developer">"training to
become a professional software developer"

Whether you title="teach yourself programming">teach yourself programming or
you title="software developer training">get software developer training,
make sure you use one of the two proven paths to become a professional computer
programmer.

About The Author

My name is Kingsley Tagbo and I’m a technical expert living in Saint Louis,
Missouri. I write about the training, coaching, mentoring
and personal development of software development professionals including
business analysts, computer programmers, testers, project managers, web
designers, data analysts, report writers, software developers and other
information technology professionals .

My firm, Exacticity, performs software development consulting and training for
clients throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New
Zealand. If you are in need of software development consultants or training,
title="contact the author">click here to get in touch with me.

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