[Tutor] Real world experience

[Alan Gauld]

On 12/05/14 01:12, C Smith wrote:
> I have never known anyone that works in this industry. I got one job
> transforming xml (should have used xslt, ended up using sed and python
> regex scripts) where the guy asked me how much I wanted and I threw
> 200 bucks out there because I could get a room for two weeks at that
> cost. He just laughed and handed me the money.

I'm sure he did. That would be a reasonable rate per day
for contract IT staff.

> I am still completely in the dark about what level of difficulty I
> would be facing in the professional world.

You would be expected to work on bigger projects that you have likely 
seen before (think 10,000 lines of code to upwards of 10 million lines.)

You could be expected to work as pat of a team - anything from 4 to 400 
other developers. That will involve following standardized practices, 
using standard notations and naming conventions and so on.

You could be expected to work on things that, if they go wrong, could 
kill people - think aircraft control software, or railroad signalling 
systems - or bring the world finance system to its knees - think
high speed stock trading systems...

You might be expected to write comprehensive documentation - 
requirements, project plans, quality plans, architecture,
design, test specifications, user guides, installation guides,
tech support notes etc. on top of writing the code.

> If this is difficult at all for me, is there hope to think about
> making money in this field?

Sure, there are lots of small web type companies building sites for 
other small businesses that churn out pretty standard online presence. 
Many of those folks are not University trained (although they probably 
have done a lot of coding)

> What level of experience are the people at who make 100k a year?

Usually experience of many different types of project from small
1-4 man teams up to very large 100+ teams and short (few days or weeks)
to long term (several years). They probably also have management 
experience, looking after teams of programmers. They should also
have some experience of dealing with non technical business
types and of managing budgets. And of course a wide knowledge of
the IT industry and its technologies (networks, databases,
hardware interfaces...) as well as probably a specialised area of 
knowledge in business - banking, call centres, telecomms, gaming etc

> Sorry if this is off-topic for the list

Way off topic! :-)
But probably of interest to a significant minority of the readers.

Maybe you could look at newsgroups like comp.software-eng to
see the kind of stuff pros discuss. The kinds of problems
they are asking questions about.

Also look at the job sites and read the job specs carefully.
Ask how much of whats being asked could I do?



-- 
Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alangauldphotos