How can i start studying programming?

7 Comments

1. LaurieApril 15,2024 at 12:33PM UTC

   There are many roads to get you to your gaming job destination. I'd suggest poking around on LinkedIn. Look at profiles of people doing what you want to be doing. Then reach out to a few people asking for 15 minutes to discuss how they got started in the field. Launch your research from there!

2. Diane J HuffApril 15,2024 at 12:56PM UTC

   If you don’t have a background in programming and and you want to learn, the best place to get started is online. Spend the money and get a subscription to pluralsight.com. You can take any programming course there and take test exams. You can chart your own course for your first year by learning basically any dev and scripting software. It’s what I recommend for my STEM teams. Once you have the basics, I recommend a technical school, like DeVry or something similar, even community college. Don’t sleep on community college, it has some really amazing programs. Get a job as a basic developer and gets some experience. Gaming companies are very hard to get into so you have to have some mad skills before they even look at you. Start developing your own games, even mini games and join groups on Reddit. It’s a community and a very small community at that. Get your name out there, get your small product out there and I guarantee, they will come calling or your application will get noticed.

3. AnonymousApril 15,2024 at 1:43PM UTC

   First of all, these are highly competitive fields so ask yourself if you would be happy working in tech if you did not get a job at one of these companies. If the answer is that you ONLY want to work at one of these fiercely competitive companies, you may be setting yourself up for failure. If the answer is that you find the field fascinating and you want to work in game development, then your goal is much more attainable. Next, once you figure that out, look at the tech stacks used by the companies. Look at their current job listings and see what technologies that they use. If you are brand new to programming, start learning the basics with a general programming language (like Python) to learn gaming and programming logic and then focus on the languages you need to get the job you want. Once you have built up a portfolio start applying anywhere you can to get experience. And most importantly, keep building. If you find you are not happy building stuff 4-5 hours a day, then you won't be happy at an uber-competitive games company. As far as where to learn, Pluralsight is a good option but so is Codeacademy for the basics. There are a ton of great resources out there. One way to find them beyond a Google search is to look on LinkedIn and search for posts that link to 'Free Courses in..." They are often very useful.

4. Elizabyth HarringtonApril 15,2024 at 1:49PM UTC

   As someone with a long career in tech, my advice is to take courses that will teach you how to work with AI. AI bots are now sophisticated enough to write code, so my guess is that by the time you learned enough programming to be able to get your foot in the door as a junior level software engineer, Chat GBT (or one of the others) will have supplanted that level of engineer. Your best bet is to be the person who can tell the AI bot what to write.

5. Patricia CrookApril 15,2024 at 2:39PM UTC

   You can begin with classes for graphic design or game level development. If you enjoy it, take classes in C++ and sharpen up your math skills. Programming is a lot of math. Look for a school that is accredited and offers Programming pathways for those who want to work in the video game industry. In my area, UT Dallas offers this program.

6. AnonymousApril 16,2024 at 9:54PM UTC

   With how bad the market is right now in tech, why would anyone go into this field?

   --myself and everyone else looking for months

7. AnonymousApril 22,2024 at 9:09PM UTC

   Something to consider:

   Want to work in software engineering? Major in philosophy. Marco Argenti, the chief information officer at Goldman Sachs, recently made this argument in Harvard Business Review — and he acknowledges the advice "might seem counterintuitive." But with artificial intelligence expected to take over most coding duties before long, companies now want engineers with expertise in English, psychology and philosophy, who know how to ask the right questions and have excellent critical thinking and communication skills, Argenti says.

   https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/goldman-wants-philosophy-majors-6692170/