[ajug-members] New to java

[Dean H. Saxe]

I absolutely agree with Doug here.  And having worked with/for Doug for a number of years I can say that DI is a great place to learn a lot about what enterprise software looks like.  Its not what one learns in a book! 

-dhs


On July 14, 2006, Doug Morgan wrote:

> After you've done the online studying and gone through the exercises
> from a couple books, I would recommend getting the Java SCJP
> certification from Sun.  It would show that even though you don't have a
> lot of experience, you have initiative and have proven you can learn.
> In the end, initiative is more important than experience.
> 
> You can also pick up volunteer work for a non-profit or something like
> that to get some experience.
> 
> Your first job is likely to be maintenance and support of existing
> applications.  At my workplace, we bring new people into the maintenance
> group since they need to learn our industry and products, as well as
> enterprise architecture, J2EE, Cold Fusion, CORBA, SQL and C++, before
> they won't be dangerous to let loose on projects.  It really takes a
> couple years to get all that in your head.
> 
> Don't let that put you off though.  Maintenance is real programming, and
> in some sense it is a lot harder than writing new stuff from scratch.
> Figuring out which line of code out of 1 million is broken and what you
> need to do to fix it is not simple, and it's often a very rewarding
> challenge.
> 
> In my experience, people who have come up through maintenance or QA are
> almost always better programmers than those who did not.
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ajug-members-bounces at ajug.org
> [mailto:ajug-members-bounces at ajug.org] On Behalf Of didoss at comcast.net
> Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 8:27 AM
> To: General AJUG membership forum (100-200 messages/month)
> Subject: Re: [ajug-members] New to java
> 
> Luckily, the tools that you would need to write Java programs are free
> online,...so get a good book (I've found the Head First series useful)
> that will walk you through and teach you to make classes and
> applications,...and pull down a version of java,...decide on a text
> editor (really makes you think through the code), or an IDE (does some
> of the thinking for you, so better for when you've suffered the
> pain),...
> 
> then it is a matter of selling yourself in an interview.
> 
> Having recently been in the market, I didn't see much (in my area) for
> "entry-level" java engineers, so your challenge is going to be getting
> in the door.  Then, as Rai noted, it might be easiest to try to get into
> a maintenance role (often does not require many design skills to get you
> started; and provides a code base to study - "why does it do this").
> 
> Good luck.
> 
> Dianne
> 
>  -------------- Original message ----------------------
> From: "Lester" <cwlester at bellsouth.net>
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > I am new to Java and was wondering if anyone has any input on how to
> get 
> > experience or an entry-level position that does not require previous
> experience.  
> > I will appreciate any advice.
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > Cathy
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Dean H. Saxe
dean at fullfrontalnerdity.com
"What difference does it make to the dead,  the orphans, and the homeless, whether the  mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of  liberty and democracy? " -Gandhi