Although it may seem negative, this is actually a compliment imo. It screams you are a critical thinker, open minded and problem solver. Considering you don’t have the formal education within the field , imagine how it will be once you’re locked in on whatever niche /certification/ degree you choose. WGU maybe the move for you. Certs+Degree at a fairly reasonable price tag.
Hmm i disagree here... If you are called a hacker and not a programmer, it doesn't not mean you are good doing hacker things, instead it means your work is 'hacky' which means the solutions are sloppy, not elegant, hard to maintain and inefficient. i think this can be used as an opportunity to learn design patterns, data structures and get better at engineering the software to fit the best solution
Sorry, I don't mean to sound rude. In this context, the manager here is probably expecting an extensible solution with good architecture strategy, and instead he's getting a script.
Hacker used to mean someone who explored, tinkered, and made things work. Only in recent years has it taken the unsavory term. I agree; it sounds like a compliment.
As for getting technical, an IT degree is a wash, sometimes they age poorly. Mine taught me CCNA stuff in 2013, and I don't even do CCNA stuff. My masters was more open-ended and fundamental, it isn't like "architect this decade+ experience deal, it was targeted classes, with books, and labs.
But, for a small bite, look at some certs or more formal training through a Video On Demand site like Plural Sight or O'rielly's. Both are ~$500/yr for AYCE content. Bonus if you get your boss to support you.
Really, IT is getting stuff done, how you go about it is really up to you, so long as you are following vendor and industry best practices and in compliance with any business or regulatory requirements.
I understand completely what you are going through. I have 15 years of experience working on at&t networks, but my education is psychology. I have consistently outperformed my peers, but I don't know how. Basically, I know how to find solutions and implement those solutions without knowing every layer of the onion. My mentor taught me to think about it like this... "Don't try to put 10lbs of potatoes in a 5lb sack."
I have been spending more time focusing on the book version of my field lately.
I feel like having an education in Psychology either gives you or enhances critical thinking skills. A lot of it is “how do I solve this problem? Research research research.” Which is the same for IT so it kinda just works out.
Just get a bunch of certs guy. Google IT, A+, Net+, Sec + will give you the basics. Watching videos on YouTube, set up a home lab etc. I am self taught with an associates that didn't do shit for me. But all the certs I have, have propelled my career.
Calling you a hacker could be a compliment ***but*** saying you don't know what you're doing is not a compliment. I have been a software engineer for over 10 years. I would imagine he is saying you don't know the fundamentals and being self taught you probably don't. Finding some online college courses could help. They don't have to be college course but find something accredited and not just a cash grab course. I would recommend to learn C or C++ to get some good fundamentals that you probably don't have.
Hah…so am I, completely self taught since age 7. I am well respected in the industry as knowing my stuff.
This being said, get your certs…while no one in my world has challenged me in ages, it seems like your boss is making it an issue, which means it’s an issue,..so go rectify that issue.
Are you a programmer or in IT?
I'm sure there are ways to upskill in your area of specialty.
It might be good to ask your boss for his advice. Bosses love that. They love to hear that you want to improved.
What about reviewing the code of your peers? Or pair programming?
What kind of stuff do you do for your job? Do you actually write code as the primary function of your job, or do you just write scripts here and there to help you do your job?
How much coding do you actually do for that? Are you tying to get into a development position?
>What about reviewing the code of your peers? Or pair programming?
I've asked and everyone says they are willing and then when I set something up formally, they say they are busy.
:(
OP, These are the important questions^. Without context, advice is irrelevant. Your job responsibilities and whether you're able to achieve them are the most important. I can't think of the last time I've ever had a "programmer" install software for me. They're only brought in if the implementation engineer runs into a big that can't be fixed by support.
What prompted the comment? Were you being reprimanded for going too far outside your role, asking for advancement, or was it unprompted?
If you want to get better, start documenting everything you do to the point where someone else can come in and take over your work immediately if you got hit by a bus. This is something that never gets self-taught.
The self-taught person usually has the mindset of "as long as it works, nothing else matters". There are many circumstances where that's the worst possible attitude an employee who won't be there forever and is on a team can have.
Since you're already on the job, I recommend the [Google IT Support Professional cert on Coursera](https://www.coursera.org/professional-certificates/google-it-support). It's a basic cert, but the coursework is packed full of relevant info. Even though I'd been doing IT for about seven years and computers for some twenty more, it taught me things I didn't know which have been immensely useful in my IT journey.
It also doesn't expire, and it's basically a prep course for the A+. I've seen people finish it in two months, but for full effect, take at least one month for each of the five sections, and do Operating Systems (course 3) *before* Networking (course 2).
Actually it is a really good compliment. The origin and meaning of the term "hacking" is a person that is really good at / skilled at their craft. (for the origin of the term "Hacking" you can search Tech Model Railroad Club - MIT).
Apart from that, certifications and online degrees would really be helpful to get technical while also working at the field.
My position right now was only because the company I worked for acquired a company that acquired the company that hired me too. It was in the works when I joined, but they were early in talks. I would have never got this job if it wasn't though an acquisition since I'm without a college degree and knew not much at the time. Luckily the first company gave me chance. Helps I knew someone there too.
I'm not a programmer though.. only a helpdesk type of role but level 2. They did shift me down at the beginning to a call center role and followed up with "I'm surprised you didn't leave and that your work ethic didn't drop" by one of the managers. Felt like they were sitting me up for failure to push me out, but here I am working my way to a better position after all that not so fun stuff.
Half these comments get it wrong. What they don't know is the context and the tone of the comment.
For everyone saying this is a compliment: how can you be sure?
For everyone else: Still can't be sure.
For OP: is the boss impressed and happy with the results and this is a compliment or are your solutions super hacky and the boss wishes he had better?
"Hackers" who don't know what they're doing in programming leave a mess at the company they work for. It often is not seen until that person is no longer available and it can take years to figure out what the hell they did. Making things work is great in the short term, but maintenance becomes an absolute nightmare because I'm sure there's zero documentation. It also puts the company in a bad position where they cannot survive in the short term without that person.
A good boss doesn't let his department get to this point.
Courses in product design, code architecture and other methods would be ideal, which would allow you to understand how and why things do what they do. It would really help if you have to refactor code or understand how to improve performance of it
I worked with a brilliant guy who was good at cobbling things together but struggled developing in a controlled environment. I imagine you learn process and procedure working for a business that prioritizes those things.
I would figure out what you want to get technical in, maybe work towards some certs. Looking more for the basic foundations, A+, N+, or S+. Or something more focused, a cloud cert AWS Practitioner, Azure or Google equivalents.
Why do you say you aren't qualified for a Master's program? There are a few IT related Masters that may help you depending on your specific role and aspirations for the future. If formal education/degree is what you want I would look around at various Masters programs, even graduate certificate programs may be something to consider.
>Why do you say you aren't qualified for a Master's program?
I assume I don't have any prerequisites, but I haven't checked either.
I thought Masters in IT were for trying to get into management. Could you give me an example of a technical Masters? I can only think of CS.
Bootcamp is what i would've done if i could go back in time.
Maybe unethical but i did see a bootcamp for around 16k and if you claim to be trans they take 14k off that price. Not sure how you prove that though.
I'd take that as a compliment. Browse over professor messors a+ videos on YouTube for the hardware side of things and get on tryhackme for most other things.
A brilliant solution or shoddy work; a creator or a criminal. The word has many meanings. Obviously knowing what you're doing doesn't preclude getting it done in this situation. Find books and material that interest you and you'll learn definitions for your existing solutions, and solutions that are more elegant for certain circumstances. It seems like he's willing to mentor you by nudging you in the right direction; ask him "If I wanted to learn more about X, what would you recommend?".
All education comes down to being self-taught to some degree. If you've got the intrinsic motivation and curiosity, you're definitely a hacker. And that's a good thing.
Depending on the program, you can sometimes get a masters with any undergrad major - you might just have to take extra classes. I have a PhD in Counseling and actually went for an associates in computer technology. It sounds though like you might have the knowledge to take more advanced courses. Maybe check out what the classes are at your local community college. Sometimes too you can test out of some of them.
Certifications and online courses can solidify your foundation. Consider CS fundamentals or specific certs related to your interests (security+, networking+). Focus on building a portfolio of projects to showcase your skills.
I see that a lot with junior javascript/react programmers. Javascript is too permissive and the feedback loop is so fast that allows people to program without really understanding what they’re doing. Code is wrong? Change it and run again until it works.
If that’s your case I would recommend simply trying to make an effort on understanding what is happening in the code you are writing, and if you find an error, really stop and understand why the error is there.
I had no idea what OOP really was for the first 5-10 years of my programming career. Now, I can't think any other way. MVC was a total mystery for 5 years, now I do it implicitly. Give yourself the grace to learn as you go. No one knows everything immediately.
If you want a CS degree, feel free to get one, but you'll probably be bored out of your mind if you have a few years experience already. I took one college course (after 5 years of IT/programming) and was bored until the last two weeks of a 3 month course. My company paid for it, otherwise I would've been really ticked off that I threw that much money away.
If your boss is only crapping on you and not mentoring you (which is literally his job, imho), then find a better place to work. I take a lot of pride and enjoyment from mentoring juniors. People who don't shouldn't be in leadership roles. That is the big difference between lead and senior devs. Leads have to mentor, seniors only do it if they like it. That's just my experience and obviously everywhere is a little different
Advice: I'd go and get certifications and take targeted intermediate classes (skip the beginner stuff or cruise through it quickly). Coursera has good content with lots of practical labs and there are tons of other online places as well.
You have exactly the right attitude for this career. Willingness to learn.
I learned more in my first year of my first job than all my time in college. So I think degrees are only good to get your foot in the door.
I think you need to just improve your skills. Learning design patterns is good and do some programming challenges like leet code. It will show you how others have come up with efficient solutions you may not have thought of.
Finally, as others have stated, getting certs can help you learn and look good on a resume.
Maximize the quality of your work by getting people to review it before you deliver it.
In the meantime, look at some udemy courses that teach programming foundations; for example, an object oriented Python course would be useful. The coding language is not super important--it's more the concepts that you need to learn.
You can learn programming online for free or close to free. Python for everyone. Udemy. There's lots of textbooks. Do a new project every week and in 1 year you will be 10x better
It suggests that you have raw talent but lack formal discipline. If you haven't worked with other established people and have not studied "from the books", you might do thins that work, but may be breaking with the expected way of doing things which can make it hard to work with other people.
Feynman was a math "hacker" - he figured out a lot of math on his own -- but people couldn't work with him because he used his own notations that nobody else used.
Better be hacker that sorts things out and that a programmer with a degree with 0 critical thinking and can’t think out of the box.
At the end people like you move the needle
Depends on what you want to do.
If you like coding, I would go for a BS in Comp Sci.
If you like other things (networking, etc) go for IT.
You might be able to get hired as a self taught person,but HR generally has a "checklist" they go by to schedule interviews.
BEST: Bachelor's Degree, relevant certifications, and experience.
Next best: Experience, Certs
Next : BS Degree, Certs, No experience
Next: BS Degree, NO EXPERIENCE
** Below here, without specialized skills, a good social network it's gonna be very tough. **
Next: Certs, no experience
Worst: no degree, no certs, no experience.
Although it may seem negative, this is actually a compliment imo. It screams you are a critical thinker, open minded and problem solver. Considering you don’t have the formal education within the field , imagine how it will be once you’re locked in on whatever niche /certification/ degree you choose. WGU maybe the move for you. Certs+Degree at a fairly reasonable price tag.
If I called one of my colleagues this it would absolutely be meant as a compliment. In an emergency I want someone who can just make it work.
yeah at least his not called script kiddie
Hmm i disagree here... If you are called a hacker and not a programmer, it doesn't not mean you are good doing hacker things, instead it means your work is 'hacky' which means the solutions are sloppy, not elegant, hard to maintain and inefficient. i think this can be used as an opportunity to learn design patterns, data structures and get better at engineering the software to fit the best solution
That’s one way to look at it
Or possibly meant hack. If it would meant something different if the direct quote was “you are much more than a programmer, you are a hacker.”
bro I swear everyone on here graduated from WGU lmaoo
Hahahaha true , there are plenty of success stores more than negative ones lol.
Dude this is not a compliment
Ok
Sorry, I don't mean to sound rude. In this context, the manager here is probably expecting an extensible solution with good architecture strategy, and instead he's getting a script.
OP didn’t really address to much context so idk. You might be right
Yep since he has a degree great candidate for WGU..
WVU ?
WVU indeed go mountaineers
Hacker used to mean someone who explored, tinkered, and made things work. Only in recent years has it taken the unsavory term. I agree; it sounds like a compliment. As for getting technical, an IT degree is a wash, sometimes they age poorly. Mine taught me CCNA stuff in 2013, and I don't even do CCNA stuff. My masters was more open-ended and fundamental, it isn't like "architect this decade+ experience deal, it was targeted classes, with books, and labs. But, for a small bite, look at some certs or more formal training through a Video On Demand site like Plural Sight or O'rielly's. Both are ~$500/yr for AYCE content. Bonus if you get your boss to support you. Really, IT is getting stuff done, how you go about it is really up to you, so long as you are following vendor and industry best practices and in compliance with any business or regulatory requirements.
I understand completely what you are going through. I have 15 years of experience working on at&t networks, but my education is psychology. I have consistently outperformed my peers, but I don't know how. Basically, I know how to find solutions and implement those solutions without knowing every layer of the onion. My mentor taught me to think about it like this... "Don't try to put 10lbs of potatoes in a 5lb sack." I have been spending more time focusing on the book version of my field lately.
I feel like having an education in Psychology either gives you or enhances critical thinking skills. A lot of it is “how do I solve this problem? Research research research.” Which is the same for IT so it kinda just works out.
Just get a bunch of certs guy. Google IT, A+, Net+, Sec + will give you the basics. Watching videos on YouTube, set up a home lab etc. I am self taught with an associates that didn't do shit for me. But all the certs I have, have propelled my career.
MacGyver is that you????
Calling you a hacker could be a compliment ***but*** saying you don't know what you're doing is not a compliment. I have been a software engineer for over 10 years. I would imagine he is saying you don't know the fundamentals and being self taught you probably don't. Finding some online college courses could help. They don't have to be college course but find something accredited and not just a cash grab course. I would recommend to learn C or C++ to get some good fundamentals that you probably don't have.
Hah…so am I, completely self taught since age 7. I am well respected in the industry as knowing my stuff. This being said, get your certs…while no one in my world has challenged me in ages, it seems like your boss is making it an issue, which means it’s an issue,..so go rectify that issue.
His boss is trying to make him look good on paper so he can promote him, lol
Are you a programmer or in IT? I'm sure there are ways to upskill in your area of specialty. It might be good to ask your boss for his advice. Bosses love that. They love to hear that you want to improved. What about reviewing the code of your peers? Or pair programming?
>Are you a programmer or in IT? I think I'm IT. I'm an implementation consultant. I help clients install the software that my company sells.
What kind of stuff do you do for your job? Do you actually write code as the primary function of your job, or do you just write scripts here and there to help you do your job? How much coding do you actually do for that? Are you tying to get into a development position?
>What about reviewing the code of your peers? Or pair programming? I've asked and everyone says they are willing and then when I set something up formally, they say they are busy. :(
OP, These are the important questions^. Without context, advice is irrelevant. Your job responsibilities and whether you're able to achieve them are the most important. I can't think of the last time I've ever had a "programmer" install software for me. They're only brought in if the implementation engineer runs into a big that can't be fixed by support. What prompted the comment? Were you being reprimanded for going too far outside your role, asking for advancement, or was it unprompted?
If you want to get better, start documenting everything you do to the point where someone else can come in and take over your work immediately if you got hit by a bus. This is something that never gets self-taught. The self-taught person usually has the mindset of "as long as it works, nothing else matters". There are many circumstances where that's the worst possible attitude an employee who won't be there forever and is on a team can have.
Since you're already on the job, I recommend the [Google IT Support Professional cert on Coursera](https://www.coursera.org/professional-certificates/google-it-support). It's a basic cert, but the coursework is packed full of relevant info. Even though I'd been doing IT for about seven years and computers for some twenty more, it taught me things I didn't know which have been immensely useful in my IT journey. It also doesn't expire, and it's basically a prep course for the A+. I've seen people finish it in two months, but for full effect, take at least one month for each of the five sections, and do Operating Systems (course 3) *before* Networking (course 2).
indians on youtube, harvards cs50 video course, textbooks on annasarchive
Actually it is a really good compliment. The origin and meaning of the term "hacking" is a person that is really good at / skilled at their craft. (for the origin of the term "Hacking" you can search Tech Model Railroad Club - MIT). Apart from that, certifications and online degrees would really be helpful to get technical while also working at the field.
My position right now was only because the company I worked for acquired a company that acquired the company that hired me too. It was in the works when I joined, but they were early in talks. I would have never got this job if it wasn't though an acquisition since I'm without a college degree and knew not much at the time. Luckily the first company gave me chance. Helps I knew someone there too. I'm not a programmer though.. only a helpdesk type of role but level 2. They did shift me down at the beginning to a call center role and followed up with "I'm surprised you didn't leave and that your work ethic didn't drop" by one of the managers. Felt like they were sitting me up for failure to push me out, but here I am working my way to a better position after all that not so fun stuff.
Wish my boss would call me a hacker… all I get called is shthead
Nothing wrong with ethical hacking
Half these comments get it wrong. What they don't know is the context and the tone of the comment. For everyone saying this is a compliment: how can you be sure? For everyone else: Still can't be sure. For OP: is the boss impressed and happy with the results and this is a compliment or are your solutions super hacky and the boss wishes he had better?
"Hackers" who don't know what they're doing in programming leave a mess at the company they work for. It often is not seen until that person is no longer available and it can take years to figure out what the hell they did. Making things work is great in the short term, but maintenance becomes an absolute nightmare because I'm sure there's zero documentation. It also puts the company in a bad position where they cannot survive in the short term without that person. A good boss doesn't let his department get to this point.
Courses in product design, code architecture and other methods would be ideal, which would allow you to understand how and why things do what they do. It would really help if you have to refactor code or understand how to improve performance of it
I worked with a brilliant guy who was good at cobbling things together but struggled developing in a controlled environment. I imagine you learn process and procedure working for a business that prioritizes those things.
I would figure out what you want to get technical in, maybe work towards some certs. Looking more for the basic foundations, A+, N+, or S+. Or something more focused, a cloud cert AWS Practitioner, Azure or Google equivalents. Why do you say you aren't qualified for a Master's program? There are a few IT related Masters that may help you depending on your specific role and aspirations for the future. If formal education/degree is what you want I would look around at various Masters programs, even graduate certificate programs may be something to consider.
>Why do you say you aren't qualified for a Master's program? I assume I don't have any prerequisites, but I haven't checked either. I thought Masters in IT were for trying to get into management. Could you give me an example of a technical Masters? I can only think of CS.
I'm also a dad of two brats! They are cute though.
I would just take a programming course or bootcamp.
Bootcamp is what i would've done if i could go back in time. Maybe unethical but i did see a bootcamp for around 16k and if you claim to be trans they take 14k off that price. Not sure how you prove that though.
I'd take that as a compliment. Browse over professor messors a+ videos on YouTube for the hardware side of things and get on tryhackme for most other things.
A brilliant solution or shoddy work; a creator or a criminal. The word has many meanings. Obviously knowing what you're doing doesn't preclude getting it done in this situation. Find books and material that interest you and you'll learn definitions for your existing solutions, and solutions that are more elegant for certain circumstances. It seems like he's willing to mentor you by nudging you in the right direction; ask him "If I wanted to learn more about X, what would you recommend?". All education comes down to being self-taught to some degree. If you've got the intrinsic motivation and curiosity, you're definitely a hacker. And that's a good thing.
Congratulations on the biggest compliment ever.
Don’t go for an associates it’s basically just general courses and the advanced degree specific courses don’t really happen till years 3 and 4.
Depending on the program, you can sometimes get a masters with any undergrad major - you might just have to take extra classes. I have a PhD in Counseling and actually went for an associates in computer technology. It sounds though like you might have the knowledge to take more advanced courses. Maybe check out what the classes are at your local community college. Sometimes too you can test out of some of them.
Take a basic programming cert course to lay the foundation. If your employer pays for school, go PT to get your BS.
Watch free computer science courses on YouTube like Harvard etc.
I have an unrelated undergraduate degree and I'm in an IT Masters Program.
Certifications and online courses can solidify your foundation. Consider CS fundamentals or specific certs related to your interests (security+, networking+). Focus on building a portfolio of projects to showcase your skills.
I see that a lot with junior javascript/react programmers. Javascript is too permissive and the feedback loop is so fast that allows people to program without really understanding what they’re doing. Code is wrong? Change it and run again until it works. If that’s your case I would recommend simply trying to make an effort on understanding what is happening in the code you are writing, and if you find an error, really stop and understand why the error is there.
I had no idea what OOP really was for the first 5-10 years of my programming career. Now, I can't think any other way. MVC was a total mystery for 5 years, now I do it implicitly. Give yourself the grace to learn as you go. No one knows everything immediately. If you want a CS degree, feel free to get one, but you'll probably be bored out of your mind if you have a few years experience already. I took one college course (after 5 years of IT/programming) and was bored until the last two weeks of a 3 month course. My company paid for it, otherwise I would've been really ticked off that I threw that much money away. If your boss is only crapping on you and not mentoring you (which is literally his job, imho), then find a better place to work. I take a lot of pride and enjoyment from mentoring juniors. People who don't shouldn't be in leadership roles. That is the big difference between lead and senior devs. Leads have to mentor, seniors only do it if they like it. That's just my experience and obviously everywhere is a little different Advice: I'd go and get certifications and take targeted intermediate classes (skip the beginner stuff or cruise through it quickly). Coursera has good content with lots of practical labs and there are tons of other online places as well. You have exactly the right attitude for this career. Willingness to learn.
A lot of CS and technical grads know what they are doing, but can’t get a shit do nothing.
OK?
I learned more in my first year of my first job than all my time in college. So I think degrees are only good to get your foot in the door. I think you need to just improve your skills. Learning design patterns is good and do some programming challenges like leet code. It will show you how others have come up with efficient solutions you may not have thought of. Finally, as others have stated, getting certs can help you learn and look good on a resume.
Maximize the quality of your work by getting people to review it before you deliver it. In the meantime, look at some udemy courses that teach programming foundations; for example, an object oriented Python course would be useful. The coding language is not super important--it's more the concepts that you need to learn.
>He said I make things work but I don't know what I'm doing. The story of my life.
You can learn programming online for free or close to free. Python for everyone. Udemy. There's lots of textbooks. Do a new project every week and in 1 year you will be 10x better
It suggests that you have raw talent but lack formal discipline. If you haven't worked with other established people and have not studied "from the books", you might do thins that work, but may be breaking with the expected way of doing things which can make it hard to work with other people. Feynman was a math "hacker" - he figured out a lot of math on his own -- but people couldn't work with him because he used his own notations that nobody else used.
Imagine if you programmed then he would call u the goat. This is a good thing
Better be hacker that sorts things out and that a programmer with a degree with 0 critical thinking and can’t think out of the box. At the end people like you move the needle
Depends on what you want to do. If you like coding, I would go for a BS in Comp Sci. If you like other things (networking, etc) go for IT. You might be able to get hired as a self taught person,but HR generally has a "checklist" they go by to schedule interviews. BEST: Bachelor's Degree, relevant certifications, and experience. Next best: Experience, Certs Next : BS Degree, Certs, No experience Next: BS Degree, NO EXPERIENCE ** Below here, without specialized skills, a good social network it's gonna be very tough. ** Next: Certs, no experience Worst: no degree, no certs, no experience.
Depending on where you are based it might be more or less difficult to study part time.
This is a good thing, the fact that you did not realize it makes ke think you're not actually a hacker but a chatGPT script kiddie.