Being a mostly self-taught programmer has been interesting. Some days I don’t feel like a “real” programmer but other days when I figure out some really complex process with code, I do.

When it comes to learning, I’ve always been at learning by reading rather than lecture. I can’t handle lectures; they put me to sleep. Being able to learn like this has been a great asset to me through my career as a programmer.

A little history… With the help of one professor, I started teaching myself HTML in 1996 because it was something I was very interested in. I created a web site for my band at the time (Birthright). From there I took the few web-related classes the college offered but found each time that with every class, I had already taught myself what they were teaching like a year prior. Eventually, I taught myself ASP with some database backend.

Despite not having my degree yet, I felt like I knew enough to make a career out of my passion for the web. So, I started looking for a job as a web programmer in late 1999, early 2000. It took me a little while, but I got a job at Klipsch (where I still work 6 years later).

Over the years, I’ve taught myself so much and have really enjoyed it. I love having a job where I have to constantly learn new things. It keeps my brain from turning into mush. The draw-back, as I mentioned to before, is that some days I don’t feel like a “real” programmer. The reason is that I’ve learned how to do many things without always learning why they work. That’s usually because I needed to find a solution to make something work but didn’t have the time to really learn why it worked. Of course over time, using the same code over and over, I eventually learn the reason why.

But then again, if you can make something work right, the why doesn’t matter quite as much. I know it can sometimes mean that the code might not be as efficient as possible, but as long as it runs quick enough and does what you need it to do, it’s not a huge deal.

I find myself working on some very complex web-based applications these days and I feel more like a “real” programmer now than I ever have. That’s a good feeling!

May 9th, 2006

 

Tags: Life, Programming