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And today my teacher rambled for an hour (literally) about how horrible the industry is. You don't have a say in anything, you're never going to be respected, you're going to be abused by idiots that don't know the first thing about code, you're going to spend 99% of your time doing stuff that I can't possibly do (such as actually interacting with people), and no matter what job you get, your life is going to be absolutely miserable.
I'm becoming increasingly convinced that I shouldn't be getting this degree. I'm never going to even try to look for a job in programming. Fuck it. Its not worth it. That's probably why their paid such ludicrous amounts of money for doing something that only takes an hour at most. Its because no one wants to do it. No one's willing to tolerate it for more than a few months. I'm really starting to understand why he teaches despite his experience working in the industry. I mean, the guy has a background in game production!
I don't even know what I'm going to do. There is nothing out there I can tolerate doing for any length of time. All I'm doing is wasting time getting this degree. I would just quit if I wasn't paying for this through financial aid.
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If your teacher is spending an hour of class time telling you how horrible the industry is, then he's horrible teacher. How are you going to get a job as a programmer if he doesn't teach you how to program? I'd report him to your school for wasting that financial aid, and find someone else to get advice from.
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bad attitude == bad life regardless of what job you are in.
Some semesters you just get shitty instructors. You just have to deal with it. Dont let his negativity bring you down. I would agree with ichabod801. I would report him and find another instructor to become your adviser to get real advice from.
Recommended Tutorials:
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There was only one other IT teacher, and he quit sometime before the current semester. So either way, I have no other choice. And yes, he does teach code. He taught me HTML and Visual basic. This semester I'll be learning PHP from him. I'm guessing I'm also going to take C++ with him someday. He also claims that he wants to teach a python course over the summer. He even gave me some handouts he had made for the course when I emailed him about my troubles learning Python. I'm quite grateful to him for that.
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(Sep-13-2017, 05:40 PM)xBlackHeartx Wrote: And today my teacher rambled for an hour (literally) about how horrible the industry is. You don't have a say in anything, you're never going to be respected, you're going to be abused by idiots that don't know the first thing about code, you're going to spend 99% of your time doing stuff that I can't possibly do (such as actually interacting with people), and no matter what job you get, your life is going to be absolutely miserable.
I'm becoming increasingly convinced that I shouldn't be getting this degree. I'm never going to even try to look for a job in programming. Fuck it. Its not worth it. That's probably why their paid such ludicrous amounts of money for doing something that only takes an hour at most. Its because no one wants to do it. No one's willing to tolerate it for more than a few months. I'm really starting to understand why he teaches despite his experience working in the industry. I mean, the guy has a background in game production!
I don't even know what I'm going to do. There is nothing out there I can tolerate doing for any length of time. All I'm doing is wasting time getting this degree. I would just quit if I wasn't paying for this through financial aid.
I've been programming for about 14 years now. 12 years of that, I was getting paid. Some of that time, I was a consultant (ie: my own boss, working with people who don't know how to computer). The current job I have, I'm a software developer, and I've had this job for a little more than 5 years. That's just to help give a frame of reference for what I'm about to say.
Yes, you will run into people who think programming is dead simple. People who think building something complicated isn't a big deal, and can be done very quickly. This shouldn't be surprising, because there are also people who think building a house is as simple as slapping a frame together and screwing drywall to it. Lots of people think things are easier than they are, when they have no idea what's actually involved to do that thing.
If you get a job at a company that produces software/games, that will never be an issue for you. That's because your boss/managers used to be programmers themselves, so they're fully aware of what's involved, how time consuming things are, and how stressful it can sometimes be. These jobs are easy to spot before you're in them, as you can ask a few things during the interview like "what source control system do you use?", "what's your software development lifecycle consist of?", "do you follow any of the major processes, such as agile or scrum?", "what languages do you use?", "is using existing technology or libraries encouraged, or is it preferred to roll your own?", "is all your software written in the same language, or are your employees allowed to explore new technologies/languages?". For some of those, there really isn't a right or wrong answer, all that really matters is that they can actually answer them. If they say something like "I'm not sure, I'll have to check with {name}", then that person is probably not someone who knows much about programming.
If you can find a job with a well defined process, that's actually followed, or at the very least find a place that uses pair programming, it can be very enjoyable.
And remember, it doesn't really matter what languages you learn, as they'll eventually become outdated anyway. What matters is that you learn how to learn. Once you've become proficient in a couple languages, it shouldn't be too difficult for you to pick up a new language over a weekend or two ("oh, so {feature x} is just like in java, except it looks like this").
As to whether college is worth it, the answer is "yes". For now, anyway. Without a degree, it gets very hard to get an interview, regardless of how impressive your skills are. ...it also doesn't really matter what the degree is in, as the degree itself shows that you're capable of sticking with something for a period of time.
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Quote:Without a degree, it gets very hard to get an interview, regardless of how impressive your skills are.
However, it would not be prudent to assume you will get a job just because you have a degree.
There are thousands of people popping out of college with a degree every year,
and some of them are passionate about making games and have experience on top of that.
I suggest looking for a job now, just to see what the common requirements are.
https://stackoverflow.com/jobs
What aspect of game design is really appropriate for you?
Considering your interest in story:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-playi...nd_setting
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialog_tree
You might be interested in: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com
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I haven't followed this thread closely, so forgive my briefness in light of the volume here:
Not all hope is lost for writing, though things are in flux. I'm reading something by someone who has a Patreon where they're getting ~$2,800/month from patrons ( link). Not that it's typical, but it happens.
I'm a professional software engineer with four years experience in industry, eleven of experience if you include before I went to school for it. I was very afraid of ruining my hobby, but a Linux user group quelled that fear. Now, I definitely find that I wish I were doing more of what I want to do, instead of what others are telling me to, but it's not so bad. And it's better than the alternative - anything else.
I know game programming is a different industry, and I've heard it's harder. But if you do land on, "I enjoy programming" don't worry too much about your pessimistic instructor. Get an internship as quickly as possible, give things a try for yourself. If you don't like it after an internship or two then you know. Otherwise, you're operating on a lot of uncertainty.
Also - I work in silicon valley, which colors my view of things. I know that a lot of places exist that do software begrudgingly, and they're not fun to be an engineer at. But at least where I am, there's plenty of opportunity to avoid that.
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I live in a third-world backwater in the deep south. Looking online, most of the jobs in demand here is setting up networks in businesses. Occasionally making websites or office programs.
As for the job I want? I was wanting something solitary. Where I wouldn't be abused by some narcissist. Of course, that's not what programming is. Everything is a group project, and at the very least you're going to have to extensively interview people in a company to determine what that company needs to have.
I'm thinking of not taking a job in IT. I don't know if IT will even help me in any other field, but oh well. Either way, I'm stuck in my current degree track. I have no choice but to take this degree now, since I've already changed majors once. If I do so a third time, people will refuse to hire me for being indecisive.
This sucks so much....
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(Sep-22-2017, 05:27 PM)xBlackHeartx Wrote: If I do so a third time, people will refuse to hire me for being indecisive.
That's simply inaccurate. Change as often as you want, all that matters is that you end up with a degree.
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You can always develop software for sale
.
There must be a small or large city near you somewhere within reach.
There is a group called meetup where you can meet others interested in python
Take a look at the map: https://www.meetup.com/topics/python/?_c...h7mMx-5QeG
You might be able to put together a group of folks interested in creating a project that you could sell.
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