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I've been a business analyst for about 5 years now, and would like to make the transition to software development. I don't have a degree of any kind, but I've taken a few programming courses. I started down a CS degree about 10 years ago, so I have some formal training in C++ (yee-haw?) but haven't done much since. I have been dabbling in programming as a hobby here and there recently on mobile devices, such as Obj-C on iPhone and C#/XNA on WP7. I really enjoy C# a lot, and software design in general, which is what resparked my desire to get back into software. I have developed a number of small tools for the office during my time as a business analyst, such as Access databases with VBA (I know, it was all I was allowed to do), and managed to sneak in a few tools using VB and .Net 2.0, and do lots of SQL data analyzing stuff. With my BA training, I always followed the SDLC lifecycle, even though they were small tools, but never had access to formal source control. Most of the time I was doing requirements gathering and "high level" system design, but never made any code decisions. I know I don't have the skills to become a full time developer at this point. What I'm looking for is the best path to make the transition to development from a skills/training perspective. I've looked briefly at getting MS Certified on ASP.NET or Windows Apps, but I don't know if that's relevant as the only source of formal education. Should I look into going back to school at night?
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Feb 17, 2011 09:09
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Does anybody have any suggestions on how to transition from a business analyst to a full time software developer? I have experience creating my own Access/VBA applications, and am familiar with C# and .Net from a hobby perspective. All my google searching finds people trying to do the opposite - going from developer to business analyst. Am I crazy for trying to do the opposite?
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Apr 28, 2011 03:57
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Mobius posted:If you can manage to demonstrate through your resume and interview that you can accomplish these things, then a lot of people will be willing to take a chance on you, even if you don't have the exact technology background they're looking for. Thanks for the follow-up, it gives me some inspiration that I can make a similar transition from BA to Developer. Based on your previous post, you were in a technical/business analyst type role, which is something I was in as well. I did coding about 15% of the time, but it was only in VBA and Access as those were the only "development" tools we were allowed to have. Just curious, how exactly did you demonstrate on your resume that you were able to do #1 and #2? I'm a decent coder, and do programming as a hobby using C#, but I don't have any finished projects just yet to demonstrate to a prospective employer. I'm having a hard time getting my foot in the door for interviews, though I have one interview next week doing Classic ASP... 
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May 14, 2011 20:38
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Some background, I've been a business analyst for a number of years, doing small time Access/VB development, and I'm looking to make the jump to full time software development. I've been teaching myself C# over the last 6-9 months, working on WP7 games, and looking for a job doing any kind of C# development, as a junior role. Applied for a position, and sent in some code samples, which impressed the hiring manager much more than my resume. After the phone interview, the hiring manager mentioned that she would like for me to take a general C# aptitude test, as she had a bad experience with a previous candidate who looked good on paper but couldn't keep up with the rest of the team. So, now I'm a bit nervous. I'm all self taught, just learning new things in the framework as I run across them. I was looking through the MCTS test for .Net/C#, and it mentions a lot of stuff around assembly management, COM interop, etc. Stuff I haven't used, and really have zero exposure to, and doubt I would ever use. Should I read up on that stuff, or focus on some of the more basic framework stuff like the different collections, delegates, etc. It sounds like a great position, but I don't want to screw it up because of lack of formal education.
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Jun 8, 2011 21:58
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Well, took the test already, it was a lot different from what I thought it was. Turns out it was a 20 question on-line timed quiz. Each question only gave 3 minutes to answer, and copy/paste was disabled, so couldn't exactly copy/paste into VS, or do too much googling. Mostly they gave a lot of sample code snippets on exactly what you two mentioned: abstract vs interface, protected, private, internal and the differences. Most of the time it was a 15-20 line sample of inherited classes or interfaces, and I had to select what the run-time or compile-time error would be. Some stuff I really didn't know, mostly around exception handling as I haven't dealt much with that stuff. Some stuff was a stack with a lot of push and pops, and had to step through and mark what the output would be. Fortunately I passed with a 3.46 grade out of 5, which marked me as upper level proficient. I'm hoping this will be enough to move me onto the next step for a face-to-face interview, especially as this is for a junior position.
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Jun 9, 2011 01:03
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Just got offered my first software developer position. I've been a business analyst for about 6 years in the financial sector, doing workflow and data analysis, and creating basic tools in VBA. I don't have a degree of any type, but have taught myself C# over the last year, and worked on some simple programs on my own that I submitted along with my resume. Had a phone interview, followed by a programming competency test, followed by a face-to-face interview and in person programming test where they gave me about a page of production code and asked me to read it for a few minutes and then talk them through what the code was doing, which I was able to do. I'm very excited, as this is my first real development job, which is something I've always wanted to do. I'm a junior developer, and they hinted I'd be working on some of the build automation and installer tools - two things I've obviously never worked with before. So, it's a good mix of nerves and excitement. I start in a few weeks. Any suggestions on what somebody should expect to encounter on their first programming job? This is a C# 3.5 shop, creating database analysis tools for all the major database providers (Oracle, MySQL, MS SQL, etc.).
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Jun 21, 2011 00:44
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Chasiubao posted:Considering all the bullshit currently around "Unemployed people please do not apply" statements in job ads, I would take the job if only for that. I've never seen that listed in a job ad anywhere. The most I've seen is asking for local candidates only, and/or that no sponsorships are available. But then again I haven't really looked seriously since about 3-4 weeks ago.
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Aug 10, 2011 09:11
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Sab669 posted:A lot of jobs request you submit sample code from projects you've worked on. In my experience, they don't really tend to look too in depth at the code, so something sparsely commented might not be too big of an issue. Hopefully the names of your classes, functions, variables should document themselves. I've found that they take a look at the code for 10-15 minutes to see at a high level some of your techniques. Do you use inheritance? Are you using interfaces? Do you have unit tests written? They'll find 2 or 3 things about the code to ask you about, so make sure you explain your decisions. Why did you inherit from this class instead of subscribing to an interface? Things like that.
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Aug 17, 2011 05:02
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oRenj9 posted:Does anybody have advice for getting part-time development work? Are there no internships you can apply for? Around here paid internships offer around 20 hours of work a week, and typically pay around $15 an hour. That might be a bit low wage considering your experience, but it beats working retail!
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Oct 7, 2011 05:12
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Mystery Machine posted:Anyone know if it is possible to pick up a programming job with only an associates degree in programming? For reasons I'd rather not get into, I don't think I'll be able to go to a four year college for my bachelors (though if I can, I will). I'm okay with starting off with a lower paying job, as long as I'm working. I was able to without any degree. I did have 6 years of experience as a business/data analyst which certainly helped, though. I spent about a year and a half teaching myself C# and the .Net framework, working on various projects for myself during my spare time. Nothing too great, mostly just line of business type applications replicating what I was doing during my day job, just for practice. I started sending my resume out in January of this year and didn't get much response, mostly due to my lack of any hands on programming experience. I quit my job as a BA in April to focus full time on completing some of my sample projects and look for a job full time. In July I found a company creating business/data analyst type tools, and after impressing them with my code samples and passing some programming tests I was able to get my foot in the door for an in-person interview. The in-person interview consisted of them sitting me in front of a random section of their huge codebase, and asking me to explain what the method did. I passed, and got an offer a week later. I realize this position probably doesn't mirror yours, though, but I base my success on a few things. First and foremost, being able to sell myself very well, despite the lack of degree and any programming experience. I did some VBA and VB6 stuff, and have a lot of experience with requirements gathering and coordinating with developers, so I focused on that. Second, my code samples were very clean, and demonstrated a solid understanding of OOP and inheritance/interfaces/etc. Otherwise, they were extremely generic and not very flashy, but this is what my hiring manager said convinced her to give me a shot. Three, being close to a domain expert in the field of software I'm working with. In short, if you don't have a degree (and even if you do), make sure you have some very solid, documented code samples to demonstrate, and be able to clearly talk through those samples, explaining the choices you made. You don't need fancy programs or anything like that. For reference, the code sample I showed was a simple Win Forms application for calculating staffing models, connecting to a web-API.
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Nov 15, 2011 08:51
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DotFortune posted:This might seem stupid or obvious, but don't get addicted to job hunting/making your resume look better. I just realized I've been for the past few months: This does a perfect job of explaining where I was during the job hunt 6 months ago. I think it's why I'd be terrible working remotely, I'm way too easily sidetracked and like to over-analyze. Me: "Ok, let's sit down and hammer out some portfolio code...... hmm, let me check my reader feed, first, then I'll start coding." Hours later... oops. I can't stress enough how important it is during the interview process to have something demonstrable to show and speak about. It doesn't need to be the next open-source version of node.js, but it should be big enough to show some design patterns, even basic OOP if that's what you're developing for. Being able to speak about those design choices is even better, to prove you actually wrote it. I submitted something half-baked and barely working during my last job search, but it really helped put me over the edge in landing the position.
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Dec 9, 2011 07:43
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