Mid Life Career Change - *coding*!

[Jittlelo]

Im having to leave my (slightly dead-end) job due to incompatibility with family life, and am considering investing in a coding course. One of which claims to take to you from zero to employable in 4 months... I know so little about it all and the more research I do the more there seems to be to learn. Anyone out there tried this? Or teach?
TIA!

www.theodinproject.com/studygroups

I don't know if any of the study groups listed above are useful to you OP, there don't seem to be online ones currently running but worth keeping an eye on it. If you're looking at codecademy then some of the material might be familiar.

One of my friends who is one of the best Java programmers spends at least 20 hours a week on self study on top of his 40 hor week. For the last 15 years. That is the level of commitment needed if you want to be top programmer. By no means it is on Java alone bu also building servers, learning new technologies etc.
4 months course would barely scratch the surface unless OP adds to her current skills knowledge of one of software packages such as Adobe and that would extend her employability.

But there's a hell of a distance between top and employable in any field. What are you trying to say crimson?

DriftingOff: Java, in its current inception, is a very hard language to become proficient in. Funnily enough, it started as a very high level (quite abstracted from low level machine code) language aimed at non technical people, I remember writing a compiler for it at the time , but as it kept evolving, layers and layers of complexity were added to it and because its core structures were designed to be quite abstracts, some really obtuse roundabout stuff had to be incorporated (reflection, anyone?). For learning Java well, I'd find a really reputable course or do a one year MSc conversion course.

For you, with your background that you have mentioned here, I'd suggest Python. Try it out, it's well structured, quite logical and it has some really good libraries.

What I am trying to say is that a 4 months full-time course in any language will unlikely give enough knowledge and practice to get someone a job. Even if it is 40 hours a week of 18 weeks solid practice. This may be a starting point to apply for some support type in my experience.
What is your experience? Did you offer job to someone in similar circumstances?

I think maybe you would need a degree/M.Sc. in computer science, as other posters have done.

Yes and no - there are plenty of roles which don't need a degree in Computer Science. But having said that - loads of people do have degrees these days, and my employer is one of those where they expect all applicants to have a degree. We have to get exceptions signed off if we want them to look candidates without degrees. Some roles have very particular technical skills as a requirement, where it's less important to have a degree, and more important to be able to show proven experience in Solaris 11 or AIX 7 or Hitachi storage, or Netapp servers or whatever. But that's years of experience, and quite a few people with that sort of experience will also have a degree.

However - if you can use your existing experience, there are a lot of roles for people who can cross the human/tech divide, who understands the technology, but can also talk to those who don't have that understanding without making it sound like gobbledygook. Go into coding if you've really got the itch, and spend every spare minute thinking about it, and waiting to get back to whatever you're working on. But if you're interested in tech, but not so sure about the technology, then consider one of those roles which cross the divide. You'll still need technical knowledge, but you won't need to be a programming guru who would be doing it even if they weren't employed to do it.

I'm assuming you're like me and coming from the print side of graphics and wanting to break into the web design side? I'm in the process of doing this and it is possible to learn html and css, but not in 4 months, code academy is good and I have started that way, also wc3 schools and Lynda. I know what you mean about the print side being a bit incompatible with family life, I solved that one by going freelance. Then again I am currently ignoring some client emails till tomorrow morning . Good luck and stick with it just don't expect instant results!

crimsonh, you asked "What is your experience? Did you offer job to someone in similar circumstances?"

Yes, as it happens, I do occasionally - not a paid course, but self-taught, enough to show aptitude to learn more. Not for a full time developer job, but for one of the many roles eBearhug refers to where programming is an useful (in this case essential) skill but not the core skill required. I also know a self taught developer (he picked Ruby, not Java) with about the same experience as DriftingOff when he got his first development role. (Actually, I think there's probably at least a couple more, now I think of it.)

Which is why I was so surprised at your comparison - it is an extreme example for the majority of Java developers I have worked with to be honest.

All developers and devops I am working with do self study at home. Some are more dedicated than others. Majority build and run own servers at home and write programs on them.
The reason may be that I am in a fairly young company which is full of very ambitious people and most of them want to progress fast.

That's what I said my point of view was very biased. My first job out of Uni was doing tech support in a rather mediocre organization. It was soul destroying for meand I quit after ten months. Since that, I've always worked in companies that hire top talent. This is not a stealth boast, honest! I'm just trying to say that these companies hire compsci graduates or other grads with mostly scientific degrees and who will have to, on top of thetraining they will get, do quite a bit of self study in order to be a contender.

Why I said, not what I said. Five am brain.

crimson - missed your earlier question. Yep, DP and I are part-time in technical roles (well, mine was technical before I got promoted after mat leave). Started full-time though, which is the classic pattern in all industries isn't it - a lot easier to go part-time in an existing job.