“Should I learn to program?” This question had been asked to me several times by my fellow colleagues in my last organization. My answer was always “Yes”. I strongly recommend that an individual learn some programming languages in order to survive in the modern competitive environment.

With the advent of the IT boom, those days are gone when work used to be carried out by typewriters or hand written documents. It has been reported by the U.S. that IT jobs will grow by 22% through 2020. Now even the most basic jobs require the use of computers. Computer literacy is essential for any person to find a job and along with it if by chance a person is equipped in any programming language, like Java, HTML, C++, Python etc, he or she can expect an exponential career growth.

Computer technology has advanced rapidly and within the next few years it is going to take a quantum leap. Nowadays, the number of jobs requiring ‘technical literacy’ is on the rise. Such jobs require a person to be well versed in some or the other programming languages.

Thus, if people know Java, HTML or any other programming languages getting into these jobs become very easy for them. One of my colleagues in my previous organization was well versed in Java. He was working with us in an accounting process which was not relevant for an expert programmer like him.

One day, a requirement arose on a different process for a Java programmer and he got selected with a very high salary package. Thus, it can be very well seen that learning to program does no harm, but in fact it opens doors to several opportunities.

Learning to program not only boosts a person’s career but also improves his or her problem solving and decision making skills. Apple’s co-founder and CEO, Steve Jobs had empathized on learning to program to be essential for mental development and quoted, “Everybody in this country should learn to program a computer, because it teaches you how to think”.

Program coding is like playing chess, a person has to decide his code for a particular program that he or she wants to implement by thinking logically. As a result, through programming, he or she develops sound mental abilities, which is the basic requirement for any kind of job.

Learning to program is always beneficial even if a person does not choose programming as his or her career choice.