I am very happy to part of this forum board. Just now I registered with this site. I can see many useful topics here. So I thought of sharing an interesting post with you.
This is the best opportunity for you to show your talent in programming. If you are a java programmer then you can participate in this event. You can enjoy different seminars on this.
Java is ubiquitous with the business world and can be used on the most popular OS's (Linux, OS x, windows, etc) for desktop GUI or graphics applications as well as the backend to web-based applications. Just to reiterate, business use Java a lot so it wouldn't be hard to find world as a Java programmer and the opportunities are diverse.
As with all web related programming, it often doesn't matter where in the world you are. OSS devs will except code submissions from anyone regardless of where they are. Same goes for other commercial ventures.
What really matters to businesses though is not that you have a cert.. They don't care. You just have to prove that you can write code, and it's really easy to prove that you can write code, you just need a computer and something to make.
Based on this fact, I would say that after you learn java, then you should program in java for fun or as part of an OSS project. It's easy to get experience that way because OSS projects can be very demanding, and it looks good on resumes.
One other point:
'My interest is in java'
Is this to say you have no interest outside of Java? Programming is about using the right tool for the job (this is why there are so many languages). Java is not always the right tool, just so you know. Often people will just want results and they don't care what you write it in. Often Java is a poor choice for a project. After you learn Java, you should learn several more languages as well. Learn the facts here now