Entry Level Programmer?

Hi folks. I am hoping to start a coop term in the upcoming spring semester as a programmer. I'm a bit nervous as I feel as I'm not prepared but I guess that is to be expected. I'm a mathematics student who has taken programming course in matlab, mathematica, C, and javascript. I just feel like my computer skills may be a bit inferior compared to a CS student, who continuously use there skills in course work while I may take a programming course one semester and not do anything involving programming the next semester. I was wondering if you all can remember your first assignments as either a coop, intern, or post-graduate? What did it involve, how difficult was it, what do you all feel are the most important aspects of programming? Any other tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.





Thanks...

Entry Level Programmer?
I think I am one of the rare birds in our industry. I don't have a CS degree, but I have been in the industry for 20+ years and been a success (for the most part).





The best advise I can give you is learn, understand, live, breathe, and make no mistake, be able to teach -- OOP. Object Oriented Programming... the concepts, the underlying architecture... all languages are heading to OOP. So once you move from procedure oriented programming to object oriented programming, you find the only differences in the languages is syntax.





Next, learn UML. Unified Modeling Language is VERY important because that is how you are going to be able to communicate with your non-technical people. A picture is worth 10K words in this case.





Lastly, remember that no matter what you are doing, you don't know enough. Computer science is a constantly evolving science that will never be able to learn _everything_ you need. So fall in love with learning. Know that it is ok to ask questions. Understand that if someone is not willing to share their knowledge with you, then they -most likely- not someone you want to be around. They are truly counter to the culture of success that modern IT shops need.
Reply:I have a CS degree and have been working in industry for almost four years now.





Although I would agree that you may need to learn a few things, it all depends on your role in the company, and the scopes of the projects. Keep in mind that depending on the type of company you will work for, it may range from developing large enterprise projects, to quick and dirty small projects, to massive games, to mobile games, etc... the expertise required for these are all VASTLY different. For example:





UML - is required for large projects that involve more than two developers. For quick and dirty projects UML is a waste of time and resources (I like UML, never use it because of the projects my company brings in).





Java - learn it, end of story, trust me on this one (take a look at Java Micro Edition as well if your role will involve mobile development)...





Javascript - learn it if your role involves web development





PHP - learn it for web development, used mostly for quick and dirty applications (ones that would normally take too long with .NET and Java)





To be honest, what I learned when I started off is that UNI teaches you ONE thing, and ONE thing only: "You learn, how to learn" thats it. The rest is rubbish that you forget after a piss-up at the local pub.





You will be fine, just remember, a programmer is NOT a dude that writes syntax, a programmer is a problem solver. Thats all...
Reply:It really depending on the company you co-op with. The intern that I had worked with, usually don't get anything important to do.


Anything they do have to be wrapped up in 10 weeks period, so they usual work with small few weeks project. The majority of the time was testing software, sometimes fixing small bugs or add minor features. After all, if they give you something important and that get screwed up, who are they going to nail after 3 months. So don't lose sleep over it. Having said that you should read up on whatever language or tools they are using. Oh yeah, go fetch my coffee. LOL.