I am interested in transitioning into a career in Java development, partly because I enjoy programming casually already (PHP mostly, some Perl, some C, some Java) and partly because of the money (~$80,000/year).
For the past 10 years or so, I have mostly worked in a technical call center type environment in a leadership capacity with some higher-level support roles (web server administrator, intranet site developer/administrator). I already have a BA in Philosophy.
What is the best path for me to take? Training and certification thru Sun? Should I get a BS in Computer Engineering? I don’t think I could go straight to grad school in Computer Engineering, because I only have a BA and so I am not meeting all the requirements. I think that a BS would be good for me to learn or relearn a lot of necessary foundations in math and programming. It would take about 1.5 years to get a BS.
Should I get a BS degree? And then should I get a Masters? Should I go the certification route? Both? Some other route? Thanks!
I am not a fan of Sun Java certification. I got certified and it made very little difference. The HR people trolling job sites would pick it out, but the actual people I interviewed with never heard of it, didn’t care.
It is also very badly managed. The list of topics from Sun, in their official book and on the test all conflict with each other. You have to go to “braindump” sites to see what the test actually covers. There is absolutely no excuse for this.
Java is not the way to go. A lot of the functions Java is used for is being taken over by Flash.
I agree if you enjoy programing to learn but you’re better off learning advanced PHP, C# or Flash. Microsoft hates Java and is still the dominant player.
Learn more about open sourced things, because businesses more and more don’t want to pay license fees so it’s good.
Apply for a job. Going for certification or credentials of some sort doesn’t much matter (and in fact might looked at negatively.) IT people just care whether you can do anything. If you’ve got a website you built, show that off. Show off that you’ve learned several languages by yourself. Programmers have to be able to teach themselves. That’s probably the best credential you’re ever going to have.
I recommend getting the degree. Although I do know some programmers who don’t have degrees, most of the places I worked at required one. And even when we made an exception for one man that I thought had enough talent to do the job, HR made it clear he would not be eligible for promotions.
Make sure you know your stuff is all. In our company, we’re increasingly relying on programming tests and technical interview questions, since far too many people with various degrees and certifications don’t know jack squat about programming. It’s really quite depressing. These days, if you can demonstrate decent knowledge in the interview, you’ll get a job.
What a degree or diploma will do is get you into that interview.
Computer engineering is primarily concerned with the design of computer hardware. As a Java programmer, that’s not something you’ll ever worry about. It’ll look impressive if you finish it, but that’s all.