career advice

[Ken Kroel]

Greetings all,

I am currently finishing up an A.S. degree in computer programming (graduate
spring 00) and hope to eventually find a job programming in java. I am currently
working in network support having come up through the pc tech/helpdesk path.

However I don't have any "real world" programming experience, so my job pool
is quite limited.

To address this I have decided to work on a project that would
involve using java, oracle, linux and apache to create a web-enabled database
application. Nothing complicated (for now), just allow online viewing/updating
of the database. Being an "experience challenged" programmer, I have several
questions:

1. Is this a good idea to make myself more "hireable"?
2. are there any books that would help me with this project?
3. what things should I do/not do, to avoid trouble and/or impress potential
employers?
4. Assuming it works, what's the best way to "brag" about it on resumes and
in interviews?

Any input, advice or pointers to more info is greatly appreciated.
TIA!
Ken

ps. I have had several classes in vb, c++, oracle and java so I am competent
in things like basic programming techniques, OO concepts and basic oracle
admin, but have not used apache at all. This will be done on a small home
network of 3 pc's (2 linux, 1 windows) with a dial-up connection.

[JAVA GUY]

That is a great idea to work on a project with three diff. technology. And
java is coolest tech. for couple of years. besides once you will be familier
with JAVA you need to look at C# from Microsoft also.


"Ken Kroel" <kkroel@n-jcenter.com> wrote:
>
>Greetings all,
>
>I am currently finishing up an A.S. degree in computer programming (graduate
>spring 00) and hope to eventually find a job programming in java. I am currently
>working in network support having come up through the pc tech/helpdesk path.
>
>However I don't have any "real world" programming experience, so my job
pool
>is quite limited.
>
>To address this I have decided to work on a project that would
>involve using java, oracle, linux and apache to create a web-enabled database
>application. Nothing complicated (for now), just allow online viewing/updating
>of the database. Being an "experience challenged" programmer, I have several
>questions:
>
>1. Is this a good idea to make myself more "hireable"?
>2. are there any books that would help me with this project?
>3. what things should I do/not do, to avoid trouble and/or impress potential
>employers?
>4. Assuming it works, what's the best way to "brag" about it on resumes
and
>in interviews?
>
>Any input, advice or pointers to more info is greatly appreciated.
>TIA!
>Ken
>
>ps. I have had several classes in vb, c++, oracle and java so I am competent
>in things like basic programming techniques, OO concepts and basic oracle
>admin, but have not used apache at all. This will be done on a small home
>network of 3 pc's (2 linux, 1 windows) with a dial-up connection.