I learnt to code at 27 - AMA

[OliviaSoprano]

Before anybody tells me to get over myself - I do know that there is absolutely nothing special or interesting about this! But women are still so under-represented in tech and I think far too many see it as an area that is "not for them" / a career option that wouldn't even be worth considering. I felt exactly that way three years ago but then I tried it and realised that I bloody love coding and now I'm working full time as a software engineer and really enjoy my job.

Just thought I'd start this in case there is anybody out there who may have questions about what's actually involved or how to go about starting to learn the necessary skills (or anything else obviously, it's AMA!)

There’s a 50% off code on codeacadamy, it’s CYBER21. It’s still £90 though.

It’s ok Fere, your doing us a favour letting us know what your boot camps teaching you.

I am trying my best to share what I know, it is very confusing when you first start.
@Fluffycloudland77 did you have look at the skills link I posted few weeks ago on this thread?

@Fluffycloudland77 I PM-ed you

Yes! I saw the list over the summer when I was first thinking about it all and emailed Northcoders about doing a boot camp when you work pt but they never responded to me.

I’ve done a live chat with them and asked again.

Newcomers to coding watch this video.
No.2 U am not so sure if that's applicable.
But the rest I agree with

Great thread. I'd love to learn to code..

Placemarking.

Well the Northcoders boot camp got back to me and said it’s 08:30 till 17:00 so it’s not as suitable for self employed etc as they make out.

I think it’s more for unemployed/people with support to pay bills.

Do you do advent of code?

One thing I would say regarding maths, it depends on exactly what you're doing. The sort of work I do you really need a strong maths background and I think you'd struggle without but I think there is such a range of positions that this might not be the case for all.

@Fluffycloudland77 that sounds like Makers but longer by 1 hour!
Makers say openly it is a FT course

My Bootcamp update
I have finished all exercises for the weeks 2 and 3 of the pre-course with Makers. It was definitely at least 20-25 hours of proper, deep learning. Where you concentrate and have to have fresh mind for. I know some people still work this month. I feel for them! Not many from our cohort do I believe,
The material we cover is what you can call basic, but exercises we have to do are quite complex, exp. week 3.
I am going to read more about areas which are new to me. We were recommended some online resources and a few books as well. I am beginning to think better in the "right way" to solve logical chalenges.

My top tip from the last 3 weeks - allow more time for work because it takes time to get into the deep work.

Yes I think Northcoders need to be clearer that you need to be present at the screen 8hrs a day but they have a good reputation from what I can see for producing well qualified graduates.

If you’ve got time though it looks an excellent course for Midlands/North mumsnetters. It’s not often the government offers free training for adults like this.

@WakeUpLockie did you have a go?

I agree @Fluffycloudland77, and the fact that you are actually saving all that money. I hope someone from this thread will take a plunge too.

I've really enjoyed this thread, and I've started making my way through freecodecamp. I'm only doing the basic HTML exercises, but everyone has to start somewhere. Just commenting to say hi.

@GerbilCurse

Do you do advent of code?

@GerbilCurse I have intended to do advent of code a few times and then not stuck with it! Do you do it?

I've started an online course in C++ instead this year as it's been too long since I've learnt something for its own sake rather than for work. Use Go at work which I very much enjoy but I would quite like to get a bit of an understanding /proficiency in a low level language (something you definitely don't get from bootcamps in my experience).

And yes to the maths things, it is definitely a desired/necessary skill in a lot of roles. Just not all by any stretch of the imagination (and I think that is the misconception).

@ShinySquirrel

Hello and yay! Good for you. I hope you are enjoying it so far.

Yes, I've done it for the last couple of years. Managed to get all 50 stars last year. I really enjoy it, although it's quite far removed from the sort of development I do in my work.

Harvards online CS50 course is good for explaining things like Booleans that you may have not covered in school. It's a free course and very entertaining.

Looking back 80% of our secondary teachers were near retirement and had started early. I can see why, it must have been hard teaching groups with a co-hort of people who genuinely didnt care about grades because they were going to work in dads business at 16 but the rest of us suffered too.

When it's explained by someone who has a really good understanding of it it's much easier to understand.

cohort

Week 4 Makers - it was in some ways less challenging, because we were learning a lot about refactoring and many steps were explained and then were followed up by a group of exercises. Over all our tasks this week were much easier than last 3 exercises from the previous week.
I realised that I overcomplicate my work by trying to achieve everything at once. Refactoring helps. It clarifies tasks covered by each line of code, simplifies it and makes it more readable. It feels boring at times but feels good when you can see how much your code can be improved by you.

We are also starting to work on our CV's! My CV will go on our github account so it is easy to access by the Makers recruitment team.

Yesterday we were given the coming Monday's, the first day of the course, schedule.
We are starting at 9:15 tomorrow. Every day of the course includes 30 min meditation at 2PM every day. I think it will nicely break our day into two parts.
I received my MacAir, those Macs are is loaned to us for the duration of the course to help us to get used to work on them. Most Frontend developers use Macs in their workplaces. I set it up and although it took most of my day yesterday I am glad I got it. Keys are in different position on Macs keyboard, and there are different shortcuts to memorise.

We covered a lot of concepts in the 4 weeks so far. I can imagine doing the same exercises in any language I am going to learn and it would put me in a good position for advancing them.
I am making prep for food for my meals, I like cooking but can't imagine wanting to spend evening in the kitchen. Will walk my dog instead :)

I should add 4 weeks was a pre-course. The real course starts on Monday.

How are things going @fere ?

Tomorow's the day 10 of my Makers FT course. We are learning so much. I can see my progress and my attitude changing as well.
I regret not coding more when I was waiting to be admitted but I had Covid for several weeks and wanted to recover properly.
I can confirm that practice is everything when learning to write code.
I can also see that everyone is working at a slightly different pace. It is very interesting to do pair programming every day with a different, random, person from our cohort.
This is a compulsory part of our every day. We are given a longish problem to solve during each week. And between 2PM and 6PM we are on a Zoom call coding together. An amazing way to learn from each other, bounce ideas off each other and get to know others.

Especially now, with courses all being remote it is the only way to feel like we are in it together.
We are on a 2,5 week long break for Ch.
I arranged to do daily coding with one of the guys I met 3 weeks ago in person. We seem to have similar attitude to learning and easy going personalities. We are aiming for 6 hours tops of coding wvery day, to pace ourselves, with longish breaks.
I guess we will take Christmas off and will do the same from the 27th, and then again after NY.
We haven't decided what we will do for sure but quite likely go over some exercises which we haven't finished during the last 2 weeks to make sure we haven't missed anything.
The learning process is supported by a massive "library" of resources so we won't run out of things to do.

During the whole 12 week course there's very well thought through support for mental health, and teaching about soft skills which I can see as a benefit for me in long term as well.
For instance we have meditation every day after lunch at 13:45 for 15 minutes, led by our Chief Joy Officer. She also gave our cohort two talks, one about giving feedback to our peers, and the first one was about Emotional Intelligence. She also shared with us a lot of materials for self study.
Lots to take on and learn from her and other coaches. It is really up to each of us to make the next 12 weeks useful.

I am very happy that I took on this challenge. My brain hurts sometimes when I am learning new stuff, but all feels right.

You might have found it harder to retain knowledge when recovering though. Which would affect your confidence.

You can’t do two government funded courses concurrently but after the boot camp there’s lots of Level 2 courses in things like mentoring, counselling skills, leadership skills you can do online.

What a great thread - really interesting stuff & resources, thankyou @OliviaSoprano & other contributors. I did the inaugral TechUp Women course devised by Prof Sue Black (of Saving Bletchley Park fame) in 2019/20 & found that an excellent way to learn fast-track across a variety of areas, especially as it was supported by Durham, Notts, Edge Hill & York universities & was mostly remote (so do in your spare time) but had 4 weekends we attended with speakers & workshops & socials. We also got a mentor. I'd recommend it to any graduates wanting a funded (ie free as it's sponsored) programme they can mostly do around work (but you do need a lot of spare hours for the months it runs to do the modules, it is very intensive). There were mums with babies doing this too which was great to see! Not sure what programmes they have running currently as they depend on sponsors etc & adapt to fit, but well worth a look.