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Comment by new4thaccount | Hacker News Reader

Do you already know how to program? If so, what languages and how proficient. It sounds like you've been thinking about this for awhile, but don't rush into anything.

There are some edx online courses for free and plenty of programming books to get you a little experience to see if you even like it. Bootcamps might be able to get you a job and they actually focus on more of the practical building of software, but a computer science degree still looks better to many employers from what I've heard. Having an advanced degree already might help fill that void though. If you haven't programmed before, you may not actually like it. I'd recommend doing some small to medium sized projects first to also get a feel for it.

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> If you haven't programmed before, you may not actually like it.

And even if you like it and find it fascinating, programming for your own pleasure is a very different experience than programming 8+ hours a day with a team of people trying to meet an impossible deadline under pressure from management. After years or decades doing it, the excitement starts to wear off.

Also, the culture and work conditions vary a lot between employers. E.g., open office vs. enclosed workspaces; work-life balance vs. spending all your waking hours at the office or partying with your co-workers; contempt for "old" people or people with differing political views vs. a diverse group of people who can get along with each other; etc.

Before investing a lot of time and money into this, you may want to spend some time talking to people who've spent years doing it for a living.

Also do some fun projects that are related to what you know (teeth) or another hobby. Often online tutorials have coding assignments that are in in no way interesting or relevant.

Thanks a lot for all the tips! I only know a little bit of JavaScript, not nearly enough to get an entry-level job though. I've been thinking about getting a degree in CS.

JavaScript is useful and pretty much the language to learn for web programming (frontend development) if that is your cup of tea (php is another option).

If you're writing business applications, you'll want to know something like Java (although they both have Java in the name they are completely different languages), C#, or maybe Python depending on what you're targeting. At some point you'll be dealing with databases and will have to learn SQL. A lot of business programming is what they call "full-stack" in that there is a web portion (often in JavaScript), a server portion (often in Java although there are many options here) which represents the "back-end" and a database which stores the data.

Doing embedded development on microcontrollers? C or C++ are both good.

Data Analysis? R, Python, or Julia and SQL will be a lifesaver.

Scientific programming? Python, Julia, Matlab/Octave/Scilab, Fortran, and C++ are all helpful.

In short, there is a lot of tools, languages, and frameworks out there. Don't let that freak you out though. You'll learn as you go by starting in one area and probably picking up pieces of other areas as you go.

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