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Seeking advice

  • 22-07-2014 9:52pm
    #1
    Fate Amenable To Change
    Registered Users Posts: 223 ✭✭


    Hey guys(and girls) I said here would be easiest to ask as there's a lot of experienced developers here. I'm halfway through a 4 year IT course. I've fairly good grades and the main thrust of programming so far has been taught through Java. There'll be more taught than that in the next two years, but with a relatively large amount of free time I'm wondering what could I spend time learning to make myself more employable. As in I have time to build a few programs and explore stuff in more than just whats taught on the course, so what would make me more employable if I spent time on it?


Comments

  • #2
    TrueDub
    Moderators, Sports Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators Posts: 2,637 Mod ✭✭✭✭TrueDub


    Pick an area you're interested in, and investigate what open source projects are available in that area. Then pick one, download it and work your way through it.

    If you enjoy doing this, and you think you have an enhancement to contribute, do so.

    By doing all this, you'll learn about things like source control, testing and understanding other peoples' code.

    Good luck with it, and let us know how you get on.


  • #3
    Fate Amenable To Change
    Registered Users Posts: 223 ✭✭Fate Amenable To Change


    TrueDub wrote: »
    Pick an area you're interested in, and investigate what open source projects are available in that area. Then pick one, download it and work your way through it.

    If you enjoy doing this, and you think you have an enhancement to contribute, do so.

    By doing all this, you'll learn about things like source control, testing and understanding other peoples' code.

    Good luck with it, and let us know how you get on.

    Well I use fairly basic version control and testing already for my projects. I've honestly a general interest in most things programming so I'm trying to cut it down and trying to be more relevant; I've dabbled in arduino and embedded systems, android dev, etc. About the only thing I don't like is networking and cisco. Hell I don't even mind SQL. So I'm trying to focus on something and then if I don't like it I'll pursue something else. What I'm looking for is that given I've spent 2 years on Java what could I add to that to make me more employable assuming I already know the ins and outs of version control and testing.

    Thanks though andI'll definitely be looking for a few open source projects :)


  • #4
    Buzz Killington the third
    Closed Accounts Posts: 938 ✭✭✭Buzz Killington the third


    objective c would always stand to you in my opinion.


  • #5
    Fate Amenable To Change
    Registered Users Posts: 223 ✭✭Fate Amenable To Change


    Buzz Killington the third wrote: »
    objective c would always stand to you in my opinion.

    I'm actually learning "C" as part of embedded systems but it feels like I'm going to be a jack of all trades rather than a specialist in anything. I've read posts previously about being a full stack developer etc.


  • #6
    counterpointaud
    Registered Users Posts: 403 ✭✭counterpointaud


    As it happens you're lucky! There's loads of stuff to choose from around the JVM.

    Maven, Gradle, Jenkins, Spring, JPA, JSP, JSF, Hibernate, New Relic, etc. etc.

    Maybe other languages on the JVM, Scala, Groovy etc.

    Also, if your aren't already, get familiar with Linux.


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  • #7
    Aswerty
    Registered Users Posts: 586 ✭✭✭Aswerty


    I think it would be more constructive to say what area in software engineering you'd like to work in and then people in those areas might be able to tell you whats important to employers. Otherwise you're just going to get a list of things that are common on job specs with no regards to whether you'd favour those jobs.

    I'd just point out that Java is heavily used in the enterprise world so most Java jobs will be for large corporations. Also as someone else has stated if you are staying with Java, learn you some Linux.


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