Transferring Schools
I have applied to Henry Ford Community College in the Web Developer advanced certificate. I applied for the FAFSA I plan to try to transfer my credits from Washtenaw Community College for the equivalent certificate. And I will certainly test out of Photoshop class.
In the meantime, I wish I could get this job as a part-time web developer in Ann Arbor. I'd need PHP and Javascript though-- for that matter, even my CSS might have gotten a tad bit rusty these days.
For starters, what if I try to decipher the incomprehensible PHP Wordpress template for my website? I'd like to fix that irritating width, so the top menu will fit on one line. I've been avoiding it, but I should not avoid it. I don't think it differs significantly from most programming work that I'm aiming for. You are introduced to a baroque, poorly-documented system designed for seemingly-arbitrary reasons. Then you learn the system through research and trial and error. If you're lucky, you do this often enough and at sufficiently short intervals that you actually retain what you learned previously. But even then you'll just be introduced to another system and have to start over. Such is the entire paradigm.
I suspect I know what you're thinking. "Matt, despite the Java class you aced this year, and despite no barriers to entry, you still don't do any programming. If it is something you never do in your free time, why do you want to do it?" Well, I tried twelve years of working in skills I do not avoid using, and my life is falling apart for lack of income. If I put myself into situations such as class or a job, in which I am expected to do it all the time, it will become second nature to crack open a text editor and program.
Comments
sorcycat on Nov. 1, 2009 2:25 PM
I could give you tasks for the U-Con website if you want to learn PHP. :)
matt-arnold on Nov. 1, 2009 2:51 PM
Please do, as long as you can either tell me how to do them, or point me to a resource that will tell me.
sandygood on Nov. 1, 2009 4:39 PM
I think that you should go for the job anyway. Let them know that you don't know PHP, but are willing to pick it on the fly, or learn it as needed.
netmouse on Nov. 3, 2009 8:25 PM
What she said.
drkelso on Nov. 1, 2009 5:59 PM
http://www.php.net/manual/en/ - Hands down the best way to learn it. They did a really good job with the documentation. It's how I first learned it. Start with the Getting Started section and work your way down.
A second resource would be to pick up an O'Reilly book or two about PHP. Don't forget to work on learning MySQL if you haven't already. It's a nice database.
Also, both PHP and MySQL can be installed on Windows if you want to play with them there. I highly recommend XAMPP (http://sourceforge.net/projects/xampp/) for running the full Apache/PHP/MySQL stack on a Windows box with a very quick and painless installation process.
matt-arnold on Nov. 1, 2009 11:55 PM
Thanks, I've installed it.
netmouse on Nov. 3, 2009 8:29 PM
I have... fewer relevant books than I thought. But I'll bring you a couple this weekend.
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