Have you considered a career in Web Development? What would you do if you knew computer programming? Share your thoughts with Makers Academy

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We have been asked by the team at Makers Academy to find out what you think about the fascinating world of coding.

They say "Makers Academy is a fully immersive, 12 week computer programming bootcamp. It's like Oxbridge meets the Royal Marines, but for people learning to code. It’s designed to turn people with no knowledge of web-development into job-ready junior developers in just 12 weeks. We’re Europe’s #1 Developer Bootcamp, running a new class of 25 highly selected students every 6 weeks".

"Ronin, Makers Academy’s latest offering, allows you to enrol at Makers Academy, and enjoy all the benefits of being a student at Makers Academy, without ever having to leave the comfort of your own home".

They go on to say "we take a "learn by doing" approach, through self-directed, project-based work. Students are encouraged to work in pairs on practical coding challenges, with weekly tests, culminating in a final project presented to hiring partners on "Graduation Day". We actively support and mentor our graduates into work, helping set up job interviews with our extensive network of hiring partners. Of the 300+ students we've taught so far, almost everybody who has finished our course with the intention of becoming a developer has achieved this within 3 months of graduating or less".

~ So, have you ever considered a career as a web developer? If not, why not? Are your older DC interested in coding?
~ What would you do if you knew how to code?
~ What do you think are the biggest barriers to coding?
~ What do you find interesting about coding?

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Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

So, have you ever considered a career as a web developer? If not, why not? Are your older DC interested in coding?

I work in publishing, which of course is a dying industry, so the ability to code and develop websites would potentially enhance my career offering.

~ What would you do if you knew how to code?

Use it to publish online and develop multi-media platforms for content.

~ What do you think are the biggest barriers to coding?

Just the word 'coding' makes it sound cryptic and impossible to understand! Also, while I know some basic HTML which was enough 10-15 years ago, websites and coding have seemingly moved on so much, it feels like there would be too much to catch up on.

~ What do you find interesting about coding?

Just the ability to create bespoke and custom platforms for content.

~ So, have you ever considered a career as a web developer? If not, why not?
No, I've never considered a career as a web developer i really do love computers and understanding them and how they work however i feel maybe there is to much involved in becoming a web developer.

~Are your older DC interested in coding?
no not yet im the one with the computer knowledge in my family at the moment but with how my son i advancing with tech hell be surpassing me in no time at all !

~ What would you do if you knew how to code?
i would make the most epic of computer games with the best story imaginable aimed at women ! because i think that's what s missing in pc games and other gaming genres

~ What do you think are the biggest barriers to coding?
learning the knowledge required and to be able to move forward and advance with the new tech available and upcoming.

~ What do you find interesting about coding?
that anything is possiple in that magical world ! xx

Is it really £8k? I wonder what you teach that you can't learn yourself for free.

And with those non family friendly hours I wonder why you consider advertising on mumsnet?

Yes I'd love to.

My dc arent into it at all.

The biggest barriers is the cost of the courses and fitting it in if you are a working parent.

I'd love to be a games developer. I did web designing at A level and loved it but the teaching let me down.

So, have you ever considered a career as a web developer? If not, why not?
No, I don't think web pages are all that exciting.

Are your older DC interested in coding?
No, she's not logical enough.

What would you do if you knew how to code?
I do know how to code, though a bit out of date as C was my main language (also FORTRAN and Pascal, showing my age really). I used to write CAD SW.

What do you think are the biggest barriers to coding
Not doing enough simple coding in school. All the magical 'apps' that do everything for you. Bring back BBC micros!

What do you find interesting about coding?
Great fun, methodical, mathematical. Prefer proper algorithmic to web stuff. I can write raw html, but messing about with menus and drop down boxes etc just isn't my cup of tea.

No I have never considered a career in web development. It doesn't interest me at all.

I think my DC are too young to be interested - eldest is 7 and wouldn't even know what the word meant. She doesn't particularly like using a computer.

I don't have a clue what I'd do if I knew how to code . I can't even imagine anything that I would want that would be solved by knowing coding.

I think DH's job is mainly coding, but I'm not actually sure . He pretty much only uses it for work - he's not that into technology, despite it being part of his job.

I have no idea what the barriers are to coding. I don't even really know what that sentence means

I don't know enough about coding to know if anything is interesting

~ So, have you ever considered a career as a web developer? If not, why not? Are your older DC interested in coding?
Not really, because I don't have the coding skills.

~ What would you do if you knew how to code?
I think finding a position that allowed me to work out of the home would be ideal. I want something I could structure around raising young children.

~ What do you think are the biggest barriers to coding?
It seems like an all boys club where women are not that welcome. I think it is hard to write elegant code that is clean and functional. I've seen the end result of buggy, badly written code too many times.

~ What do you find interesting about coding?
I like the logic of code and finding a solution to a problem.

~ So, have you ever considered a career as a web developer? If not, why not? Are your older DC interested in coding?

Not really - I was briefly interested in coding as a young teen in the early 1980s, but it's not something that really suits my personality.

~ What would you do if you knew how to code?
Write very slapdash buggy programmes with poor documentation

~ What do you think are the biggest barriers to coding?
I think on the whole, if you're the sort of person who finds it interesting, you'll find what you need. I'm not sure an expensive course is it . . . .

My friend taught herself coding and built an amazing website which is the basis of her business. She has natural aptitude for this stuff - I don't! Not enough patience with machines, no desire to learn coding unless it was essential for my job.

pmsl at " ~ What would you do if you knew how to code?
Write very slapdash buggy programmes with poor documentation"
I used to 'pair program' with a colleague and code comments used to include the following:
// can you figure out what the hell this bit is doing?
//why won't this increment????
//you weren't using a global variable yer tit
//it's Friday, it's 5pm I'm going home, remind me to fix this on Monday

~ So, have you ever considered a career as a web developer? If not, why not? Are your older DC interested in coding?

No, I'd assume the markets over saturated with young people who are newly qualified and inexperienced.

~ What would you do if you knew how to code?

Nothing different, I know enough basic bits of the languages I need to get by and I'm fine with that

~ What do you think are the biggest barriers to coding?

It's boring

~ What do you find interesting about coding?

Not much, some of the more functional languages are more interesting

~ So, have you ever considered a career as a web developer? If not, why not? Are your older DC interested in coding?
~ What would you do if you knew how to code?

I know how to code, bit only basic stuff. To actually work with code you need to learn it properly over years not weeks

~ What do you think are the biggest barriers to coding?

Its a dominantly male oriented industry, and you actually need to do it from an early age, as its a skill and specialism. If you're not exposed to it when you're young, you won't make a career out if it.

Also, some people just aren't good at it, you have to have an analytical brain.

~ What do you find interesting about coding?

I like how easy it is and how it all just makes sense. Its also interesting how the different languages work.

~ So, have you ever considered a career as a web developer? If not, why not? Are your older DC interested in coding?
Yep, and then I pursued it, and now I'm a software developer! DDs are too young to get into it yet, but it's something I will be teaching them as they grow up. Helps them to understand how things run on the computers/consoles/phones/tablets/etc they'll inevitably be using.

~ What would you do if you knew how to code?
What I'm doing now. I hasten to point out though that coding (does not equal) web development exclusively. There are a lot of different careers to pursue with coding. I do web development, but in my own time as an interest. For a career I'm more database/system development, which is way more prevalent than web.

~ What do you think are the biggest barriers to coding?
I think some people are put off because it sounds difficult. It isn't really... No more difficult than learning modern languages. And the same applies, that once you know one language (or in this case, once you've got the hang of object oriented coding) then the language doesn't matter as you can pick that up easily enough.

Also, it does have a geeky stigma attached to it. Which, admittedly, is justified. Most, but not all, of the developers I know do tend towards the geeky side. I include myself in this.

One other problem, for female coders in particular, is it's still a very male dominated environment. In all the places I've worked, only once has there been another female developer - in a team of nearly 40.

Some companies are ok with this, but unfortunately most are dire. I've had to face more than my fair share of glass ceilings and inequality, which is very draining. The handling of pregnancy, maternity leave and return to work within the teams (rather than by HR) has been dire, because they've no idea what to do.

~ What do you find interesting about coding?
I like the challenge, being presented with a problem and then coming up with and building a solution. It can be very frustrating when things don't work, but the elation when you get something working successfully is amazing.

Related, it's also a very convenient job for flexible working and working from home. As long as you have a connection and a laptop, you can work. So fits around family life very well - though the expectation of hours really does need reining in as some companies want you connected 24/7 and expect several hours of (unpaid...) overtime each day.

~ So, have you ever considered a career as a web developer? If not, why not? Are your older DC interested in coding? No I hate computers except mumsnet of course.
~ What would you do if you knew how to code? Make an easy to use budgeting app which includes meal planning, shopping lists, savings managers etc
~ What do you think are the biggest barriers to coding? it looks and sounds complicated
~ What do you find interesting about coding? the end results

~ So, have you ever considered a career as a web developer? If not, why not? Are your older DC interested in coding?
Another pedantic one here for whom web development does not equal coding - coding's just a part of it. Having worked in many aspects of web development (PM, UX, UI, CM, IA, strategy and more) but never actually been a hard core coder, I think that actually (talking a huge sweeping generalisation!) women are brilliant at the 'other' side of web development, it fits in really well with what are often thought of as traditional female skills, so it would be great to see that side being promoted as much as plain 'coding'. Having said that if you work within web development then it's useful to have an understanding of the basics of coding so you can go through and do simple things if necessary (change colours or image files or text for example) as well as to ensure that your designs are better - if you understand how coding works then you'll understand how to design to the strengths and limitations of the language(s) being used.

And depends what you mean by older dc being interested in coding - both my dc enjoy coding (particularly scratch and python) and have done for the past couple of years - ds1 is 10 and ds2 is 7. DS2 could code with scratch before he could read... And there are plenty of other good games around that build up their understanding of coding concepts without them realising that's what happened.

~ What would you do if you knew how to code?
Again - question is supposing that I don't know how to code. I know enough for it to help my job and to encourage my (still relatively young) dc to code - but I'm quite happy concentrating on other aspects of web development.

~ What do you think are the biggest barriers to coding?

People thinking that coding = web development! Coding - you get it or you don't and if you do, then you can get better over time and with exposure to senior coders that are doing great things and have the time and skills to mentor you. However I do think that coders should be taught about the other side of web development so that they can see how the design process works and be a useful part of the team, not just somebody who expects to be given a chunk of work and to do it with no questions asked, regardless of how good or bad what they have been asked to do is.

~ What do you find interesting about coding?
It's logical but also creative. Sit 10 coders down to solve a problem and (once they're beyond the 'Hello World' stage!) you'll get 10 different answers. And coders themselves are often fascinating people who make great friends

I've thought about a career in this area but having zero experience have ruled it out.
There also seems so much to learn as there's always something new to learn / changing often (like all technology!).

My DC are currently too young to know what it is but I can already imagine my DS being interested in it and probably quite good at it!

I do think it has a geeky reputation and probably seen as quite boring. Though if I was to get into it I'd maybe aim to do some work for local charities / churches / hospitals etc.

~ So, have you ever considered a career as a web developer? If not, why not? Are your older DC interested in coding?
When I decided to change careers about 15 years ago, I was all set on embarking on a new chapter in my life as a Web Developer. I returned to Uni to undertake a Masters degree, but was convinced upon graduating that I should be working with and/or managing programmers, not be one myself. It all prove academic since I applied to a school, became a Teacher, and that was that.
~ What would you do if you knew how to code?
I would make loads of money!!! (I was going to say I would create AI, but after watching Ex_Machina, The Terminator, The Matrix, etc., etc., I think that would be a big no-no!!)
~ What do you think are the biggest barriers to coding?
It is such a fast changing, constantly improving field .... leave the industry for a few years and what you know becomes prehistoric.
~ What do you find interesting about coding?
I still remember being amazed at what I was able to create ... first with Borland Turbo Pascal (1994) .... then with C++ .... and right up to HTML / Java / Javascript (2000) ..... the web sites that I made were really enjoyable (I created my school's one, too).

.... Oh, them were the days.

I would like to learn to code, although it'd be teaching myself at home gradually as there's no way I could afford to pay for it. My DCs are still young and don't get much screen time, but I'd like them to learn as they get older (need a new computer first though, ours just died). We are home schooling and I might be skill-swapping some piano lessons for coding lessons with another family.

If I could code I would love to set up a home ed website with lots of resources and online games! I'd love to make apps too.

~ So, have you ever considered a career as a web developer? If not, why not?

Yes when I was younger. My degree is in computing and I learnt some programming as part of that but there were only a couple of females on the course and when I graduated I struggled to find a job because I was female and didn't fit the computer geek stereotype. When I did get a job on an IT help desk I was the only female and as such had issues with colleagues and customers because they didn't believe I could know what I was talking about. I eventually moved into data analysis and now my coding is limited to vba.

Are your older DC interested in coding?
No.

~ What would you do if you knew how to code?
I'd love to be able to automate more stuff and just design apps to make every day life easier.

~ What do you think are the biggest barriers to coding?
When I was younger the support for females but not sure that's the case now. It's time consuming and alongside a job and family it's hard work!

~ What do you find interesting about coding?
I just love figuring out how to do things and dissecting lines of code.

~ So, have you ever considered a career as a web developer? If not, why not? Are your older DC interested in coding? No, but have studied some coding as part of my graphic design education. I think coding is very hard though! Kids are not old enough yet but they might be interested because daddy know how to code.
~ What would you do if you knew how to code?
Change my website!
~ What do you think are the biggest barriers to coding?
It's difficult to get started if you don't know anything about it.
~ What do you find interesting about coding?
It's amazing what you can do with a bit of code, the websites and functionality that you can create.

Would love to know where all these new web developers will find family friendly jobs.. I left the industry 8 years ago as no one would employ a developer for less than 42 hour weeks, and from what I can see things have not changed much!

That's very true HellyD. I used to work for a small company that reckoned it was pretty family friendly but even so, there would frequently be late nights as standard. And there was quite a lot of socialising - which whilst not critical, if you missed lots then you would end up out of the loop on things.

And I think things are just getting worse - looking at friends that are still working in similar companies and the big agencies.

Last time I looked at the new MN Jobs pages I checked for part time IT adverts and there weren't any. Which didn't sadly surprise me. Programming is a great job if it's your thing but very few IT departments seem to have cottoned on how to retain staff who want to do non standard hours. And off shoring coding is easy.

Ooh there is one now!