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Part of the learning curve will be accepting you don't understand everything on the first iteration.
When I want to study something new, I typically buy a book (or two) on the subject, study it;
and one year later, I study it again, just to get more insight, you can't grasp it all in one go.
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Luc Pattyn wrote: When I want to study something new, I typically buy a book (or two) on the subject, study it;
and one year later, I study it again, just to get more insight, you can't grasp it all in one go.
Absolutely, there are books I constantly go back to. I have a very dog-eared copy of Rapid Development by Steve McConnell. I bought it over 10 years ago and I still refer to it from time-to-time.
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CrimeanTurtle2008 wrote: would my age make it difficult for me to get a job in the industry
As many others have already opined, you might not be a spring chicken but neither are you an old codger.
IMHO the bigger problem is the track record aspect. It is always easier to get a job/girlfriend when you've got a job/girlfriend (delete as applicable) and this is especially so in IT.
Someone has suggested writing an article or two and that is good advice. It gives you something to show prospective employers.
I am not sure how this would work in the US, but in UK another possible method to get experience in an environment that is more like *real* IT industry is to see if there are any small fairly local charities that might want some work doing, the pay is rubbish i.e. zilch, but the experience is invaluable as you get to go through all aspects of the job, from speccing through coding, testing and troubleshooting. Don't bother with Nationwide/International bodies (unless for a real job), they usually have their own IT bods.
Good Luck!
Henry Minute
If you open a can of worms, any viable solution *MUST* involve a larger can.
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As others have said, you're most definitely not too old to enter the field. Just remember, you need to be good at what you do and need to keep abreast of technology (at least in the area in which you focus). It also helps if you can respond with an emphatic "No!" to the question "Can you think of anything else you'd like to do in life other than developing software?"
Good luck and welcome to a fulfilling, stimulating and rewarding career! ![Rose | [Rose]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/rose.gif)
/ravi
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Ravi Bhavnani wrote: It also helps if you can respond with an emphatic "No!" to the question "Can you think of anything else you'd like to do in life other than developing software?"
What!? You mean there is another possible answer?
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Colin Angus Mackay wrote: What!? You mean there is another possible answer?
Of course not. I was just being politically correct by offering all options.
/ravi
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I agree with most of the others; I went through several majors including pre-med, nursing, and journalism before computer science. I graduated with the degree at 27 (and I am a girl). If you show your passion for programming, show your love to learn new things you should have no problems.
"Well, we're getting "F"'d at work. WPF, WCF, and WWF... WTF?" --John Simmons
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leckey wrote: and I am a girl
What's that got to do with anything?
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You'd be surprised at the reactions I get about being a "female" computer programmer who actually knows what she is doing (most of the time!)
"Well, we're getting "F"'d at work. WPF, WCF, and WWF... WTF?" --John Simmons
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Of the female programmers I've worked with I'd probably say that the average quality of work is higher with female developers. I don't know why. Possibly they think they have more to prove, or they feel they need to show how good they are and actually work better as a result.
The only time I've really seen surprise at female developers is in a company I used to work for who were in the same office building as they HQ of the local Conservative party branch. Their chairman was an awfully pukka chap with a terribly posh accent. One day his secretary's computer crashed and his secretary just wanted to reboot it, but he refused to let her, rushing upstairs to our office to get one of the "techie bods" to see to it.
He rushed in and announced to the room that he needed some IT help. One of our female developers, who was closest the door, offered to assist. He was taken aback by that and insisted that she couldn't possibly be skilled enough and wanted one of the men help and pointed at one of our business development team. Our man's protests that he was primarily a business analyst/project manager and not a "techie" were met with equal incredulity. (We had a dress down policy - suits only required for client meetings - so as our BA wasn't wearing a suit he couldn't possibly be anything other than a techie). As luck would have it this particular person at least had a background in Engineering and was able to help. Or would have if there had been a real problem.
He went to the secretary's machine and did exactly as she wanted to do in the first place. He rebooted the machine and it started working again.
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That is something I've found--if you are female, and I hate to say it, but American and working in America and you are 1/2 way attractive you are seen with an eye of distrust--like I slept my way to my degree.
Thankfully, where I work now, there are a couple women who are higher up with technical skills. I've actually taught our DBA a few things. I feel accepted regardless of age or sex; first time ever.
"Well, we're getting "F"'d at work. WPF, WCF, and WWF... WTF?" --John Simmons
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Much respect for someone who has to break down the stereotype that afflicts discrimination in the work place.
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She's got to prove herself in a male-dominated field.
Unlike Creepy Santa, closing your eyes doesn't make it go away, Colin 
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I started at 28 and have not regretted a minute of it. Well there was that one time....??/
I had a wife and two kids and started college, at times when it was rough I had my doughts but like I said haven't regretted it. It's never to late to learn and if its something you enjoy then its a blessing because you often don't end up doing what you enjoy.
It's stressful, long hours, constant learning to stay up to par and sometimes little or no reward except the satisfaction knowing that you created something that you can take pride in.
so my advice is if it interests you give it a try, what have you got to lose except time? If you don't try you'll never know and we need good programmers.
Good luck,
Mike
"It doesn't matter how big a ranch ya' own, or how many cows ya' brand, the size of your funeral is still gonna depend on the weather." -Harry Truman.
Semper Fi
http://www.hq4thmarinescomm.com[ ^]
My Site
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Its encouraging to know that you made a start of it at my age and went on to do very well later on. But I guess your right, if you dont try you dont know. Plus a lot of hard work, which I hope I can maintain.
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CrimeanTurtle2008 wrote: is it somewhat too late to make that change?
Hell no!
At 28 you're just a puppy. I started programming at 20 - FORTRAN, I'm afraid - and used it in my career for years, adding languages and operating systems about as fast as they were invented. Somewhere along the line I no longer had the need or desire to program (and, admittedly, Windows was a lot of it because the ratio of presentation to functionality went suddenly from 20:80 to 90:10, and UI design bores me). Still, I've been trying to catch up lately. You never lose the bug once you're bitten.
Having one career in your life made sense when we could look forward to only about 45 years, according to my dad, and that made a lot of sense to me. Lifelong learning is the key to happiness, he taught me, and he proved it by living a long, happy life embracing several career paths. At my age (54) he had just completed his second Masters degree - in Landscape Architecture - having already been a mechanic, plant pathologist, real estate appraiser, creator of a new Masters degree program at Harvey Mudd college, and wood carver. He never found his age to be a barrier to entry in any field; in his retirement he was asked to write a comprehensive manual of climate-compatible plants for the state of Washington, and to design roadside viewpoints for their state highways.
I adopted his style, and have been a cook, dishwasher, waiter, real estate broker, stock broker, mechanic, electronics engineer, tax advisor, programmer, and power system engineer. In the past six months I've had to learn to design steel substation structures, and the concrete foundations to support them. If my performance reviews are any guide, I've been good at all of them; I've never had a salary raise less than twice the company average for the year.
If you want to program, program. If you love it, the jobs will find you (with a little work on your part, of course - they won't come knocking at your door). Any limits you might feel are entirely in your own mind, so lose them. Argue for your limitations, and you get to keep them; that's a tip that will serve you well to remember, whatever you decide to pursue in your life. You will experience failure, but there's absolutely no reason to let that stop you. Robert Heilbrunner once wrote that every young person should experience being fired. It teaches you two things; one, that your job is not your life, and you can go on without it, and two, that you can always find another job. This gives you the freedom to take risks without fear, to speak up when the boss is being an idiot, to stand up for what you know to be right.
You want to learn programming right now, so do it and don't let anyone scare you off of your chosen course. Certainly there will be challenges, but those will only make you stronger and smarter. If you love it, your day will come; if not, you'll be guided by experience into other pursuits. Just don't let fear be your guide, and don't worry about your age. You're just starting out in life, and it's an adventure. Have fun! 
BTW - You couldn't have chosen a better place to come for assistance. The people here are (generally) wise and helpful. Good choice.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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Thanks for the advice, Roger, and your certainly right about the people here being wise and helpful.
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Why?
What did you do before?
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I worked in logistics for many years and as a labourer before that and decided that I needed something which kept my interest and enabled me to keep learning. I have a long interest in programming and never really pursued it, in fact it was something which I contemplated doing when I left high school and in some ways I regretted not pursuing it at that time.
I felt the time was right to make a change, but as per my post, sometimes there are some things you cant do when your older and hence why I am here to get insight.
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I do think there is truth to "Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years[^]". You are setting out for a profession that thrives on sifting through enormous amounts of fairly new information, and absorbing and keeping a large part of it ready - that's the thing that for most people gets harder once they "have a live" and some years on their back.
Which is meant as a fair warning, but not to dicourage you. Wanting to pursue it, your curiosity is probably your best driving force. I am not sure what "working in logistics" actually entails, but it sure sounds something that can become useful. I do think there's a position for you where you can combine your existing domain knowledge with actual development. It would probably good to seek out a place where you are not "just a code monkey" - likely a small company (or a large one that runs it's depatments like those). Also, keep an eye out for an experienced tutor with a knack for teaching: maybe a peer at work or someone from a local user/developer group. While the internet can be a great ressource, someone actually teaching you is somethign completely different. Maybe via internet and IM it doesn't have to be face-to-face time (I only knwo it wouldn't work as good for me).
I would not wholeheartedly recommend courses or similar. If they are really good, they can propel you forward a good deal, and even if they are only so-so, they can bring some structure in the knowledge you acquire for yourself. However, I've found only two types of courses, neither of which are ideal for you: in-depth compsci education and "teaching out-of-work welders to code" (usually sponsored education programs, or "we should do something with computers"). The former is the long road that - in my not so humble opinion - is a bit late in your life, you should be able to make a living of that a bit earlier. The majority of the latter are usually weeded out at serious interviews, and twend to land in code factories with big employee turnover where they feed the daily WTF.
Your best bet is a stab at becoming a skilled technician who can take responsibility for a small project, or a small part of a larger one, and puts his previous experience in other fields to good use.
good luck, anyway
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I started programming a lot later, so I really don't see the problem.
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I started at 30. I am now 40 I've held down several good jobs, and have started and sold a software company. It's not too late.
Christian Graus
Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista.
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I spent 22 years in the military (aviation electronics but no programming whats so ever). Got a couple undergrad degrees before retiring, and been programming ever since. Hardest part was getting that first job (foot in the door kind of thing). It wasn't the highest paying job, but a heck of a lot better then the military (and safer). I used that to learn and get as much experience as possible.
Still going strong today at almost twice your age.
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i Have passed an string array into string.split function,the target string splits successfully,but i need to get string array information on which string has been split.
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Do you mean you've used the string.Split(string[], StringSplitOptions) and you want to know which character has caused the split?
There isn't an overload that returns that information. You'll have to roll your own method, if you need it a lot you could always create it as an extension method to the string class. Remember there could be 0 to n number of characters that were used so you'll have to return an array or list of some sort.
DaveBTW, in software, hope and pray is not a viable strategy. (Luc Pattyn)Visual Basic is not used by normal people so we're not covering it here. (Uncyclopedia)
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