On 12/14/2017 06:07 PM, [email protected] wrote:
I have determined I must learn programming, and would prefer to do so in
the 'back end', i.e., server environment.
I have (some) funding from being laid off when my job was outsourced
overseas (fir the second time).
Your suggestions about tools and processes would be appreciated
My suggestions are based on my educational background in Comp. Sci.,
over a decade of work experience as a Network Sys Admin & Network
Engineer and my recent challenges of being a displaced, older IT Pro
with a skill set that is rapidly becoming obsolete.
I'd recommend staying away from code bootcamps/acadamies unless you have
previous education and/or programming experience. If you want to do
back-end programming, I'd start with either Bash shell scripting on
Linux or Powershell for Microsoft & Linux enviros.
Although Python is probably the easiest high-level language to learn, if
you're not familiar with object-oriented programming it might be a bit
much to digest. Most scripting languages are procedural. Most of the
prog. languages I learned in college were procedural. When I tried to
learn Python, I didn't understand object oriented programming and that
made learning Python more challenging for me.
Although Ruby isn't a back-end language per se, I found it easier to
learn than Python. It's an object-oriented scripting language that is
very natural, less like coding and more like writing.
Google's Go is a pretty hot language right now.
I guess my best advice is to check out some free tutorials, books from
the Library, videos, etc and find something that you like and is easy
for you to learn. That might even be Perl or PHP depending on what is
interesting and fun to you. For me, Pascal was that language. Learning
how to be a good programmer is ultimately going to serve you and anyone
who hires you better than learning a particular language that you think
will get you a job.
DevOps is also a really good place to start. Most modern software
companies are using Cloud Platforms such as AWS and DevOps methodologies
and tools.
Another great resource is Calagator, http://calagator.org/events . There
are many daily meetups, workshops, classes, etc for all things IT related.
At the end of the day, the best advice I can give is try as many things
out as possible and let it choose you so to speak. You might be awesome
at CSS or SQL or C or QA automation. If you can afford it, I'd spend as
much time & energy as you can exploring as much as you can of the IT
landscape.
Cheers,
Mike
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