papatree84 Posted May 17, 2014 Posted May 17, 2014 I have been thinking about dropping out of University and going to take some web development classes in order to break into the career. I am a history major right now and I just don't see much value in continuing my debt for a liberal arts degree. Does any one have an advice who works in the field? Good decision? Seems to me that the field is only growing. Please, any thoughts are helpful.
Fast and steady Posted May 18, 2014 Posted May 18, 2014 I dropped out of college and have been pretty successful. I haven't started my own software business or anything, but I don't seem to have much trouble getting jobs and I'm considered pretty top-notch by my employer. I can hold my own fairly well even though most everyone I work with has a degree. I will say, however, that I've been programming since I was 6 (learned a bit of 6502 assembler when I was 8) and I am (was?) apparently (according to my high school math teachers) really good at solving word problems, which is what prompted several of them to suggest software engineering to me as a profession I should consider (although that's not what I started to go to college for). You don't say how confidant you feel in the math and sciences, nor do you mention any experience writing software, so I don't know how viable it is for you to go into the field. Maybe it's a good idea for you, maybe it's not. I will say that I have worked with graphics artists who have been able to teach themselves programming and are pretty decent at it (not as good as me, but then again, they haven't spent nearly as much time as I have at it). I've also known people who majored in journalism who have, for whatever reason, ended up in software development and been pretty decent at it. How much do you know about web development? Have you ever designed/written web pages before? How sophisticated have they been? I don't do web development myself, so I'm not 100% sure where I should point you, but I think the technologies de jour for the web development right now are jQuery and ruby (on rails?). You might want to checkout open source projects on places like https://github.com and study the code for projects you find interesting and, I would suggest, trying to contribute to a few of them in order to learn. Contributing to open source projects is a really great way to get into the field regardless because it can also open doors for you as far as getting a job. Perhaps someone else working on a project you contribute to will like your work and want to hire you. Employers have also been known to try and recruit developers based on seeing their work on open source projects. It's a great way to learn at the very least. Taking web development courses at a university can also be a good idea. I might suggest taking some summer classes at a community college (do you have community colleges near you? They are usually *way* cheaper than other universities). Community colleges are vastly underrated, imho. You can learn the basics there and, if you discover that you are passionate about the subject matter, can learn the rest on your own and save yourself a ton of money. BTW, I'm not sure the web development market is growing... but I can sure as heck tell you that the mobile development market *is*. And that's where I am (I was doing desktop software development before).
NumberSix Posted May 18, 2014 Posted May 18, 2014 I was a front end developer and am now studying for a masters in IT. Right now the web development world is in a bubble. There is a ton of venture capital (VC) money funding every hair brained idea for a start up. Historically the programming industry has been subject to many booms and busts. That being said, I feel talented programmers can always find work. High intelligence is required to be a good developer, but if you’re here you are probably pretty sharp. There is an incredible amount of things you need to learn, and you will need to always keep up with new tech. The field is also very demanding in terms of working hours, and you will spend the whole day actually doing work, not like other fields.Go to Lynda.com, for $30 a month you can watch video lessons on 100s of programming, design and related classes. There are a few other similar sites. Start with Web Design Fundamentals http://www.lynda.com/Web-Web-Design-tutorials/Web-Design-Fundamentals/150166-2.htmlThe only thing you can do with a history degree is teach, so whatever you do drop that lame BS.
papatree84 Posted May 20, 2014 Author Posted May 20, 2014 @Ragnar I have nearly no experience in the field. Recently i have been on codeacademy.com teaching my self the basics of HTML and starting to get in to CSS and its a lot of fun. Its like language to me and also a word game type puzzle which really sparks my interest. I am comfortable in the sciences of chemistry and biology but i really struggle with anything related to math. Math is very hard for me. I guess my main question is if it is better for a career in the long run to switch majors at my university and get a bachelors in computer science or get certified at my local community college in web development.
tasmlab Posted May 20, 2014 Posted May 20, 2014 I have been thinking about dropping out of University and going to take some web development classes in order to break into the career. I am a history major right now and I just don't see much value in continuing my debt for a liberal arts degree. Does any one have an advice who works in the field? Good decision? Seems to me that the field is only growing. Please, any thoughts are helpful. As someone close to the industry, I'd expand the idea of web development to include mobile apps. Every thing today is pushing out interfaces into multiple channels and formats (computer, tablet, mobile). Even as a consumer, you can probably sense this.
Fast and steady Posted May 22, 2014 Posted May 22, 2014 @papatree84 you'll want to learn more than just HTML. At the very least, look into learning some javascript and if you feel comfortable with that, then you'll probably be ok switching majors. How much math you need to know depends on the type of programming you end up doing, but it's still good to have a pretty good foundation in math no matter what. Web developers are likely going to need to learn at least some Linear Algebra for 2D graphics programming as future websites are more likely to be come fancier and fancier (and thus becoming more and more demanding mathematically), having images and other things animate into view and such. I'm sure you've noticed that websites are getting more and more complex, so I probably don't need to point it out. I suspect you've already had algebra, geometry, and trigonometry in high school (which are all important), so for mathematics that I'd recommend for you as a minimum would be Linear Algebra (matrix math, etc) and Discrete Mathematics. You can probably find decent online material for both, so whether you take courses in them at your university or if you do them in your own time depends on your own personal preferences, but they are both likely to be important for you to be successful. Good luck.
In the belly of the beast Posted July 9, 2014 Posted July 9, 2014 I have been thinking about dropping out of University and going to take some web development classes in order to break into the career. I am a history major right now and I just don't see much value in continuing my debt for a liberal arts degree. Does any one have an advice who works in the field? Good decision? Seems to me that the field is only growing. Please, any thoughts are helpful. Have you looked into enrolling in a web developer bootcamp? I'm actually taking one right now, and could answer a few questions based on my own experience so far.
Bel Rick Posted July 14, 2014 Posted July 14, 2014 As a self-employed web-developer in New Zealand, I would say that web development has changed drastically in recent years and you should be wary entering into this field.The vast majority are no longer programmers, oh they may act or pretend that they are but the truth is, the vast majority of web companies these days hire machine operators not coders.Instead of knowing coding in HTML , PHP or .net.What they are far more often after is, people who can use CMS and frameworks with actual coding requirements reduced as much as possible. Literally just cut n paste.Web development for dummies and therefor low skill, low pay staff.(win win for the companies)A job that claims to require a web developer but mentions silverstripe or wordpress or zend or symphony or codeigniter (you can see the other part of the problem since there are so many types of 'machinery' that 'web developers' need to be able to operate) or CMS is not being fully honest with potential job takers.Standard practice now is for established companies to meet with their customers with a senior level manager who promises the customer the world, with a contract that charges $150 per hour signed, the senior manager passes the actual job to a college graduate on $25 an hour to create a website out of templates using Free Ware CMS tools with a minimum of custom artwork/graphics.
chrispy Posted July 16, 2014 Posted July 16, 2014 I'm a Front-end developer and designer and have doing it for since I was 13. The demand for web designers/developers is really high and I honestly can't see it slowing down any time soon. Here are some recourses if you want to start learning online: Treehouse Code School Lynda All three of these are paid and can get a bit pricey. But they are really high quality and they teach you what you really need to know. Hope it helps!
Matisyra Posted July 17, 2014 Posted July 17, 2014 I'm a software architect, and my undergrad degree is in English. If you are in the US, I would caution to finish getting your degree because a lot of your employers will care that you have some degree, just won't care what in. The advantage of having a non CS degree is that you can write actually coherent documentation and often may be a bit more practiced in giving presentations. For me, having the non CS background has actually helped me advance beyond just being a coder, since I would always be the one sent to talk to the business users and owners. Definitely go to a code bootcamp, but also just start building stuff. Get a hosted site somewhere and start doing things. Employers will care more about what you can actually build than they will about your degree. Also, while you are learning the front end stuff, learning the backend stuff of database structures, data analytics and mining can be a very, very, very good idea right now.
tasmlab Posted July 24, 2014 Posted July 24, 2014 Definitely go to a code bootcamp, but also just start building stuff. Get a hosted site somewhere and start doing things. Employers will care more about what you can actually build than they will about your degree. A good friend of mine is Chief Product Officer at a big web development company and hires hundreds of developers. His #1 requirement is that the candidate have and actively does 'build stuff', more so than certifications or degrees or past job titles. He wants to see working software that you've built.
jaybutts Posted July 27, 2014 Posted July 27, 2014 seeing as you're question seems to be actually "should I switch degrees". I don't think so, College degree is not related to being a good programmer and will not make you a better one and its highly unlikely to even increase you're chance of landing let alone keeping a programming job. People in this field don't care about degree, they only care that you can do the work.
ebznflows Posted July 28, 2014 Posted July 28, 2014 I majored in Computer Science for undergrad, and I think there was actual value in pursuing that major in college rather than just learning on my own. Granted, most things I have learned on my own, like the syntax of the language I'm using, but I'm not sure I would have known about or picked up algorithm efficiencies or design patterns on my own, at least at that level of detail. Also being forced to learn assembly and C, even though I don't use those professionally, deepened my understanding of how the technology actually works and it has made me a better programmer.
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