Careers in Computing
Devin Hill
Michael Shultz
As modern day technology continues to advance, computers are becoming a more essential and everyday part of our lives. With a higher need for computing staff, we need more people trained with the proper skills to create, maintain, and repair these computer systems. Computer programmers will always be needed as technology improves and becomes used more.
The future for computer programmers is bright, with many of our household items having small computers in them. It is the job of computer programmers to program these various devices that assist us and make life more easily manageable. There will always be a need for these people so going into the field of computing is a very beneficial career path. However, there are several requirements that need to be met in this particular career path. A computer programmer needs to be reliable, robust, available, and efficient. All of these skills are either created or enhanced by the training that is required for computer programmers. Their training includes not only a college education, but also need to study under a more experienced programmer. While specific training varies from place to place but the general rule is that new programmers are watched by more experienced programmers as they learn the skills of the trade. There are some memberships in society that will help new programmers that are just starting out. Others, like CITEC Hacker Space, are about experienced programmers exchanging their knowledge to one another. Some obvious benefits of these groups are interacting with new people and to learn new things about programming.
Just as the future is bright for computer programmers, the fields of computer engineering are ever expanding with more jobs in computer engineering emerging every day. The training required to be a computer engineer defers, depending on whether you are dealing with software engineering or hardware engineering. A software engineer is often trained by the company that hires him after attaining his college degree. Hardware engineers have to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in science, as well as continuing training to keep up with constantly updating technology. A group engineers can become members of is the IEEE Computer Society. It’s benefits include “Computer” magazine either electronically or printed, e-Learning Library with resources from 16 knowledge centers, eight technical and community newsletters, and discounts on various publications and certification programs.
Finally, we have the future of database managers. This job is important as more information is being stored on computers nowadays, with an example being the exponential increase in hardrive storage with the past couple decades, meaning database managers will always be an important part of the computer industry. It is required that database managers be familiar with the databases of their place of employment. Most training takes place at the place of employment, while some things like people skills can be taught in classes outside of work. I couldn’t find any society memberships for database managers. This is unfortunate, since database managers, although not as important as programmers and engineers, are still a vital part of computing.
REFERENCES
EduChoices.org, Computer Programmer: Education and Job Training Requirements for Becoming a Computer Programmer, September 03 2009.
http://educhoices.org/articles/Computer_Programmer_Education_and_Job_Training_Requirements_for_Becoming_a_Computer_Programmer.html
Meetup.com, Computer programming Meet up Groups, 2013
http://computer-programming.meetup.com/
Wikipedia.com, Computer Programming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_programming#Quality_requirements
Microsoft Careers.com, Computer Engineering Future Jobs, 2013
http://www.microsoft-careers.com/key/computer-engineering-future-jobs.html
CollegeGrad.com, 2013
http://www.collegegrad.com/careers/proft44.shtml
myFuture.com
http://www.myfuture.com/careers/education/17-2061.00
Computer Training Schools, Career Training, Computer Hardware Engineering
Traininghttp://www.computertrainingschools.com/career-training/computer-hardware-engineer/
computer.org
http://www.computer.org/portal/web/membership/Computer-Engineering-Join
Computer Hope, Issues
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000764.htm#02
Computer Training Schools, IT Training, Database Management
http://www.computertrainingschools.com/database-management-training/