Training

veganrun

I have been working in IT for several years mostly in the testing area but I've always had an interest in programming and it's something I do on the side and a bit in my current job.

However as a result of being self taught, I feel and know there's lots of concepts I don't understand. For example, today I was working with an abstract class that had an interface. The class in question had a method that I wanted to use in another class but I hadn't the foggiest notion what an abstract class was, what an interface was, and why either of these were being used and how to access the method I wanted.

It turned out my class already was inheriting from this abstract class so I could use the method easily. But the whole experience left me frustrated, again, with programming.

I was thinking about doing some Microsoft certification in the hope it might finally give me a good solid understanding of the various concepts, and help with my career prospects, but I'm thinking it may be too advanced.

Just wondering has anyone else been in the same boat and how did they progress? It always bugs me when I try to research some concept online and it's just explained with even more jargon that I don't understand.

Maybe there is some other training course that I should try first?

Sorry for the rant!

Digital Society

Generally if you look for an example of what your trying to understand and it s hard to explain, Just press the back button and go to the next result in Google.

If that doesnt work try other sources such as Youtube, Udemy, Coursera, Books, Lynda.Com, Boards.ie, Stackoverflow, Programming Forums...... The list is endless. Maybe you just dont learn well from books and would find it easier with videos or Vice Versa.

I read before that people learn the most by being corrected. Trying, failing, being corrected, trying again and getting it right.

counterpointaud

Try this, particular the last module for what you are talking about (you mention Microsoft so I am assuming you are using C#)

http://pluralsight.com/training/courses/TableOfContents?courseName=csharp-fundamentals-csharp5&highlight=scott-allen_csharp-fundamentals-csharp5-m6#csharp-fundamentals-csharp5-m6

Fate Amenable To Change

Have you tried the MIT open-courseware page for elec-eng and computer science.

There is plenty of information there and videos explaining everything. You can pick out an introduction and follow the course through.

ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/

veganrun

Thanks for those links, I will check them out.