I need to learn a programming language, which one is easiest out of this list ?

[T3X4S]

I have a really important job interview coming up in 10 days.
This company contacted me about a year ago, but I had just accepted an offer for a 1 year contract and couldn't back out.
So, I contacted them back, and they are interested still woohoo !

Only problem is, the position they want me for requires some coding - I dont know any.

Which would be easiest for me to submerge in a crash course for the next 10 days?  ( I once heard python is pretty easy)

Java
.NET
Node.js
PHP
Python
Ruby

And I need familiarity in 1 of these:

Git, Perforce, SVN, TFVC

Obviously this job is out of my comfort zone, and I am taking a slight risk, but I am wanting a change -

Thanks Everyone

[Seabizkit]

  On 30/10/2015 at 14:52, FloatingFatMan said:

 

Any half decent programmer will be able to work his magic in multiple languages, so the "jack of all, master of none" saying doesn't really apply here. What's important are the logic and problem solving skills, not what syntax you're working in.  That's the easy part and can be picked up in just a couple of days by anyone experienced.

 

not saying your wrong...just not the way i view it... lets just use a simple example:

how do you write java to intercept a HTTP Handlers and HTTP Modules?

how do you write c# to intercept a HTTP Handlers and HTTP Modules?

knowing basics and logic wont help me here.

 

[adrynalyne]

  On 30/10/2015 at 19:38, Seabizkit said:

 

not saying your wrong...just not the way i view it... lets just use a simple example:

how do you write java to intercept a HTTP Handlers and HTTP Modules?

how do you write c# to intercept a HTTP Handlers and HTTP Modules?

me personally knowing how to write c# or java wont help me here.

 

Yes it would because then you could write both...

[Seabizkit]

  On 30/10/2015 at 19:41, adrynalyne said:

Yes it would because then you could write both...

you must of quoted before i updated. (without google can you really write it?, if you can then your awesome, i would employ you.)

[adrynalyne]

  On 30/10/2015 at 19:44, Seabizkit said:

 

you must of quoted before i updated. (without google can you really write it?, if you can then your awesome, i would employ you.)

I can in c#, yes.

Of course I am also a web developer.

There is no way you can know it all though. A developer's most important skill is to find the answer. If you do not know basics and logic, you will have utter hell finding the answer.

If you take a developer and an accountant and have them both search for the answer to that question, who will find the answer first?

 

I am not great at java, but  I have written Android apps for the company that employs me. I understood what I needed and how I needed it to work. Then I just needed to rework the syntax.

[+FloatingFatMan Subscriber¹]

  On 30/10/2015 at 19:38, Seabizkit said:

 

not saying your wrong...just not the way i view it... lets just use a simple example:

how do you write java to intercept a HTTP Handlers and HTTP Modules?

how do you write c# to intercept a HTTP Handlers and HTTP Modules?

knowing basics and logic wont help me here.

 

With 25+ years of professional experience as a software developer, I think I know of what I speak, thanks.

 

[binaryzero]

You must have a winning personality then if they want to hire you  .

That can go a long way in IT.  

[Seabizkit]

  On 30/10/2015 at 19:50, adrynalyne said:

I can in c#, yes.

Of course I am also a web developer.

There is no way you can know it all though. A developer's most important skill is to find the answer. If you do not know basics and logic, you will have utter hell finding the answer.

If you take a developer and an accountant and have them both search for the answer to that question, who will find the answer first?

 

I am not great at java, but  I have written Android apps for the company that employs me. I understood what I needed and how I needed it to work. Then I just needed to rework the syntax.

@adryanlyne 

very fair! but your example is a little abstract for me, why not two developers.. so their finding skills are the same.

Now if you have been in the industry for a while, you would see that some developers are just poo even in the language they work with,  but my point is this...

jack of all, master of none.... if your pro and can produce the same quality in both, then awesome, me I couldn't even tho I know java syntax, (I can read and write java )

but would take me 3 times as long to produce the same quality.

@FloatingFatMan 

OK..., I know a architect (25+), very educated and used to lecture at TOP university, now works for our company, has a 2 PHD. (no joking)

.... probably hasn't coded in 15 years, although is still working in the industry supplying system architecture.

Whats my point.... I can guarantee that I would produce a better program than him in c#.

If you are awesome, then fair enough!.... very rare that someone will live up to what i expect. 

I don't know what type of developer you are,... what kinds of things have you written.Desktop Apps(Form), Web, Workflow, Integration...? 

How complex are they and big was it?

(Writing code to read a text file, yeah sure the quality of code across java and c# for me will be the same, but for me that's writing a couple of lines, not developing a system.)

again if you are truly that good then kudos to you,

 

 

 

 

[T3X4S]

  On 31/10/2015 at 00:06, Jared- said:

You must have a winning personality then if they want to hire you  .

That can go a long way in IT.  

Well, as I sidestep the possible sarcasm and passive/aggressiveness of your post .... I will say that I have always been considered "useful" because I can talk geek, and explain highly technical things to the layman (including execs).

This position will be strictly technical, supporting large enterprise that use AWS. "From Netflix to NASA" is something I have heard more than once.

I spent the last couple of days learning Python, feel pretty good about it - was quite easy, and since I used to do a little programming when I was a wee lad (early teenager I think) - I was able to draw upon that so I wasnt totally green.

My interview is less than 3 hours, but I wanted to post again to say "Thank You" to everyone who was so helpful in pointing me in the right direction for a crash course in Python.  It was very helpful.

Thanks Again - 

Chris

 

[adrynalyne]

  On 31/10/2015 at 08:18, Seabizkit said:

 

@adryanlyne 

very fair! but your example is a little abstract for me, why not two developers.. so their finding skills are the same.

Now if you have been in the industry for a while, you would see that some developers are just poo even in the language they work with,  but my point is this...

jack of all, master of none.... if your pro and can produce the same quality in both, then awesome, me I couldn't even tho I know java syntax, (I can read and write java )

but would take me 3 times as long to produce the same quality.

@FloatingFatMan 

OK..., I know a architect (25+), very educated and used to lecture at TOP university, now works for our company, has a 2 PHD. (no joking)

.... probably hasn't coded in 15 years, although is still working in the industry supplying system architecture.

Whats my point.... I can guarantee that I would produce a better program than him in c#.

If you are awesome, then fair enough!.... very rare that someone will live up to what i expect. 

I don't know what type of developer you are,... what kinds of things have you written.Desktop Apps(Form), Web, Workflow, Integration...? 

How complex are they and big was it?

(Writing code to read a text file, yeah sure the quality of code across java and c# for me will be the same, but for me that's writing a couple of lines, not developing a system.)

again if you are truly that good then kudos to you,

 

 

 

 

I've only been in it for a few years, but I've seen that already. I think you will find that in any profession though.

[+FloatingFatMan Subscriber¹]

  On 31/10/2015 at 08:18, Seabizkit said:

@FloatingFatMan 

OK..., I know a architect (25+), very educated and used to lecture at TOP university, now works for our company, has a 2 PHD. (no joking)

.... probably hasn't coded in 15 years, although is still working in the industry supplying system architecture.

Whats my point.... I can guarantee that I would produce a better program than him in c#.

If you are awesome, then fair enough!.... very rare that someone will live up to what i expect. 

I don't know what type of developer you are,... what kinds of things have you written.Desktop Apps(Form), Web, Workflow, Integration...? 

How complex are they and big was it?

(Writing code to read a text file, yeah sure the quality of code across java and c# for me will be the same, but for me that's writing a couple of lines, not developing a system.)

again if you are truly that good then kudos to you,

I've written software ranging from controlling military hardware though to desktop apps, bespoke database applications, web apps, mobile; pretty much anything you care to name.  Some have been small, some have been massive in scope, including some software that pretty much controls a large amount of europe's paper manufacturing industry.  I've been coding since 1980 when I was 10 and built my first computer from a bag of components, a circuit board and a soldering iron. I don't have any PHD's as I couldn't afford uni, but I have English A level qualifications, plus am a qualified electroncs engineer, and also have plenty of professional qualifications (most recently added HTML5 & Javascript MS certs back in Easter).

When it comes to programming languages, I'm a polyglot, and most of the devs I work with are also polyglots.  In fact, I don't know any coders who aren't highly proficient in multiple languages.  My particular speciality lies in code analysis.  Often, our clients will give us some work they have had done elsewhere, usually with the complaint "Company X did this for us and it sucks, can you sort it out?" and that's what we do.. Either we tear the app apart, take it back to specs and rebuild it, or we get the existing source code and fix that, depending on job requirements.  When that's needed, I'm the guy they call. I -have- to be highly proficient as I never know what language the app will have been written in until I get the source.  Most of it tends to be C++. C#, VB.Net, Java, Javascript, ASP.Net, ASP and sometimes some old school Classic VB, but I've had stuff in Fortan, Pascal, assembler, and even once was given an ancient DOS app written in dBase III+ and asked to "modernise it".

I'm the senior developer in my department, but I expect the same level of skill from everyone else in my team.  I work 'em hard, but we play hard too and everyone here loves their job.

[+FloatingFatMan Subscriber¹]

  On 02/11/2015 at 14:47, adrynalyne said:

I've only been in it for a few years, but I've seen that already. I think you will find that in any profession though.

I see far more "lemons" from young coders than I do the older guys (my generation). I don't think it's the people themselves at fault, I think it's what they're taught.  When I learned, we went down to the bare metal itself. I learned binary & hex numeral systems backwards, I learned not only assembler, but I learned how to code straight to the metal itself, writing code in pure hex.  I don't think they do that in schools anymore...  I built my own micro in EE class using a 68000 CPU (designing and etching your own PCB is fun!), wrote its BIOS in pure hex which then loaded up the simple OS I also wrote for it in assembler.  Just about everyone I knew of did that sort of thing back then, too...  I imagine if they tried to teach that low level stuff to kids these days, they'd kick up a stink about it!

[binaryzero]

No sarcasm in ^. 

So how did you go?

[T3X4S]

  On 02/11/2015 at 23:50, Jared- said:

No sarcasm in ^. 

So how did you go?

The team manager who was supposed to call, was on vacation all last week, and didn't check his calendar - so he didnt know of the interview.  

So it was moved to tomorrow @ 12:00 - 

Thats OK - gave me time to learn some .net too.

[Royalty]

You should start with Python. It's the easiest language to learn I would say and it's very straight forward. Good luck!

[T3X4S]

Well, the Engineering team lead called me, and only 1 quick sentence was even mentioned about programming... LOL -
He was more concerned with analytical skills, how I think, what I know in terms of System Admin-ing, windows admin - stuff like that.

So, now I can purge the last few days of Ruby, and Python - and go back to the blissful state of not knowing any code.

Interview went pretty good (1 hour and 4 minutes), I should know something within a week. 

Thanks to Everyone who gave advice.

[T3X4S]

Well - for anyone interested, I rec'd an email from Amazon recruiting team & I made it to the final stage.  

Next week they will schedule a face-to-face interview here in Dallas.  This is the last step before a decision is made.

I feel pretty good because I usually do well in face-to-face situations like this - I guess I come across as relaxed and easy to talk to (so I have been told) which is a rarity with people in my field.

I would be lying if I said I wasnt a little nervous though.  When I called my mother, she didnt help at all, "Oh yeah - I bet you're nervous - something so important - a company you want to work for - and the pay is so good - I would be nervous"  - thanks Mom - thats helpful !  LOL

I also found out a little about the article about bad work conditions @ Amazon - that article was from the NY Times.  The NY Times main competitor is the Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos (CEO & founder of Amazon) - interesting to the say the least.

 

[simplezz]

  On 03/11/2015 at 19:36, T3X4S said:

So, now I can purge the last few days of Ruby, and Python - and go back to the blissful state of not knowing any code.

A good sysadmin should know basic scripting (Bash/Python/Perl). At least in the Linux world.

[+FloatingFatMan Subscriber¹]

  On 07/11/2015 at 03:03, T3X4S said:

Well - for anyone interested, I rec'd an email from Amazon recruiting team & I made it to the final stage.  

Next week they will schedule a face-to-face interview here in Dallas.  This is the last step before a decision is made.

Best of luck, Tex.

Maybe if you get the job you can tell those idiots running AWS to stop changing ###### that ain't broke!  They changed something in the routing last week, and now we can't connect to any of our DB servers they're hosting.

 

[T3X4S]

  On 07/11/2015 at 19:25, simplezz said:

 

 
LOL Will do.   & Thank You

Thursday they told me I had been selected for the face-to-face final stage of the interview process, its only Tuesday morning but it feels like its been a week.  I want to email them again and say, "Hey ! When the hell is someone gonna contact me about a day & time ?!?!" - but I think I will show some restraint.

Every IT position @ Amazon is tiered, so I dont know what tier I will be specifically interviewing for.

It basically goes:
Cloud Support Associate
Cloud Support Engineer
Cloud Support Engineer I
Cloud Support Engineer II
Cloud Support Engineer Sr
Then Distinguished Engineer, or Fellow - but these guys are usually PhD, and/or have decades of impressive accolades.

I will be either Engineer or Engineer I starting out (if accepted)

[T3X4S]

  On 10/11/2015 at 12:57, IndioBailBonds said:

Go For PHP. It's easy to learn and there is a lot of help on net about it.You can find tutorials easily. 

  On 10/11/2015 at 15:47, Peter Cabrera said:

Python is a good option only if you have deep knowledge about programming Well PHP is also good and easy too.

I assume I will have to learn something - I have learned the basics of python, and a little Ruby - I will take a look @ PHP too.

The weird thing is they never brought it up in my last interview.  I guess it will be brought up in the final one.

I emailed the recruiter this morning - and he contacted the rest of team to see when the last interview could be scheduled - now its just a matter of waiting.

But thank you for your input - I will check out PHP - hopefully I will just need to know enough to read a little code and spot an error.

[DevTech]

  On 10/11/2015 at 20:04, T3X4S said:

 

I assume I will have to learn something - I have learned the basics of python, and a little Ruby - I will take a look @ PHP too.

The weird thing is they never brought it up in my last interview.  I guess it will be brought up in the final one.

I emailed the recruiter this morning - and he contacted the rest of team to see when the last interview could be scheduled - now its just a matter of waiting.

But thank you for your input - I will check out PHP - hopefully I will just need to know enough to read a little code and spot an error.

Well I'm pretty sure you are going out of your way to be polite to everyone but just in case it didn't cross your mind, it's not a good idea to start out with a little bit of everything, not even if the language was named Monica

It's better to stick with a rigorous one and learn it in depth because like runners in the Marathon getting past "The Wall" you will hit the hard point and past that is all the insight and understanding. A object oriented static typed language makes a good base. C++, Java, C# are the big ones.

Javascript although horrible in many ways has a lot of online tutorials because it can be interpreted directly in the browser making all sorts of online IDE's and learning environments available. Typescript brings static typing to Javascript but still lets you drop to Javascript to get the best of both worlds maybe. Node.js is the fastest growing server side technology which is written in C++ and programmed in Javascript to permit an end-to-end Javascript solution cloud to client.

So if you want to be rigorous, pick one of the big three and learn it inside-out before munching on the others. If you want something where if all else fails at least you can hack up some websites then pick Javascript.

If you need some fun to hold your attention then go with C# and Unity 3D:

https://unity3d.com/

Or Javascript and Phasor.js for 2D or Babylon.js for 3D:

http://phaser.io/

http://www.babylonjs.com/

And then tell Amazon you have better things to do, get some seed capital and make an Indy Game. More fun.

 

[T3X4S]

  On 11/11/2015 at 05:44, DevTech said:

 

Well I'm pretty sure you are going out of your way to be polite to everyone but just in case it didn't cross your mind, it's not a good idea to start out with a little bit of everything, not even if the language was named Monica

It's better to stick with a rigorous one and learn it in depth because like runners in the Marathon getting past "The Wall" you will hit the hard point and past that is all the insight and understanding. A object oriented static typed language makes a good base. C++, Java, C# are the big ones.

Javascript although horrible in many ways has a lot of online tutorials because it can be interpreted directly in the browser making all sorts of online IDE's and learning environments available. Typescript brings static typing to Javascript but still lets you drop to Javascript to get the best of both worlds maybe. Node.js is the fastest growing server side technology which is written in C++ and programmed in Javascript to permit an end-to-end Javascript solution cloud to client.

So if you want to be rigorous, pick one of the big three and learn it inside-out before munching on the others. If you want something where if all else fails at least you can hack up some websites then pick Javascript.

If you need some fun to hold your attention then go with C# and Unity 3D:

https://unity3d.com/

Or Javascript and Phasor.js for 2D or Babylon.js for 3D:

http://phaser.io/

http://www.babylonjs.com/

And then tell Amazon you have better things to do, get some seed capital and make an Indy Game. More fun.

 

I completely agree with what you are saying.

My thinking was to learn a little about a couple of languages strictly for the interview process.  So if they asked , I could honestly answer "I know the basics of xxxx, and xxxx, but I want to learn more"  then, if I got the job, I would wait until going through training to see what they say would be the best language(s) to learn.  At least that is my thought process right now.  I just did not want to get into a position where I said I knew a little, and secretly thought I could BS my way through some interview questions, and ultimately get caught for not knowing what I say I did - that was my biggest fear.  If it was just learning 20 commands, at least I could honestly say, "I have learned some basic commands, but am eager to learn more" or some enthusiastic answer like that.


What I am hoping is I can convince them, after a couple years of kicking ass, to put me on as an engineer for Amazon Prime Air - that would be awesome !

[Gerowen]

I've only really dabbled in Python myself, but I've learned enough to tell you that it's easy as pie.  It's plain english for the most part, so you don't even have to know Python to be able to look at it and take a pretty good guess at what's going on.

And as others have said, 10 days is not gonna be enough, perhaps you should have been honest about your ACTUAL skills from the start.  Ask them what kind of coding might be required, they've probably got some sort of system already set up.  Won't do you any good to learn one language if they need you to be proficient in something else.

Anyway, here's some sample Python, :-)

The infamous "Hello World".

print ("Hello World!")

And a little countdown timer.

import time
print ("Counting down!")
var = 10
for i in range (10):
    print (var)
    var -= 1
    time.sleep(1)
print ("Blastoff!")

[DevTech]

  On 11/11/2015 at 05:53, T3X4S said:

I completely agree with what you are saying.
My thinking was to learn a little about a couple of languages strictly for the interview process.  So if they asked , I could honestly answer "I know the basics of xxxx, and xxxx, but I want to learn more"  then, if I got the job, I would wait until going through training to see what they say would be the best language(s) to learn.  At least that is my thought process right now.  I just did not want to get into a position where I said I knew a little, and secretly thought I could BS my way through some interview questions, and ultimately get caught for not knowing what I say I did - that was my biggest fear.  If it was just learning 20 commands, at least I could honestly say, "I have learned some basic commands, but am eager to learn more" or some enthusiastic answer like that.


What I am hoping is I can convince them, after a couple years of kicking ass, to put me on as an engineer for Amazon Prime Air - that would be awesome !

You already said there wasn't much emphasis on the programming.

And half the people here post stuff without reading the thread... which should be funnier than it turns out to be.

I was just assuming you might have an slight interest whether you get the job or not and was giving you some ideas for afterwards....

My bad on not being clear.

We can now return to our regularly scheduled programming (on programming) where random visitors across the universe explain why their favorite language is also by some chance the easiest to learn. Hmmmm...

 

[T3X4S]

Well I got the email - Dec 1-2 is when it will all go down @ their N Dallas offices.   woot !

Edited November 12, 2015 by T3X4S