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Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?

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Re: Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?

#31

Post by toomanyrichies »

Programming is my 3rd career (I was a travel agent and an ESL teacher before that). I joined a bootcamp when I was 34. People in my bootcamp class who were older than I was were able to find jobs as software engineers, and (at least according to their LinkedIn pages) continue to write code today.

Age discrimination does exist, but so do companies that actively look for age diversity in their junior engineers. Unsurprisingly, success in this field has much more to do with your mental attitude (i.e. fixed vs growth mindset) than with age.

I empathize with your preconceptions about this field (I shared them in my newbie days), but I can't emphasize this enough- I believe that almost anyone with a growth mindset and a certain amount of grit can become a software engineer.

If you acquire the right knowledge and the skills to communicate that knowledge succinctly, it will be easy for you to demonstrate why you'd make a good hire.

Re: Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?

#32

Post by stingrae »

cwyers wrote: post #25

So, you need some sort of credential. A bootcamp would do well, some sort of certificate of a course of study from Coursera or edX, a non-degree certificate from a university. Pick a tech stack that's both modern and enterprisey -- Java, .NET, Ruby, Node.js are all fine, but if you go with them, get current. On the front end, you want to find something trendy. Try looking for some jobs you think you'd want to apply f…

I totally disagree. I don't think a credential will help at all. I think you need projects that you can point to and explain. I also feel like it will be easier for you to get a role at a company that also would utilize your past experience. This way it is easier for them to justify someone more technically junior at on the software engineering side.

Re: Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?

#33

Post by sseth »

Since this is a huge field, you would be better off focusing first of all on one type of development. For example :

- Web Development

- Data Engineering

- Mobile Development

Web development is probably the easiest to get started with so let's focus on that. If your interest lies in Data for example, then the tech stack would be quite different.

For web development - My suggestion is to skim the basic protocols and standards (HTTP, TLS, HTML, CSS, the DOM e.g.) and build the simplest possible React application. This will give you a base to build on.

Once you have some basic knowledge of how to build a simple web app, its important that you learn the basic developer tools. E.g. Being able to use Chrome devtools to debug your application, being able to see the network traffic between the browser and your web server etc. These will help you in development and also deepen your understanding of javascript, http and other web standards.

Its also important to master a good editor. For web development today, I would suggest using Visual Studio Code. Learn how to navigate your code well using the editor, refactor code, get into a productive dev cycle.

After this, there is an endless ocean of stuff to learn. Web Security (OWASP), various features of Javascript - a constantly evolving language, perhaps even Typescript, managing images and other assets, how to modularize your code, learning about the event loop in Javascript, mastering asynchronous programming in javascript and so on and on. That is a lifelong journey - you cannot learn it all at once. I would suggest taking a structured course online which could walk you through the basics in one or more of these areas.

Wish you all the best!

Re: Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?

#34

Post by sh87 »

wai1234 wrote: post #15

You don't mention WHY you want to get into software. If it's just because you think you can make a lot of money, that's a poor reason to switch careers. You also say you lack experience. Do you mean you have none at all? That would make my first question even more important. If you have no experience at all, take an introductory software course at a local community college. An online course or how-to book would be a…

> If it's just because you think you can make a lot of money, that's a poor reason to switch careers.

I strongly disagree with that. More money is a perfectly sound reason to choose a career.

Re: Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?

#35

Post by adpoe »

I 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 Bachelor's degree in Computer Science worked for me. It only took 2 years, because I had a prior bachelor's degree, and it sounds like you'd be in the same situation.

Employers have generally been respectful of my prior experience as well (it was business focused, project management), so I don't think having worked in a different field is a bad thing at all.

Moreover, I work with plenty of software developers who started off in other scientific fields and made a transition to software more organically -- so it certainly can be done.

Ultimately, if you can pass programming interviews, you will be able to get a software dev job. It will be challenging, but you'll be happy you invested the time. Wishing you the best of luck!

Re: Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?

#36

Post by ryen »

stingrae wrote: post #32
cwyers wrote: post #25

So, you need some sort of credential. A bootcamp would do well, some sort of certificate of a course of study from Coursera or edX, a non-degree certificate from a university. Pick a tech stack that's both modern and enterprisey -- Java, .NET, Ruby, Node.js are all fine, but if you go with them, get current. On the front end, you want to find something trendy. Try looking for some jobs you think you'd want to apply f…

I totally disagree. I don't think a credential will help at all. I think you need projects that you can point to and explain. I also feel like it will be easier for you to get a role at a company that also would utilize your past experience. This way it is easier for them to justify someone more technically junior at on the software engineering side.

I think it depends largely on the market you're in. In a rural area (or something far enough away from a large city) and may not have a lot of supply of software developers: credentials likely don't come into play as much. Raw experience may suffice.

But more populated areas will mean larger talent pools. Unless you're in a tech hub or a fast growing mid-size city, the amount of software jobs might not serve the pool. Credentials will matter more. Practically speaking :)

Re: Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?

#38

Post by patch_collector »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #4

Look around your lab. What problems do you have that software could solve? (It could be as simple as a spreadsheet.) Can you build that? If you can't, can you realistically learn until you can? Then go build it. Congratulations, now you have experience. Look around some more. What else do they need? Do you have to learn in order to be able to build that? Given that you've done one thing already, can it become your jo…

This was my path -- I didn't know anything about code, but had a problem at work that could be solved if I learned a bit. So I did. Then kept doing it -- finding problems, learning how to solve them, and then coding solutions. Eventually I built a tool that I spun into it's own company, and leveraged that experience to get interviews and eventually offers from large tech companies.

I did have to do a lot of extra prep at the end, to learn the stuff necessary to pass coding interviews (which is it's own skill set, separate from knowing how to create a working tool), but the end result is getting into tech at a similar age to OP.

Re: Ask HN: Where should I start as a 34-year-old switching to software as a career?

#40

Post by andretti1977 »

chrisgoman wrote: post #14

Develop 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…

This is a great advice. I'm a software engineer working as a freelance but now trying to create saas products and even if i have very good technical knowledge, my problem is i don't know any other businees domain so i don't know exactly what to develop. Starting from your domain of knowledge and trying to create a webapp (i suggest you that first and mobile later) to solve a real problem will give you direction, problems to solve and looking a solution for by learning and motivation during your career transition and, last but not least, maybe a product you can sell your own or evolve during time.
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