Aspiring Programmer Advice

If I were in your shoes, I'd either work on my own startup, or create some demo projects in a hot area like IOS or Rails. Register as a DBA (Doing Business As) and put your side project/startup as a job on your resume.Then put your resume up on monster.com. If you become proficient in an in-demand skill, jobs will find you. If the skill is hot enough, remote jobs will be available. Now you have to pass the interviews, but that is another matter. Note that you need to learn all the ancillary

I was you a few years ago. There's two ways forward:1. Get a job programming and slowly build up your skills/expertise by learning from those around you.2. Develop a lesson plan for yourself and figure out how to build and deploy different kinds of apps.I don't know if you're into #1 but I think it can be massively useful. There's so much stuff you don't know about that some dude who's been working somewhere for 5 years does. You can pick up best pract

I agree, if you're looking to work and not just program as a hobby, start with web projects. There's always a friend of a friend (or somebody on Craigslist) with a $1000 and an idea. Your effective hourly rate will be low, but you'll be learning and getting paid at the same time. You'll also find out whether you really want to be a programmer for hire, as it is often the case that the programming is the easy part while the clients are the hard part.

Why not try writing contributing to open source projects in your spare time? Maybe try and get a low-paid freelance job or two. Test the waters. Once you have contributed to opensource/done freelance projects you will find it MUCH easier to find a junior developer job since you have actual experience to draw upon.You say you "spent all of my MBA (top 3) coding web apps instead of networking", where are those web apps? Are they still around? Put them together into a portfolio to

Honestly, get a job. What has taught me most about programming is having new problems to solve that required new skills, techniques and tools. The best way to "fund" your development is to find someone who will pay you to solve their problems.I started out of school doin front-end, then the next project I started with frontend and then had to learn Django. Job after that was all Django/frontend. Then, Django to Rails. Now im doing Node/Go/hardware/etc. Each job p

Since other comments already point to getting a job, I'd mention other options. One is going to university and being exposed to more technologies and most importantly, meeting other people and working with them. Other similar options are going through the syllabus yourself and partnering with other people in hackathons or similar group events.I would like to also offer a different perspective on the idea of "big" web apps or more "professional" setups. If what you wan

Hey Lachlan,I'm a 19-year-old software engineer for Barracuda Networks. When I was about your age, I was very interested in programming and computers as well. :) (You can actually find screenshots all the way back to the very embarrassing beginning where I tried to figure out how fonts + iframes worked here: http://www.screenshots.com/ghostlypets.com/2005-12-15)Li

You're in a rough spot in your life. You have my sympathies. Your situation won't change overnight, but you can begin by finding a low-skill job that will pay for your basic needs (food and shelter) while you use free internet in libraries or from neighbors to put your code on github and other places.If you enjoy coding, start creating projects. Then start completing projects. Consider one of the million "fart" apps: the app itself is far from glamorous, but the person who wrote it has gained

Sure it's possible but like learning any skill it will take time. You're obviously enjoying it, otherwise you wouldn't have put in the learning you've done so far.One of the interesting things about software development compared to many other professions is that the field is still so new that people can have very successful careers without having done a degree.Another interesting aspect is that software affects virtually every other field so there's opportunities f

I think there's a huge difference between programming and solving your problem. You just want to earn money, right? So just start thinking about your SaaS application. Something people may need, something easy. And try implementing it.The best for you would be using HTML + CSS + JavaScript. You can use node.js on server side, it's on JavaScript. I think in 6 months you'll be able to build things you want.If you want to switch to programming to earn money by working for someo