Where should the theory guys go get programming experience?

CloudyTrees

Thanks for the suggestion. I've read through the Thinking in C++ and C++ Primer books so I know the basic syntax of C++. I think the hard part, like you said before, is to get motivated and involve in serious efforts in putting the languages in use. That's something I need to work on.

CloudyTrees

Thanks for pointing that out (I really mean this), and I know that programming is something that's easy to "learn" but difficult to master. Similar things happen in theoretical cosmology too, where a lot of gotcha's hide in the painful calculations and we won't even think of them until we really get our hands dirty.

And I also know that I won't be happy if my jobs is just coding (I don't mean insult to anyone), so I am not looking for a pure programming job. However, reading a lot from the posts here and other boards, I know that the financial sector, one of the three that mostly likely to hire physicists, does expect us to mainly implement models with programs. I haven't read much about the situations in the oil industry but I guess it would be similar.

A little off topic. I think one of the most frustrating things for the theories guys, besides the transition that you pointed out, is that we hold the belief that we just need the chance to demonstrate our ability, and given that opportunity we believe we would just learn fast and perform well. However, getting that opportunity is very difficult in the real world, and the believes we have in our abilities might be just plain wrong, in HM's eyes. Staying in academia too long might have lead us too far away from reality.

Rika

Maybe gamedev is more comfortable than academia but...how should I say this...

Gamedev is not a field that can be consider as "backup plan". Similar to academia - it's a field that you choose because of your passion (even if salary is not bad).

Programmers as well as artists can earn much more money with less effort in different fields and as someone said before - we all polish our skills for many years, several hours per day only to work in gamedev.

Gamedev is business but still - most of us are gamers and we want to work with people who share our passion.

jesse73

Those seem like they are not the greatest analogies because you dont have to be the soccer star/music producer equivalent to work as a programmer. It would be like saying you shouldnt work in physics unless you can be the "Lebron James" of physics.

Or thinking that if you dont work for Facebook or Google you arent a programmer.

meanrev

1. Research. Almost all of my programming experience has come from self-learning for my research projects.

2. Join an open source project that you find meaningful and contribute. Or anything which requires you to review other people's codes very often.

3. Be a contributor at a Q&A board like Stack Overflow.

4. Competitions.

5. Traditional sources. Classes, books, online tutorials, online lectures.

jk

Every professional musician or soccer player has to spend years practicing their craft to be competent at it. The analogy was not too far off

TomServo

You need a grounding in the fundamentals. Algorithm analysis, graphs, trees, recursion, pointers, layering, proving correctness of algorithms, etc. The more fundamentals the better.

jesse73

It depends on the employer and the role looking to be filled and that is why the analogy falls flat.

A position working on applying physics/math methods to finance is going to have different expectations on how much programming you are going to need to know coming in the door than a position looking for someone to do Kernel development. A position looking to speed up arbitrage algorithms is going to require a different level of programming competency than a position looking to build models to base the arbitrage from.

CloudyTrees

Thank you for all these suggestions! Since I mainly do theoretical work in my research, I'd look into details on the stack overflow and open source projects.

InvalidID

I haven't read the thread, but I'm pretty sure there is a certification you can take that proves that you know how to program in a specific language. Similar to how you would need to be Comptia A+ certified in order to work as a computer technician.

meanrev

You're welcome. Good luck on your journey!

NegativeDept

I do that so often that it's like washing my hands or drinking water. (I also write a significant amount of code, but that's because a big chunk of my research uses an obscure numerical method for solving stochastic differential equations on manifolds.)

I was a theorist with minimal programming experience. Basically, I bought some books and wrote a lot of practice programs when my advisor was on sabbatical. I also picked up a lot of Mathematica, MATLAB, and SciPy from working with other theoretical and/or computational physicists. Consequently, I don't have any programming certificates or degrees on my CV. But I do have finished, working programs on my website, and they can be understood, and modified by a skilled programmer.

tl;dr. Short version: I learned programming the same way I learned physics. Ask for help and collaborate with people who (mostly) know what they're doing. When that doesn't work, teach yourself from textbooks and websites.

CloudyTrees

Thanks for the advice!