Computer Science, Software Developer People please help

Hey guys I have been wanting to do software developing for a while and now that I've been able to save some money, I can put it into use. While browsing through websites such as Indeed, I go through various listings of companies wanting to hire people with minimal experience (ex. 1-2yrs) with Java, CSS, MySQL, etc.

Now I live in VA and I would obviously love to get a BA in CS but we get no financial help or in-state tuition here which makes it very difficult. For this reason I came down to two choices and I would appreciate if you guys could give me some suggestions:

I recently signed up for a few summer courses (CS intro courses) at my local community college in order to get an associate degree in CS. In order to get my degree, I would need to take about 5-6 courses which would cost me around 10k or more. While pursuing this degree I will have to quit my current job in order to focus on school 100% and try to finish as quickly as possible thus leaving me with a limited budget. Now, obviously getting a degree will always be the best option but quite frankly I'm desperate and I would like to get a job in the industry as quickly as possible. I fear some of the material that I will have to take and spend my hard earned money on may not come into use in the future (ex. damn math courses) or i may get very limited hands on experience on high demand computer languages such as Java, C++, etc.


My other option is shooting straight at IT certificates such as Java Programming, HTML, CSS, etc. If I were to choose this option I would not get a degree but I would have hands on experience with these high in demand languages.

If you had a limited budget and had to choose either getting an associate in CS or going straight for certificates, which one would you choose? which one would allow you to get job in IT(software development) faster?

Sorry for the long post guys but I'm very desperate here. When money and time comes into play, I want to feel comfortable with my decisions. Any suggestion will be highly appreciated.

There is no definitive answer to the implicit question as to what is calculated to more likely land you into a job as a UI or software developer.

In your case, id recommend getting the certificates. SCJP/SCWCD/SCBCD for Java; create your own sample database using mysql or Sql server, and do whatever certification exams that are available for UI designers (others probably know more in this quarter).

My knowledge of C++ is too limited to discuss. C# is still popularly used for DB end.

But most of all, have projects you can show. Too many CS graduates have little application knowledge of building, compiling and implementing a Java project.

In terms of java, it is more important for a junior level developer to have a solid understanding of core Java, J2ee, then mastery of particular frameworks (mind you it helps - a lot).

You can learn most coding/scripting languages (especially UI design) easily enough - the internet is replete with tutorials and it-text books. The hardest bit about self-study, however, is being able to induce yourself to do so.

Sorry, but no one wants to hire someone with that mindset.

The difference between an associates/certificate/learning a single language vs. having a CS degree is that with the former, you can actually learn how to use Java or C++ or whatever, but you won't have any knowledge of the concepts for which the language can be used. You also won't know what's going on behind the scenes with memory, data structures and such so it's not all that valuable.

If I were in your shoes, I'd be in it for the long hull and not waste money and youth on dead-end courses. Save up and work towards the 4 year degree.

Can only partially agree. Breath of mind and depth of scope are not terms fittingly associated to most IT degrees or real work environments. In most cases (I am generalizing here, of course), in an ordinary mid-to-large corporate/business work environment, most workers will be sequester into a single more or less distinct role, DB, Front-end, back, etc. Might have to do everything in a smaller outfit.

Most college degrees do not focus on one major language or technology, but rather some network, some DB, some embedded systems, some computer vision, etc. Especially community colleges. No doubt this state of situation is different in different schools, especially some of the better schools - say, Georgia Tech.

They never go far enough to make you technically proficient in one language or tech., for example, most never cover Java EE.

Self-study will always remain important in terms of staying ahead in the field, especially if your project requires use of newer tech, software, frameworks, etc. While at the same time, knowing only a single language/tech consummately well is often more than enough to get you hired - thinking more 'server' guys --- lazy devils.

Maybe other can give you more input.

Laterlater is on point go with SCJP/SCWCD/SCBCD for Java or IT related field specially with the situation you see yourself in (money and time). I would look into ruby on rails certificate (if there's one) or just learned it on your own.

I did my BA undergraduate degrees in computer science (multimedia and game design emphasis) & mathematics. I can tell you that we never focus on one language alone. By the time I was out I had already done assembly language, C, C++, C#, Objective-C, ,mySQL, shell scripting, python, LISP (good old Artificial Intelligence class) , prolog. Then you have the usual cs classes compilers, applied cryptography, networking, operating system, automata theory, algorithms etc.

And in my case I spend an additional year or so doing OpenGL both red book and the orange book, SDL library, XNA .

Perhaps I didn't make my point clear enough. In the first computer science class I took, we were told that we would be using the C language because it was a low level and unforgiving language that would teach us the concept of coding and what was going on behind the scenes. They picked C over the popular languages of the day because by the time we would graduate, the popular languages would have already been obsolete. And they were. You don't see too much demand for Visual Basic 6 or Visual C++ now, do you?

The difference between having a 4 year computer science degree vs. someone who took just the popular languages of the day is that the person who had the 4 year degree was taught to learn and self teach anything else that comes along whereas the person who just learned one or two languages is stuck with those languages and will have a much harder time to pick up new concepts given that they never learned the fundamentals to begin with. That, and being forced to take non-computer classes like Art History, philosophy, history, etc. makes them a better well rounded person.

At least in my school IT and computer science were completely different areas of study. Most of our studies were in C as the base language and classes like C++ were object oriented classes that just happened to use C++. I too learned LISP and Prolog. I can't imagine I'll use them again, but again, the idea is to learn and be exposed to difficult concepts.

Again, the value is not to just teach you one language to the point of perfection. There are dozens of languages out there and no one man can learn them all perfectly. Once you get a job or know a job requires a particular language, all it will take is a few months to catch up to it if you already know how to learn.

The best way to learn programming is to get out there and do it. There is a lot of need for programmers in the open source field and you don't even need a degree. I should probably make a post about this...

Java is not in high demand, people still use it and it's not going anywhere anytime soon, but it's getting outpaced by other languages. If you want to make quick money, learn PHP or Ruby, then gradually move to a static language like C#. If I were you, I would get a 4-year degree. Most of these quick tech certificates teach you how to use a language, but you don't get a solid understanding and end up creating bad code. Most of these people end up just copy and pasting code from stackoverflow and no knowledge of design patterns or oop.

The job industry for programmers is hot, but the demand for clean coders is ever hotter.