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Hey guys, in the past few days this thought came to mind, "do i know anything..?" Pretty philosophical right? Well, it's killing me from the inside..

I thought for a while and now I see that i can't really say "I know C++", "I know VB.NET", "I know PHP", "I know Jquery"... In fact i've used these languages a lot, but there's always a part i've not used..

Example: I've used C++ mainly for games. My biggest adventure on it was a platform engine built with allegro 4. I knew how to draw sprites, make sounds etc etc... But do i know c++? Well i know the syntax, i know my ways around allegro.. i joint both and i can make a simple game.

Example 2: I'm now into Unity3D. I've used Javascript (Unityscript) as scripting language for 3 games.. But i don't really know how to use Javascript in Web sites.. (well i made that password generator but that was just logic..). Now i use C# and yet again i go to Visual Studio, start a new Windows Application with C# and i just forget everything i know..

Example 3 (and final, "this guy is boring" right?): I went to a job interview some months ago to PHP Developer Job. They asked me so much things I've never heard of, like Web services, how to use them, what they are, They asked me about Apache and im used to go over XAMPP and just start Apache and that's it.

It's really awkward to live with this thoughts in my mind.. specially when in my portfolio website i have a self-evaluation of myself (www.oryzhon.com/vitor) with 0/10 stars..

What you guys think? Do you feel this way too?

Saying you don't know a programming language because you have never used all of it is like saying you don't know how to drive a car because you have never got it to 200mph or you don't know how to fish because you have never caught a shark.

What Halls said!

You have to keep in mind alot of people make fat paychecks from acting like they know all of something - when really they just know enough to make it look like they know all of something.

You can either buy into A: the idea that lots of folk out there know all of a language or B: Alot are just acting very well and it's really not as glamorous as it seems!

Wow.. halls your metaphors.. jesus

Yeah i kinda overreact on this ... but how can we get a job then? Its almost impossible to know everything they want..

You can NEVER know everything. Even myself after years with any language, I manage still to learn

Now if you are after a job offer, they talk about specific areas, for example we are currently watching for a developer in our team, and we look for web / db and C#. So if you made image recognition in C#, sure you made some C# or maybe a lot, but not exactly what we look for.

vitinho444 wrote:Wow.. halls your metaphors.. (blasphemy withheld)

Yeah i kinda overreact on this ... but how can we get a job then? Its almost impossible to know everything they want..

In the current paradigm of the world, unfortunately you need to get a college paper saying that you have graduated from some sort of computer sciences course. I am knowledgeable with MySQL, UNIX, PHP, etc. but I don't have a paper stating that I have a degree in computers. People magically assume that because you went to college that you are ready to fit into that job, when all that advanced education in North America here is simply meant to compartmentalize, specialize, and direct our human impulses into specific areas of knowledge. Instead of being how we were hundreds of years ago, today people have been suppressed through education for at least the past 100 years. There are many opportunities that were closed to me due to a technicality. When I know I am competent enough to be able to tackle that opportunity successfully.

Getting a job can be challenging, just don't feel overwhelmed. Remember, you are dealing with humans. They aren't benevolent and no one on this planet can know everything. Even if you think you do, you don't.

a_bertrand wrote:You can NEVER know everything. Even myself after years with any language, I manage still to learn

Now if you are after a job offer, they talk about specific areas, for example we are currently watching for a developer in our team, and we look for web / db and C#. So if you made image recognition in C#, sure you made some C# or maybe a lot, but not exactly what we look for.

Yeah i still learn too, but it's hard to find a job when you are only on one part of the language.

Sharlenwar wrote:

vitinho444 wrote:Wow.. halls your metaphors.. (blasphemy withheld)

Yeah i kinda overreact on this ... but how can we get a job then? Its almost impossible to know everything they want..

In the current paradigm of the world, unfortunately you need to get a college paper saying that you have graduated from some sort of computer sciences course. I am knowledgeable with MySQL, UNIX, PHP, etc. but I don't have a paper stating that I have a degree in computers. People magically assume that because you went to college that you are ready to fit into that job, when all that advanced education in North America here is simply meant to compartmentalize, specialize, and direct our human impulses into specific areas of knowledge. Instead of being how we were hundreds of years ago, today people have been suppressed through education for at least the past 100 years. There are many opportunities that were closed to me due to a technicality. When I know I am competent enough to be able to tackle that opportunity successfully.

Getting a job can be challenging, just don't feel overwhelmed. Remember, you are dealing with humans. They aren't benevolent and no one on this planet can know everything. Even if you think you do, you don't.

Yeah i feel you, I do also "know" (lol) PHP, Mysql, C++, C# but i got no paper saying that i do know it..

As others who program for a living on here can tell you we are on Google and StackOverflow daily!

If my boss comes to me and tells me "Write a program that will allow someone to enter their name then it store it in a database." Yeah I can write it without looking it up.
But if my boss came to me and said write a program that will parse this CSV file, search for everything that starts with LOW then have it input into a database then emailed out to all these people then display to a web page that has an export option." Yeah I am going to visit google once or twice.

I know exactly how you feel. I use to feel the same way. That was until I actually got a programming job. Remember I went from Construction to Software Engineer to Data Miner/Software Engineer in less than 6 years with no school. Not because I questioned my abilities or constantly second guessed myself but because I chose a path and stayed on it. (Wish I could do that in game development). I molded the career to myself and not the other way around. I both found the job that needed my skills and molded what they wanted with what I could do.

I have seen companies here(and it is common) that gives developers a month to get use to the environment.

In the current paradigm of the world, unfortunately you need to get a college paper saying that you have graduated from some sort of computer sciences course.

I totally disagree. I have no College degree. Now I am surrounded by people who do but I also hire people with and without degrees. To work for IBM, Google, Microsoft...then yes you are required to have a degree. But so many startups and smaller companies don't care. Funny thing is I have had people work for me with 8 years of college.

Once again I am not saying don't go to college. I wish I could have. I have mad respect for the guys I work with that do have a degree. I am a white guy from a very very very poor family that did not push me so I never got the opportunity for college but i made due.

Wow halls, whenever you "open your mouth" something deep comes out..

I do use google and stack overflow daily And it helps learning errors and what's causing them, there's no shame..
The problem is, in my case, in the job interview they asked one thing that they should teach in college.. so you are ruled out..