I find programming and coding very difficult?

Question

Hi,
I was at home since 8 years due to not having work visa. Now I have just started working as an I.T. programmer. I'm finding everything difficult. I dont understand programming & how to code. I am always stressed out and have to ask my friends for help all the time. I dont want to be dependent on friends all the time. Its getting difficult for me. Should I change my career. I cannot do the hard thinking stuff anymore. I have a 3 yr old kid and sometimes remove my frustration on him due to work tension. Will it be easy in the future or should I go for easy jobs such as data entry, receptionist, etc.
If any of you is new in this IT field too, please let me know what you are going throught.
Pls advise. Thanks.

Answer 1

short answer, find a new career.
If you find it to hard to do, find something else to do. And I don't feel stress and frustration at work is a good excuse to release it on your own child. If you need to, buy a GB jump drive, and keep your programming notes on it.Then you can have them where ever you go. Perhaps, you just need to be more acquainted with the language you're coding in. Programming is all about logic and numbers. Most programmers don't find it hard to program, just hard to program a program to do what you would like! *Personal Experience* I can tell you from experience, if you find it hard now, Don't wait until it's impossible, find a better job that you're suited to now.

Answer 2

Humble Opinion:

Unless you are one of those very lucky people who
have a 'natural bent' for logical thinking, and
everything just 'flows', then this kind of thing can
be tough going.

'Progamming' ( you haven't said what type exactly, )
can be learned. But like many other things in life, it
takes time, patience, thought, and a great deal of
hard work!! I guarantee you will need all four of
these qualities in good measure.

.. a presumably, very active(?) and demanding of your
time, three year old is not really going to help your
concentration. Respite will come from nursery or
pre-school, however in the meantime, if you have
kindly and approachable friends, maybe someone can
look after the 3 year old for a few hours in order to
give you breathing space so your mind quietens down,
and you can think straight?

If you enjoy the subject, then don't give up. The skills
will come with time and practise, and small steps
forward, will eventually turn into leaps. Just don't set
yourself unachievable and maybe impossible goals.
And, don't always sit in front of a computer screen.
A lot of progamming can be done on paper in a soft
chair, while enjoying a drink and the view. ;o)

If you enjoy it but can't 'do it' ( yet ), get your head
clear by taking a break from it. Walk away, do
something else, then come back later, and try again.

If you really don't enjoy it, then yes, time to go do
something completely different wih your life. There
is more to this world than a computer screen!!

Some quotes, all attributed to Albert Einstein. Some
consider him a genius, Einstein himself wasn't so
sure:
----------------------------------------------------------

"One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

Good luck!

Answer 3

If it's not for you, it's not for you - no big deal - move on - keep pushing and it will all fall into place just as it should.

What concerns me though is that you say you are taking your frustrations out on your child. Whether you are physical or just simply overly-expressive you will cause permanent damage to your child's psyche. Think of your family and get your act together - you will never be happy working until you are working at what you love to do.

Do not get so frustrated that you do something very wrong.

Perhaps you can take an aptitude test to determine what you would be good doing - try these links:

http://www.questcareer.com/career_assessment_resources.html

http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/psychotests.htm

http://www.bath.ac.uk/careers/development/testsites.html

Good luck to you.

Answer 4

Whatever you do, don't take it out on your kid. If you feel the urge to do that, then, yes, you should look for another job.

Programming is not always so simple, so don't feel bad. It takes time to become good at it. You need to practice a lot to get to know the structure of the language. You should practice at home, writing simple programs until the language itself (the keywords, structure, and built-in functions) comes naturally.

I know this isn't a quick fix. Try hard, and it will get easier... but don't take it out on your child!

Answer 5

I am not new, but I was. Please let me tell you. I was trained as an English teacher. I got into IT as a tech writer, writing how-to-do-it stuff. (Can you imagine someone who didn't know how, writing how to do it???) It took, imagination. So, the first step is, chill out, calm down, believe, I think. Don't forget to giggle. Then learn stuff easy, where you know you can, and praise yourself when you do. I started with "Basic". It's pretty much like writing English. Remember, talking to a computer is like talking to a somewhat stoopid human. You have to explain to it, everything, in details the poor thing can understand.