What language should I start learning? (IT/Networking college student)

1    07 Jul 2015 17:07 by u/JerkZeus

I know there are a bunch of "first programming language?" posts here, but I want to tailor this post to my specific situation. I go to a university to study "Computer Technology with a concentration of Computer Networking". I have zero faith that this degree will get me anywhere with the courses they're making me take. After searching for internships, a lot of them won't even acknowledge me because I'm lacking programming experience. I have very limited knowledge of programming languages. Basic ideas and concepts, but no useful experience. I dabbled in HTML in highschool. Learned some JavaScript, but wasn't efficient at it. I took a class on Python, but is that even useful in this day and age?

I really have no idea what programming language to start practicing and learning that will help me in the future with a career. Anyone have any suggestions? My interest is really in computer networking, so I'm looking for something that can assist that.

4 comments

1 u/Shammah 07 Jul 2015 17:15

Python for the basics, then C for the gritty shitty gory details of networking. Although, I don't think the language matters as protocols are language agnostic.

0 u/simery 09 Jul 2015 04:29

I'm only a student myself, but if you are going to learn C you might as well d C++ too. Not a the same time though. One then the other.

Personally I would recommend C first because I imagine moving from C to C++ has to be one of the top 10 best feelings in the world, but going the other way is like a slow decent into madness.

0 u/Ruab 07 Jul 2015 17:17

JavaScript is a great language to learn, PHP, Ruby.

I would start with Java.

Learn how to use Java to build a webapp with an SQL backend. All languages are good to know, it will do nothing but give you an extra hand when you go out and try and get a job.

0 u/chrisduncan 12 Jul 2015 22:12

Ruby is mostly for web dev not much else learned that the hard way. c is old school. Perl is pretty good for networking based on what i did of 5 mins of googling. Heard it also has a good libraries for networking, so just be careful it should be based off of what you wan't. I found C++ archaic so avoid that if your a beginner and I don't think there are many job opportunities for it.