best way to become a software developer?

Hi everyone. This is my first post and first thread. I am currently taking an online .NET Training course. I have no college degree at all and very limited formal programming training. The course I am taking is a bit over my head but I expected that. It prepares students (allegedly)for 70-526/536/528/529 but I am forced to supplement this with dummies books for VB and most likely C#. What will it take to get even the lowest job as a consultant (meaning day jobs, etc..)? I want to just get my foot in the door to take the fog away so I can focus exclusively on what I need to study and become a full-time developer. Am I just a wishful thinker? It's not too hard I don't think, but will I need the certifications from MS or Sun(Java) to get in this way with no degree? Do you think a certificate from a state university in the Northeast that states simply that I passed this online course will get me an entry level type contract (1 day, that sort of thing) even if I don't have any of the MS certs.?

Tons of questions I know, but it's really bugging me if I'm just going to be wasting my time.

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Comments

TravR1

wannabedeveloper wrote: »

3) a "diversity" and humanities general ed. elective (total of 2 courses) such as:
Elementary German I and Psychology of Women (second one may come in handy:))
technician.

I don't know anything about women at all, but I do know German.

Spreche ich sehr gute Deutscher.

Need any help with that, let me know.

JosephMattCharles

It's been a few years. I hope your career path is doing well.

The saying is, "You get out of it, what you put into it". Software Development requires a time commitment to learn and stay on-top of the career. As Technology is constantly changing.... We make good $$$$ and generally have great benefits, so it all works out good...

1) Read various books. Make sure you understand them. Do Internet searches until you understand most topics.
2) Pick a language to begin learning. Internet is a great resource. Look at various example and ensure you know what the language is doing (loops, functions, operators)
3) Consider taking a Computer Programming course from a local college OR even Education Direct, or whatever online school is offering Career Diploma. If you put the effort in, these actually help. Covering everything from Logic Gates, etc.
4) Understand clean code, code ownership, coding style.
5) Understand version control, third-party libraries.

Once you have a good understanding, and have programmed a few sample projects:
6) Look into other MCP or Sun (Java) programming certifications.
7) Once you have those, and a few years of experience, consider taking the Validated Guru - Certified Software Developer exam. This is a real gem and validates you really know what you are doing.

During this time, if you feel pressure to obtain a Degree (although most Universities/Colleges are Paper-Mills anymore), most of the larger employers will offer tuition reimbursement.

wannabedeveloper

I got notified of your reply and wanted to respond. Your advice is really good, as was everyone else's who responded to this thread. I am currently employed and writing code, among other things, and was able to get the A.S. in Computer Science. I am in the early stages of working for money and so it's a huge jump from the classroom, but like you said, you get back what you put into it for sure, and it helped a lot when I first started because I didn't know anything but basic coding of terminal programs and scripts.

It is so much more fun to be challenged like this on a daily basis. I've gotten my hands dirty with Python, C++, C, Java, C#, Scheme, XML, CSS, HTML, Javascript, Perl, SVN, multiple distros of Linux which I enjoy, lots of Maths and Physics, Data Structures, and logic.

Thanks to everyone who helped me, I'm not done yet but have made significant progress.

@TravR1 Deutschland ist meine Lieblings-Land.

RobertKaucher

Wow, blast from the past. Fast forward to 2012 and I am a SharePoint and SQL Server developer.

Very good to see you made progress as well, wannabe.

wiger

There is no doubt that awareness to modern language is compulsory but at the same time we should practice a lot, in fact join any software house to get some expertise. because in practical field you learn a lot. I have a degree but when come to practical life it totally different scenario here

N2IT

Everyone talks about Computer Science this and that, well I think for development it is huge. You can also develop connects and take internships which is a low risk way for an employer to bring you in.

All developers that I know personally have a computer science degree, EE degree, or mathematics. Except for my mother, father, and aunt however they are in their 60's and they are all degreeless except for my father he has his degree in mechcanical engineering.

That's all I have......