HOW TO BECOME A COMPUTER PROGRAMMER » Search Results » article http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com THE COMPUTER PROGRAMMERS BOOK - THE STREET SMART GUIDE TO HIGH PAYING COMPUTER PROGRAMMER CAREERS Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:32:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 How To Become a Computer Programmer Without a College Degree http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/how-to-become-a-computer-programmer-without-a-college-degree/ http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/how-to-become-a-computer-programmer-without-a-college-degree/#comments Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:49:46 +0000 How To Become A Computer Programmer http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/?p=96 You can become a computer programmer by going to college to study computer science and beginning an entry level computer programming job after college.

However, if you cannot afford to spend years in college before you begin your programming career, you may also gain knowledge of computer programming from software developers or teach yourself computer programming using reasonably priced textbooks, training courses or software developer mentoring programs.

In this article I will show you how to become a computer programmer without having to invest a fortune in a college education.

What Type of Computer Programming Credentials Are Employers Looking For?

Getting your first computer programming job without a computer science college education is not as hard as you may think.

This is because when it comes to computer programming, employers put more emphasis on your ability to write good quality code than on your educational credentials.

Many professional computer programmers have taken advantage of this to forgo college and focus on developing their computer programming skills to the best of their ability.

What Are Software Development Managers or IT Employers Hiring For?

If you have prepared a programming resume, sent it over to software developer hiring managers and are now getting ready for your programming interviews, you may first ask yourself this question:

“What are prospective employers looking for in computer programmer resumes?“

Whether you taught yourself computer programming or learnt how to program in college or in a correspondence training course, employers are looking for superior software development skills more than anything else.

After you are hired as a computer programmer, employers also expect you to document and design software applications and write good quality code, regardless of how or where you learnt computer programming!

It Is Easy To Study Computer Programming or Get a Software Developer Job?

One of the best kept secrets of becoming a computer programmer is that you can learn computer programming at home and advance your skills to a competent level without first getting a programming job.

When I realized this more than 15 years ago … that I could just buy a computer, connect it to the internet and learn as much computer programming as I wanted without having to get a job first, I was so excited … that I went ahead and did just that!

Of course, I also realized that I still needed to invest in computer programming books, buy software development tools and invest in software developer training packages that would allow me to learn programming on my own.

However, I figured out that the total cost of my investments in computer programming training would pale in comparison to how much I would earn as a computer programmer or how much more time it would take me to study medicine or law in college.

So, I took my developer training and got a well-paying contract programming job within 6 months, an opportunity I knew I could not have had with any other high paying professional career.

How to Get a Computer Programming Job without a College Degree

What you need to emphasize when looking for a computer programming job is your software development knowledge, coding skills and any programming experience that is related to the job you are interviewing for.

If you don’t have a college degree emphasize the other skills you have acquired, like your ability to learn technology quickly or your ability to keep up with technology or solve real programming problems.

In other words, you have to prove to prospective employers or hiring managers that you can do the job well if given the chance.

Make sure that your prospective employer sees the list of software development projects you have completed by yourself, live web sites or software application programs you designed or coded as well as the list of current or future projects you are planning to work on.

Show your prospective employer that you have a beautiful mind and make the case that you are an asset to any one who hires you!

Where Does This Leave You?

This leaves you without an excuse for not taking action. I am granting you the opportunity to purse your interests, your aspirations and your personal desire to learn or master computer programming. I take pride in being an computer programmer mentor, software developer mentor or IT Consultant who has worked with people that have overcome all sorts of obstacles, personal situations or challenges to begin their computer programming career.

By coaching, mentoring and training individuals who want to transition to a software developer career or become an expert computer programmer, I’ve observed or learnt that success in computer programming boils down to how skilled you are at software development and how much experience you have in solving real-world computer problems. If you gain a lot of practical computer programming skills or real-world, hands-on programming experience then your software development career will go into overdrive.

If you want to improve your programming skills and take your career to the next level, I encourage you to read the book “The Computer Programmers Book – The Street Smart Guide to Computer Programmer Careers”.

It goes into detail on “how to learn software development in as short a time as 24 weeks.

It will shave years off your learning curve by showing you how to learn programming fast, how to prepare your resume so you get noticed by hiring managers, how to prepare and excel at programming job interviews so you get job offers more quickly and how to consistently gain the kind of programming experience that gets your career moving forward.

]]> http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/how-to-become-a-computer-programmer-without-a-college-degree/feed/ 3 HOW TO START A NEW CAREER AS A WEB DESIGNER http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/how-to-start-a-new-career-as-a-web-designer/ http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/how-to-start-a-new-career-as-a-web-designer/#comments Mon, 30 Jul 2007 03:02:58 +0000 How To Become A Computer Programmer http://leadership.findingsdirect.com/2007/07/29/how-to-start-a-new-career-as-a-web-designer/ HOW TO START A NEW CAREER AS A WEB DESIGNER

Designing the overall look of a website and balancing this look with the supposed function of the website is the responsibility of the website designer. It is the job of the web designer to create pages that make up the website, putting in the images and the text, incorporating features such as community chatting and forums, search engines, e-commerce applications, animations, applications that will allow visitors to interact with the website, and other such features and add-ins. While balancing the overall look and function of the website, the web designer is also supposed to make sure that the website will remain accessible to users regardless of the computer and browser they are using, as well as compatible with the technologies that support it. The performance of the website, whether it generates traffic and sales, depends on the quality of work the web designer put into it.

Typical Activities of the Web Designer

In order to accomplish a job, the web designer typically does the following tasks:

1. Take part in planning sessions with the website development team and the client to discuss the requirements for the website

2. Collect articles, images and other material for the website

3. Write up code that will generate the pages to be put up in the website

4. Test the performance of the website and participate in monitoring the said performance

5. Provide user support for the website

6. Update the website content on occasion

Industry Prospects for the Web Designer

In the nineties, during the dot.com boom, many people thought that the limits of the Internet have already been reached. But while the dot.com startups that had their heyday back then have mostly fizzed out, the Internet continues to grow by leaps and bounds. There are millions of websites on the Internet, and that figure is yet to grow a lot further. We are still on the tip of the iceberg that is the Internet; as long as the Internet continues to grow, there will always be work for the web designer.

The challenge for the web designer is to keep abreast of the development of technology surrounding the Internet, and to keep updating his or her knowledge on the different extensions that support HTML.

The average salary pegged for web designers in 2006 was $54,159, with average bonuses at $1,066.

The Necessary Skills

Web designers often have a background not in computer programming but in fine arts, graphic design and publishing. It is necessary for them to know how to work with software like Dreamweaver, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and other such software. How to work with Flash, XHTLM and XML programming and other such applications are also a must. Web designers also need to be familiar with working with different kinds of operating systems, i.e. Windows, Macintosh and Unix. The ability to work within a team, as well as good communication skills when interacting with clients and the team, are also skills that the web designer must cultivate.

Finding the Job

There is no lack of work for the web designer as more and more companies decide to put up their own presence on the Internet. Web designers can find job postings in classified ads on print media and on the Internet itself. Personal networking and job fairs work as well. If you are a budding web designer, one great way of advertising your work is by putting up a website that showcases your work.

]]> http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/how-to-start-a-new-career-as-a-web-designer/feed/ 0 Salary, Compensation And Bill Rate For Computer Programmers http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/salary-compensation-and-bill-rate-for-programmers/ http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/salary-compensation-and-bill-rate-for-programmers/#comments Sun, 15 Apr 2007 22:12:18 +0000 How To Become A Computer Programmer http://leadership.findingsdirect.com/2007/04/15/salary-compensation-and-bill-rate-for-programmers/ Contract computer programmer’s bill anywhere from $30/hr. to $65/hr. or more depending on the location of the programmer, the programmer’s skill level, the programmer’s experience, the size of the software project and employers demand for the computer programming skill in question.

  • Experience: The more experienced a programmer is in a specific programming language, the higher a salary or bill rate the programmer may command. Contract computer programmers are not paid based on their total programming experience but only on how recent ot cutting edge their programming experience is. So, a contract programmer with 20 years of experience in 5 different programming languages can earn less than a programmer with 5 years of experience in a hot, in-demand programming language.
  • Location: Some cities and countries pay more than other cities and countries. For example, programmers in the U.S. tend to be paid more than those in third world countries.
  • Market Demand for Programming Skills: Some programming languages command more money than others. For example, Visual Basic .NET programming skills commands more pay than Visual Basic (Classic VB) programming skills or Microsoft Access (MSAccess) programming skills.
  • Negotiation Skills: It is possible for two computer programmers with the same years of experience in a hot programming skill like C# to bill two widely different rates. For example, the more confident programmer may bill at $45/hr. while the less confident programmer bills at $35/hr.
  • Employers: The pay a programmer gets is set by the employer. For example, one employer could compensate programmers at $50/hr. while another employer wants to compensate programmers for the same skills at $30/hr. , difference of $40,000 in annual compensation.

In this tutorial I reviewed some of the reaons why computer programmers earn widely different salaries. In estimating what you want to earn as a computer programmer, use this article as a guide to come up with a fair and reasonable billing rate or salary for your programming services.

]]> http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/salary-compensation-and-bill-rate-for-programmers/feed/ 0 Best Jobs For High School Graduates http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/best-jobs-for-high-school-graduates/ http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/best-jobs-for-high-school-graduates/#comments Sat, 24 Mar 2007 22:12:34 +0000 How To Become A Computer Programmer http://leadership.findingsdirect.com/2007/03/24/best-jobs-for-high-school-graduates/ Which careers and jobs offer high school graduates without a college degree or job experience the best opportunities for professional advancement? And where can high school graduates with little or no job experience and college education earn significantly higher income?

The one thing that high paying careers have in common is skills that fetch top dollars in the marketplace. Simply stated, how much you earn as a high school graduate without a college degree is determined by the market value of your skills.

What do I know about low paying jobs you ask? I will tell you what I do know. Before I became a contract programmer in Oklahoma, I was working an $8/hr. sales job which I hated ever minute of. I had to clock-in to start my shift and then clock-out at the end. I even had to clock-in and clock-out to use the restroom. I was on the phone fielding calls every minute of the day. Repeating the same scripted conversation to every single caller in an attempt to make a buck! I couldn’t even play my iPod at work and there was literally no break in between phone calls. You can’t believe how agonizing my day was! Finally I couldn’t take it anymore and I quit. 6 months later, I was making $76,000/yr. as a contract programmer in the same city. So, don’t ask me what I know about low paying jobs. I have been there, done that and bagged a t-shirt okay!

As you can see from my story, all I had to do to earn a significantly higher income was to change from a career in inbound sales to a contract computer programmer career.  

You are not really a stranger to this fact of life are you? That your ability to comfortably pay your bills, take vacations, pay your home mortgage, buy new cars, provide medical benefits and take care of your family is pre-determined by the career you choose! Well, another fact of life is that high school graduates without a college degree do not have access to some high paying careers in the legal, medical, engineering and financial industry. In other words, a high school graduate may not be a medical doctor, lawyer, or engineer without a college degree.Many of the entry level jobs available to high school graduates do not command a high pay in the job market. For example, compare the average entry level starting salary for chemical engineers with a college degree ($54,813) to the average salary for high school graduate working as:

  • an in-bound sales representative in Saint Louis ($10/hr.)
  • a telemarketer in Tulsa ($8.50/hr.)
  • a gas station cashier in Madison, Wisconsin ($8.00)
  • a grocery store clerk in Chicago ($8.00/hr.- PayScale)

What does this tell you? That it is illogical, unreasonable and statistically weird to expect a high income from a career that typically pays low wages. It is like expecting apples to grow on orange trees. It rarely happens because if you really want to eat apples, you have to look on apple trees and if you want oranges you have to pick orange trees.

So to earn a better salary, escape the minimum wage trap or make more money, you need to be in a career that offers a higher income.

WHY HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES DO NOT BEGIN HIGH PAYING CAREERS.

  • Most high paying careers have stringent, required educational exams. There are requirements for examinations, certifications, and years of schooling in medicine and law
  • Preparing for high paying careers requires many years of college education. Years that may not be spent earning significant income)
  • Going to college to learn a high paying career can be expensive. Tuition costs can run into six figures and may require taking on hard to pay back school loans)
  • Not all high school graduates who can afford the high tuition costs for high paying careers will be offered an admission. Because of the pre-defined, limited number of credentialed and certified academic institutions, competition is usually very high among and only a minority of applicants will be accepted)
  • If you were not near or at the top of your class in high school, your chances of being accepted into college is limited by stiff competition from other high school students with better academic scores )

Enter computer programmer careers. The one hidden high paying career that still provides a steady dependable source of job wealth, high income and top pay for high school graduates. A hidden career thanks to the common myths lies and mis-conceptions spread about the computer programmer career)

WHY HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES BEGIN HIGH PAYING COMPUTER PROGRAMMER CAREERS

  • There are no stringent, required or mandatory exams that must be passed to practice computer programming. You don’t need to be registered, certified or degreed to begin programming
  • You don’t need a college degree for beginning programming. You don’t have to spend years learning programming in college without earning an income and you can start learning programming today and begin earning an income in as little as 3 to 8 months depends on how hard you work
  • You don’t have to pay for any expensive sort of education before beginning programming. Of course you have to invest in resources for learning programming, but at a small fraction of what you will have to spend to go to college and learn other high paying careers
  • You are not disqualified from becoming a computer programmer because of your past or present academic performance, and I mean absolutely not. Even if you only have a high school diploma or little or no college education you can become a programmer if you want to
  • And you can learn programming from any location, at your own pace and convenient time. There are no rules for learning, no set exams to take and additional classroom education is completely optional. You can begin your computer programmer career at home, in your spare time by just studying 1 to 2 hours a day or a few hours per week

Now, you understand that as a high school graduate, without a college degree, your choice of career locks-in how much you earn. And you understand that most high paying careers have difficult or hard entry requirements, certifications and courses except computer programming. Finally, you realize that there are no rules on how you can become a programmer because beginning programming is simply about beginning to write good quality software code.

Dear friend, away with the lies, mis-conceptions and myths that’ve stopped you from beginning a lucrative computer programmer career. A decade ago, I changed careers to computer programming and today I am hear to help you do the same. So, don’t hesitate, just act now. Take me up on the offer to begin a high paying computer programmer career today.

]]> http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/best-jobs-for-high-school-graduates/feed/ 0 How Easy Is It To Learn A Programming Language? http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/how-easy-is-it-to-learn-a-programming-language/ http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/how-easy-is-it-to-learn-a-programming-language/#comments Fri, 09 Mar 2007 15:38:50 +0000 How To Become A Computer Programmer http://leadership.findingsdirect.com/2007/03/09/how-easy-is-it-to-learn-a-programming-language/ How easy it is to learn a computer programming language like C/C++, C#, Visual Basic, Java, Python, Cobol or Fortran depends on a number of factors:

  1. Difficulty: Some programming languages are more difficult than others. Arguably, C/C++ is more difficult than Java and Java more difficult than Visual Basic to master.
  2. Visual Programming Tools: The ease with which you learn a programming language is also tied to the quality of Visual Programming Environments available for the language. For example C#, Visual Basic and Microsoft Access have visual programming environments that enable and fosters rapid learning compared to other languages.
  3. Books and Resources: The more the number of published books, articles, blogs, forums, sample projects, etc. on a programming language, they easier is the learning curve for that language because many or of the questions you will be asking as you learn the language will have been answered in a book or some website.
  4. The cost of programming: Some languages have freely available starter kits, free or low cost development environments and free or low cost compilers. Since their tools are more affordable, it is cheaper and easier to program for them.

In this article, I examined the ease of learning programming languages and discussed the factors that affect how easily you will master any given programming language.

There are more factors that influence your choice of a language. More factors that influence how rapidly you will learn any programming language. To learn more about programming languages and how to master them, go here.

]]> http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/how-easy-is-it-to-learn-a-programming-language/feed/ 0 Beginning Programming Made Easy http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/beginning-programming-made-easy/ http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/beginning-programming-made-easy/#comments Tue, 26 Dec 2006 11:59:04 +0000 How To Become A Computer Programmer http://leadership.findingsdirect.com/2006/12/26/beginning-programming-made-easy/ It’s come to the end of the year and I’m making it easy for other people to begin their career in computer programming. Because for a while, good quality information on “how to begin a career in programming” has been hard to come buy.

However, i’ve started a new program for bloggers and website owners who are interested in helping people transition to a career in computer programming. Read the rest of this article to get more information.

You can make more money by helping others begin their programming career, learn a programming language, find a well paying programming job or become highly skilled.

Begin by joining my affiliate program and in a minute you will be earning a fat 50% commission on your e-book sales.
Here’s how to join my affiliate program

  1. Register with Clickbank  (an independent retailer of digital products) at http://www.Clickbank.com.
  2. Go to this URL and enter your Clickbank ID: http://www.clickbank.com/info/jmap.htm?vendor=kdkeys
  3. Leave the tracking field blank if you don’t know what to put there.  Clickbank will give you the URL to promote for a 50% commission on each e-Book sale. It will look something like this:

    CLICKBANKID.KDKEYS.hop.clickbank.net”
         target=_top>CLICK HERE      

    4. .KDKEYS.hop.clickbank.net”      target=_top>  

  4. Replace CLICKBANKID with the Clickbank ID giving to you by Clickbank
  5. Replace CLICK HERE with “read this ” or “buy this book” or any promotional text/image you prefer.
  6. You are done. Clickbank will pay you a 50% commission on every e-Book sale.
  7. To learn more about my e-Book please CLICK HERE.
  8. Finally, join my affiliate group for more resources, tools, articles and information on how to market yourself successfully on the internet. To join, please send an email to career-coaches@aweber.com

How to make more money on the internet

  1. Post the URL in forums (be sure to read the rules and understand the culture of the forum… do not SPAM!).  
  2. Post the URL on your blog along with your testimonial or recommendation.
  3. Post the URL to your opt-in email lists.
  4. Post the URL on websites… as long as you don’t SPAM and you follow the rules of the websites you are posting on.
  5. Contact someone you know who has a forum, a blog or an email-list and promote the URL to their readers.

Remember, you will make a fat 50% commission on every e-Book sale that comes through a link you posted with your affiliate or clickbank id.

]]> http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/beginning-programming-made-easy/feed/ 0 How Not To Choose A Computer Programming Language http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/how-not-to-choose-a-computer-programming-language/ http://www.becomeacomputerprogrammer.com/how-not-to-choose-a-computer-programming-language/#comments Sun, 29 Oct 2006 10:31:12 +0000 How To Become A Computer Programmer http://leadership.findingsdirect.com/2006/10/29/how-not-to-choose-a-computer-programming-language/ What computer programming language should I learn?, is a question I receive frequently on my computer programming career coaching blog at http://www.it-career-coach.com/

Sometimes, I am asked to choose from one of these programming languages: Java, C#, Visual Basic.NET, C/C++, Python, Ruby, Perl or JavaScript.

As important as this question may be, readers of my book on “how to become a computer programmer“, know that my style to answering questions is to go in-depth.

There are several reasons why you may choose one programming language over the other. I will briefly discuss three of those and you can read up the other reasons later:

  1. Your Goals: What goals are you trying to achieve? Do you want to be a corporate highly paid programmer, a games programmer or do you want to work more closely for your business?
  2. Your Education: What is your educational background? Do you have a degree in computer science or perhaps only a high school diploma?
  3. Your Agenda: Do you have a compelling reason for wanting to learn a specific programming language over another? Perhaps you want to learn C/C++ because your high school buddy said that is the only language real programmers use or you want to learn Java because you read on the internet that everyone should learn it?

I listed three reasons why you may want to work with one programming language over the other. The point I want to make is that there are excellent reasons and wrong reasons for choosing a programming language. In the “Street Smart Guide to High Paying Computer Programming Careers“, I discussed in detail some of the better ways to choose a computer programming language and gave specific recommendations as to which programming languages you should learn based on your goals.

If you want to learn a computer programming language, get a copy of the e-Book and follow my recommendations or adapt them to your particular situation.

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