Christopher Gendreau English 4, Per 8 11/21/12 Information on Programming

Programming is a generally flexible, greatly dynamic, and very diverse career choice. It opens many doors and opportunities in an ever growing and changing society. The applications and usefulness of this particular skillset are anything but limited. Many people make the mistake of viewing a programmers job as simply programming, they fail to see the wide variety of tasks and goals that must typically be achieved in a specialized sub skillset. This makes programming a skill easily utilized in many workplace and home environments.

To truly understand why programming is indeed a great asset in most business fields a person must first comprehend what the programmer does to contribute to the specific task at hand. In Elizabeth Sweeneys entry Computer Programmer Macmillan Reference, she explains how computers, can do multiple tasks at high rates of speed(Sweeny) and that, Computer programmers write these programs, and the efficiency with which the program is written determines how quickly instructions can be executed(Sweeny). If you take a moment to ponder on this, you may realize how a programmer can be a key part in achieving many complex and simple tasks that could be crucial to a companys success. There are many excellent examples of this, one being stock market trading applications. They can be a simple program to buy, sell, and trade stocks, or a complex one to calculate the forward trends of a company. Speed is

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crucial in these particular programs, for only a few calculation cycles can be the difference between making money or losing it.

To farther expand upon this, while programming in its essence is vital to the growing technology market, companies are typically looking for specific prerequisites, skills and programming languages some depending on what the programmer is there to do and others relatively concrete throughout. To begin a career in this field, employers typically look for at least a bachelors degree in computer programming or computer science. As well as supplementing majors and minors in fields such as; networking, infrastructure and network security, or various mathematics classes. Added of course to normally at least two years worth of work experience(Green). As verified by an interview with, Daniel Green of Diaspora Inc. along with educational prerequisites, employers are typically looking for knowledge in C and Java Programming (Programming) with skills in quick execution, support of large quantities of data, or realtime simulation. These skills are wanted because in larger businesses people must keep track of large databases of information. Because these businesses must keep track of so much information they normally require knowledge of SQL as well.

Generally speaking, C, Java and SQL are all very important for a business to be able to utilize for multiple reasons. C is a very important programming language because of the fact that writing programs in C allows for the application to be quick, operating in close to the least amount of cycles possible if the programmer is good. This is good for programs that you want your server to use to send data back and forth with other servers. The reason for that is that it allows the servers to communicate quicker

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than using something like Visual Basic or Java. Java, on the other hand, is typically much slower than an application built in C but can be used on many more systems with virtually no work to get it going. Java also allows you to build its applications into web pages so that the user wouldnt have to download and install th e program. This is good for businesses because it allows the business to build applications that more end users can easily utilize than a application built in C. An example of this would be an application to submit your prescriptions to a pharmacy. This is a good case to use java in because the business can build the application right into their web page so the customers could just get on the website instead of having to install a application. SQL is essential to businesses because it allows for the storage and easy access of any data they might have. Skill in SQL is important is because as stated in Craig Mullins article Bachelor Programming Syndrome, A sound COMMIT strategy will reduce rollback time and reprocessing time in the event of program failure.(Mullins) and a programmer cannot develop a sound COMMIT strategy until they have experience with SQL. An example of how these three things are important to business can be seen from this example. SQL is tied in with Java and C because an application might be made in java for clients to access the SQL server and a separate application would be made in C to quickly process the data that the clients wished to access.

For the most part, People in the field of computer programming can expect to receive an annual salary of around $70,000. Along with this salary, programmers working full time can typically expect, sick leave, vacation time, a retirement plan, and Health Insurance. These benefits are commonly coupled with the ability to work from home or off site along with traveling to meet with your customers depending on what

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you are developing. Programmers also can expect advancement opportunities matching their strong points. These advancement opportunities typically mean moving from computer programming to a managerial position or a specialization such as an analyst or computer software engineer. Depending on the sort of work that the programmer is doing and if they are grouped up with others it is also possible to be promoted to Lead Programmer, a position including supervision as well as making sure everything is on track.

In conclusion, computer programming is a very useful career, sought after by many businesses in which the programmer has the ability to utilize many different skills and work with multiple languages to achieve new and interesting goals. The range of these goals is virtually limitless, as a business could always open up a new branch. Computer Programming is not only a field that will keep you entertained with new and exciting tasks but it is also a well paying field in which you will be able to get a better position for hard work. Due to these previous facts programming can be seen to be a generally flexible, greatly dynamic, very diverse and rewarding career choice.

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Works Cited

Sweeney, Elizabeth. "Computer Programmer." Mathematics. Ed. Barry Max Brandenberger, Jr. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2002. 120-121. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 7 Nov. 2012.

Mullins, Craig S. "Bachelor programming syndrome?" Database Trends & Applications June 2012: 33. General OneFile. Web. 7 Nov. 2012.

"Programming Database Skills Top Wall Street Hiring Wish List 506432." eWeek 21 Sept. 2012. General OneFile. Web. 7 Nov. 2012.

Green, Daniel, Diaspora Inc. Personal Interview, 26 Nov 2012