I'm 21 years old, got my degree a year ago, and have been doing things in the field as a professional for the last year and a half. Like most my age, I have been around computers the better part of my life.
The worry with programming is the current influx of "programmers" who think that they are programmers. At my place of business, potential coders are given a short but sweet quiz to test their raw knowledge at the interview. I remember the first question I was asked about C "What does a #include do?". While most of you will laugh at the simplicity of that (I had to try very hard to keep a straight face), there are scores upon scores of college graduates who put C or C++ or Java on their resume that don't even know the answer to that question. I pride myself in the knowledge I have of my field, and feel I can match skills to anyone my age (within reason, never written in machine code, but I know some who have).
What it comes down to is that programming and software engineering used to be a profession that people joined with good intentions and pride. If you were able to carry the title "Senior Software Engineer", your peers know that you earned it and you have incredible skill and ability. Now with the market flooded with people who would rather call tech support to figure out the syntax on a for loop than look in the book on their shelf, the prestige of being a software engineer has been dumbed down. I have had to demonstrate to people who were college grads in computer science and computer engineering how to install a PCI card. I just feel that there is something wrong with that.
And to all those who have been in the field for 20+ years, I know you can probably put me in the same catagory that I just described. Hopefully I can become a guru with time.
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I'm 21 years old, got my degree a year ago, and have been doing things in the field as a professional for the last year and a half. Like most my age, I have been around computers the better part of my life. The worry with programming is the current influx of "programmers" who think that they are programmers. At my place of business, potential coders are given a short but sweet quiz to test their raw knowledge at the interview. I remember the first question I was asked about C "What does a #include do?". While most of you will laugh at the simplicity of that (I had to try very hard to keep a straight face), there are scores upon scores of college graduates who put C or C++ or Java on their resume that don't even know the answer to that question. I pride myself in the knowledge I have of my field, and feel I can match skills to anyone my age (within reason, never written in machine code, but I know some who have). What it comes down to is that programming and software engineering used to be a profession that people joined with good intentions and pride. If you were able to carry the title "Senior Software Engineer", your peers know that you earned it and you have incredible skill and ability. Now with the market flooded with people who would rather call tech support to figure out the syntax on a for loop than look in the book on their shelf, the prestige of being a software engineer has been dumbed down. I have had to demonstrate to people who were college grads in computer science and computer engineering how to install a PCI card. I just feel that there is something wrong with that. And to all those who have been in the field for 20+ years, I know you can probably put me in the same catagory that I just described. Hopefully I can become a guru with time.