topic

How long have you been programming?

What formal education have you done in Software Development?

You'd have to list what/if any programming experience you have?

What skills/methodologies (both design and development) you know?

Project methodologies you are familiar with?

Tertiary Skills you have (e.g Database, Networking, Hardware)?

There is alot more to being a programmer than just typing code. You usually have to be fairly proficient at requirements gathering, analysis, design, code maintenance, implementation, database development.

Formal Education?
I have just started a month ago!
No experience
no methodologies/skills
No tertiary skills
See what I mean?

Think of it like this. If someone gave you your first car, and you had no experience with them at all. After driving it for a week or two, would you expect a job as a mechanic?

This is really the same thing. You have to ask yourself, "what can I offer to an employee that is going to make me a good hire?"

You should expect to not get a job until you have very proficient in atleast 1 language, preferably at this point you are able to program in 2-3 languages with no problems. You will need to have a good grasp on some methodologies and some tertiary skills to match.

There is ALOT more to being a programmer/software developer than just learning to compile code. That in itself is maybe 5% of the job.

True, I am but a teen. :(
I can wait, but my stupid high school curriculum only has programming in BASIC.

Nothing wrong with taking BASIC. Most procedural languages are roughly the same anyway; just semantics of how you actually write the code that makes them different.

If they offer a course that is more than just the language, one that actually teaches re-usable techniques then it would be highly beneficial to take the class.

My first language was Visual Basic. The language wasn't important, but I learnt some valuable and re-usable techniques that apply to software development in general.

Edit: Why do you want to work in SW already? Spend your time playing video games, using your newly acquired coding skills to make game-mods etc. Working in the SW industry is not fun.

Dost I detecteth a mite bit of sarcasm?

I just would rather learn c++ than BASIC.

Edit:

Edit: Why do you want to work in SW already? Spend your time playing video games, using your newly acquired coding skills to make game-mods etc. Working in the SW industry is not fun.

THIS is what I thought was sarcasm.

No sarcasm. SW Dev is not a "fun" job. It's a lot of work, a lot of politics and most jobs have a lot of stress/pressure because the data you are working with is usually important. However, SW Dev can be interesting, and a challenge.

Alot of people say working for google is "fun". I wouldn't class a job where I have to optimise online ads as "fun". Evil yes, Fun no.

You will learn C++, and be expected to program in at least 2-3 others to get a decent job. You cannot restrict yourself to knowing just 1 language and expect to get a decent career choice.

As I said, Language is just a small part of being a programmer. So it's beneficial to know more than 1 language.

The best way to break into an industry like Game Development is to start making modifications to games. This usually involves programming at some level.

It's a good way to get a familiar with how doing maintenance programming on large systems will take place, as well as quickly having to become familiar with someone else's programs to alter them. The added benefit is that you get to see your changes take shape within the game very quickly, without having to learn to use some huge, boring, business application. There are many benefits to learning how to mod games.

Counter-Strike Source. Was started about 10yrs ago (I know, I played first versions) as a free modification for Half-Life. Valve subsequently bought the rights to it, hired the developers and made Source. Same deal with Team Fortress.

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I know your an eagar coder who wants to put your skills to a practical use. If you are really really keen, why not contribute to an open source project on sourceforge? It's a good way to get access to other peoples code, contribute your own code and get a reputation and portfolio behind you.