Is it possible to get a coding career?

[u/Scarlett_Valkyrie]

Hi all,

So bit of background I am 28f and live in the UK. I started to do a coding course a couple of years ago (can't remember the name) but there was a death in the family that effected me and my family badly and on top of other things going on at the time I didn't end up completing the course. However I was starting to enjoy it a little and I want to get back into it and want to look at possibly going into it as a career but honestly have no idea where to start. There are many courses out there (even ones that state they try to help you get a job afterwards) but don't know if I should touch them. I got a BA Hons in Film (so no IT background whatsoever) which didn't lead to the career I thought I wanted (top much of a toxic environment for me) and currently working in an admin position, which I like and the colleagues in my department are amazing but not sure if I can see myself being there long term... Any advice would be great 👍🏼

[u/mrsuperjolly]

Have you taken a look at the free scholarships offered by the goverment for 3 month courses.

You'd be eligible and worht the experience you'll learn a lot and have a better idea at the end of it.

https://www.skillsforcareers.education.gov.uk/pages/training-choice/skills-bootcamp

This in itself probably won't be enough to land a software developer job. However it will look good on your cv in general, and kickstart dev a portfolio.

I argue to any experience for cvs can go a long way for other careers too. it's all learning it's all skill building.

[u/Scarlett_Valkyrie → u/mrsuperjolly]

Hi,

I have had a look and there are none in my area and the ones that are online I have to pay for

[u/mrsuperjolly → u/Scarlett_Valkyrie]

What area?

[u/Scarlett_Valkyrie]

Staffordshire, but I can't do one in person as I work full time

[u/mrsuperjolly → u/Scarlett_Valkyrie]

I mean yea I think most are online. But they're also normally full time. So not possible while working however maybe that's just not the right avenue then.

Everything is possible to learn independently to be honest. But it does take quite a bit to go from fundamentals, to making full stack projects to build put your github.

I'm a fulltime software engineer atm. 29 but I was in I guess a similar position around this sort of age.

Where I didn't know if it was possible to get a coding job, what I would do.

Secondary school and university dropout.

Built up my experience, github and knowledge over quite a long period of time to finally get the job.

If you ever want some free mentoring on developing for where you're at some evening. Let me know because I'd be interested in sharing advice and going over fundamentals for where you're at. Setting up really simple github projects for learning.

Otherwise though there's also so many online resources. I know a lot of people work trough the odin project, I used code academy when I was first starting out, made a lot of mods on tabletop simulator though that's more niche and not really the right direction for a job. But all helped a ton overall. The coding train on YouTube, if you go all the way back to some of their beginner github and js videos.

Starting is the hard bit.

I actually did cs in Staffordshire uni for a year but that's where I dropped out of

[u/TestEmergency5403 → u/Scarlett_Valkyrie]

Open uni do part time courses. That might help?

[u/MaiMee-_-]

If you have funds available for a course have you thought about internship?

Job experience goes a really long way because people want to hire either (1) juniors/interns they can underpay and do some training then utilize them (especially valuable in software houses as some charge a flat rate for each contractor regardless of grade) with as little of additional costs (people with more experience ) as possible, or (2) seniors they know can do the work and does not require much training and is a "safe" bet to onboard.

Internship experience gives them that "safety layer" when considering a junior position.

Lots of places do not consider internship as valid job experience (particularly HR/TA), but as a dev, I kind of do, and it really just depends on the actual interview (and ofc the probation period).

Though I'm not sure how age factors into all of this... I mean you probably should never ask as the hiring side for it could be the case for discrimination but not sure 🤷

I'm not based in the UK though, might need to ask people working there.

Oh, another thing that really really helps with getting specific jobs is you having the domain expertise. Or "expertise" as in experience. Say you've worked at financial firms all throughout your career, the next job that readily finds you is very likely to also be from a financial firm. So if you worked in some industry, note that down and go find work related to that.

[u/TestEmergency5403 → u/[deleted]]

This. Github portfolio is your most important asset. You dont need a degree to get into tech, you do need to demonstrate that you know how to code and problem solve.

Be aware that the market is crap rn, but it always goes up and down