Programming Or IT?

w00t · 08-01-2002, 11:08 PM

Which would you guys reccomend more:
Going to school to become a Professional Programmer,
Or
Going to school to become a systems/network analyst.
Looking forward to your enlightened replies.

redhead · 08-02-2002, 05:08 AM

Theres a thin line in the two.
Beeing a professional programmer, you need to know somethig about how the system works.
Beeing a Sys Admin, you need to know how to solve problems with programming skills.

Naturaly, becomming a professional programmer, will teach you the basic structures of how to make an effecient program, aswell as give you insight into almost every programming language.
Where beeing a Sys Admin, will only teach you the basic programming languages, like C/perl/python/shell-scripting. And finding a usable programming structure is up to you, to develop.

But on the other hand, Becomming a Sys Admin will give you great insight, as to how the network is functioning, with switches/routers and such, as a professionel programmer, you will learn this part at a much lower level ie:
Network level 1-3 is located on the NIC, you need to create level 4 and 5, which will figure out what program the package is intended for, and decifer the data it's containing.

You just gotta figure out, where your passion is, if you like to sit and munch code at 4am. (like some of us) Then it's Programmer you should become. If you like to take apart your machine, and see what the latest gizmo wil do, when inserted. (like some of us) Then it's Sys Admin, you should try.

sde · 08-02-2002, 06:21 AM

when i was a kid, i wanted to be a magician .. well, i can't do much more than make a quarter disappear, but sometimes when i sit with some code for a couple hours, after successfully debugging it, i get the feeling like i just made a 747 disappear

like redhead says. . . find where your passion is .. and if you still can't decide, learn both!

Admin · 08-02-2002, 11:05 AM

mike you gotta show me that trick! haha

i do my 40+ hours a week as a sys. admin, then i go home and write some code for up to 6 hours a night...

getting a new networking running or debugging some ****ty application for out accounting department is rewarding... but then again so is writing code...

blah, im absolutly no help.

sde · 08-02-2002, 11:25 AM

so what about a network programmer? that would be the best of both worlds no?

i wanna code multimedia tools like audio/video utilities, or game programming.. that would be cool, .. but i'm far from that level of skills as of now.

abc123 · 08-03-2002, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by redhead

Where beeing a Sys Admin, will only teach you the basic programming languages, like C/perl/python/shell-scripting. And finding a usable programming structure is up to you, to develop.

since when is c a basic language...

toe_cutter · 08-07-2002, 05:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by abc123

since when is c a basic language...

When it became the standard most schools of higher learning teach. This includes C++. Besides those others are just scripting languages.

Toe

abc123 · 08-08-2002, 02:23 AM

erm, huh? i have absolutely no idea what you are talking about....

w00t · 08-08-2002, 03:53 PM

And you call yourself a geek?

Hrqls · 08-20-2002, 10:00 AM

making a quarter disappear ? hmm that isnt that tough .. my girlfriend is a real archwizard then ... she has no problem at all making biljets of 100 euro disappear

i am not sure .. but becoming a sys-op sounds to me like it could become boring at some time ... when you dont have anything new anymore ... (although the os's will keep on developing so that might not be true) .. but as a programmer you will encounter (or invent) new things each day (i think) (wow do i ?

)