Programming Careers?
closed account (j1CpDjzh)
What sort of careers involve programming? I know there's software development, web design, engineering, video game development, and even some science careers, but what career are you going for? Or, if you already have a career in programming/computer science, what is it?
I, personally am aiming to be a Bioinformatics Programmer/Engineer. It's something that really interests me, but I'd also like to hear what else is out there because I think it's all quite fascinating... And if there's anybody from that field on this forum, what is the job like? Is it difficult to get hired?
I, personally am aiming to be a Bioinformatics Programmer/Engineer. It's something that really interests me, but I'd also like to hear what else is out there because I think it's all quite fascinating... And if there's anybody from that field on this forum, what is the job like? Is it difficult to get hired?
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closed account (j1CpDjzh)
Ahh, that's true. I just wanted to see if someone on here had first hand experience, because I wasn't able to find much more than I already knew through Google. Perhaps I just didn't do a detailed enough search?
I think he wanted to hear from some actual people who have already established themselves in a career, rather than some general answers. I would answer but I am still an undergrad. =P
I'm interested about hearing any actual answers on this topic myself.
But while I'm here, why on earth has myesolar been reported? If I'm honest I agree with him, and BHX is just not being any help. I often come to this site with questions that I can't find answers to on Google in the hope that either someone already knows the answer or has come across it before and can send me in the right direction... Just going "ask Google" is no help at all :(
But while I'm here, why on earth has myesolar been reported? If I'm honest I agree with him, and BHX is just not being any help. I often come to this site with questions that I can't find answers to on Google in the hope that either someone already knows the answer or has come across it before and can send me in the right direction... Just going "ask Google" is no help at all :(
closed account (j1CpDjzh)
| I often come to this site with questions that I can't find answers to on Google in the hope that either someone already knows the answer or has come across it before and can send me in the right direction... |
I'm the same exactly the same way. I often spend a lot of time Googling and rarely ever find the answer, which is why I come to this site in hopes of finding an answer.
| But while I'm here, why on earth has myesolar been reported? |
I was wondering the same thing.
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I'm a CS student going into my senior year. I have worked in my university's system and networking department for two years, and interned somewhere else writing web apps.
At my university job, I do a decent amount of programming. It's definitely not a daily task, but it happens. A lot of it is tweaking various systems we use. The main two systems I do anything programming with is our network management system (Zenoss), and our network change management system. Both of which are open source. Zenoss is neat because it allows people to easily develop plugins for monitoring more advanced or obscure equipment. Zenoss was my big project. I got to rebuild it from the ground up and add a lot of custom monitoring to it.
At my internship, I write web apps. I'm not big into writing web apps at all, but it's been good experience. I've used Java with the Spring and Hibernate frameworks for the backend stuff. The front end I use JSP, JavaScript and jQuery, and Bootstrap. A lot of the work has really been just getting XML configurations set up right, which is painfully boring/tedious.
Coming from a C and C++ background, working with Java web apps is rather boring. Most everything is already done for you, it's just a matter of sticking the pieces together. It might be different with large scale e-commerce applications, but working on internal use web apps is really no fun.
So yeah, my 'professional' programming experiences is writing scripts and tweaking software for a systems and networking team, and writing internal web apps for a large company. I definitely prefer the former. SysNet work can be pretty interesting, and it seems more involved than the typical programming position. A lot more physically moving around. It does involve a little bit of programming. And you get to play with equipment that can be more expensive than an average house.
At my university job, I do a decent amount of programming. It's definitely not a daily task, but it happens. A lot of it is tweaking various systems we use. The main two systems I do anything programming with is our network management system (Zenoss), and our network change management system. Both of which are open source. Zenoss is neat because it allows people to easily develop plugins for monitoring more advanced or obscure equipment. Zenoss was my big project. I got to rebuild it from the ground up and add a lot of custom monitoring to it.
At my internship, I write web apps. I'm not big into writing web apps at all, but it's been good experience. I've used Java with the Spring and Hibernate frameworks for the backend stuff. The front end I use JSP, JavaScript and jQuery, and Bootstrap. A lot of the work has really been just getting XML configurations set up right, which is painfully boring/tedious.
Coming from a C and C++ background, working with Java web apps is rather boring. Most everything is already done for you, it's just a matter of sticking the pieces together. It might be different with large scale e-commerce applications, but working on internal use web apps is really no fun.
So yeah, my 'professional' programming experiences is writing scripts and tweaking software for a systems and networking team, and writing internal web apps for a large company. I definitely prefer the former. SysNet work can be pretty interesting, and it seems more involved than the typical programming position. A lot more physically moving around. It does involve a little bit of programming. And you get to play with equipment that can be more expensive than an average house.
Don't know why myesolar was reported, but I don't even see his posts anymore (ignore script on my side [ http://prntscr.com/47uylr ]).
Google is helpful. Searching for the first question of 'What sort of careers involve programming?' I found the usual software, web dev, graphics, sound/music, game development, but also found CAD/CAM (Computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing), telecommunications, medical (x-ray software), business, ... in short almost every job you can think of probably requires programming to some extent.
That is one of the only two that actually required input from the users here.
That would be the second question.
Me, I used to pursue a game programming career, but now I just program as a fun hobby and have no interest in turning it into a career anymore.
Don't even have to Google to know the answer to that one. The difficulty to get hired for a job is dependant on the same parameters in any career:
1) The number of applicant's seeking to get into the same field increases the difficulty of being hired.
2) The number of vacancies looking to be field in the area of interest.
3) The applicant's ability to stand out among the other applicants as you want to stick in the mind of the person hiring.
Then depending on the specific career you get into the type of interview questions and tests the applicant will have to deal with. The specific career also dictates the specific contents of your resume and portfolio.
Doing a search for job listings of a Bioinformatics Programmer/Engineer most of them had similar requirements (well a Senior position required a Masters or PhD in two listings, just to throw that out there) to this:
That is some impressive requirements, I must say.
Google is helpful. Searching for the first question of 'What sort of careers involve programming?' I found the usual software, web dev, graphics, sound/music, game development, but also found CAD/CAM (Computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing), telecommunications, medical (x-ray software), business, ... in short almost every job you can think of probably requires programming to some extent.
| but what career are you going for? |
That is one of the only two that actually required input from the users here.
| if you already have a career in programming/computer science, what is it? |
That would be the second question.
Me, I used to pursue a game programming career, but now I just program as a fun hobby and have no interest in turning it into a career anymore.
| And if there's anybody from that field on this forum, what is the job like? Is it difficult to get hired? |
Don't even have to Google to know the answer to that one. The difficulty to get hired for a job is dependant on the same parameters in any career:
1) The number of applicant's seeking to get into the same field increases the difficulty of being hired.
2) The number of vacancies looking to be field in the area of interest.
3) The applicant's ability to stand out among the other applicants as you want to stick in the mind of the person hiring.
Then depending on the specific career you get into the type of interview questions and tests the applicant will have to deal with. The specific career also dictates the specific contents of your resume and portfolio.
Doing a search for job listings of a Bioinformatics Programmer/Engineer most of them had similar requirements (well a Senior position required a Masters or PhD in two listings, just to throw that out there) to this:
- 3-5 years of strong biological and/or chemical research oriented software programming skills and object oriented design/programming experience - Experience with some of the following languages: PHP (recommended), JavaScript (recommended), Python (recommended), Matlab, Perl, C++, Java, R. - Experience with software architecture design. - Experience with relational databases. - Experience with software testing, including unit testing, regression testing, integration testing, etc. - Experience with Windows and UNIX/Linux. - Experience with HTML and CSS. - 3-5 years research programming experience - Experience with graph analysis and graph theory. - Experience with bioinformatics, including data processing and analysis using academic, commercial, or custom software. |
That is some impressive requirements, I must say.
closed account (j1CpDjzh)
Ahh, thank you so much for the input, ResidentBiscuit! Your university job sounds really interesting. At your other job, what kind of web apps do you write?
Thank you for all the research you've provided, BHX. I kind of knew about some of those requirements, but I didn't know they required HTML and CSS. It's a nice surprise. R and Matlab are new to me. Didn't even know they existed, so I'm going to look into what they're about. I am going for my PhD so I can get a higher rank job in the field. I know, like you said, and have proven, that I could've just Googled all of this, but I was curious to see if I could get an answer based on first hand experience (but I guess it's kind of a rare job because I didn't know what it was until not-too-long ago when I was researching programming careers in biology fields. When I found it, I knew it was exactly what I had been looking for, but I'm still not too familiar with what it's all really about. I just know the basics, and job requirements.)
Also, I don't know why myesolar's post doesn't show up for you, because it's still here for me?
Thank you for all the research you've provided, BHX. I kind of knew about some of those requirements, but I didn't know they required HTML and CSS. It's a nice surprise. R and Matlab are new to me. Didn't even know they existed, so I'm going to look into what they're about. I am going for my PhD so I can get a higher rank job in the field. I know, like you said, and have proven, that I could've just Googled all of this, but I was curious to see if I could get an answer based on first hand experience (but I guess it's kind of a rare job because I didn't know what it was until not-too-long ago when I was researching programming careers in biology fields. When I found it, I knew it was exactly what I had been looking for, but I'm still not too familiar with what it's all really about. I just know the basics, and job requirements.)
Also, I don't know why myesolar's post doesn't show up for you, because it's still here for me?
software engineers are pretty portable between industries, no need to focus too narrow. For example, I was just recently interviewing a bioinformatics programmer for a financial programming job, it's normal.
closed account (j1CpDjzh)
That's a good point, Cubbi. Being open minded about different opportunities is a good idea, rather than putting all my eggs in one basket with Bioinformatics.
At your other job, what kind of web apps do you write?I write web apps for internal health insurance claim management. It's just about as exciting as it sounds haha.
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