What career path does it take to be a programmer?

Many great careers stop at different points of the ladder and stay there through retirement. Some careers even skip rungs of the ladder. But management and leadership roles are not a fit for everyone, and you might find that your interest in management changes over the years. In your 20's you might hate the idea of being a manager, but in your 40's you might hate the idea of writing any more code. It is difficult to predict. However, it is always good to know and understand your options and their consequences.

1. 
   

   Take an introductory course in one (or all of them) of the following disciplines:

   
   

   
   

   Logic
   Discrete mathematics
   Programming language (take a part into the different programming paradigms, starting from sequential/procedural to object oriented, after functional and logical programming. Preferable Ruby/ Python/Pascal for beginners and after some good understanding go deeper into C++/C#/Java )

   
   

   
   


2. 
   

   Learn database concepts such as tables, views/queries and procedures. You can use any simple database package to do this, such as:

   
   

   
   

   MS Access
   DB V
   Fox Pro
   Paradox
   MySQL is a good database to learn because it’s free, commonly used, and databases are commonly accessed with SQL queries

   
   

   
   


3. 
   

   Decide what type of programmer you want to be. Programmers generally fall under one of the following categories:

   
   

   
   

   Web programmer
   Desktop application programmer
   Operating system (OS) oriented programmer(tied to a single operating system or set of operating systems)
   Platform-independent programmer
   Distributed applications programmer
   Library/platform/framework/core programmer
   System programmer
   Kernel programmer
   Driver programmer
   Compiler programmer
   Programming scientist

   
   

   
   


4. 
   

   Learn the technologies and programming languages related to your programming field of choice.

   
   

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