From System Administrator to Developer?

ma11achy asks: "Recently, I have been looking at making a career change from Unix Systems Administrator to programming/software development. I have a CS degree recently obtained through distance education and have been working in the field of Unix Systems Admin for roughly seven years now (in my early thirties). I have reasonable knowledge of C, good knowledge of Perl and excellent knowledge of shell scripting. Is, is there anyone out there that has made the change and could they provide any insights into what it was like for them? Am I just barking up the wrong source tree?"

Comments

Prove Yourself

[Markus Registrada]

Join a Free Software project. Participate in bug fixing, at first, and then cleanup, and then implementing new features. After you develop some confidence and design judgment, implement something substantial by yourself. Then, do whatever it takes (meaning, really listen to more experienced people) to get it accepted, and maintain it and refine it according to qualified criticism and user whims.

(Don't go start a new project. That's the last thing the world needs, another abortive project run by a newbie.)

If programming turns out to be not your thing, you'll find out soon enough, and before you've got yourself mired in. One thing: as a Perl expert, you've most likely picked up habits that would make you an awful programmer. You will have to work hard to unlearn those.

When you go looking for professional programming work, you can point to your substantial contributions, and they will speak for you. Choose your project wisely.