Another 'retraining into tech' questions....

[solosunflower]

Hello...

Not a AIBU as such, just need some traffic.

I'm looking at retraining into tech, but I've read so much now that my head is a shed! Basically, what is the most suitable route in for a beginner, please? I would ideally like to find a niche area to specialise in and hopefully one day I'll be able to do some freelance work. For reference I have no coding experience. But I am determined and willing to work hard! Can anyone please point me in the right direction. I see there are hundreds of bootcamps, although I don't know which one to choose or where to start. Once I have some direction, I'm sure I'll be fine. Thank you in advance!

I manage a team of F&B assistants for the National Trust (mostly teenagers and young adults)

I'm soon to be a single mum, so I'm looking for something that will allow for more flexibility and better earning potential.

Tech careers don't necessarily give you more flexibility as often you are working to deadlines and depending on the role and indistry they can be tight ones.

While lots of roles can be done from home some can't e.g. I've worked with people who had to run of to the data center. Also some roles e.g. networking may involve working at night.

Have you ever heard of a ‘solutions architect’? Hugely in demand - I work with them a lot, but am in a different team.

Caveat that that is an extremely layperson analogy and probably inaccurate but… If you can think of a software developer as the person who creates the plug (software), the solutions architect is the person who takes all the various plugs and connects them together (system). Seen a couple of people train to become SAs after some years as a support specialist on a software help desk.

Never heard of the role, if I'm honest. How would I start with this, please?

More info on the role here: www.leanix.net/en/wiki/ea/enterprise-architect-vs-solution-architect-vs-technical-architect-whats-the-difference?utm_term=&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=EMEA-UKI_UK+%7C+EAM+%7C+Enterprise+Architecture+%7C+DSA+%7C+ENG&hsa_ver=3&hsa_cam=14987523060&hsa_grp=132266104047&hsa_acc=9751618594&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=dsa-1437331584213&hsa_ad=621496484332&gclid=CjwKCAiA7vWcBhBUEiwAXieItimJOeIr8dzvexb0smoBDmAejtDIacw0EghqB2151HOpBIEKOayWlRoCrJMQAvD_BwE#solution-architect

I’d just Google for trainee or junior SA jobs and have a read of the requirements, but as I say I’ve seen people work in tech support and move from that into trainee SA roles.

I'm a Solutions Architect, it's about the big picture and being a liaison between the technology and the business.

I had about 15 years wide experience before I moved into this role, so I'd be surprised at someone with helpdesk skills moving easily into the role, but obviously it's possible. Depends on the industry.

You can be a solution architect through wide experience and be able to understand and add value regardless of technology, or you can train for a solution architect qualifications through AWS or Azure. I can see how a helpdesk person could do this as they have infrastructure skills.

Lots of companies run women into IT schemes, which might help. One thing to know.it is a flexible job, but it's very feast or famine. I spend a fair amount of time underutilised and a lot of time run off my feet - evenings and weekends..More so as an architect. If you want regular 9-5 support is probably a good choice, dev and test are arguably better careers but more demanding time wise.

Hope this helps

Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed response. I definitely feel solutions architect is beyond me.

I've been looking at Indeed at some of the roles mentioned. The money seems crazy! I'm really only looking for entry level. Something around 28k would be perfect.

Also, IT is male dominated and Architecture even more so. My department is about 95/5 percent male female split, so you will be patronised, I won't take any rubbish, but you need to be confident.... It comes with experience though.

Qa is a brilliant company they deliver free boot camps that cost thousands if you go private. They have some starting January in data analysis, cloud computing, software testing or software development and you get a Microsoft certificate at the end. Heard they are really good I’d contact them

and taught myself Python and working with databases last year

@CodeQueen

Very impressibe but how did you do this? and why did you pick Python over the other coding languages? Does the code you pick detemine what jobs you can apply for?

Python is well respected and a good one to learn. A decent company retrain you into what they need when they need it , smaller companies hire for limited skill set. A lot of it is learning how to program, once you know that the next languages is quicker to pick up. IT is always changing so everything you learn will it one point be obsolete. It's just something to bear in mind, you won't be able to learn it and never have to update your skills

I'll have a look, thank you

Seconding that Solutions Architect is a role that you need experience to do. If people are doing training to become a "Solutions Architect" it suggests to me that the job title is being devalued and the role itself will start to be called something different. (This happens a lot in Tech - "senior" these days is often just a couple of years' experience.)

The language you pick can determine the kinds of jobs you can do. For example, Python's great for analytical work, and automation, but it kinda sucks (in relative terms) for web-based stuff in comparison to Typescript, Ruby, C# etc. That's not really a flaw in the language, just a consequence of the way the ecosystems have developed around them all.

Similarly, if you want ultimate performance, then you go for C, C++ or Rust.

And if you just want to cause yourself pain, learn Go :D

As @iamtuftyclub said, Python is a popular language, and is fairly simple to understand compared to something like C#. If you're interested in learning it, I highly recommend Miguel Grinberg. His Flask mega tutorial is brilliant, and it's free.

I didn't need to know a particular language for my current job; some places want you to be familiar with whatever they use, but logic is far more important.

Oh, and generally-speaking, nobody really uses Java any more except universities and big companies with large and expensive legacy systems.

The weird part is that the older and more legacy-oriented the language, the more you can earn if you're contracting. I know COBOL developers pulling £900-1200/day and more on mainframe systems, because - to put it bluntly - all the people who know those systems are dying off and the banks can't replace them quickly enough to get themselves out of the crap.

By 'knowing a language' what does that mean exactly? Are you supposed to have memorised it to some extend? Apologies for questions that may seem dumb.

Know how to write code in it that works and fix bugs plus use the common frameworks in that language.

You will memorise bits just by using the language.

Not dumb at all. If you've never seen proper code, you wouldn't know the differences between languages.

You can make an analogy with spoken languages. Think of code syntax as the spelling and grammar, and knowing the keywords and base libraries as the vocabulary.

So, if you were fluent in a spoken language like French, that means you know the principles that underpin the spelling and grammar, but you won't need to know the entirety of the vocabulary because you can pick up meaning from the context, and look up anything else you need from a dictionary.

Similarly, "knowing" a programming language means that you know the syntax and structure of the language, and a good portion of the base libraries, and the rest you can look up on StackOverflow as you go.

It's not a perfect analogy (for lots of reasons), but that's basically the gist of it.

...and the rest you can look up on StackOverflow as you go.

It's worth mentioning that Google skills are very important in programming! You don't have to know the answer purely from memory, but you should know how to find the answer efficiently.

Oh hell, yes. I sometimes wonder if I shouldn't write a book called "Google-fu, or how I learned to ask the right questions".

Could probably retire after that.

As an absolute beginner which path should I take to be in six figure earnings?

Is that a joke?
It is like someone saying "I have no clue about medicine or anatomy, and have no experience in healthcare, but what path can I go down to be a surgeon?"

Pretty much any path will get you there in about 10-15 years' time, if you're absolutely excellent to the point where people are begging to employ you and you don't mind having all the responsibility and risk of carrying the can and being fired if you fail.

But if earning loads of money is your only goal, you'll likely never get there.

I get confused with threads like this because I’ve 30 years experience in tech, started as a developer doing coding and now at 50 I am a senior manager. But I’m earning less than 50k. Am I doing something wrong?