As most may know, I am quite young at fifteen and a half years old. Half-way through my sophomore year in high-school, I am starting to think about career options. I want to be a computer programmer, but I don't know what kind of programmer I want to be. I was heading towards Game Development, but i'm not too sure which way to go. Anyway, I was gonna ask for some advice on going to College/University. My plan right now is to go to a close by technical college and go for Computer Science, but again, I have no idea what is best. Maybe someone with experience can give some advice. If I where to just go to technical college, would my job opportunities be limited by not going to a four year university?
I was originally a computer science major my freshman year of college and I hated it. I thought my enjoyment of web design, graphics, and video game development would tie in closely to what I'd be learning (which I guess game development would have) but I quickly found out it wasn't for me. I ended up changing to graphic communications (which is heavily print based) but I've been working on web development, graphic design, and UI/UX and that's where I plan to head into for a career. If you're into game development I'd recommend picking up Unity and Unreal Engine 4 and see how you feel about working in engines like those.
My recommendation is that if a 4 year college is within your budget (or you can afford the loan debt) it will usually give you more job opportunities as opposed to a technical college. I'm going on my 5th year at a large state college, working on a second internship for the next 7 months, and have already gotten some decent contacts when I start looking for a full time position. Not that this isn't possible at a tech college, it's just harder in my opinion since I attended one for a year. A lot of technical colleges only offer Associate degrees (2 years) so make sure you keep that in mind. I know a lot of AAA game companies like to see a few years of experience in the field with usually a Bachelors degree at a minimum.
i die inside when i hear someone say im X and a half,fucking hell,you're either x or x theres no half
I'm half way through applications programming, it's a lot of various code writing. Kinda boring and sometimes annoyingly stressful.
I'm currently in my second year for doing Game Development (Next-Gen). The only issue with the Games industry is that if you want to be employed by a developer or publishing company it is very hard to get into the industry.
For example the nearest Game Developer near myself is Ubisoft Reflections. They take the top 1% of University students. Obviously once you are in a company it basically writes your reference for whatever publisher or developer you go to next but getting in is the hard part.
Obviously you have the option of Freelance work which alot of people do (PUBG is built on 85% freelanced models and content I believe).
Not to put you off but Its hard work if its a direction you want to head in.