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First Programming Jobs

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  • G GregScott

    I am only 18 and I've just graduated from high school and I am about to start university for systems engineering. I've never actually worked with any real programmers but i have co-op at an company where Iam writing a pretty extensive piece of software, that manipulates text files generated by PLC logic and HMI software. i was just wondering how old other people were when started programing and what kinds of programs they wrote.

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    Russell Jones
    wrote on last edited by
    #3

    hi, i played about with computers from about 9 years old. Wrote lots of games that used to keep us amused for hours, scrolling screen racers where you were a V at the top of the screen and picked up powerpacks for bonus points etc. Or my personal favourite, the ones where you managed a colony and assigned numbers of people to food mining etc. Studied Biochemistry at Uni as my school careers people recommended staying away from computing (i think they thought it was a bit of a fad at the time). I also thought that doing computing as a job would take away the hobby interest. Having worked out that science in the UK is seen as one of the lowest of all possible career paths. Low pay, toxic environment etc. I moved to MIS Support and then into developing internal systems for a company. I haven't looked back. I have however largely lost interest in hobby projects as I spend far too much time in front of a computer nowadays. I guess at somepoint i'll start doing more management work and the interest in hobby computing will return. If you can, deliver that "pretty extensive piece of software" in small discreet, verifiable chunks. You'll find it makes life much easier. My second professional job was a hugely complicated CRM system. I wish i'd known to break the problem down into small testable chunks back then Good luck with uni and the coding project Russ (Just started correspondence degree in maths and CS)

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    • C Chris Losinger

      i was 12 or 13 when i first started. i wrote a lot of stuff in BASIC (Pet, C-64, Amiga) - games, mostly. i did a very small bit of C-64 assembly, too. i taught myself Modula-2 when i was 17, because that's what they taught at the college i was going to attend the next year and i wanted to be ready. my first programming job was in '93, writing C for use in an embedded OS for scientific instruments (spectrophotometers).

      image processing toolkits | batch image processing | blogging

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      Russell Jones
      wrote on last edited by
      #4

      Chris Losinger wrote:

      my first programming job was in '93, writing C for use in an embedded OS for scientific instruments (spectrophotometers).

      I now know who wrote the code that plagued me for my years in the lab ;-) Which spectrometer company did you code for? Russ

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      • G GregScott

        I am only 18 and I've just graduated from high school and I am about to start university for systems engineering. I've never actually worked with any real programmers but i have co-op at an company where Iam writing a pretty extensive piece of software, that manipulates text files generated by PLC logic and HMI software. i was just wondering how old other people were when started programing and what kinds of programs they wrote.

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        Arun Immanuel
        wrote on last edited by
        #5

        I am only 20 and I first touched the key board at 15. I have created simple games in VB6,SUDOKU Solver and a Game Software to create our own games. Currently, I am doing my pre-final year and also parallely working from home for a company(located abroad) to create a product for ATM optimisation which integrates ASP.NET,MATLAB & SQL Server. Being a non IT student, I have learnt programming languages of my own. I have joined CodeProject to prepare for my campus interview.But the sad thing is most of the IT companies coming to our university are not recruiting students from Electronics Department. :(

        Regards, Arun Kumar.A

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        • R Russell Jones

          Chris Losinger wrote:

          my first programming job was in '93, writing C for use in an embedded OS for scientific instruments (spectrophotometers).

          I now know who wrote the code that plagued me for my years in the lab ;-) Which spectrometer company did you code for? Russ

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          Chris Losinger
          wrote on last edited by
          #6

          Russell Jones wrote:

          Which spectrometer company did you code for?

          it was called Milton Roy at the time, but i think they've been sold. we made Spectronic 20's (which everyone who ever took a college chemistry class probably used at one point) at the plant, in addition to the computerized things i worked on.

          image processing toolkits | batch image processing | blogging

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          • G GregScott

            I am only 18 and I've just graduated from high school and I am about to start university for systems engineering. I've never actually worked with any real programmers but i have co-op at an company where Iam writing a pretty extensive piece of software, that manipulates text files generated by PLC logic and HMI software. i was just wondering how old other people were when started programing and what kinds of programs they wrote.

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            Sam_c
            wrote on last edited by
            #7

            16 after high school at college, was VB with a teacher who harped on about pacsal and hated VB i wanted to do something interesting so learnt C++, now doing a years work experience using C, MFC, C# with ASP.net and anything else (vbscript) but safe to say i only started programming (proper) at 19-20 (21 now) why im still a newbie :) good luck and all the best for your new job

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            • G GregScott

              I am only 18 and I've just graduated from high school and I am about to start university for systems engineering. I've never actually worked with any real programmers but i have co-op at an company where Iam writing a pretty extensive piece of software, that manipulates text files generated by PLC logic and HMI software. i was just wondering how old other people were when started programing and what kinds of programs they wrote.

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              Colin Angus Mackay
              wrote on last edited by
              #8

              About 9 years old.


              Upcoming events: * Glasgow: SQL Server 2005 - XML and XML Query Plans, Mock Objects, SQL Server Reporting Services... Never write for other people. Write for yourself, because you have a passion for it. -- Marc Clifton My website

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              • A Arun Immanuel

                I am only 20 and I first touched the key board at 15. I have created simple games in VB6,SUDOKU Solver and a Game Software to create our own games. Currently, I am doing my pre-final year and also parallely working from home for a company(located abroad) to create a product for ATM optimisation which integrates ASP.NET,MATLAB & SQL Server. Being a non IT student, I have learnt programming languages of my own. I have joined CodeProject to prepare for my campus interview.But the sad thing is most of the IT companies coming to our university are not recruiting students from Electronics Department. :(

                Regards, Arun Kumar.A

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                Sathesh Sakthivel
                wrote on last edited by
                #9

                Hey Arun Kumar you are studying in which University. Here in India we are recruiting lot of students through campus Interview only. the Dept were CSE,IT,EEE,ECE,M.C.A., will be given first preference.

                Regards, Satips.

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                • G GregScott

                  I am only 18 and I've just graduated from high school and I am about to start university for systems engineering. I've never actually worked with any real programmers but i have co-op at an company where Iam writing a pretty extensive piece of software, that manipulates text files generated by PLC logic and HMI software. i was just wondering how old other people were when started programing and what kinds of programs they wrote.

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                  GregScott
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #10

                  This is all very cool. I actually first started programing in vb6 when i was 11 i made very simple games, since that Ive mostly used vb and i moved to vb.net when i was in grade11. But now just in the last few month Ive been teaching my self AVR C I am hoping it will help me get ahead start when I am in university.

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                  • S Sathesh Sakthivel

                    Hey Arun Kumar you are studying in which University. Here in India we are recruiting lot of students through campus Interview only. the Dept were CSE,IT,EEE,ECE,M.C.A., will be given first preference.

                    Regards, Satips.

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                    Rama Krishna Vavilala
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #11

                    He is studying in MIT:)

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                    • G GregScott

                      I am only 18 and I've just graduated from high school and I am about to start university for systems engineering. I've never actually worked with any real programmers but i have co-op at an company where Iam writing a pretty extensive piece of software, that manipulates text files generated by PLC logic and HMI software. i was just wondering how old other people were when started programing and what kinds of programs they wrote.

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                      Tim Carmichael
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #12

                      Having read the other replies, I now feel VERY old... I started using computers in 1980 (Commodore PET) and had my first programming job with in college (1983/84) working on an IBC PC clone (8088) writing a package for a hospital pharmacy to do inventory control and patient prescription tracking. Since then, I have worked for over 20 years commercially on Digital VMS systems (Fortran, Assembler, C) and Windows (VB 6, VB.NET) in manufacturing environments. Most of the applications I work on are background data collection, so GUI is NOT my strong point. :laugh: Tim

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                      • G GregScott

                        I am only 18 and I've just graduated from high school and I am about to start university for systems engineering. I've never actually worked with any real programmers but i have co-op at an company where Iam writing a pretty extensive piece of software, that manipulates text files generated by PLC logic and HMI software. i was just wondering how old other people were when started programing and what kinds of programs they wrote.

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                        Pete OHanlon
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #13

                        9 year old, and I started off writing simple little applications, like a ratings system for my Marvel collection.

                        Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.

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                        • G GregScott

                          I am only 18 and I've just graduated from high school and I am about to start university for systems engineering. I've never actually worked with any real programmers but i have co-op at an company where Iam writing a pretty extensive piece of software, that manipulates text files generated by PLC logic and HMI software. i was just wondering how old other people were when started programing and what kinds of programs they wrote.

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                          Tarakeshwar Reddy
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #14

                          I started programming when I was 13. Started of with GWBASIC, went on to learn Pascal, C, C++, dbase, foxpro. My first full fledged development of a software product was in my final year of college. Created a software which fetched data from PLC's and passed it on to the servers for processing. It had a little to do with electronics also, the initial transmission was done via RF and then passed on to the server using a modem.

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                          • S Sathesh Sakthivel

                            Hey Arun Kumar you are studying in which University. Here in India we are recruiting lot of students through campus Interview only. the Dept were CSE,IT,EEE,ECE,M.C.A., will be given first preference.

                            Regards, Satips.

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                            Arun Immanuel
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #15

                            As the other GEM said, I am studying at MIT.. But I am from EIE and we are not allowed to attend dream companies.

                            Regards, Arun Kumar.A

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                            • G GregScott

                              I am only 18 and I've just graduated from high school and I am about to start university for systems engineering. I've never actually worked with any real programmers but i have co-op at an company where Iam writing a pretty extensive piece of software, that manipulates text files generated by PLC logic and HMI software. i was just wondering how old other people were when started programing and what kinds of programs they wrote.

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                              Paul Brower
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #16

                              I was 10, when I wrote my first program on a Vic 20 ... it changed the screen colors randomly ... ... oh wait ... you mean REAL job? I was about 20.

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                              • G GregScott

                                I am only 18 and I've just graduated from high school and I am about to start university for systems engineering. I've never actually worked with any real programmers but i have co-op at an company where Iam writing a pretty extensive piece of software, that manipulates text files generated by PLC logic and HMI software. i was just wondering how old other people were when started programing and what kinds of programs they wrote.

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                                El Corazon
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #17

                                Gregor J. Scott wrote:

                                i was just wondering how old other people were when started programing and what kinds of programs they wrote.

                                my first programming was writing games in high school, age 15. I rewrote the school's report card system at 16, because the typing teacher knew nothing about computers, but got assigned it because it had a keyboard. It was broken, horribly so, and buggy as your worst nightmare code, so I fixed it during lunch hours. The payment for that was... complicated. I taught programming, unofficially, at the college at age 17. The teacher was not great, so I made arrangements to hold a "study group" in the same room after class (evening classes). After the teacher left, I got up and taught what he just confused the class about. :) My first paid programming job was at 20, I never did the co-op, though I am one of its strongest proponents at work now to bring in co-ops for us. I went straight in full-time accounting programming, while writing games on the side still. I've done the share-ware thing, free-ware thing, helped other large projects, and donated research time in anti-virus work since. Writing accounting software is incredibly boring, you need a hobby too. :) I have done less of the outside work since, I now work in a much more interesting field than accounting.

                                _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)

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                                • G GregScott

                                  I am only 18 and I've just graduated from high school and I am about to start university for systems engineering. I've never actually worked with any real programmers but i have co-op at an company where Iam writing a pretty extensive piece of software, that manipulates text files generated by PLC logic and HMI software. i was just wondering how old other people were when started programing and what kinds of programs they wrote.

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                                  stephen hazel
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #18

                                  About 19 at Berta-Max - a Mom&Pop educational software company in the 80s. Doin turbo pascal with echo speech synth cards. It's all been downhill into Oracle since then... I do all my interesting programming in c++ at home. At work, well, it's perl and pl/sql. But at least the commute is only 15 mins so I have more time to work on the cool stuff at home. (And spend time with my wife n kids, of course.) If you're reeeally bored you could read... http://shazware.com/me/pcPast.html[^] ...Steve

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                                  • G GregScott

                                    I am only 18 and I've just graduated from high school and I am about to start university for systems engineering. I've never actually worked with any real programmers but i have co-op at an company where Iam writing a pretty extensive piece of software, that manipulates text files generated by PLC logic and HMI software. i was just wondering how old other people were when started programing and what kinds of programs they wrote.

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                                    Bobby T
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #19

                                    I am actually graduating from a 2 year tech school at the age of 21 on Friday. For the past 5 months have been working part time at my first programming job. I have been developing a piece of software using C#.net and oracle to track inventory and an ordering system to order products out of a storage area. It wasn't anything to advanced, but I had to work on it solo, so I did learn a lot. The hardest part is I had no former training on C# or oracle. I also find that no one takes you seriously at 21.

                                    PEACE <3

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                                    • G GregScott

                                      I am only 18 and I've just graduated from high school and I am about to start university for systems engineering. I've never actually worked with any real programmers but i have co-op at an company where Iam writing a pretty extensive piece of software, that manipulates text files generated by PLC logic and HMI software. i was just wondering how old other people were when started programing and what kinds of programs they wrote.

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                                      Member 96
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #20

                                      I was 17 when I was hired for my first programming job but I never wrote a single line of code for them: The local business equipment dealer came to our high school and said he wanted to hire the top students in the computer science class who were interested in writing an accounting program for him. Myself and another guy (I couldn't stand because he was way too geeky) were hired. When we got there it was a old CPM system of some kind (I can't remember exactly which model, probably a commodore of some kind) but the owner seemed to almost instantly lose interest in the project and had us cleaning old business equipment like manual calculators with the slot machine pull lever and old manual typewriters. Sometimes replacing the ball on old Selectric IBM typewriters. We both quit shortly thereafter and in the end had never done a single line of programming. As far as when I started programming, I really can't remember, but it was probably when I was 12 or 13. My first computer was a pad of paper and a book on programming. I wrote a lot of programs on paper and tried my damndest to get my hands on a computer. Finally I bought a Tandy TRS-80 colour computer from a buddy who only ever played games on it. I immediately went down to Radio Shack and bought the assembly language cartridge and in about a week I had written a space invaders style game in assembly that responded to voice commands from the casette port. ("left", "right", "fire").


                                      "110%" - it's the new 70%

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                                      • G GregScott

                                        I am only 18 and I've just graduated from high school and I am about to start university for systems engineering. I've never actually worked with any real programmers but i have co-op at an company where Iam writing a pretty extensive piece of software, that manipulates text files generated by PLC logic and HMI software. i was just wondering how old other people were when started programing and what kinds of programs they wrote.

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                                        Tom Delany
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #21

                                        You guys make me feel ancient. :omg: I took a couple of programming classes at the local community college, one of which was for COBOL :-O (this was back around 1977 - 78). I got a job at a local bank where I graduated to computer operator of a remote job entry system. Meantime, I tinkered at home. My first computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1. I got the expansion interface, and the single-sided, single-density 5.25" floppy. Woo hoo! :) It was not until 1986, after I moved to Florida that I got to do programming as a job. I was hired by a local software company to work in their shipping and receiving department. I started hanging out with the developers as much as I could get away with, going to lunch with them, talking with them, etc. My boss at the time gave me a chance to work on a special project for him. He purchased lists of companies / contact names to use as sales leads. He could get them all printed out in a readable format, but that cost more, so he bought the list on tape, and I was given the task of writing the code on the company's IBM mainframe to read the tape, sort the list, and print out the records in the format that he wanted. Sounds trivial, but it was a real big deal to me at the time. The caveat was that this was a unique "opportunity", and I could only work on it after hours, when my regular shipping job was done! :doh: Being only 20 something, I was excited by the prospect, and went for it. Problem was, at the time of day that I was allowed to work on the project, the only person who was around was the rather eccentric millionaire owner of the company, whose office was right next door to the computer room, and who I feared as if I had been called into the presence of the Almighty God for the final judgement! I remember quaking in my shoes when I had to ask him a question about something. I remember one time when a mainframe developer gave me a bubble sort routine to link into my code. The first time I tried to sort the list, "God" came flying into the computer room shouting at me, "What are you doing to my system!!!!" :-D Funny now, but i was sure at the time I was going to be fired on the spot. :) When I first started working on the special project, I asked my mainframe friend/guru about using COBOL, since it was the only language I had any experience with. He laughed at me, and told me they did not allow COBOL in their shop. He said I had two choices... Either write it in assembler, or PL/1. I opted for PL/1, and the mainframe developer threw the IBM PL

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