How important is programming knowledge/skills for IT professionals in general?

Dooling37

Senior member
Jun 7, 2000
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Well, the subject line pretty much says it all.
I'm looking to go into networking/information security field upon graduation in 6 months.
The only languages I know are: COBOL, VB, HTML, and JavaScript.
The bottom line is that I DETEST programming...it's just definitely not for me. I can't stand doing it, and would sooner be a McDonald's employee than write code for a living.
So, what I'm asking is if I go into an IT field other than as a programmer, how important is it for me to know programming anyways. For example, as a security consultant, might I need to understand how the code in different viruses work in order to better protect from them, or to understand how scripts and such can compromise security?

Thanks alot for your opinions. ;)
 

nd

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
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It's important to understand programming concepts, like how things are done behind the scenes, but you don't need to be a C++ guru or anything.

If you know COBOL and VB that should be sufficient, though I hardly consider HTML a programming language (it's a markup language)
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
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Necessary, hardly.
Useful, definitely.

I'm in the same boat - I despise programming. So, I went hardware/network administration.

While programming is not essential to my job, I can do so fun things with it.
 

kranky

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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What is useful is to know enough about the concepts of programming to be able to know what is possible (you don't have to be the one that does it, however). For example, you might be asked how long it would take to do something. If that will require someone to write code, you need to have an idea about how long it would take.
 

Ranger X

Lifer
Mar 18, 2000
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Knowing programming can make your work a lot easier but like most of the guys stated before, it's not a necessity. They will train you but if you have no background in programming, it could be a bit difficult for you.
 

DanC

Diamond Member
Jun 2, 2000
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<< would sooner be a McDonald's employee than write code for a living >>


Translation: would rather make $5.00 per hour than Sixty.

Visual C++ :)
 

>How important is programming knowledge/skills for IT professionals in general?
>It's really important if you're going to be programming....

Not if you are going to be coding Visual Basic :)
 

Dooling37

Senior member
Jun 7, 2000
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It's really important if you're going to be programming....
-------------------------

Brilliant, I never thought of that...
Thanks for your opinions, everyone.
 

Buddha Bart

Diamond Member
Oct 11, 1999
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actually if you want to be hard up into *nix security, a rather deep understanding of programing would be neccisary.

I'm in the same position. I'm hoping to go the networkadmin route. (college student being forced to take programing classes because the morons who set the curriculum are old and dumb enough to think that programing=computing)

bart
 

nd

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Security auditing requires extensive programming knowledge. Security admin probably does not, since it's basically administering configurations well, and keeping up with updates.
 

tim0thy

Golden Member
Oct 23, 2000
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doing stuff in unix, you will need to know shell languages (ansi c)... i hate programming too, doing it for 6 years, but working in IT industry, it definitely is helpful knowing it... gives you a slight edge... for sure.
 

Dooling37

Senior member
Jun 7, 2000
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&quot;I'm in the same position. I'm hoping to go the networkadmin route. (college student being forced to take programing classes because the morons who set the curriculum are old and dumb enough to think that programing=computing)&quot;
---------------------------------

Thank god someone else agrees with me.
<rant>I'm forced to take 12 credits of programming for my major, and then take networking classes as extra electives, b/c they aren't included in the requirements. I even went to speak to the dean of the program about possibly altering my schedule, a kind of individualized study program, but he would have nothing to do with it. Hopefully they'll at least alter it for future students, so they have a choice.</rant>