Switching Careers to Java? It's never to late, is it?

[/-ICEpik]

From: An over analyzing individual.
To: Anyone who can give experience or advise.

Situation:
Your a 36+ year old Electronics geek with over 10+ years experience with Industrial Controls & Automation and your programming skills are minimal to that of PLC's. Still, you want to follow your interest and passion to learn programming, specifically JAVA, and apply that knowledge.

Nevertheless, you fear that you will not be able to market yourself affectively given your lack of direct experience, even after you've finished your continuing education. You think to yourself, how can I switch careers and how can I gain programming experience to break into a field that seems to be saturated with guru's that have 10 times what you have.

Of course, you see the risk's but your press on because this is what you want to do. Is it unrealistic? Is it beyond reach? Can I apply JAVA to my current field of work and make a go of this?

Thus, you ask is there anyone who can relate and give you insight that will set your mind at ease?

[levent]

For "Industrial Controls & Automation" (ICA), i think it will be difficult. I guess you need to research on it. In which areas of ICA, Java is used. If it is used and if there are enough jobs for that then you can learn Java in my opinion. But if you plan to switch to software engineering directly instead of finding a relation with Java and your current job, that can be a difficult aim if you don't have lots of ambition to achieve this..

[/-ICEpik]

I agree with you, which is why I am distressed about it. Still, ambition I have, it's the experience hump that I have to get over that is the real challenge. Getting my foot in the door will be hard for sure, this is why I thought, if I could find an arena in my current field that involves programming and where my past experience, and skills could at least help me get a foot in the door. A starting point of sorts...

I think at this point my best shot is networking with someone in a related ICA job. I am basing a lot of this career change on making a somewhat lateral move into an entry level programming position. A long shot, but I will keep pressing on.

Thanks for your comments Levent.

[cruxblack]

Let's give my case, my course are civil engineering, even further distance than ur course with Java, since electronics and computer fit closer than concrete with computer

I know nothing bout programming 2 years ago, n it's only been half a year after my introduction with Java, only with a very minor base from C++, but i love programming the moment i touch them, still do now, the hope and faith keeps drawing me and eventually i had learn quite an amount so far

So, just have hope and faith, a little luck would help too

But to be sure, Java ain't really that hard, the language are rather easy to digest, since it implements the object oriented feature, the hard parts mostly relies on how to master the API, knowing the classes are quite a hell with all thousands of those .java API in the srczip from java 6

Keep up the effort, nothing is impossible

[/-ICEpik]

cruxblack,

Boy that is a transition, Civil Engineering to Programming, I salute you.

I appreciate the response and the motivation. Programming is a new challenge for me but I guess I am drawn to it, mostly out of shear curiosity and excitement to learn.

Most of the people I talk to tell me that practice makes perfect, go out and learn as much and code as much as you can.. I will do just that.

I find in researching the Web that projects are few and far between for Beginners, especially in the Industrial Controls field. I appreciate any other advise you might have in making the career transition to programming. Your situation sounds more complex than my own and I can guess that it has not been an easy road for you.

I wish you luck in your endeavors and thank you again for your response.

Joe

[johnJava]

Here is a real story you may be interested in:
A friend who got a MBA and decided to jump into the Java world without any real JOB experience and formal training. After learning Java for awhile, he found very difficult in both actually understanding these virtual concepts and landing a Java entry level job. He decided to have a Java project while learning it: writing a Java book. He finally made it and had the book published. With this book as his resume, he easily landed a job as an Java architect in a major internet service company.

[cruxblack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnJava

After learning Java for awhile, he found very difficult in both actually understanding these virtual concepts and landing a Java entry level job

Wow, whats your friend name?
Like to read the book he wrote

[Nicholas Jordan]

I am using johnJava's approach, though I am not going the book publishing avenue. I mentioned something to a book publisher, emial someone on the masthead directly because I knew enough about how companies worked to guage how big the company was and how likely to get read.

A big excitement at the book publisher in the upper echelon the next morning and I had to say, uh,... it was just an idea: I am not qualified. The field is smaller than trainers would have us believe, dramatically smaller - but companies are interested in anyone who will actually work. An undergraduate thesis could be ( and I emaphsis should be ) a platform for doing the johnJava approch.

Over half the programming market is in actuality Process Control, Insturmentation, Signal, Routing and so on. The Bloated Business App is appealing as a Study Model, but do not be swamped in by the Role Playing that I see in it. A large, scalable app would be an ultra-good place to start because you will be made to yo-yo trying to grasp some of the 'it does not matter' attitude of some code and some heavyweights.

Java, actually written in C, is a wrapper for actual machine level instructions such as you will be familiar with that has an unusually rich library of powerfull, professionally written tools.

Start with David J. Eck "Introduction to Programming Using Java, Fifth Edition" Online and Free - usage intended for study

math.hws.edu/javanotes/

That is step-ahead, skip the verbose, time-wasting 'explain it' style that is tightly focused on selling books by the Pallet Load.

[arulk]

It is never too late. I switched from being a mechanical engineer for 5 years. I am currently very happy with Java. I have been contracting for multi-nationtional companies for the past 5 years and have published two books on Java/J2EE career.


The books are entitled Java/J2EE Job INterview Companion & Java/JEE Resume Companion.

[arulk]

Things are much more difficult now, but if you have the passion, nothing is impossoble.

[Aikon]

reading this thread left me thinking. Personally i am not dedicated in any particular line of IT. I do jobs both in development and also in electronics (namely mobile phones). To make it simple i have quite a broad spectrum in the IT world (some call me the bit** of IT). Do you agree with me however that if one is in IT nowadays he can grow and learn as long as he/she feels the love towards technology especially if you are a tech-addict? There is no age limit (as long as you are healthy). I do believe in a life long learning experience.

thanks for any feedback

[Nicholas Jordan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aikon

...Do you agree with me however that if one is in IT nowadays he can grow and learn as long as he/she feels the love towards technology especially if you are a tech-addict? There is no age limit (as long as you are healthy). I do believe in a life long learning experience.

thanks for any feedback

I believe people you know in IT are much better than the resume effort. I have heard of stacks of resume's two meters tall in HR that never get read. I have a commercial mailing house and with ten thousand dollars ( which I do not have ) to waste on senseless bloating of my mailbox ( which I do not plan to do ) I could send resume's at the rate of a thousand a day. I do not even have a resume, other than a work history for the last decade, and do not plan on sitting still in front of anyone who asks for a resume. What the approach seems to be that is effective is do the books and study and resume or whatever else you can find until you get at least one job in IT - which obviously you already have. Then and from that point if at all possible gain work by information and contacts found with that work. I had one strong job lead I accomplished by participating in these discussion groups. I could not give the lead further contemplation as the shop practiced 40 hours, then turn off the pager and go tend your personal business.

Most of my projects would swamp reasonable budget projections and if I did that sort of attitude, I would only be a projectile - leaving the project in a graceful exit. One developes what may be called "Attitoad's Attitude" and if the buzzer goes off at the plant two miles away at 2:59 AM, you probaly know about it several minutes before it does because one is so finely attuned to the project that you eat it and sleep it and live it. Tech-addict may survive at a lower strata, but beware the resume game: Too many interview works are the work of someone who has never and will never grasp what a shift-op is or really grasp anything beyond what is properly the purvey of HR - Human Interaction ...

The native state of a true Techie is mistakenly labeled as anti-social. It is not any such thing, just a focus on technical issues or some wording to that end. They will also, mistakenly, say that tech people have an eye for detail. Their idea of detail does not match my idea of detail. Sorta like glycerine suppository, one would not wish nitro-glycerine in their suppositional exposition which is sort like resume's to me.