Is a career in technology for me?

What types of technology are there?

• Data Science
• DevOps
• Computer Games
• Native App development
• Web Development

People who code in any of these and more are 'coders' or 'programmers'

What is Programming

• Rather than doing things manually, you are writing instructions for a machine to perform task on your behalf.
• Those tasks could be things like:
  • Responding to requests for information
  • Formatting Data
  • Displaying Data
  • Maintaining the transfer of data between multiple points (e.g. chat programs, video conferencing, etc.)

Data Science

• Languages:
  • Python, R and Julia
• General description:
  • You get given collected data
  • You cleanse and format it
  • You analyse it
  • You present your findings in graphical form
• Extensions to this include:
  • Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, where you 'train' a 'model' to complete tasks, such as 'finding people in a photograph', hence creating code that 'writes itself'.
• It's automated maths, basically...

Computer Games

• Languages:
  • C, C++ and C#
• General description:
  • You will tend to use pre-made environments (aka 'engines') such as Unity
  • You add the code to move 3d models around a world of 'nodes'
  • where various actions can be offered to the user
  • and then you display the result of the user's choice
• This is a VERY difficult industry to get into and jobs are in short supply.

Dev[Sec]Ops

• Languages:
  • Python, Shell, Groovy, etc.
• General description:
  • The application is coded by Software Developers
  • Think of that as the 'cars on a production line'
  • You are the people who create and maintain the production line
    • You control where the code is stored
    • Who can contribute code
    • How to take code and automatically test it
    • How to optimise it
    • How to deploy it
    • How to keep the security secrets
• Financially rewarding but very specific
• You'd usually already be a coder

Native App Development

• Languages:
  • Swift or Objective C and Kotlin or Java
• General description:
  • You're making the apps on your phone.
• Pros
  • Pay is good
• Cons
  • It's a very specific set of skills with limited application
  • Longevity may be questionable
  • Developer eXperience is 'interesting'.

Web Development

• Languages:
  • HTML (Content), CSS (Presentation), JavaScript (Behaviour)
  • [optionally: PHP, Java, C#, Ruby, Go, Rust, etc.]
• General description:
  • You're making web pages that display data to a user
  • You are creating basic programming to allow the user to interact with that data (clicks, scrolls, etc)
  • You are creating the machines that send out that data
  • You are controlling remote machines talking to each other
  • You are integrating other people's services

Why choose Web?

• Lowest barrier to entry
• Most positions available
• Second highest pay (behind devops)
• Largest community (for knowledge)
• Most paradigms
• Once you learn to program in one language it's then just about learning the syntax if you want to switch to another

How the stack divides

• Front-End (client) - what appears in front of the user
• Back-End (server) - The machines the business uses to send resources and information to the client
• Full-Stack (both client & server)
• Cross-Stack is when you use different server language and database configurations