Employment advice, Programming

paulr23

Hi all,
I recently got made redundant around October time and I've just landed a new position albeit temporary, I am earning around £18ph so about £32k a year so its an ok salary depending where you are from, but I live in London so it isn't the best to live on. And plus I am looking to get a mortgage which I assume probably is not possible while working on a temporary contract with no end date.

I am working with Data Analytics, I work with SQL, VBA and I have dabbled in R, I just want to get some advice on what type of programming language to learn and how you have learnt this. I want to invest a lot of time into a new programming language which will help me secure a better/permanent job. I am looking into javascript or python, but looking for ideas. I have tried to learn R but it seems a very hard language to get a hold of, although I have only really had minimal exposure to it (<4weeks). I know this purely depends on what sector you want to get into but I am open to anything, I assume python will be better for data analytics and Javascript will be better for web development etc.

If anyone has any experience with a scenario like this and have landed a decent job from it then I am all ears  

Thanks

Dakta

No direct experience but I did buy a book or two on python because everyone seems to use it to glue stuff together yet nobody really seems to be an expert fixing it when it breaks xD

I eventually went off the idea because its not really native, coming from a hobbyist C dabbling background the syntax and logic is...weird, and whilst you can do almost everything (with libraries) it doesn't really vary that much from the status quo where you can also do almost everything (with libraries).

It does get a lot of raving about it though. niche market maybe?

Gavin83

R and Python are designed for people without a programming background but with a strong maths background. It's a data analytics language rather than a traditional programming language. You need to have a think about what you want. If you want to go down a data science route then I'd suggest carrying on with R and also add Python onto the list. If you'd rather be a more traditional developer then there's a huge list of languages to choose from but you certainly wouldn't go wrong with something C based.

I'm certainly not a developer (I'm a DBA) but I'm toying with learning C# soon. It's probably not a bad place to start for someone wanting to get into development.

vixx_123

I work in Data Analytics with a lot of experience in R for advanced stats (less of the programming side). I would say Python is the big industry one for Data Science. I'm learning it as a hobby, rather than for my current job 🤷‍♀️.

Sandtree

It all depends on what you want to achieve and if you are aiming at being a programmer or a data scientist or something else.

Your skills as a data analyst with SQL would more naturally push you either down the data server or data science routes depending on if you prefer the tech or the maths side of the role. You could transition to a developer, and your SQL skills will help, but its less of a natural movement. Assuming you are thinking corporate rather than web most will look at C or Java but Python may be an idea as its a more rounded language than R but still has a lot of use in machine learning, stats, ai etc

You could also look on JobServe etc on what employers are actually looking for at the moment.

JReacher1

Java would be your best bet. 

robatwork

This may help - includes salary as well as lots of other things from a pretty reliable source

https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019

coffeehound

Isn't there meant to be a dearth of COBOL programmers for business systems now?

robatwork

coffeehound said:

Isn't there meant to be a dearth of COBOL programmers for business systems now?

That is true, and a frightening number of systems still run on Cobol. It's keeping plenty of older programmers in work, most are in their 50s and 60s now. Wouldn't necessarily advocate learning it though, unless you knew of a particular job reservation or to carry on the family business. Most systems are getting phased out in the next 10 years.