Don, thanks very much for that advice. That was really good stuff.
And unlike some others who have been quite rude !!1! Hopefully they can learn from you ? Your email was very nice and helpful. Unlike one or two other people who have been rude. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "JDJList" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, September 27, 2002 12:36 PM Subject: [jdjlist] Re: / > On September 26, 2002 09:03 am, you Tim wrote: > > Alan, > > --- snip ---- > > ... that I am not cut out for programming. > > I do not see it that way at all. > > > > You know. I was in IT for about 12 years before I started with java. > Immediately before I started playing with java, I was a VB programmer for 5 > years. I started on the java track by reading the magazines. After my third > magazine I thought "this is very different from VB. I don't understand any > of this. Maybe I'm not cut out for it". I found many of the object oriented > concepts (to spit out the buzz words, inheritance, encapsulation, > polymorphism) quite hard to get a handle around. So I ignored the magazines > for a while, excepting the "for the beginner" articles (there's usually one > in every second or so issue), and got a beginner's book on java. I simply > worked though the chapters, one by one, doing the exercises and at least > thinking though what I would do for the optional exercises. By taking it a > chapter at a time, and each chapter typically builds a bit on the previous > ones, it slowly fell into place. > > Java, especially if you consider all of J2SE, J2EE, and J2ME, is a huge body > of knowledge and provides techniques for virtually any size IT project, from > "Hello world" to complex applications on handheld and wireless devices to > world-wide real-time WAN applications. No one can know it all. Anyone who > says they do is full of crap. > > What kind of code is in the real world? Everything mentioned above. As a > contractor, I've worked in many companies, and I've never worked in one yet > where they ploped a new graduate into the middle of a huge project and said > "okay. You're the architect. What do we do now?" You're not expected to > know everything about every aspect of Java. Pick a piece and get real > comfortable with it. Then add another small piece and figure that out. > > Just like your lab assignments, don't try to do it all at once. Take it one > step at a time. > > Will you ever be asked to do something you've not done before. You gotta hope > - that's how you'll grow. Will you ever write code that you'll look at 2 > years later and say "what the heck was I thinking when I wrote that crappy > code?" You bet. You'll do that all your career. That what is called > "experience." Can you help a company to solve their business processes using > java solutions while you're acquiring your experience? You bet. Not every > project calls for 100% of the project resources be experts. In the real > world, you'll find that projects are made up of multiple people with varying > skill and experience levels, as well as each one will bring different ideas > and possible solutions to the table. > > I agree with Alan when he said something like "not everyone is cut out for > software engineering". That's true. But just because you're thinking ahead > to what you might be expected to do does not mean that YOU are not cut out > for it. I often find many employees are simply going though the motions - > the write pretty much the same code they always did. Same solutions are > always proposed. Sleep walking through. They would never worry about this > like you do. You're consciencious, that's all. > > Don't sell yourself short, but like-wise, don't worry about all the technology > that might get tossed at you. It's changing too fast to keep up with it all. > Specialize. Keep up with what interests you, and forget about the rest. > Keep your mind open to new ways do doing things and you'll go far. > > Hope this helps, > Don Brown > > > ______________________________________________ > To change your JDJList options, please visit: > http://www.sys-con.com/java/list.cfm ______________________________________________ To change your JDJList options, please visit: http://www.sys-con.com/java/list.cfm
