Java - Fás & Self Study

krinklez

Hey, apologies in advance, this is gonna be quite a long post, hopefully in the right forum. Basically I'm looking for a career change, and was thinking of going down the IT route, but preferably upskilling and training at night/part-time. I'm looking at Java programming at the moment, I was going to do a short eight session introduction night course and study a few startoff books (Sam's teach yourself Java in 24 hours, books about programming concepts in general rather than a specific language etc.) and then perhaps do this Fas course for 13 weeks full time.

Would the certification I receive from that course be worth enough to get me a foot in the door, or would I still need more training? I've spoken to a few people who studied computer science over the years and they said they mainly learned Java themselves from books (poor lecturers, wishy washy timetables etc.), so I'd hope to keep learning and taking more advanced exams on my own time.

I've read a fair few online articles regarding IT and development, obviously all saying there are more jobs than people to fill them, its a career you can really advance in etc. Would this be a fairly accurate view of things at the moment or is it just industry waffle?

Lastly, (this is probably a ridiculously broad question), what's the working life of a developer/programmer like? I like working and interacting with people/teams and I like the idea of a career thats in a vibrant sector thats allows you to climb the ladder and advance, or is the reality of it more like being the token IT geek plodding away in some dim little office all day on your lonesome? Again, that's a kinda 'how long is a piece of string?' but I'm sure you catch my drift.

Sorry if thats a bit of a ramble there but I's appreciate and help and opinions, I'm 29 now and this stuff only seems to get harder to decide on for me anyway!

Reku

Well that course you link to is the ecollege course for java, which if you're looking at that I'd suggest that instead you buy the book and study from it instead, as I found the ecollege level of questions were significantly easier than the standard used in sample exams elsewhere, and as such were not necessarily helpful in preparing for the exam.

The certification for that course is the Sun Certified Java Programmer, which is recognised, but to be honest you'll still have a hard time getting your foot in anywhere as experience is what counts far more than qualifications and no experience = little chance. Find projects to work on where you can, whether it be a small application for a friend or, better still, something bigger as part of a team.

I'd advise you to take any articles (at least those from Irish media sources) that you read about the demand for IT staff, with a pinch of salt, as what they're not saying is that these "available jobs" are very much not entry level. It's like with the supposed difficulty in finding science graduates to fill jobs, I know loads of people who graduated with good science degrees but couldn't find any jobs in science and so are either working in a field with nothing to do with their degree (e.g. retail or banking), back in college doing other degrees in the hopes that the new degree might serve them better than the science one has, or have gone abroad in the hopes of finding employment.

ahal

Reku wrote: »

I found the ecollege level of questions were significantly easier than the standard used in sample exams elsewhere, and as such were not necessarily helpful in preparing for the exam.

Quite agreed. I went on Oracle's site and nearly fainted when I took the tutorial ... the 'hands on' approach threw me having done the FAS effort, which is mainly multi - option 'point and click' answers. Having said that - and this isn't meant as a derisory comment - the FAS course is like a 'Java for Dummies'. It does have it's uses.

I'm brushing up on my German, got the Fas exam - for better or worse - booked for the 03rd. Sept., and then I'm going to have a go at J2EE. I don't have the experience either ... and what those in the industry tell me is that it's more important than qualifications if anything.

It's a case of doing the best that one can at a given time. The way I see it is, it's no harm at least

krinklez

Thanks for the replies, sorry, that is the wrong link I posted, I can't find one for the 13 week full time course, but the award you get is City & Guilds Level 2 Diploma for Software Developers, is that any more lucrative? Reku, it sounds like you are working in the industry so, are you at it a while or more recently? Definately a good picture you paint about needing experience, but thats true of pretty much every profession these days, but I don't mind starting small if I know it's going to lead somewhere.

ahal

I'd laugh if this was someone else, but I'm just after realizing that I've been doing module 1 of the FAS course for the past month. The design of their training website is so $hit I only found the other 12 modules today by mistake.

No wonder I thought the fecking thing was boring an repetitive. I've now got some serious work cut out for me before the 03rd. September! Crap, crap website.

Reku

ahal wrote: »

It's a case of doing the best that one can at a given time. The way I see it is, it's no harm at least

Indeed.

krinklez wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, sorry, that is the wrong link I posted, I can't find one for the 13 week full time course, but the award you get is City & Guilds Level 2 Diploma for Software Developers, is that any more lucrative? Reku, it sounds like you are working in the industry so, are you at it a while or more recently? Definately a good picture you paint about needing experience, but thats true of pretty much every profession these days, but I don't mind starting small if I know it's going to lead somewhere.

If you mean the Fás course Software Developer 1 then that's what I'm at at the moment, has some Java, some testing, some VB and some C#, also has a brief placement with a company (though you have to organise it yourself).
You'll get C&G certifications in the above 4 topics, though having done some of the exams so far I'm left rather disappointed with them tbh, quite simply there are a number of problems and errors with the C&G exams and so I'm rather less optimistic about their value than I was when starting the course.:(

Still, at least it's a qualification to put on the CV and probably looks a bit better to potential employers than "studying at home" does.:p

Unfortunately I've yet to get any experience in a company, closest I've gotten has been an application a boards user requested, which at least I can use as evidence of my programming ability.

krinklez

How long is the course you are studying Reku? Sounds quite all encompassing with all that stuff. How do you find programming, have you ever had experience of it before you started?