Aibu to worry about Coding?

[TheoneandObi]

DS is a Cambridge English grad, working in an ok-ish first grad job. He hates it though. It’s boring, he says, and he doesn’t really see a a future in it for him. He wants to quit and do a course in coding. He’s researched a couple of costly but well regarded courses. But. I’m worried. He did well at maths at school but deliberately swerved away from it at A level. Surely he’ll get eaten fir breakfast? And what jobs would it lead to?
I know I shouldn’t be worrying about a 22 yo. But I don’t want him to make a huge mistake.
He seems to have a bee in his bonnet about having a job which actually makes something

Dp is an electronic engineer and uses different types of coding. He keeps saying there are not enough people coming through and his pay rates keep going up to reflect this as they struggle to recruit. Maybe he could look at something like that. I dont understand enough about it to advise any more (or maybe i just switch off).

Electronic engineering really does require high level maths and proper teaching. As does computer science, I believe.

'Coding' otoh is, as PP have indicated, is a very broad category.

I've been writing software for a living for over 30 years and have very little formal 'coding' training. It's scientific software so what I need is scientific subject knowledge and ability - and in my area I do need quite a lot of maths. It's very domain-specific.

There will be many other applications where good communication and/or design skills are more important.

Take writing a book as an analogy. You need to be able to write in your chosen language, but the vital component is the content.

He seems to have a bee in his bonnet about having a job which actually makes something
Good for him! We need more of that attitude.

DH is a senior software developer. He did computer science at uni. He's very smart and loves learning the various coding languages, there are a lot of them. He also constantly reads about coding. He's very well paid.

I've been coding since I graduated 20 years ago. I graduated with an English degree.

There are some areas of coding where maths is more important than others. I worked for a short while for a games developer, and I think the people doing the 3D graphics could run quadratic equations in their heads. I most definitely cannot do that.

I work with financial databases now, and my maths is definitely only GCSE level. I did two lessons of A-level maths and dropped it because it seemed too abstract.

What I've found as an English graduate is that no matter what coding-based role you have, good communciation skills with your boss, team or whatever are very helpful.

It does open a lot of career paths to be fair.

Another thought, which may not be attractive to the OPs DS but may fit some, is technical writing. I can write pretty decent 'subject matter expert' documentation; a good technical writer can generally improve it.

Coding skills will be valuable in the case of jobs and the job market in tech is definetely on the rise. If you are in Scotland he can Look up ITPT, its what I'd call a coding school. If in Scotland it can be funded by saas or he can learn long distance from what I can remember. Their might be an ITPT in England worth checking out.

I dropped out of coding, it was interesting and I very much viewed it as languages but it bored the hell out of me in the end.

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