Make Me a Programmer

Recently, an outsider to the programming world offhandedly asked me a question: “why are there so many programming languages?” This gave me pause for a moment.  When you’re steeped in the programming world, you just kind of take this for granted.  In that sense, it’s like me asking you right now, “why are there so many spoken languages on Earth?” But I reflected a little further on it.  And I decided it would make good fodder for this blog—one that answers questions asked by newbie and aspiring programmers.  We answer questions about whether software engineers are happy and whether programmers should blog.  Why not this question? So let’s look at…

On this blog, we’ve taken on some questions that seem as though they’d be too general to answer.  For instance, we looked at what programmers wear to work and whether programming is hard.  And now, in that same vein, I’ll answer the question, “are software engineers happy?” Of course, you must understand that this involves painting with a broad brush.  How could it not? So the idea here isn’t to peg every software engineer on the planet, nor to speak in absolutes.  Rather, it’s about taking a look at the most common case for those of us in the field. I’ll give you a short, quick answer.  Then I’ll list…

On this blog, we cover a lot of topics about how to break into programming.  So that practically begs us to answer the question, “what makes a good software engineer?” Well, let’s answer that question today. What Makes a Good Software Engineer: The Short Answer In fact, let’s answer it briefly, right out of the gate.  This will set the stage for the more detailed answer below, where I’ll offer 13 different traits that will help you become a good engineer. A good software engineer is someone who is not only competent at writing code, but also competent in everything else required to build, deliver, and ship valuable software.  A…

In this post, I’ll answer the question “do programmers work from home?” This is a burning question in the minds of many. And it goes beyond programming and beyond IT. There are a few ways to answer this question so I’ll go through each. You’ll learn more about how programmers and anyone can work from home. I’ve been on all ends of that spectrum in my eight years of working in software development. In the first segment, I’ll share my experiences. Later, we’ll look at how to find these opportunities. Finally, I’ll wrap up with other models besides full-time employment. Let’s get started with the first case…

If you’re contemplating a career switch into programming, you’re probably wondering what it’s like. And I don’t mean in the existential sense. Rather, on a day-to-day kind of basis, what’s it like? Well, today we’ll take a look at what programmers do in the office. What Do Programmers Do at Work? The Short Version If you’re looking for an abbreviated answer or a summary, I can certainly provide that. After all, I spent a lot of years working as a programmer in an office. So I can speak at length and summarize quickly. So, what do programmers do at work? Well, not surprisingly, they spend a lot of time programming…

Should programmers learn HTML? I haven’t thought about this in a long time, but I recently came across a programmer who didn’t want to learn HTML. He does mobile app development for Android and iOS. He has an opportunity to learn HTML and add it to his repertoire, but he won’t. I think everyone should learn HTML, and here’s why… You Can Get a Job Using HTML A quick search on a job board like Indeed.com returns about 30,000 jobs using HTML. The salary range for those jobs is from $30,000 per year to $130,000 per year. There are even jobs that are not programming jobs where they want HTML…

The posts that I write for this blog are aimed at answering questions non-programmers and aspiring programmers have about being a programmer. This results in me answering some questions that seem perfectly natural. But it also results in questions that surprise me. “What do programmers wear to work?” is one of the surprising ones. I can answer this question in a paragraph. But I can also answer it with an entire post. Let’s start with a paragraph. What Do Programmers Wear to Work? The answer is that it really varies. Asking what programmers wear to work is like asking what people who work corporate jobs wear to work. On average,…

“What is a full stack developer” is a question that mystifies non-programmers.  I understand this because I run a content agency that pairs techies with non-technical editors.  The term comes up, and those not steeped in tech kind of squint at you if you say that and ask, “what….?” What Is a Full Stack Developer?  The Short Version So first, let’s give the short, direct answer to this question.  A “full stack” developer is a software developer with a general enough skill set to build all required components for a working piece of software.  They can handle the database, the programming logic, and the user interface, and they put it…

Is a software engineer the same as a software developer? It’s an understandable question. When you’re on the outside looking into the software industry, it can seem like we programmers (software engineers, software developers, etc.) have a dizzying array of titles. And we do. So, what does it all mean? What’s the difference? Is “software engineer” just a synonym for “software developer”? Is a Software Engineer the Same As a Software Developer? Yes. Full stop. These are the same. Different companies have different title preferences, but the titles describe the same thing: people who write code for a living.   Sure, being a software developer at one company will always be…

What education is needed to become a programmer? If you want to become a lawyer, you go to law school.  If you want to become a doctor, you go to med school.  So if you want to be a programmer, you go to… programming school?  Meaning, you get a computer science degree or two, right? Well, not so much.  It’s a little more complicated than that. In this post, we’ll take a detailed look at the paths to becoming a programmer, focusing on what education you need, how much of it, and where to get it. What Education Is Needed to Become a Programmer?  The Short Answer The question of…