How To Become A Computer Programmer Without A College Degree

However, just bear in mind that you are not alone in wanting to start your computer programmer career by studying at home in your spare time. Actually a significant proportion of computer programmers are self taught. What everyone who has started a programming career outside the confines of college have in common is that they all focused on becoming as good as or even better than those who attended college. If they felt dis-advantaged in the beginning, they ignored that and focused on sharpening their technical skills until they became expert, highly skilled and competent programmers.

What Are Employers Really Looking For?
Employers are impressed by your technical mastery of computer programming more than anything else. Yes, you can become a programmer by learning programming skills in college but keep this at the back of your mind that computer science degrees and other formal methods of learning programming is only a means to an end. So whether you study programming by self-learning and home study courses or you learn programming in college, you will end up with the same up opportunities and challenges including editing your resume for specific software developer jobs, preparing for technical interviews, job hunting and developing good quality, reliably computer programs on time and under budget.

Learning Computer Programming Is The Right Decision
One of the best kept secrets in computer programming is that you can gain real-world programming experience without having even having a programming job. When I stumbled upon this secret more than 10 years ago, I realized that I could simply buy a computer or laptop, hook it up to the internet and learn any programming skill, language or technology and get a good job except if I wanted to work with mainframes, satellites and some expensive to buy enterprise software packages. I realized that even if I had to pay for some training packages, buy books or take programming courses, my total cost of training, total learning time and learning curve will be a fraction of what it will be if I opted for other high-paying careers including law, medicine and business management.

How To Get A Computer Programming Job Without A College Degree
What you need to emphasize when looking for a computer programming job is your software development knowledge, coding skills and any programming experience that is related to the job you are interviewing for. If you happen not to have a college degree, emphasize your good points like your ability to learn technology fast, stay abreast of technology or solve programming problems that generally through other people off. In other words, you have to prove to prospective employers, hiring managers or technical recruiters that you can do the job well if given the chance. Make sure your prospective employer sees the list of programming projects you have completed in a short time, web sites or software programs you have built and a list of books and future projects you are planning to work on. In other words, show your prospective employer that you have a beautiful mind and make the case that you are an asset to any one who hires you!

So, Where Does This Leave You?
This leaves you without an excuse for not taking action. I am granting you the liberty to pursue your passion, your dream and your personal excellence to learn or master computer programming. As a software developer mentor, IT Career Coach and Contract Programmer, I have worked with people who overcame all sorts of personal situations, handicaps and obstacles to begin their software developer career. On my blog at www.IT-Career-Coach.NET, I coach, mentor and train individuals who want to transition to a software developer career or become an expert computer programmer. From my personal experience and observation helping programmers from all over the world succeed in software development professions, your success in programming boils down to how skilled you are at software development and how much experience you have in solving real-world problems. If you gain a lot of practical programming skills and knowledge your software developer career will go into overdrive.

If you want to improve your programming skills and take your career to the next level, I recommend you read "the street smart guide to computer programmer careers" book which explains how to master computer programming in as little as 4 months. It will shave years off your learning curve by showing you how to learn programming fast, how to prepare your resume so you get noticed by hiring managers, how to prepare for and excel at technical job interviews so you get job offers more easily and how to consistently gain the kind of programming experience that keeps your career moving forward.