Jimbo

• How hard was it?
  I thought it was pretty easy, most of the time. Can't say any other field would have been the same though
• How many times did you have to take classes that weren't about programming?
  Every quarter, lest I drove myself to the brink of sanity. Also, a 4-year degree will require you to have a "well-rounded" education, including some liberal arts, natural sciences, etc... Also, there were lots of computer science classes where I wrote little if any code at all.
• What was the hardest thing you had to do?
  Don't remember.
• What was the easiest thing you had to do?
  Take the intro to programming sequence.

To people who are working professionally as programmers...

1. What is it like? Is it the same feel and atmosphere as working at home in your spare time for fun? Because i program in my spare time (I got tons because i'm home schooled) and it is often the most fun thing I've ever done in my life... Is it like that?
   It's certainly not the same as working at home. At home, I can skip between projects as I like, let them die off, change them, randomly code new "features" into them, etc, whereas at work, there is a number of procedures that have to be carried out, quality is much more important, and there are deadlines. Very short deadlines, in some cases. And while I do love my job, it does feel nice to go home at the end of the day.
2. I heard you usually have to learn new programming languages from time to time... Is that true? If so, how often is that a new programming language or update comes out? How hard is it to learn usually and how long does it often take?
   Varies by your job. If you're a web-developer, for instance, you might have one project in PHP, another in ASP.NET, followed by a third in Ruby. Also, each time one of those languages releases a new version, you should keep on top of what changes were made and how they might affect you. For me, I could get by with just using the languages we have at work, but I think it's fun to also try out other languages if for no other reason than to compare them.
3. How much do you make annually (if you don't mind answering )
   $75k/yr+
4. How much do you recommend being a programmer to others?
   As a rule, I don't. One reason, less competition for me . Another, it's really not for everyone. There's a certain way of thinking that is very important. Also, some people, while they might be great programmers, might not be suited to developing software and should consider keeping it as a hobby. Personal opinion though. Some people should be encouraged.
5. What types of things do you recommend for a new programmer to do in order to be more familiar with how the work-life will be?
   Depends on where you work. Be used to getting up before noon (though it's not always required).
6. What type of things do you do at work?
   Depends on your job. I write tests, test plans, internal tools, use the product to try and find any bugs our automation isn't catching, and sit in an annoying number of meetings. Amongst other things.
7. How much would you recommend trying to get masters/bachelors as opposed to just your AA? Do you know how much more money it usually brings in?
   Strongly recommend that you get a Bachelors if you're seriously considering software development as a career. It is a foot farther in the door for many companies (like Microsoft, Amazon, Adobe, etc...). A masters would help, of course, but isn't required.
8. How hard is it to find a job, and what is the usual amount people make? How common is it for people with a Masters in (Whatever programming field) to get a job with the higher up companies? How much do they usually make if they work for higher up companies (Example: Microsoft/Borland/Adobe)
   I thought it was easy, but the region I'm in has a lot of opportunities and there were several recruiting events at my school. I had a Bachelors and ended up at a "higher up company" as did several friends of mine (e.g. Microsoft, Amazon, Google to name a couple), so a Masters may only have come with a slight pay raise (at the cost of that much time in the industry). My salary is around starting pay for such a company. There are other places who will offer a starting pay in the $40k/yr range, so it really does depend on the company.

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Benoit

I'm finishing my first year of software engineering this week, so I'll take a stab at this;

How hard was it?;

None of it was hard. Lots of challenges though, and lots of fun.

How many times did you have to take classes that weren't about programming?

3 times: two maths and one elective.

What was the hardest thing you had to do?

The biggest challenge for me was wrapping my head around C++.

What was the easiest thing you had to do?

The C programming course, only because I had lots of prior experience in C. Embedded development was also easy (Motorola 68k assembly) and lots of fun!

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Jimbo

For my degree (BS), we used Java and C primarily. We never bothered with web development related technologies but for the databases class (wherein we used C# and MS SQL).

Anyone interested in the field should always consider trying new stuff, but VB.NET is not restricted to "beginners" or schools. It is still used quite a bit in industry and is a very viable language.

To each his own...

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redfiretruck

Thanks for the replies, read them all... Not really much to respond to them, but just so ya know I am reading them xD.

And as a further response, i looked into C and the segment of coding I pretty much became confused as hell at was the memory shifting... (If i remember right, the >>> and <<< command). I may know how to remember strings and data and stuff well, but memory shifting is a totally confusing idea for me atm xD.

But as a second note, I LOVE C... I mean, people call vb and delphi rapid app creation but screw that... C has MANY convenient codes that are also rapid (to name a few that caught my attention, ++int and pow(int,int)... )

Also, as for college... From what i know a masters is 150 units/ba is 120 and aa is 60 correct? Well, if i get a BA might as well get a masters right? I mean, its only 30 extra units :O.

I just hope financial aid is enough to handle my masters, wherever the hell i need to go to learn those courses xD.

Jimbo

It's just moving the specific bits back and forth. Quite useful for bitmasks, when you want to see if a specific bit is set (e.g. use 1<<n).

++ is handy, but most languages have pow supported somewhere in their base libraries (try Math.Pow for .NET). That said, have you tried building a UI in C yet? There's something to be said for rapid development. Also, C is a lot easier to write buggy code in (IMO).

30 units in this case is still a full year. Personally, I went for the 1 year of income.

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redfiretruck

Meh, 5 years ain't bad at all... I've already fully 100% decided to live with my mom (rent-free as long as I am in college and not lazily doing stuff xD) and financial aid takes care of it all... I mean, in my case college is better than work xD.

Lol ya... making a UI in C is definitely going to be something harder and bugs are definitely easier... But I'm just trying to make the best of a bad situation eh? . and math.pow is more than double the size of pow :O...

Jimbo

Meh, I got burned out after 3 years of college, quite glad I didn't have to do 4 or more. And the paycheck is certainly better than college, even if I have to pay my own rent and stuff now

As the pessimist that I'm usually not, I prefer not to make the best of a bad situation. It seems better to make the best of moving to a better situation. Of course, C still has it's place in the world, but it can be a difficult language to get the implementation correct ("it works for cases X..Y" != correct).

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Ancient Dragon

>>How many times did you have to take classes that weren't about programming?
At most universities and colleges the first 2 years are almost exclusively about other subjects, such as English, math, science, etc. A couple programming classes tossed in here and there, but mostly non-programming.

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lectricpharaoh

Maybe because it's a great little language?
C# is actually not Microsoft-only. Some of the classes that many people use (in particular, the Windows 'forms' classes) are MS-only, barring third-party clones such as Mono. However, the language itself, although developed by MS, is now an ECMA standard. Anyone could make a compliant C# compiler if they wanted, and C# compilers exist for more than just the MS-Windows platform.

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redfiretruck

I don't think I said the right word when I said microsoft only xD. I meant to ask if it was only the microsoft compiler that actually supported C# (Visual C#). But from what I have seen it is the best compiler, even if there are other ones that are C# compilers.

Ya, as far as money goes... I really don't care about how much money I'm making or spending or w/e... Just as long as i have a computer, food, a house and clothes I am perfectly happy with life.