Career Change - Recommended Approaches For Getting into Development

[ginjaninja 537]

What advice do developers have to getting into software development as a career (with no previous development training).

University undergraduate? post graduate?  Online Courses? something else?

Presumably I both need to learn the skills and prove to an employer that my learning experience equips me with those skills for a 1st job.

 

What foundation and specialist skills are recommended for employment?

 

How do different areas of development compare eg. AI, Business Apps, Games? Other areas recommended to consider/avoid?

 

thanks for any advice...

 

[spootdev 56]

Do you have any programming experience outside of classes?  If no, I'd suggest going through some tutorials of Python as it's an easy language to learn and you'll see if it's even sumthing you really want to pursue.

[Luke 37125]

You need a foundation before you worry about learning any particular language such as python. I would start by reading this book:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Data-Structures-Algorithms-Java-Edition/dp/0672324539/ref=pd_sim_b_8?ie=UTF8&refRID=1RH1NX9PBEQDJYQCA60C

 

It is very commonly used in universities and even professionals sometimes go back and buy it in preparation for interviews. It will teach you skills that can be applied to any programming language.

[ginjaninja 537]

Thanks for the book recommendation, i have done an online course in python..

 

neither of you are suggesting so far... learning via an academic institution i note. I learn quickest if i have  a tutor/mentor...to get me over that initial inertia..