EP82

Hi,

I am just wondering how i should go about making the jump from working in IT support to development?

I have sql, php, mysql skills but am looking to get into VB and .NET, etc. Are there any courses or websites i can start to try and learn the skills necessary to be able to start applying for junior roles?

I really don't want to be stuck in support all of my life, so need to start looking toward to future now.

Any help would be great.

Cheers

Tim

ChefDude

have you talked to your manager? might be easier to cross train at your current site.

EP82

Our system isnt developed in house, i have to support it, and work with the SQL Database it uses but as for developing thats all done by a third party company we work very closely with.

TopBanana

Try applying to them for a job

RichB

Good luck, my girlfriend started as a Japanese localisation engineer (with a degree is S Eng and Maths), then moved to support, then QA and then development, ended up as senior software engineer contracted out to big mobile company so it can be done.

If you are totally new to a technology I have found Webmonkey to be good as an initial introduction. Try some tutorials....

Iain Young

I started off in QA and moved over to development a few years ago. Used the QA period to get a good working knowledge of programming techniques and languages by both writing software utilities to help me in my job, and by talking to the developers who were writing the code I was testing. When a dev position appeared in our company, I applied for it, got it, and have been doing it ever since.

From what I've heard, when applying for dev jobs, you almost always need some sort of formal qualifications in the subject, and it definitely helps if you have experience as well. That's why it is much easier to get your foot in the door if you can just move position within the same company, as they already know what your work is like etc...

EP82

Is QA and Testing realtivley easy to get into?

What does it involve, etc.

In the meantime i've just found a website with a few tutorials, i'm self taught in PHP so i'll do the same with .net and hopefully land myself a junior role of some sort.

Iain Young

Judging by some of the "experienced" testers I've inetrviewed over the years, I'd say that it's deinitely easier to get into than development

What testing involves depends greatly on the company you work for and the type of software you are testing. For example, my firm writes development tools (cobol compilers, code analysis tools, mainframe offloading solutions etc). In order to test this stuff you have to do some programming with the tools themselves, and so you learn the techniques fairly quickly.

If you worked for a company that wrote software for vending machines then I guess the scope for learning new stuff would be a lot more limited.

Sounds like a good idea. Be careful that the website tutorials don't teach you bad habits though. Might be a good idea to get yourself a good OO book. That should help teach you good structured programming techniques

stevencotton

Well, one technique at least, OO

RichB

Testing can be (and usually is) very boring and repetetive work therefore contractors doing testing can earn very good money - my neighbour is one and he does rake it in, mind you has no social life and is totally motivated by money, it's all he talks about. Sad if you ask me but then I'm a programmer by trade and probably earn 1/3 what he does but I work from home, when I want for who I want...

If you've self taught PHP and can write using classes/methods then the pricicpals are similar, just the syntax changes... As long as you have a good understanding of programming you should be able to learn any new language.

Iain Young

True

Was just thinking that getting information from a well reviewed book might be better than learning from a website which might be teaching all sorts of bad practices...

True. I did this for 5 years before turning over to development. Mine was one of the more interesting testing roles, but it was still pretty mindnumbing at times...

On the flip side, I have far less time for a social life since becoming a programmer. Not unusal to be working 12+ hours a day, 7 days a week

Which is why I suggested a good OO book. Whilst teaching you (obviously) OO programming techniques, it should also show you how to structure code for easy maintainence and readability. Something you'll come to appreciate when trying to debug stuff that you wrote x years ago

EP82

Well i find the easiest way to learn something is come up with a problem and then work towards a solution.

I am going to create a customer database and booking system that can be used in salons, etc.

My g/f rents a room at a salon so i'll have a word with her, see what info they need, etc. Develop it along side their salon and if the woman who owns the salon likes it then we can look at implementing it.

Thanks for the help

TopBanana

Good call. If you ask me, teaching yourself is better than sitting in a classroom with someone harping on at you for hours on end.

stevencotton

As long as you teach yourself well. As Iain pointed out, it's very easy to
teach yourself horrendous practices.

TopBanana

Unfortunately the only real way to learn best practices is on the job, from the senior developers in your team - so that will have to come later!

stevencotton

Not necessarily, practice is good enough, just make sure you follow good
practice. And if every 6 onths (or less) you don't look back on your own code
and wonder if you were smoking crack, then you're not learning

DrEvil

LOL - been there You look at old stuff and go 'well the hell was I thinking!'

Iain Young

I still do that

TopBanana

Funny - I look at my code and think 'what the hell am I doing with my life?'... but maybe that's just me