Some thoughts/guidance from the guys in I.T?

[PsychoFish]

Into big data are we?

Another thing I forgot to mention earlier: if you're entering the software engineering game, you need to be good at problem solving. I mean, really good at problem solving. When you're faced with real-world software engineering problems, Google will not help you all that much. The syntax of a programming language or the availability of a library helping you do X is not the issue - knowing how to use the most appropriate tools at your disposal to solve the problem at hand in the most efficient manner possible is what will set you apart in the industry. You can't just C# everything to a pulp and expect it to work, neither can you expect Java to be your coding messiah - each tool has a place and is used to solve a piece of a bigger problem.

Yeah, what I'm currently doing is stashing all my machine data in one place and working on how to better analyze and predict failures.

[okuhle94]

Into big data are we?

Another thing I forgot to mention earlier: if you're entering the software engineering game, you need to be good at problem solving. I mean, really good at problem solving. When you're faced with real-world software engineering problems, Google will not help you all that much. The syntax of a programming language or the availability of a library helping you do X is not the issue - knowing how to use the most appropriate tools at your disposal to solve the problem at hand in the most efficient manner possible is what will set you apart in the industry. You can't just C# everything to a pulp and expect it to work, neither can you expect Java to be your coding messiah - each tool has a place and is used to solve a piece of a bigger problem.

Truth right there! Efficiency and problem solving.... an art of its own

[Sinshroud]

This might be worthwhile looking at. I don't know how accurate it is but:

IT Salaries in South Africa - How much money people really earn (it's a new one, published July 19, 2015)

[RyanvF]

First off I would like to thank everyone for their input. It has been extremely educational and exactly what I, and I'm sure a lot of others needed to hear. In terms of learning languages, I have just dabbled about in my spare time on http://www.w3schools.com/
Which, in my very amatuer opinion, is a really cool way to start to get the basics of HTML, CSS and other languages.

If I had it my way I would want to go into Financial Information Systems, simply because I was relatively good at Accounting in my matric year (makes a lot of sense to me and I don't find it as boring as other stuff) and you study a lot of programming too. It's also flexible meaning that at the end of your 3rd year you can choose to go a more accounting route or more into programming.

Learning programming I can image to be very helpful, even though it might not be your main career choice.
Anyone wanting more info on FIS can find it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accoun...rmation_system

I haven't decided on this yet but its an option i've been looking at recently.

[TBlaar]

This is a great way to go.... IT and finance... and you learn both and you can decide which you like more in a few years and then specialise.