Where does a computer programmer work? True programmer, what is he like?

Programmer is a specialist who develops algorithms and computer programs based on special mathematical models. The profession is promising and in great demand all over the world (median value). You can become a programmer at any age. The profession is suitable for men and women with interests in programming, mathematics, languages, as well as good analytical skills and developed logic (can you pass the test to see if you can become a programmer). There are also colleges that teach programming, but you can learn it on your own; as a rule, programmers with skills are valued higher. Exist . The profession has its own. The profession is suitable for those who are interested in computer science (see choosing a profession based on interest in school subjects).

Varieties

In programming, not only practical skills are given first place, but also the ideas of a specialist. Programmers can be divided into three categories depending on their specialization:

1. Application programmers They are mainly engaged in the development of applied software - games, accounting programs, editors, instant messengers, etc. Their area of ​​work also includes the creation of software for video and audio surveillance systems, access control systems, fire extinguishing or fire alarm systems, etc. Their responsibilities also include adaptation existing programs to suit the needs of a particular organization or user.
2. System programmers develop OS, work with networks, write interfaces to various distributed databases. Specialists in this category are among the rarest and highest paid. Their task is to develop software systems (services) that, in turn, manage computing system(which includes the processor, communication and peripheral devices). The list of tasks also includes ensuring the functioning and operation of the created systems (device drivers, bootloaders, etc.).
3. Web programmers also work with networks, but, in most cases, with global ones - the Internet. They write the software components of websites, create dynamic web pages, web interfaces for working with databases.

Features of the profession

Based on the analysis of mathematical models and algorithms for solving scientific, technical and production problems, the programmer develops programs for performing computational work. Makes up computing circuit problem solving method, transfers solution algorithms to a formalized machine language. Determines the information entered into the machine, its volume, methods for monitoring operations performed by the machine, the form and content of source documents and calculation results. Develops layouts and schemes for input, processing, storage and output of information, conducts desk checks of programs.

Defines a set of data that provides a solution to the maximum number included in this program conditions. Conducts debugging of developed programs, determines the possibility of using ready-made programs developed by other organizations. Develops and implements programming automation methods, standard and standard programs, programming programs, translators, input algorithmic languages.

Performs work on unification and typification of computing processes, participates in the creation of catalogs and cards standard programs, in the development of forms of documents subject to machine processing, in design work to expand the scope of computer technology.

Pros and cons of the profession

Pros:

• high profit payment;
• relatively high demand for specialists;
• sometimes you can get a job without having a higher education;
• is primarily a creative profession.

Minuses:

• you often have to explain the same thing a lot, since what is clear and obvious to the programmer is not always clear and obvious to the user;
• work in emergency mode (sometimes) in a stressful situation;
• the profession leaves a specific imprint on the character, which not everyone around him likes.

Place of work

• IT companies and web studios;
• research centers;
• organizations that include in their structure a staff unit or departments of programmers.

Important qualities

Programming is a rapidly evolving field, so a programmer must be able to quickly adapt to the current state of technology and constantly learn new technologies. Therefore, the ability to self-learn is one of the main skills that a programmer must have. Otherwise, in a few years his value as a specialist will be noticeably lower.

Proficiency in English at reading level technical documentation is another mandatory requirement for representatives of this profession. For such specialists, the ability to work in a team is very important. big projects, with collective development tools, with large financial systems (budgetary, banking, management accounting). For applicants for the position of lead programmer, project and team management skills, independence, initiative, as well as the ability to bear personal responsibility for the assigned task are desirable.

Programmer training

STEP Computer Academy is an international educational institution that teaches . Operating since 1999. 42 branches in 16 countries. The largest authorized training center for Microsoft, Cisco, Autodesk. Students receive international certificates and an international diploma. The main goal is the employment of every graduate.

In this course, you can obtain a programmer profession remotely in 1-3 months. Diploma of professional retraining established by the state. Training in a completely distance learning format. The largest educational institution of additional professional education. education in Russia.

Salary

Programmer is one of the most popular and highly paid professions in Russia. Even the least advanced specialist can find a job in accordance with his level of knowledge, and then gradually learn and gain experience. The intern's salary is about $1000. A full-time programmer in a mid-level company (not IT) earns up to $1500-1800, a little more in an organization associated with mass software development. The lead programmer's salary is $2500-3000. The next step is the head of the IT department. TO necessary knowledge mandatory work experience, foreign language proficiency, personnel management skills, etc. are added, and earnings can reach $4,000. A good programmer can become the manager of a large software development project, and here the income level reaches $5,000 or more.

Salary as of 03/07/2019

Russia 40000—120000 ₽

Moscow 50000—170000 ₽

Career steps and prospects

A good start to your career can be joining a group of programmers when developing a project. Large projects often attract the attention of Western companies that “outbid” Russian programmers. For example, once a group of our young scientists developed the Elbrus processor for the Ministry of Defense, but in the end they were all bought up by Intel Corporation, and now our scientists and programmers work abroad, and the Elbrus project itself was slowly closed. The problem of “brain drain” in this profession is one of the most acute.

A programmer can make a career up to the head of a group of programmers (team leader), IT director of an enterprise, IT project manager, etc. During the course of work, a programmer can move within his specialty, improving professionally.

Famous and great programmers

Knut Donald Erwin
Matsumoto Yukihiro
Tanenbaum Andrew
Raymond Eric Stephen
Fowler Martin
Hopper Grace
Stallman Richard Matthew
Kay Alan
Meyer Sid
Stroustrup Björn

The emergence of programming as an occupation and, especially, as a professional activity is difficult to date unambiguously.

Often considered the first programmable device, the jacquard loom was built in 1804 by Joseph Marie Jacquard, which revolutionized the weaving industry by providing the ability to program patterns on fabrics using punched cards.

The first programmable computing device, the Analytical Engine, was designed by Charles Babbage (but was unable to build it). On July 19, 1843, Countess Ada Augusta Lovelace, daughter of the great English poet George Byron, is believed to have written the first program in human history for the Analytical Engine. This program solved the Bernoulli equation, which expresses the law of conservation of energy of a moving fluid.

In my first and only scientific work Ada Lovelace reviewed big number questions. A number of general principles expressed by her (the principle of saving working memory cells, the connection of recurrent formulas with cyclic computation processes) have retained their fundamental importance for modern programming. Babbage's materials and Lovelace's comments outlined concepts such as subroutine and subroutine library, instruction modification, and index register, which began to be used only in the 1950s.

However, none of the programs written by Ada Lovelace were ever launched.

Ada Augusta, Countess of Lovelace, is generally considered to be the honorary first programmer (although, of course, writing a single program by modern standards cannot be considered an occupation or professional activity). History has preserved her name in the name of the universal programming language “Ada”.

The first working programmable computer (1941), the first programs for it, and also (with certain reservations) the first programming language high level Plankalküll was created by the German engineer Konrad Zuse.

History has not preserved the names of the people who first began to professionally carry out the work of programming itself (in isolation from setting up computer hardware), since at first programming was viewed as a secondary setup operation.

Murphy's Laws for Programmers

1. Nothing works as planned.

2. Nothing is programmed the way it should work.

3. A good programmer is characterized by the ability to prove why a task cannot be completed when he is simply too lazy to complete it.

4. It takes three times less time to solve a problem than to discuss all the pros and cons of its solution.

5. The promised delivery date is the carefully calculated project completion date plus six months.

6. The programmer always knows the sequence of actions by which a user can hang his program, but he never fixes this problem, hoping that no one will ever think of executing this sequence.

7. Real programmers love Windows - all mistakes made due to their own stupidity can be blamed on Microsoft.

8. Consequence - 99% of the problems blamed on Microsoft are a consequence of the stupidity of the programmers themselves.

9. In a fit of anger, for some reason everyone is hitting the innocent monitor instead of the system unit.

10. In the event of a hunger strike, a real programmer will be able to eat food picked out from under the keyboard buttons for another month.

11. A real programmer has already replaced at least three beer-drenched keyboards.

12. Anyone who has problems setting up the encoding is automatically considered Neanderthals.

13. Amateurish conversations about computers cause severe nausea, even vomiting. The question of how to change the “wallpaper” in Windows makes you want to cut the throat of the questioner.

14. For most people who need your help, the reason for the error in the program is purely genetic.

15. HTML, HTTP, FTP, SMTP, TCP/IP, RTFM, etc. These are words, not abbreviations.

16. The phrase “mouse-norushka” does not make any sense.

17. The most mystical problems, widely inflated and advertised, in the end turn out to be your stupidest mistakes.

18. Corollary - if your program performs mystical actions, then you did something incredibly stupid.

19. The worst feeling for a programmer is when ten people are standing around you and everyone is trying to find the cause of a problem in your program, and you already understand what the problem is, but you’re afraid to say it because it’s something blatantly stupid...

20. The solution to all life's problems is on the Internet. You just need to be able to search well.

21. A conflict of logical instructions in life causes a fatal error in the work of the programmer’s brain - a rise in temperature and severe dizziness, including vomiting or loss of consciousness, are possible.

22. Programmers despise those who despise programmers more than those who despise programmers despise programmers who despise those who despise them.

23. If you understood the previous one, then you are a programmer.

There are 10 types of people in this world - those who understand binary system numbering, and those who do not understand it.

Video: you're a programmer

Oh times, oh morals. Today in Toaster I saw a topic in which a person admitted that working as a Java developer, he knows algebra and geometry at the 6th grade level and asked to recommend textbooks. This request undoubtedly evokes respect - the person wants to learn.

Start over. I studied at a good physics and mathematics school in the 90s. Read between the lines - according to the Soviet program. I could have ended there, because not everyone studied at a good physics and mathematics school according to the Soviet program, which means that by definition I am terribly out of touch with the people. And I definitely don’t understand anything in life.

Yes, we started coding in the third grade, and it was not Hogwarts, not a laboratory for pumping up eggheads - we were all ordinary guys and girls from the area. Very few with engineering and scientific blood. We had cool math. And also cool work, physical education and history. Everything was imbued with systematicity. Did you know at school that history is a science, systematized, filled with internal logic, laid out in tables and conclusions? Know that this is true. Did you know that the Russian language is described so strictly that almost any situation in it can be solved algorithmically?

In high school, we pushed the math so hard that then we could rest for a couple of courses at the university. Which, by the way, is where many got burned. And no, they were not geniuses, their brains were in full swing, the distribution of grades was the same as everywhere else - bad students, bad students, good students, nerds. Nerds were geniuses, yes. The students of the physics and mathematics school did not like nerds just as they are not liked everywhere. Which once again proves that we were not special. This is important for the subsequent discussion.

In computer science lessons, we solved the same problems from the matan - found the roots of equations, built graphs. We studied the fundamental construction of languages ​​- types, data structures, algorithms, working with memory, there was a little Delphi and OOP. Mostly, of course, Pascal. For general development there were C and Assembler. The database got a little overwhelmed at the end, of course with normalizations. We studied binary algebra and made fun games.

And not everyone even went through this; the class was divided into Programmers and Users. Users learned HTML and Photoshop and passed the website.

And we always knew that we are not programmers, we are schoolboys. Programmers are the ones who write books. These are the ones who create the OS and real software. We believed that to become a Programmer, you had to teleport somewhere to IBM or Microsoft. And you can’t even study the continuity function properly - where are you going?

It so happened that I began to come into contact with programming more than 10 years after graduating from school. Everything has changed - the web appeared, a bunch of strange words and names. I knew for sure that these geniuses are Programmers who create commercial product, have already gone very far, into some parallel cosmic worlds, where I will never be able to reach them. That I would come to them, and they would tell me: “Brother, what kind of blog do you want in PHP? Come on, let's go dynamic array Organize it for me through recursion, then we’ll talk.”

And it’s fair. After all, I know for sure that a programmer is not even a profession. This is an engineer's specialty.

Suspicions began to creep in when on Toaster I started reading questions in the spirit of “Does a programmer need mathematics?” And answers in the spirit of “solving routine problems for Landos does not require mathematics.”

And now I see that Java developer asks to recommend a school textbook on mathematics.
I understand that this area is hungry for personnel, that the range of tasks has been simplified, that the entry threshold is low, etc. I agree that if a person does the work, then he is great, and let him do it in good health. Benefits society, feeds the family, and so on. I don’t have any arrogance at all towards developers who don’t know the math.

I have an old fart rhetorical question in my head: “What about culture?” I believe that this question is generally the most important for a sane engineer, but this is a separate article. Has the creativity in programming really given way to the craft so much that only the fruits are important and no one even mentions the roots that feed them? How can the question “does a programmer need mathematics” even occur to a person? And to what extent has the proud title of Programmer been vulgarized and devalued? Doesn't anyone talk about developer culture? Or have we reached the point where no one understands this anymore? Then where will you get this desired ideal code, if not from the culture of thought?

Friends, tell me that I am an old (thirty-three year old) senile person. Or confirm that the world is going to some kind of hell. I propose to start a heated discussion in the comments. And yet, nothing is clear...

UPD
So, after less than a day of desperately breaking spears, a certain picture emerged.
These are purely my conclusions.
Let's go through it in order.
Dedicated to those who read the post and are eager to rush into battle, and reading 100+ comments, of course, is not leisure. The following text will clarify some things.

Purpose of the first post
Almost everyone misunderstood the purpose of the post. I never stated that a programmer without mathematics is unsuitable for the profession and will not be able to work. I did not blame, belittle, or throw mud at anyone for their ignorance of mathematics to any extent. My task was to find out what the community thinks about the professional culture of a programmer in the form in which I formulated it. A minimum of commentators drew attention to this fact.
From which I draw the following conclusion.

Culture
According to my observations, a very small part of readers are ready to perceive the word “culture” as a meaningful concept that has more meaning for them than going to the theater or not spitting on a neighbor. This doesn't say anything bad about people, it's just a statement of some perceptual filters. If the concept of “culture” (like any other concept) has a developed content in a person’s mind, he analyzes the text in connection with the entire volume of meanings that this concept carries and is also discussed at the level of these meanings. The vast majority of commentators discussed with me at the level of professional suitability and solving production problems, the question of which is in the original text AT ALL didn't get up. If you re-read the text again, it all leads to last paragraph with the question “What about culture?” Further along the paragraph, questions are asked that are the meaning and content of the topic. A whole paragraph of questions exclusively about culture, and no one answers about culture.
I conclude that for the most part commentators do not understand at all what is being discussed when the question of the culture of professional activity is raised.
Why?
I have my own version, I’ll throw it in for variety. For almost a century, people have been taught that they are production personnel. That the private is insignificant compared to the public. That his social role is his content. That culture is a popular print and rules of behavior. What if he succeeded as a worker, then he has reached the heights of human evolution. This matrix lives its own life in society, and is not going anywhere yet. Now, combined with market goal-setting in education (I teach not in the name of science, but in the name of employment), fueled by the ideas of individual success and efficiency, any conscious citizen understands that the main thing is to get confused in your narrow topic and not see anything else. It’s best to start coding earlier than walking, and throw out biology and geography altogether, because high-level solutions like Google will solve all problems.
And here we move on to another problem.

Education
Education is widely perceived by commentators as advanced training courses. If we develop the idea to the limit, we find that school education is not necessary at all. You can learn to read and write this way. And then sit and write code, because even HL++ projects, as life shows, can be done without being a professor. Google the rest.

Let's combine the findings to develop our thoughts.
This attitude towards education is an uncultured attitude, as any education specialist will confirm. But since the word culture for most commentators has no meaning other than a compliment, and lack of culture nothing more than an insult, it is unlikely that this thesis can be understood correctly.

The second problem with education, and the more obvious one, is that commentators generally perceive mathematics as just another field of activity. This means, at a minimum, that mathematics was taught to them mainly as algebraic calculations and formulas that had to be crammed. Not like science. You can teach mathematics as a science in the first grade. It just means emphasizing consistent reasoning rather than cramming. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that ALL accurate knowledge, including applied knowledge, is based on strict formulations of definitions and relationships. Any reasoning is based on an if-else tree. Without this device, it’s even impossible to write html. It is built into all of us because we belong to a society that operates with such an apparatus. Mathematics is a simulator for mastering this apparatus and the key to efficient work with abstractions of any level. Considering that all engineering professions, including programming, are built on a mathematical apparatus, it is strange to call it a separate type of activity. This shows a simple lack of understanding of where you are. This may not matter from a decision point of view. work task, but very important from a cultural point of view.

Conclusion
Everyone decides for himself what to teach or not to teach. I just insist that there is a concept of culture, and it extends to programming as well. It is very irrational because it assumes that a person cannot afford not to do what he can not do. Yes, you can’t do everything, but in this situation at least there is an idea in your head that you need to strive for this. From the point of view of the economics of an enterprise, this is absurd; from the point of view of one’s development as an individual, it is a necessity.

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To master programming skills? Which programming language should you learn first?

According to experienced computer scientists, to become a programmer and master all the nuances of the profession, you need to constantly program. A lot, long and sometimes even tedious. After all, as you know, writing code takes a programmer 30% of the time, the remaining 70% will be spent on finding errors and then eliminating them. Therefore, think carefully, is it worth it?

6. Write codes thoughtfully and carefully. The slightest blemish in the codes will disrupt the entire work, especially if you are in a team of programmers, and everyone writes the same code. Don't forget to indent. Codes without indentation make the whole process of work difficult to read. When writing work (codes), be vigilant and careful.

7. A high salary can motivate you to study and become a programmer. The salary depends on where you are going to work. But if you are a qualified specialist who knows his job, then any employer will not regret a high salary. Know this. For example, in Moscow, an average specialist in knowledge - a database programmer - can receive from $1000 to $2000. The maximum salary level for highly qualified specialists cannot be calculated.

8. Well, the last thing without which a person will not become a programmer is desire. Our desire is the engine of our whole life, so we choose what, how and where we do it ourselves.

To become good programmer you need to spare no free time and constantly evolve in this field (specialized forums, for example mastertalk.ru, will help you with this). Good luck and success to you.

Video on the topic

Quite in demand these days. This specialist develops software for a wide variety of types computer equipment. You can engage in such activities independently (working alone) or as an employee of a specialized company.

Nowadays, almost every enterprise faces the question of automation of management. This specialist is a kind of link between the manager, who has his own plans for the development of production, and modern world computer technologies.

What types of programmers are there?

Typically, specialists are divided into two broad categories. The first are application programmers. They develop programs and debug software mechanisms. The second are systemic, dealing fully developed software.

How did you appear?

The term “programming” itself arose with the advent of the first computing mechanism. The Mark-1 became such a computer novelty. It was developed in 1944. Over the course of several decades, the profession has become very in demand and well paid. The salary of a programmer was already one of the highest. It's not surprising, because then computer knowledge were accessible only to the greatest selected minds.

Which ones should you have?

A programmer must be very mobile person. In the world high technology New products are often released, hardware and software specifications are updated. A good specialist should always be aware of these changes. That is why the ability to grasp everything on the fly, quickly learn and improve is one of the main personal qualities of a programmer.

Knowledge in English This is also an important requirement. You must master it at least at the level of reading and translating technical documentation. It is important to be able to concentrate and see the prospect of many steps ahead. Working in a team on a huge project, maneuvering in a large team, being able to explain clearly - these are also all the things that a modern programmer cannot do without. Initiative and independence play a significant role for a candidate for a vacancy. A programmer's salary may vary depending on the personal qualities that the potential employee has.

What kind of education is needed?

For the most part, programmers are graduates of prestigious technical educational institutions. But there are also quite successful self-taught people. In the profession of a programmer, of course, the theoretical basis plays an important role. However, a professional must constantly decide important tasks, participate in developments. In a word, the programmer must “use his brain on his own.” A diploma is good, but self-study will have a much better impact on your qualifications. As mentioned earlier, a programmer’s salary depends on what kind of starting education you have, as well as on the amount of knowledge that you acquired on your own.

Where do programmers work?

In Russia, any company needs such specialists. They will help automate production: debug internal exchanges between purchase and delivery, keep records of goods, and adapt the entire business. The salary of a programmer in Russia is determined by what functions he performs.

If a specialist is engaged only in business automation, then the salary will be appropriate. In the case where the programmer monitors the system and develops a special package, one can expect a significant increase

Nowadays, employees with knowledge of 1C are in significant demand on the market. This accounting program will make the work of any organization easier and optimize its work. The web programming environment is also the main area of ​​activity computer specialists. Knowledge of PHP, MYSQL, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript and the ability to modernize them is required to support all sites.

Many companies want to hire a programmer and designer in one person. A person who can not only decide technical issues, but also designing a website is always at a premium. A significant advantage of the profession is that you can work both in the office and remotely at home. Many programmers engage in freelancing, that is, independent search clients.

What is the salary of a programmer?

The salary of such a specialist may vary. average salary a programmer is calculated based on two factors: place of work and qualifications. But sometimes, even with the same qualifications of employees, the difference between a good and a bad workplace can be quite significant.

According to estimates, on average, in cities with a population of more than a million, a programmer earns 20% more than the same specialist from the provinces. Specific amounts: $2,000 per month - the salary of a good worker. A person working directly with customers has approximately twice as much, respectively, newcomers to the field have less. Western companies that focus on the international market tend to pay more. Remember that a programmer's salary and its increase depend on your ability to develop.

Programmer today is one of the most popular and widespread professions. Its fame is such that it does not seem to require a detailed story. Programmer salaries have also become popular, and awareness of this issue makes it very attractive. But what " admission ticket“, because if everything is so good, what price will you have to pay?

Why is it called that?

A programmer is a person who creates programs. A program is a list of commands that a device must execute. A barrel organ that plays a melody when a drum with pegs is rotated or when a tape with holes is advanced (punched tape) is an example of such a programmable device. But this drum or tape are programs for a barrel organ, and they were created by a programmer.

Today the programmer creates computer programs- list of commands for the computer - program code, and as they themselves jokingly say: “a programmer codes.”

The code is written in a programming language. Almost all programming languages ​​contain commands expressed in English words. Figuratively speaking, a programmer writes a letter to a computer in a special language, which looks like an English text with many punctuation marks and indentations - like in the poems of Vladimir Mayakovsky.

What are they?

Programmers specialize in programs (systems), languages, and specific products. I will not give a detailed classification, but it is clear that there are those who work with application programs and whole system ones.

Programmers find work in Internet companies (Yandex, Google, etc.), work on accounting and personnel programs (1C, Kontur, Boss, Parus, IT, Galaktika, etc.), support the operation of enterprise management systems (ERP) SAP R3, ORACLE, Axapta, Navision, etc. or their modules (separate large programs).

There are those who specialize in scientific calculations, in programs for mobile phones, communication and television devices, for controlling mechanisms and production lines, flights of aircraft.

What do modern programmers do?

Today everyone understands that the programmer profession is becoming the number one profession today. Programmers work in almost all fields. Even in those organizations that seemed to be far from digital technologies: preschool institutions, prisons. Nowadays, no organization can do without Internet access or some software.

Today, products are being created that analyze Big Date - huge amounts of data obtained from different sources, for example, cross-processing data from social networks allows you to see the moral values ​​and political views of different categories of people, their product preferences, etc. This is used by political parties and government bodies to control the opinions and behavior of people. The scandal raised in the United States over the interference of Russian programmers in the presidential elections is associated with the effects of precisely such technologies.

Another progressive and developing technology is robotics. A robot is not so much servos, video cameras and materials, but software. Smile on human face create several dozen pairs of muscles. The smile on the robot’s face is created by several pairs of solenoids, but they are controlled by very complex programs.

It was also not easy to get the robot to walk smoothly, shifting the center of gravity of the body the way a person does. This was a great achievement, which was followed by other victories: running, somersaults, etc.

Another one breakthrough technology: search specific person through street cameras, assessing his emotional state, which is associated with human facial recognition technologies. This is how they look for, for example, intruders. Or rather, they are trying to do this in all countries of the world, but our technologies in this area are the strongest.

What qualities should you have?

When creating a program or website, a programmer must imagine complex processes and data relationships in his head. This means that he must have extraordinary intelligence, good spatial imagination, excellent memory and so-called algorithmic thinking - the ability to decompose a complex multidimensional process into stages and fragments, find key points that require data to solve a problem at this stage, select operations, methods and means of solving the problem.

And there are legends and jokes about the perseverance of programmers. Everyone knows that programmers work late and even all night long. Although, this is most likely due to high motivation to work. Yes, programmers are very passionate people. They understand that they are creating something new and useful.

How to become a programmer?

There are two levels of qualifications: software technician (secondary-specialized education) and software engineer - a qualification awarded upon receipt of higher education.

Today specialists are trained in a wide range of programming specialties:

“Applied mathematics and computer science”, “Fundamental computer science and information Technology", "Mathematical support and administration information systems", "Programming in computer systems", "Informatics and Computer Engineering", "Applied Informatics", " Information Security" and others.

Today, in almost every university or institute that has a “cybernetic” department or at least a mathematics department, you can find one of the listed specialties.

It is clear that the main exam for studying at a university in this specialty is mathematics.

At the same time, there is another way into the profession: obtaining additional education and even self-education.

My father told me in the seventies, perhaps repeating the words of one of the founders of cybernetics: “ Educated person must know at least one programming language." The words are prophetic, they mean that even a non-specialist should know programming. At least in order to communicate with programmers, who sometimes seem to us like “aliens” who do not understand us, but we also do not understand their language.

People with similar specialties also become programmers: physicists, engineers, financial specialists. They often complete specialized courses, and more often than not, they engage in self-education, learning programming on their own. As a rule, they are puzzled by solving their scientific or practical problems that require the creation of programs. And often they themselves develop such programs for themselves. Having created a program for themselves, they bring it to a commercially significant sample and enter the market software products and become professionals.

How to build a career in this profession?

There are programmers who work in organizations where they move along the career conveyor at low speed, because it is very short. However, as a rule, a programmer is driven not by a high position, but by interesting tasks. Basically, from a high position they expect the opportunity to assign tasks to other programmers when developing complex projects.

Another class of programmers are independent specialists. Some of them have become famous, and for them this is the pinnacle of their career. Such programmers, like artists or writers, create original and powerful products that bring them fame.

Thirty years ago the founder Microsoft Bill Gates offered the world an idea and even a drawing of a pocket device that would replace a phone, passport, wallet, etc. The world was not yet ready to implement it. Today we see its embodiment. But what is more important: the device or the program that controls it? He once said about a competitor who made another computer, something like this: “Well, he made another box. And who will write a program for it to make it work?