to retrain as a web developer at 50?

[beastlyslumber]

Inspired by another thread in which there's lots of discussion about how in-demand developers are at the moment, I started doing a little research to see if it's the sort of thing I might be interested in, and I am! But I'm 50, have worked in education for most of my career and I'm worried about how long the training might take and what my prospects might be as an older female in this field. Can anyone advise?

Can anyone recommend a good place to start looking at this? I’m a bit awash on a sea of acronyms!!! I get that I’m starting from scratch with coding and lots of resources have been suggested, so I’m good to go there. But I feel like I don’t even have a grip on the basics of the industry. I mean, I know FA about law, but I what a barrister and a solicitor do. I don’t know the difference between a full stack and a back end developer etc etc etc. I feel like I need a nap!

MAP! Not nap. 🙄

The Front end is what is visible to the end user/customer, the usability/aesthetics of the website/app/product, how the end user interacts with forms and drop downs and all that kind of stuff, how it presents in different browsers, phone screens, etc. Everything you see and experience when you load up a web page.

The back end is how it functions, how/where the data is managed/stored on a server/in a database, etc, the bit that allows the owner of the page/app to pull data reports or for the product to interface with some kind of order management system, etc.

A full stack developer is someone who is proficient in both front and back end, a Jack of all trades, if you will.

You can teach yourself a lot of coding from watching you tube videos

I am a software engineer and I interview candidates at a well known company. It wouldn't bother me that you're 50 as long as you show a passion for what you do. You'll need to be technically competent, too, but if you're inexperienced and you seem promising then I'd recommend you for an L3 position.

I've been doing the freecodecamp stuff the last couple of days. It's quite full on but so far am doing okay. I started with the html and css stuff, feeling like I really needed to start at the very beginning of their curriculum. Some of the explanations are super confusing, but the code itself is easy enough. I'm going to keep trucking on and see how far I get and if I keep being interested in it. If so, I think I'll do a proper training course so I can get some help and support with it.

There is something quite satisfying in figuring it out!

What's an L3 position?

Are there any communicator-type roles in tech? I feel like there's so much jargon, there must be a need for people who can talk to non-tech people, customers etc. That's something I might be good at.

@beastlyslumber

What's an L3 position?

Are there any communicator-type roles in tech? I feel like there's so much jargon, there must be a need for people who can talk to non-tech people, customers etc. That's something I might be good at.

Hi OP you should have a look at product manager roles, as far as I understand it involves liaising between customers and the technical team to ensure requirements are communicated clearly. You would need some technical knowledge but also good communication skills.

Business Analyst might be what you’re looking for then @beastlyslumber. They sit between the business and the developers and translate the business’s needs into specifications for the developers. Good communication is essential - ours run workshops for example.

There are also people like service architects and designers who design things like service level agreements - simplified, they discuss with the business what hours the systems will operate, what happens if there is a failure, what the recovery objectives are for the system and they ensure that the IT department can meet those demands.

Change management is another area where good communication is necessary - they set agreements between the business and IT about when changes to the system can be deployed. Lots of negotiation skills needed.
All these roles need technical knowledge and business knowledge to a greater or lesser extent.

There are a few roles

Yes to product manager too.

Oooh, thanks very much for the info. Those kinds of role sound right up my street. If I pursued the technical skills in coding and data, are those the kinds of roles I could segue into, or would I need a business or management qualification as well?

This might be worth a look - there are lots of BA apprenticeships out there.
www.lloydsbankinggrouptalent.com/apprentices/our-apprenticeships/business-analyst-apprentice/

The civil service often do them too. Where ever I’ve worked Business Analysts have been in demand and seem to progress quickly to delivery management or to product owner.

That's great, thank you! I'll have a little look around. The apprentices at LBG all look really young but that doesn't necessarily bother me. The pay cut would be tough, though.

@Willo776

What about the data side? What kinds of roles and salaries can you get with SQL?

On the data side

Data Analyst
Reporting Analyst
Visualisation analyst
Business Intelligence
Data Scientist
Data Engineer
Power BI Specialist
Tableau Specialist
IT Business Analyst
Data Architect
Data Protection Officer

Career paths for senior, lead and management roles.

A cute javascript tutorial

jsforcats.com/

Don’t forget Database Administrator in the data jobs. A pivotal role in any IT dept. (Yes, I am one )

W3Schools
Been around for 23 years now.
Learn to code for beginners

www.w3schools.com/

@TonyBennsCat

Don’t forget Database Administrator in the data jobs. A pivotal role in any IT dept. (Yes, I am one )

Certainly can't forget DBA! Can't believe I forgot it. I was one.

Ha RantyAunty

I rate W3Schools too. Excellent for learning SQL for one thing.

@Primtemps

I think it's very helpful if you have worked with young people. My pal does this and his firm talks a lot about Gen z, millennials, gen a or whatever it is now! Knowing a lot about target users is gold.

Why would target users all be young people? Software is used for everything and anything and everyone! Most of the stuff I've written is for people to use at work, so specialist professionals 25-70+, Mumsnet is written by software developers and we're not all young. Plus banking - from software that ensures compliance, trades in stocks and shares, through to banking apps on your phone. Or iPlayer. Software definitely doesn't only have one target age range!

I loved the free, yet comprehensive, Python courses on Futurelearn, by Raspberry Pi. Great tutors. Good luck!

Commenting so I can find this thread again. I started doing the HTML exercises on free code camp and found it interesting and I'd like to learn more, but like a pp said, I think I need a map!

An apprenticeship isn’t necessarily the right route for you OP but the ads might give you some food for thought around what the roles entail and what sort of qualifications might be useful.

It is really useful, thank you! I appreciate everyone's advice so much. At the weekend I plan to read through the thread carefully and start following up on some of the suggestions. Agree that an apprenticeship probably isn't the way but I'm inspired to see there are some really interesting and creative roles I could be thinking about. I've been so bored with my job for the past few years and can't really make more money in the role I'm in. I'm excited to think maybe I could quickly retrain into something interesting where I'm constantly learning new skills, and make bank! It almost seems too good to be true!

See this what worries me. Things that seem to be good to be true invariably are in my experience (excuse my pessimism. A shit ton of crap has hit me in the last few years, and has rather taken the shine off my optimism!)

I mean, why isn’t everyone doing it?

Also, it looks like Northcoders do funded 13 week bootcamps for people in my area. Anyone got any experience of their courses to share?