My recommendations: https://www.level12.io/blog/advice-to-aspiring-developers/
Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?
111–120 of 132 posts
Re: Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?
#112Rebrand as a data scientist. Data science is eating the world. Everyone wants data scientists. You’re a microbiologist. It’s hugely credible that you’ve done some crazy data crunching for your science work. Spin that into an increasing interest in the pure data science. Voila, you’re writing python for a living at the top of the market with a hugely valued differentiated skill set.
Seconded. There's so much space for data analysis in biology, that there are even training programs at top universities to reconvert wet lab technicians and postdocs into data science people to fill unmet demand as quickly as possible.
Thus, it's dirty easy to get a job in this area with a background in biology. It's just a relatively small pivot that can be done smoothly.
Re: Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?
#113One piece of advice that may not have been shared, yet: invest in a membership in the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery). You’ll be able to connect with other people through there, if you’re into networking. You’ll be able to show on your resume that you are serious about software. You’ll be able to make use of their job listings and conferences. And best of all, you’ll be able to use Safari Books online.
That last bit would probably make the membership pay for itself, since you are going to need to do a lot of reading and studying.
Re: Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?
#114I transitioned into software development in my late 20's, and am very happy with the decision. I went back to school at ~27, and graduated just a few months short of 30. 34 is definitely not too old. While in school, I had classmates ranging in age from early 20s to late 40s. Everyone I graduated with is now employed and doing well. (Including those who started a decade later than either of us.) Getting a 2nd Bachelo…
Can you expand on your journey towards a 2nd Bachelors? I'm in the same boat as you, hoping to get my second bachelors soon.
Re: Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?
#115It's never too late...consider getting another university degree. Having previous experience like yourself is always an interesting story to tell employers.
Re: Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Jquery As a frontend developer (who's also old), I'm going to argue strongly against jQuery. I like jQuery. It's had its place. But it's on the way out. Your time would be much better spent learning vanilla JS (preferably ES5+ES6 but even just ES5 would be much better use of time than jQuery). You can easily do anything with modern vanilla JS (and modern browser APIs like `document.querySelector` and `fetch` than y…
> But it's on the way out. In hip and trendy companies; every company I work with (banks, insurers) are using JQuery like it is the best thing ever and never heard about React or ES5. It will live for a lot longer than Silicon Valley thinks.
I'm not in silicon valley, and I'm not in a start-up. jQuery is on the way out in all but the most archaic companies (many of the ones you mentioned are still struggling with how to maintain their Cobol code bases).
Re: Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?
#117I don't think you are too old. Many of my coworkers had erratic, non-technical careers (construction, military, fireman, etc) until their 30s. Just prove you can solve business problems using code. If I were to get into software again, I would completely ignore the hype and choose a robust set of technologies and exclusively master them. Namely, Java (Spring Boot), MySql, Jquery. These are some of the most mature and…
As others have mentioned I wouldn't even bother with jQuery at this point. Knowing a little bit of jQuery and why it was important for its time is good, but I'd replace that in-depth jQuery knowledge with React. React will teach you modern javascript that developers are using today, position you to be an immediate impact person on most React teams and as you dig into the internals of how it all works will make you a…
These days Java is dead simple if you're using Spring Boot. Bonus points if you use Gradle as a build system instead of Maven. Even easier.
It used to be a pain in the ass before the Spring Boot days. These days it's buttery smooth to get up and running. In fact, it's significantly easier than .NET Core startup.cs way of doing things tbh.
Having said that, I recently switched over to C# as it's just got slightly better features as a language and .NET Core is pretty nice to work with compared to the old .NET framework. It's updated and more modernized. Really enjoying it.
Javas ecosystem has some better offerings and usually all for free. Compared with C# where many libraries that you want to use are commercial, so you can't just use them without really thinking about it. Since MS embraced open source there is definitely a positive shift in the community and ecosystem but it will take time.
Re: Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?
#118Develop any software for your domain (lab technician or microbiology) that solves a simple problem you see or encounter daily. Identify a problem in your current day job that can be solved with software like recording data in the lab, tracking supplies, etc. (nothing too complex) and come up with a solution (website to check-in/check-out, mobile app (?), etc.) and learn how to build it. It will not be perfect but you…
I'll give the OP an idea for a project, based on a problem I have in the lab: Pulling Pipette tips.
Any mol-bio lab has seen one of these guys around: https://www.sutter.com/MICROPIPETTE/p-97.html
Anyone that has had to pull tips knows how much it sucks. It takes dozens of glasses to finally get all the parameters working well, and that takes an hour minimum. After all that, you then get to start the experiments. And then a storm comes through and messes with the pressure and humidity and all the parameters are wrong again.
So, if the OP could program a calculator-thingy that takes in current conditions, some parameters specific to your lab and your puller, what you want the resistance and tip angle to be, and then spits out a set of numbers to program the puller, that would be SO USEFUL! I'm not saying that I want the exact numbers, but I'd like a pretty good range of them.
Re: Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?
#119Rebrand as a data scientist. Data science is eating the world. Everyone wants data scientists. You’re a microbiologist. It’s hugely credible that you’ve done some crazy data crunching for your science work. Spin that into an increasing interest in the pure data science. Voila, you’re writing python for a living at the top of the market with a hugely valued differentiated skill set.
Are you saying this because you work as a data scientist and this is personal experience (that the field is booming), or are you saying this because this is what you've heard? I tend to hear from actual data scientists that the field is a lot harder to get into than what the press is reporting.
I’m squarely in the field but as an entrepreneur, not a data scientist.
Re: Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?
#120The most fundamental things in learning to make software:
1. Alternate writing programs with classwork or book-learning. Back and forth.
2. Learn a programming language that a friend knows, so you have a place to get on-the-spot help. Ideally, somebody sitting next to you.
3. Have a computer available. Almost any home computer will do, no need for something expensive. There's plenty of free software you can download, free tutorials, free books...
4. There are cheap classes at some nearby community college or something like that. Finding the time is harder than paying for them.
5. The most important first courses are about a particular programming language, like "Python Programming 101".
6. The most important second courses are probably "Algorithms and Data Structures" and "Computer Architecture".