It depends a bit on whether they're prepared to move. If they are then it makes sense to learn a niche thing where demand outstrips supply. If they don't live in a big city and need to find work locally it probably makes more sense to learn something popular, or where there is a known local demand.
Ask HN: From zero to IT career, what is the fastest path?
11–20 of 58 posts
Re: Ask HN: From zero to IT career, what is the fastest path?
#12My #1 advice is to start by making your own job. This can mean bootstrapping a simple app, grinding away at building wordpress themes, or making paid programming tutorials. This might not be the popular advice, but it's coming from a self-taught developer that now has > 10 years professional experience.
I agree with this for several reasons: 1. You learn how to be efficient (if not necessarily clean) with your code 2. You will network by default in order to solve the problems you encounter - and set yourself up with the network you need to find a job 3. You prove that you have the range of skills needed for a good developer (requirements management, holistic understanding, deployment environment, technical depth)
Could you elaborate on the "network by default" point? I've been programming for 18 years and my professional network is pathetic. Any problems I have I research online - my network is google search. Unfortunately decent jobs are much harder find through google search.
Re: Ask HN: From zero to IT career, what is the fastest path?
#13Thank you to everybody is replying here. I and my friends really appreciate that. Thanks!
Re: Ask HN: From zero to IT career, what is the fastest path?
#14It depends a bit on whether they're prepared to move. If they are then it makes sense to learn a niche thing where demand outstrips supply. If they don't live in a big city and need to find work locally it probably makes more sense to learn something popular, or where there is a known local demand.
One is in Vienna and one in Barcellona (both from Italy btw). I think this should help in some way.
Re: Ask HN: From zero to IT career, what is the fastest path?
#15I would say the answer depends on Where in Europe your friends are seeking employment. The job market - and the job requirements - are significantly different between Rural Romania, Berlin or an oil field in Norway.
They are 30+. General advice there is to stay away from competing with the 20+ crowd. Compete where age is on your side, which means go into business where you have 10 years experience over the young ones. If you were a carpenter and want to be a programmer, build solutions for the construction industry. If you were a car mechanic, build solutions for the car salesman. You get the idea.
For starters, your friends can choose between getting an education , or trying their luck at "skill". If they want to work for big corporations, education is mandatory. If they want to work for small companies, education isn't going to be as important, but reputation is key. Be sure to never leave a job unfinished, and always ensure your customer is happy. Your happy customers are your salespeople.
If one of your friends are already fluent in HTML/CSS, it's natural to go into the custom wordpress theme coding, etc. This is not really an IT job anymore, but a part of the advertising industry. Pays poorly, and will continue downwards.
Your DSP friend is in better luck. This is a hard, difficult-to-learn skill. Especially if he also understands the advanced math behind it. Good DSP jobs are found in larger industries, so if he doesn't have a math degree, that would be advised. Having a Master's degree and being good at DSP programming will secure a very good future with few competitors.
As for "programming", that's not really one job but a wide field of jobs. Marketing style jobs are plenty and small, and available for both web and mobile. They pay poorly though. Corporate 10000+ hour projects or salaried positions are out there, but almost always require a M Sc. There are always going to be plenty of 100 hour projects at smaller companies, but it's poor job security.
"Programming" in general is also under very heavy fire from outsourcing to lowest bidder, so I would not advise anyone to start it as a career.
YMMV.
Re: Ask HN: From zero to IT career, what is the fastest path?
#16Hi,
I would love to teach both of them Python/NodeJS/Java.
NO FEES! I believe in sharing knowledge for free.
@nrshrivatsan is my twitter handle.
Rest I will tell to them in person.
- Shrivats.
Re: Ask HN: From zero to IT career, what is the fastest path?
#17Perhaps you don't know how time consuming getting decent at programming is... I know people who just started a business (not in IT), who make way more money everyday then programmers. Programmers get their source for income from online discussion (mostly) , while some people you know find local niches, not involved into programming. Eg. a take-away bar that earns 1.000$ / day from day 1 (we do their cash-register)...…
I think this is poor advice. "Just starting a business" is not a low-risk path. Yes, there are lots of businessmen making more than programmers, but it's also true that a massive fraction of businesses fail within a few years. It's not fair to just compare the successes there to the entirety of another field.
Re: Ask HN: From zero to IT career, what is the fastest path?
#18UI UX Design (User Interface/Experience Design) probably has the lowest barrier to entry at the moment. This is a very different skill than programing but learning to program greatly enhances your value at the job and can lead to much better/faster results. I only say it has a low barrier to entry because it involves many soft skills (in addition to strong analytic skills), is one of the newer must have positions, and the position is still changing. However, don't underestimate how hard it is to excel at the position. Oh yeah, and learn Javascript no matter what.
Re: Ask HN: From zero to IT career, what is the fastest path?
#19Perhaps you don't know how time consuming getting decent at programming is... I know people who just started a business (not in IT), who make way more money everyday then programmers. Programmers get their source for income from online discussion (mostly) , while some people you know find local niches, not involved into programming. Eg. a take-away bar that earns 1.000$ / day from day 1 (we do their cash-register)...…
Agreed with everything except the first sentence.
OP is the author of Redis, the cache everybody and their mother loves. I'm sure he knows quite a bit about programming!
Re: Ask HN: From zero to IT career, what is the fastest path?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with this for several reasons: 1. You learn how to be efficient (if not necessarily clean) with your code 2. You will network by default in order to solve the problems you encounter - and set yourself up with the network you need to find a job 3. You prove that you have the range of skills needed for a good developer (requirements management, holistic understanding, deployment environment, technical depth)
Could you elaborate on the "network by default" point? I've been programming for 18 years and my professional network is pathetic. Any problems I have I research online - my network is google search. Unfortunately decent jobs are much harder find through google search.
I'm sure you weren't googling answers when you first started and were probably asking your questions on bbs. I would also imagine you are using SO and other "forums" like that which are a form of networking (look as the profiles of some of the top people answering questions). I consider having a public GitHub repo networking because you can invite and share your projects so people can evaluate your work and collab. To me these are the default things that good devs are already doing.
Beyond that though I would suggest attending meetups in your area for all kinds of different things - for example there is a Ruby meetup in our area, there are node meetups, meetups for ML and NLP etc... These are cool places to show off your work, get help on projects and meet other people who would have links into jobs.