Looking ahead

Well, this past week has been a fairly typical week at school. Homework and then, well, more homework! We also had our first exam in Intro to Programming - Javascript. I think the exam went well for me. We'll find out in the next few weeks how it truly went. Overall, the homework, while ever present, has been enjoyable. It's amazing how work can be fun with it's related to something you are really interested in doing.

But my posting for this past week isn't so much about what happened, but what's coming. On November 6 I will be able to register for Spring semester. I'm definitely looking forward to getting into more advanced territory with my education. However, I also need to choose a more specific path to go down. Having earned a bachelor's degree at UW-Madison, I do not need to take the general education courses at MATC. This has given me the freedom to take extra classes in IT. Many students in the same program as me will need to choose one programming language to learn between the three offered. Those languages are Java, PHP and .NET. Of course, the core courses will still be the same all of us.

I have the opportunity to learn 2 of these languages. Initially, I had considered learning all 3 as I was able to fit them all into my class schedule over the 2 year program. However, I now believe that learning only 2 of the languages will allow me to focus more intently on them. I want to avoid what the old saying, "Jack of all trades, master of none" implies. I want to go for depth, not breadth. This will also allow me to keep some room in my schedule should I decide to take other electives based on my interests over the next 2 years.

At this point, I am leaning towards both PHP and .NET. I still have that nagging voice in the back of my mind telling me to learn all three, but I think the prudent choice is still to "only" learn two. I can always go back later, and earn a Java certificate. I'm also left with the option to learn only one of the languages and take the iPhone development courses offered by MATC in place of a second language. While I currently don't own an iPhone, I definitely understand the trend towards programming for mobile devices.

So I have some tough decisions to make in the next week or so. I plan to meet with my IT advisor this week to help me in this choice. This field is so interesting to me, that I wish I could just learn all of it. But I have to remind myself to be patient and to learn one thing at a time! There is no reason not to keep learning once my two years here are complete. I guess the main thing to consider is what do I want to do in this field and not worry so much about what I think others will need me to do. That will benefit myself and my future employer the most in the long run.

Thanks again for reading. I hope to have more insight into my career choice next time.