Advice For Programmers Right Out of School

ari1981 writes "I recently graduated from school with a CS degree, and several of my classes were very theoretical in nature. There was some programming, but it seems not as much as in other schools. I'm currently working at a company where I'm doing primarily c/c++ app development on unix. But as I read slashdot, and other tech sites / articles, and realize for some of the software being written nowadays, I would have absolutely NO IDEA how to even begin writing it. I remember first time I saw them, I thought console emulators were really cool. After my education, I have no idea how someone would begin writing one. With the work I'm doing now, it doesn't seem I'm going to be using (or creating) any of the really cool technology I hear about. How did everyone here begin learning / teaching themselves about different aspects of programming, that they initially had no clue about? How did you improve? Programming on your own? Through work?"

Refund?

[dazedNconfuzed]

realize for some of the software being written nowadays, I would have absolutely NO IDEA how to even begin writing it.

Sounds like you should ask your school for a refund.

My advice

[wayward_son]

Be sure not to forget the cover sheet on your TPS Reports!

(They sent a memo, you know.)

Re:Refund?

[TubeSteak]

Sounds like you should ask your school for a refund.

Or he could apply to their PhD program :op

Re:Invest in yourself. Assume no one else will.

[singingjim]

Holy shit are you friggin' cynical. Time to drop a Paxil and drink a beer dude. The security and benefits of working in a cubicle farm like us cowards do sure beats living life with an attitude like yours. I guarantee I'm a much happier person than you. Oh, by the way, go fuck yourself asshole.

I know a site...

[shadowcode]

I know a site with lots of great snippets to learn from [thedailywtf.com]!

Real-world advice.

[Rufty]

1.) Go back to school.
2.) Get your MBA.
3.) Outsource all the programmers' jobs.
4.) Profit!

Re:digg around

[Tanktalus]

You, sir, must not be a true programmer. If you were, you would know that goto has long been considered evil. Instead, you should make sourceforge into a function, and call it as such: sourceforge().

Fear leads to anger...

[Anonymous Coward]

...anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering and suffering leads to Microsoft Visual Studio, which leads right back to suffering.

Re:Refund?

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Nah, go for an MBA. Requires even LESS of an interest in the subject.

Re:Its all about your libraries

[Lodragandraoidh]

You combine libraries together and thats about it. :)

So, you are the guy I always have to clean up behind when your applications break...

Re:Yoda advice

[Bacon Bits]

"There is no try"? We're coding without exception handling?

I'm pretty sure I've read code written by Yoda, too. Nobody else could write backwards syntax like that which still manages to function. Jedi Master, indeed.

Re:Don't spend too much time on IT.

[q-the-impaler]

He sells magazines door-to-door, claiming he was once addicted to crack.

Re:Don't spend too much time on IT.

[fireman sam]

Do you think he knows any gansters? I need some money laundered.

Re:digg around

[kimvette]

Sure there is!

As in:

Program manager says you need to implement (X, Y, Z) by $FOO date. Only a stable (X) or a very, very unstable (X, Y, Z) possible by that date but the VP is backing the project managers demands.

In this case, a "goto hell" is 100% acceptable.

whoops!

[Anonymous Coward]

"I recently graduated from school with a CS degree, and [...] realize for some of the software being written nowadays, I would have absolutely NO IDEA how to even begin writing it. I remember first time I saw them, I thought console emulators were really cool. After my education, I have no idea how someone would begin writing one."

You was robbed, son!

Re:digg around

[kisielk]

Pfft, procedural programming is so last century. Everyone knows that SourceForge should really be a class inheriting from a Site virtual base class, and that you should be calling its visit() method. Additionally, it's connected to a relational database with an XML-based ORM framework.

Re:digg around

[Anonymous Coward]

Not even your own mother thinks you're cool for knowing Haskell. Move on bud.