Thinking about going back to school for programming

[Juddog]

Background: I was a mainframe programmer for 4 1/2 years. I was doing great but got laid off when my company went under, and was unable to find another mainframe job as the job requirements for the positions at the time all skyrocketed to beyond my experience (typical requirements in that area of the country, at that time, were 10+ years experience, or 5+ of development experience). Jobs in other cities typically ignored my resume altogether and I got discouraged from the field and basically gave it up.

So I restarted back into customer support and have gotten into creating and maintaining my company windows image, doing deskside support, and supporting the executives. My company is steering me into the role of infrastructure, a role which I would gladly take, but it seems my skills are lacking and there isn't a vacuum yet for me to advance. I want to get back into programming again since I was good at it when working on the mainframe.

My question is this: If I were to go back to college to refresh my programming schools in order to aim for an infrastructure type role, which programming languages should I be looking to take? Would it be better to go in and go for a full bachelors of computer science, or would I be better off just getting started with some C++, VB and java courses and skip going for another degree?

My background: I have experience with C (yes before C++ became more common), Assembler, and mostly mainframe languages (COBOL, Easytrieve, CICS, DB2) and have an associates degree from 15 years ago, back before all of the newer styles of programming developed. Heck I remember coursework for the Assembler course which took 2 pages of code just to print out a couple lines of text on the screen. So I'm familiar enough with programming in general to do well, I just don't know the newer languages - at all.

The State schools in my area won't take the majority of credits from my associate's degree since it was a private institution; there are other private universities and such in the area that will transfer the credits but they are stupidly expensive compared with the state schools.

 

[CalvinHobbes]

I don't see how you could go wrong with a certificate program in C++, C# or VB .net.

 

[Cogman]

There is a big demand for COBAL programmers (Mostly for converting Cobal to newer languages). I would recommend getting some experience in C# and calling it good.

 

[Juddog]

Originally posted by: Cogman
There is a big demand for COBAL programmers (Mostly for converting Cobal to newer languages). I would recommend getting some experience in C# and calling it good.

Yeah that was one of the things I noticed when searching for a new job after my company (consolidated freightways) went under. I loved the people I worked with, got good performance reviews but all that meant jack when I was job searching since the majority of the open positions were for people that knew both COBOL / mainframe languages and PC client-server based languages, and most of the projects were to convert mainframe programs to client / server based ones.

Since I was lacking in the client / server department it basically took those opportunities away from me. What you say though is good news to me, it encourages me to go forward and try to learn more PC / client server languages if it means a good chance at a job running conversion programs.

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: Juddog

Originally posted by: Cogman
There is a big demand for COBAL programmers (Mostly for converting Cobal to newer languages). I would recommend getting some experience in C# and calling it good.

Yeah that was one of the things I noticed when searching for a new job after my company (consolidated freightways) went under. I loved the people I worked with, got good performance reviews but all that meant jack when I was job searching since the majority of the open positions were for people that knew both COBOL / mainframe languages and PC client-server based languages, and most of the projects were to convert mainframe programs to client / server based ones.

Since I was lacking in the client / server department it basically took those opportunities away from me. What you say though is good news to me, it encourages me to go forward and try to learn more PC / client server languages if it means a good chance at a job running conversion programs.

Currently that is what my brother is doing. He says their is a big market for it as only now are businesses starting to abandon Cobal for more maintainable languages. And heck, if you're familiar with programming like you say, it will be a cake walk to pick up C# or some other OO language. And once you get one down, you have them all pretty much.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: Cogman

Originally posted by: Juddog

Originally posted by: Cogman
There is a big demand for COBAL programmers (Mostly for converting Cobal to newer languages). I would recommend getting some experience in C# and calling it good.

Yeah that was one of the things I noticed when searching for a new job after my company (consolidated freightways) went under. I loved the people I worked with, got good performance reviews but all that meant jack when I was job searching since the majority of the open positions were for people that knew both COBOL / mainframe languages and PC client-server based languages, and most of the projects were to convert mainframe programs to client / server based ones.

Since I was lacking in the client / server department it basically took those opportunities away from me. What you say though is good news to me, it encourages me to go forward and try to learn more PC / client server languages if it means a good chance at a job running conversion programs.

Currently that is what my brother is doing. He says their is a big market for it as only now are businesses starting to abandon Cobal for more maintainable languages. And heck, if you're familiar with programming like you say, it will be a cake walk to pick up C# or some other OO language. And once you get one down, you have them all pretty much.

Yup, if you can code C and assembler, all you really need to learn is the OO concepts and design patterns. In terms of syntax all these 'new' languages are curly bracket style like C - PHP, C#, Java, etc etc.

 

[SJP0tato]

Originally posted by: JuddogIf I were to go back to college to refresh my programming schools in order to aim for an infrastructure type role, which programming languages should I be looking to take?

I may be stating the obvious, in which case I apologize:

Most of the "computer" degrees you can earn in college (Computer Science, Computer Engineering) won't teach very much other than the core concepts of languages. As far as becoming proficient in anything it'll still be 90% up to you to teach yourself to use them. Computer Information Systems is an alternative where I've heard they teach you more of the mechanics of the language (typically .net in my area), but the bulk (probably 80%) of the course is business related.

As long as you go into the program with the understanding they won't really teach you how to program, you'll likely excel given your programming background. And a developer who is able to use the fundamentals learned during their study have a good foundation to become great programmers.

On the other side you have "boot camp" programs, which are as useful as you make them. Sometimes they're just what you need to get started, and you can take things from there by yourself if you're motivated. Just remember most employers don't put much credit into courses like this, they always want experience. This leads to the "how do I get experience if I can't get a job without experience" problem.

Best of luck!

 

[Modelworks]

If you know assembler then look at programming embedded devices. It requires some electrical engineering knowledge, but nothing major to get started or get a job with it. The main issue is finding people who can code assembly and do it with some proficiency.

The embedded market is huge, even bigger than the pc/server market. Cell phones, mobile devices like mp3 players, etc.

 

[brianmanahan]

Originally posted by: Cogman
There is a big demand for COBAL programmers

It is COBOL, COmmon Business-Oriented Language.

 

[chronodekar]

Originally posted by: brianmanahan

Originally posted by: Cogman
There is a big demand for COBAL programmers

It is COBOL, COmmon Business-Oriented Language.

Thanks. I was beginning to wonder if something new came up without me noticing.

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: brianmanahan

Originally posted by: Cogman
There is a big demand for COBAL programmers

It is COBOL, COmmon Business-Oriented Language.

It's Dead. Completely Outdated Bad Old Language.

 

[schenley101]

COBOL in not dead. almost every bank uses it for almost every transaction. it is also an easy language to learn.

 

[pdusen]

You have an interesting definition of "every". In this area, at least, most financial institutions have moved on to newer systems.

Anyway, if a language is consistently not being used for new projects (which is clearly true of COBOL), then I think that classifies it as dead.