What path should i take? IT Practitioners

Blacksheep1979

Sorry but to be a decent programmer in a technical field you do need maths skills as everything you do is based round group/set theory, combine that with working in binary and hex (ok fairly basic) and work in a bit of multi threading

TechTerry

Hey all, picked up a leaflet, it says that programming covers:

Program Design Methods, Computer programming concepts and practice, web site development and management, Virual Basic, C, C++, Internet programming with HTML, XML and Javascript

Networking says:
Network theory and practice, analysis and design 0f networks, network design and administration, the internet and the world wide web.

In other news, got my new HDD today and back up and running on my main machine

EDIT: Also been offered a job for £230 a week at dads work

someone

merlinormartin wrote: »

Hi techterry

I completed a BTEC National Certificate in Computing then spend a year "upgrading" to a Diploma. I found the course covered all the basics "system specifications" "life-cycle models" "design" etc. During the BTEC we covered Pascal and VB; I felt the "programming" modules should have gone into more depth and covered the basics of other languages like Java C++ that are used at university level.

Good Luck with your course, if you have any specific questions feel free to ask

This is what I felt, was a very ad-hoc approach to programing. It was still more hobbyist "look what i can do" rather than actual real world stuff. Pascal and VB is what I covered too.

Lack of a programing book probably harmed the teaching too. Uni programing is based on a book, that take you over each bit stage by stage, but VB was demonstrated in the first 5 weeks and then we just had to do tasks for the rest (work it out yourself).

Also pascal maxes out your cpu waiting for key inputs (just a random thing to bring up).

Lokolo

Ok well for A Level Computing I did Quick Basic. One of the early programming languages. Now I know Java, C from Uni and HTML with PHP and MySQL from just boredom. Sep I am going to learn more C, C# and C++.

You do need maths skills. We are doing matrices at the moment and if you don't have any maths skill you will struggle when learning these (although I am sure you may not learn these).

The networking one doesn't seem to have specifics and maybe a bit basic (i.e. it says types of networks - does it mean like bus/ring/star or what?), does it go into IP Addreassing as this will need to be covered if you want to be a network admin?

The programming one does go into a bit more detail but I find it a little hard to believe you will be learning C, C++ as well as the others in 2 years (I assume thats how long the college course is?) and so if you do, it wil be very very basic.

merlinormartin

This is what I felt, was a very ad-hoc approach to programing. It was still more hobbyist "look what i can do"

I totally agree! lol ... i remember spending many hours "drawing pictures" using pascal! if i could rewind time i would have studied java or c along side the college course :rolleyes:

TechTerry i think you need to think about the "job prospects" of each IT area,,, do you live in the north or south? is there "networking" companies in your area? Is there any software houses comutable from your location? does your local university offer software/networking courses? are you willing to relocate? etc. When my partner and i finished uni my partner was offered a "software" position within a "global defence company" so we relocated over 200 miles from friends and family
From what i can remember the college should allow you transfer onto a different pathway if you realise you made the wrong choice

I have just had a "brain wave" lol (unusual for me) alot of the larage companies have school leaver/apprenticeship schemes; the scheme normally offers day realease to college, a small wage and funding for university! below are 3 schemes one with BAE, BT and Aerosystems Int.
http://www.baesystems.com/Careers/CareersinYourCountry/UK/StudentsandSchoolLeavers/index.htm
http://www.aeroint.com/aboutus/trainee.html
http://www.btplc.com/Careercentre/CareerStart-Apprentices/index.htm

TechTerry

Thanks all, and merlinormartin i live in the south east.

[Deleted User]

Ok, the south east.. well, that's tonnes of opportunities if you can get into london. My firm is based in London. We typically only hire graduates (or people with direct experience with NHS IT). Salaries are ok (mid 20s) for graduates with no experience.

We want people that are articulate, flexible, computer literate and with a background in databases (query writing in MySQL is a good start)

Frankly, i'd say get a degree, or you'll be kicking yourself when you're 30 and getting turned down for roles. Do it in Computing and business.. computer science may box you in a bit too much if you've not got strong programming abilities.

lillyofthevalley

TechTerry wrote: »

Hey all,
Im 16 and starting college in september i was just wondering if anyone had any experiences doing a IT Practitioners, i know their are 3 different paths to take, general, networking and programming.

Can anyone share their experiences with any of them?

...

Programming & Software design-- they pay very well only if you really, really like it (I don't!), because you will stay at job as a programmer for a long time.
Networking -- it is more difficult to find work in Networking and you'll have to contract, hence travel, to find well paid Networking jobs. Networking jobs tend to come as 2nd-3rd line support.
I liked Networking because it was very varied, often with a chance of working with the hardware, ie connecting the actual machines with cables and patching them. It was physically hard at times and is not something I could do now, but you could.
General - it's ok if you are going to work as 1st line Helpdesk Support. You can always move on to 2nd line Support and above once you'll find a good company who will train you and pay for further certificates, ie. MS Network Administrator, CISCO etc These certificates are very costly.

You are very young and whichever route you're going to take, I'm sure that you will find a company that will provide you with further training, but you need to be prepared to move around companies and travel.

moneymass

TechTerry wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies.

I have programed a bit, bit of HTML, CSS, Very basic PHP, and played around in visual basic.
.....
Im just not sure if i should go into networking or programming, i think i would enjoy both.

I don't want to sound patronising but I would say that make sure you do some more programming before you decide on a software engineering route or whatever.

HTML, CSS wouldn't really be classed as 'programming' as such. It would be avisable to sit down at the PC and learn a couple of different languages to get the feel of it.

A list I'd recommend - C, Python or Perl, C++ or Java, Prolog. Which covers 3 different programming paradigms. You don't need to learn them all inside out but you'll learn how things can be done differently.

If you really want to you can try programming on different platforms (read: GNU/Linux) which will give you some exposure to some popular dev tools. And try coding outwith an IDE with just a shell, text file and a command prompt de-bugg-er as you'll see abit more of how stuff actually works.

Hope this helps (takes off geek hat)

Edit

Also, if you're serious about the the programming/CS career I also would recommend you stick in with Maths

Amalea

Personally if you are looking at programming I'd say there are two paths, the more open source which is Java and C++, or Microsoft .NET (C#, VB.NET, Java.NET). I have just finished my uni course, and am part way through my first week as a Junior Developer working with the .NET paths.
One other are you MUST study/look at for the programming is databases, MySQL open source, or SQL Server for Microsoft. (Disclaimer, this is by no means all the programming languages or databases available, just the ones I've come across most frequently).

My uni degree was Business Computing - Internet Systems, but I could choose some of the modules and I focused on programming where possible. If you do go to uni another big piece of advice, make sure you take a course that has the option of a placement year, without the experience you will really struggle to get started when you graduate no matter what grade you get.