SSJSteve wrote:It sounds like a lot of work, but I guess if you're actually interested in the subject it helps. Our Lecturer has told us about the System Analysis guys, like what you said, they do get paid quite a lot. There was another specific field our lecturer was telling us about where these certain people wouldn't get out of bed for less than £1000 a day, the whole class was in shock for a couple of hours!
That's a lot of dough.
I'm definitely interested in the Programming side of IT though, what programming language would you say if the best to learn? Do they teach a wide variety of them in Universities?
At the place I went to, at least, I got to use quite a wide variety of languages. It often depended on the preferences of the tutor and the aims of the class. Also, as time passed, the classes evolved. My first programming class there used Pascal, which is probably a decent place to start because it's so simple and allows you to focus on the logic; but by the time I was done, people taking that class were using something else, like C#.
So, to be honest, I don't know how many languages they'd have you learning. But it probably doesn't matter that much. The key is to get your head around the logic and the way programs are structured, which is more or less the same no matter which language you're using. My advice would be to focus on the
pseudocode (i.e. when you write out the program's structure in plain English) and the
structure diagrams, which, aside from a bit of syntax jargon, are usually pretty universal. It can be very tempting to blow these two things off and just dive straight into the coding, but understanding them in your head is important and can then be applied to just about any language with minimal alterations. If you understand it properly, you'll probably be able to look at code written in a language you've never heard of and still be able to figure it out easily!
For me, though, C# was probably my favorite language . I didn't use it at all until my final project (which just goes to show, it isn't too hard picking up a new language once you understand the underlying principles), and I was amazed at how cooperative it was compared to other languages I'd used. The most stressful thing about programming is when you've written the code, checked it, it
literally has no mistakes in it...and it still doesn't work for reasons only the programming gods know. It happens surprisingly often. But C# didn't give me many problems like that, so it gets a thumbs up from me.
Hoping to get into college soon and take up International Business.
