[DeaconX]

I am new to this forum. but wat ive seen so far is a group of knowlegeable people looking at this forum. but i have been questioning the Programming field now a days. ive noticed its alot more popular than it was before but i would love to go into the programing field i have won several awards for my VB.Net skills suchas First Place in the State of Florida. and 3rd Place in Broward County when i was in School about 2 1/2 years ago. I thought about getting a certification for the .NEt but i dont know if it would be worth it. Or if ill even be able to find a job. If Anyone has any information that maybe able to help me please contact me as soon as possible.

[CarpeDiem]

The technology industry always has its up and downs, just like any other industry. Programming will always be a lucrative profession because it is not a field that just anyone can do. Granted, anyway can learn to write a program in a variety of languages. The real art of programming, in my opinion, comes from your logic and debugging capabilities. For instance, you can write a program but if something doesn't work, do you have the ability to determine what is wrong with the program??

There are still many programming positions available. I cannot speak for Florida but if you look, there are always programming positions. The number of programming positions in your particular area might not be as fluent as it once was but if you look outside that area, you will find some positions.

Is programming the right path for you to take? Only you can answer that question. Do you have a desire to program/code? Is this something you are interested in and can see yourself doing for years to come? This decision can only be made by you and you alone.

If you are looking for positions, look at local colleges and universities. Use personal contacts and read the paper. And as always, look online at the various national and local websites. You can try monster.com, flipdog.com (although I think they were bought by monster.com), hotjobs.com, google programming positions in your state/area, check out the websites for local newspapers in your state/area.

As far as certifications, some companies put a lot of stock in it and others don't. If you get certified by Microsoft, I have always believed it would be beneficial, since the tests are not always that simple. You can look at it like this - it is always better to be certified than not certified, it cannot usually hurt your chances.