If you're looking to get into programming, you'll want to take a few accounting classes, since more likely than not, you will be working with accounting software at some point in your career.

Most Web dev jobs will want you to at least have understanding of html/css, javascript, and jquery. Then be good with either c#, asp, or PHP, varying from job to job. Then a few odd jobs will require python knowledge, Ajax knowledge, or RoR knowledge. It's good to be acquainted with web software solutions such as Drupal, WordPress, and the like.

Software engineer - 70k

I help to build and maintain a system that processes xml documents and extract data from the xml, load that data into a data warehouse and ETL the data to a set of datamarts. A separate team develops the web app that allows customers to search the aggregated data.

Right now I'm working on a team that is adding a new pipeline for a new set of data that we have acquired. I work a lot in the java and pl/sql code bases as well as some python and bash scripting.

oh, i just brought it up because he seemed disappointed in his salary. grass is always greener right?



i disagree with that. but to each his own. i'm really not clear why you think developers will be using accounting software at all. assuming it's true, odds that you'll remember what you learned in a class 10-20 years ago are pretty slim. youll just learn it on the job anyway. you're better off spending that time focusing on what will advance your career in the short term. either getting certifications or work experience or learning new frameworks.


you learn whatever is required for the job. contractors are often expected to have the skills before you start, whereas perm employees can often learn on the job once they have a basic understanding. if there's a job for p/lsql for example, they might hire an employee who only knows TSQL because he can be trained, but if they're hiring a contractor he prolly needs to know plsql.

This post was edited by carteblanche on Sep 12 2013 08:05pm