New to Forum, New to IT - Looking for some help!!!

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Hello there!

Well, where do I start? I am 29yr old female, living and working in Warrington. Currently I work as the manager of an Accounts department, but I will be moving into the IT dept soon. I will be liaising with the programmers, updating the users as and when changes are made to the systems.

My goal is to become a programmer myself; a couple of years ago I worked with a programmer to develop a new accounting system (I told him what we wanted, he did it) I was really fascinated by programming and how just adding a line of code could change what appeared on screen. Whilst working with him, I picked up a few bits and bobs, nothing very technical, but just enough to be able to get the gist of what was happening on screen.

Anyway all that was a couple of years ago, and although I have probably forgotten most of it, I am still very interested in starting a course to enable me to train towards becoming a programmer.

I will still need to work full time, so I cannot do a full time course, Ideally I would like to do a night school or a weekend course, but I have searched around and there doesn't seem to be anything relevant locally. So I am now thinking of doing a course with the likes of NITLC OR COMPUTEACH, but I am a little bit wary as from what I have picked up online, it seems these are pretty pricey and I am not sure if they will be right for me, or whether they will be too advanced.

Does anyone have an general advice on the routes they took? I feel such a novice and I would really appreciate some words of encouragement.

Thanks for taking time to read this

Take Care

xx

 

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Welcome to the CF with regards to your interest in programming which programming language are you interested in? I knew a friend of mine a while back did the Java certified programming cert and failed on two attempts but passing on the third.

He is now a pragrammer and consultant for a large conglomerate. Please bear in mind he was working in IT as server, network and database admin at the time with a first class degree in computer science.

To be honest I'd get a book on the programming language your interested in first and not look to use the likes on Computeach etc.

Lastly, experience speaks louder in the IT arena than anything else, best wishes and remember with hard work and dedication it can be done

 

Thanks so much for that, Im not really sure which language, I know that one of the programmers at work wrote in Visual Basic ( I think - i hope that is a language) I'll do a bit of research and see what looks best.

That is a good idea about a book, I suppose getting to grips with the basics would be really beneficial before forking out for a course.

Thanks again

 

Welcome to CF!

I hope your career goes well for you!

Live long and prosper.

 

Hi & welcome to CF

NB

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome to CF Danielley

I agree with getting yourself a good book first. A career in programing isn't something that generally needs certifications. What you need to work towards is a portfolio of your work, showing what you can actually do.

Now you first need to do some groundwork to find out which language you should start focusing on. I'm not sure what is the current flavour of the month but i'm sure someone will be along soon and be able to guide you on this.

 

Hi Welcome

Good advice already given, I would look into a course like a HND or BSc as mentioned above I would avoid computeach and other training providers if I were you.

 

Hello and Welcome Danielley !

Programming is not always that easy to grasp with no real foundation in IT, I think you are right to consider a course. I took a HND fulltime in order to get into programming and it worked well for me. You can do a HNC/HND part time also at many tech colleges / new universites around the country, they often teach the basics better than some red brick universities.

There are many excellent training materials available now including, CBT's, training books and of course the internet ! So self teaching is possible if you can get over the initial steep learning curve.

The OU is also an option, however I must admit their offerings seem a little expensive and the modular course structure is a little difficult to comprehend.

Professional training providers are generally in it for profit, you may find the training and support not up to what you expected. If there are any local colleges or universities at all I reccomend contacting them first to see what they can offer.

Traditional VB 6 is being phased out rapidly as a legacy language in favour of VB .Net. As a total beginner theres no real need to learn VB .Net over C# in my mind, the learning curve will be about the same as they are very similar. I would therefore reccomend C# if you want to be a professional programmer and follow that general route. Please note these types of high level languages are used for business apps and web sites, you will not find many shrink wrapped products written in these languages.

I've been a programing for quite some time, feel free to PM me with any questions.

dave

 

Welcome to the forums - there are some code-genius' on here so you're in the right place to get help.

And it's great to see someone's desire to transfer into IT that isn't aimed at super-high positions and doesn't mention salary expections.

As for advice, what they've already said. I'm tempted to attempt doing some programming and I'd probably get a good book, pick a language like python (look for tripwire - he's learning this currently) or maybe .net, c# but that may be too high for a beginner.

 

Hi and welcome to CF!

Learning the first programming language is the hardest. Tacking on other languages gets easier after that!

Harry.

 

Welcome to the forums...
Good luck with the new career.

 

Hi and welcome to the forum.

 

Personally i dabbled with a bit of programming in my teenage years, i found that choosing a simple yet professional language then moving onto high languages worked well for me, Personally i started with web based programmming language PERL, i found and Exelent free tutorial after a long time searching. then i moved onto C to go into creating programs, sadly, other studies got in the way and i never did much with C apart from the basics.

 

Hello Danny! Welcome to the site. Glad to see another woman heading into IT! I can't help you with any great info, because I'm starting in web design myself. HTML and CSS. And everyone just keeps insisting these are not programming language. I would find out what exactly what your company is doing and go from there. Just in case it is VB here is a link from MS that might help you some till you find a book you like.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2x7h1hfk.aspx

Again, welcome to CF and look forward to getting to know ya.

 

Hi there and welcome

 

So are all the guys. hah!!!

 

Welcome to CF!