Hello,
I'm an older college student, 34, who's getting ready to finish my AS in Information Technology specializing in programming and analysis from a 2 year college that's in the middle of trying to transition to a 4 year college. I mention the last part only because I'm worried neither
Java class I either took last semester nor the class this semester never even mentioned the possibility of certification and I only found out about it by landing here while researching ways to try to break into the programming industry.
I'm a Phi Theta Kappa member and to this point have earned an A in ALL of my computer related classes, (in Java I 100% A, and expect the same this semester in Java II which is another part of why I'm starting to worry about their quality.)
With all that said, I'm looking for any advice as to how I could start breaking into the development field before attaining a Bachelors in which I could still work to attain my Bachelors part time.
Aside from Java between attending this school and previous hobby experience I'm also capable of:
C++ (Visual Studio - console apps)
VB (haven't played much with ASP or any of the other Visual Studio extras that I wasn't taught yet.)
Python (IDLE)
Plus the following web languages:
HTML 5
CSS 3
JS
JQuery (limited experience)
PHP
Perl script (limited experience to figuring out a mail script in order to modify)
Upon entering this program I learned with VB that I actually loved programming and have since always went above and beyond in my assignments to push to figure out more, to the point that I like it even more than the web languages. It might be weird, but I find it stimulating and relaxing at the same time (I don't expect anyone who doesn't feel the same way about it to understand that.) However, I would like most to work on platform-independent projects as I am of the mind that the programs I create should fit 1 of 2 categories:
Client Specific - for a certain company/client - to exclude anyone else besides that particular entity.
Open - Available to anyone to legally obtain/use through proper channels without exclusion to their system choices.
I hope that isn't sounding to pretentious, I just believe that that should be best policy.
I would really like to know the quickest way to go about entering the industry as I recently found out I'm going to have a family to start seriously worrying about.
I'm residing in Bradenton, FL currently but after I get either my AS or AA if it's suggested here that I would be better off finding a better program to get my Bachelors of Science from if that helps.
Thanks for taking the time to read all this and for any and all helpful advice.