Introduction: Who Should Read This Book

This post was an early draft of material for my book The New Programmer’s Survival Manual, now published by Pragmatic Programmers.

So that’s where I’m coming from. Let’s talk about where you’re coming from. I expect fans of this book to fall into a couple broad categories:

• College students taking Computer Science classes and wondering, “is this what programming is like in the real world?” (Short answer: no.)

• College grads already in industry, who have noticed first-hand that the answer to the first question is “no,” trying to get their heads around the disparity.

• People, young or not, who are considering a job in programming but want the skinny on what the books and classes aren’t telling them.

You’ll notice this isn’t a “…for Dummies” book. I assume you’re smart. You probably know a programming language or two. But until you’ve been in industry for a few years “you don’t know what you don’t know” about doing programming as a profession. That’s where this book comes in.