Thousands of Veterans Want to Learn to Code But Can’t

Then again, any discipline that has "science" in its name probably isn't.

Here are some thoughts that I'd like to share I went through the path of starting out as a college grad with a degree in Humanities and got into IT/support/light-coding.

Dump the misconceptions: I'm sure soldiers smile when they encounter civilians who are completely clueless about military and everything else that goes with it. Same with the startups and coding career. Everything you read/see on media/TV about startups is pretty much garbage. They may get the personality, haircut, fashion, and the ambiance right (Silicon Valley), but that's not what being a coder is about.

Are you cut out for it?: Some are just not cut out to be a coder/programmer. This is not meant as a disrespect. Not everyone is cut out to be a soldier. I tried really hard to convince an ex Air Force officer (not army, but a desk jockey from AF) to try out a career in IT (not even coding but server/systems management) as he was leaving the service, but he had been forced to do some of it while in service and had bad experience. So he was dead set against it. But one of my ex managers was an enlisted man in Navy/Airforce (not sure, but not army) when I worked as a server/desktop technician and he was good as a server/linux admin.

You need to find out if you have the aptitude, patience and passion for IT/code career. Especially with coding because you will have to constantly learn new tools/languages/etc to keep up, all on your own time (nights, weekends). If you have problem with it, you'd be better off not starting it. This is especially true if you don't have a CS degree. With a CS degree, an employer may hire you even if you don't know the programming language used in their product, because they think you can learn quickly enough. With no CS degree, you have to have concrete examples to show that you can learn and do the job, which means even longer personal time spent for self training sessions.

I am in the process of switching from Desktop Support into coding, and I know I am spending easily 10 - 20 hrs a week (thanks to RescueTime) on my personal computer watching/reading online courses and typing out the tutorials. I have a full time job and wife/kids. And I spend 2-3 hrs every weekday and/or entire Saturday on my computer each week, learning/practicing coding and everything else (git, HTML/CSS, some bash, some database) related that I realize I need to know. And I am not really advancing fast enough, for lack of time, and I've been in IT for years.

Who usually goes to coding bootcamp?: Coding bootcamp is really for someone who already has enough knowledge in coding. Someone who went through a coding school commented on HN that it seemed most already had spent time/energy on their own to learn quite a bit, and joined the bootcamp to get that final push/proof that they can show to potential employer.

Consider a coding bootcamp something like a training school a newly minted SF operator attends after he already proved himself in the initial Army bootcamp and years of service as a regular soldier. If you have not already spent substantial time (and actually learning) with computer, a coding bootcamp will mostly likely be a waste of time/money.

But you should still consider it seriously: But here's the thing. Starting the training to be a coder/server-admin these days costs almost nothing, unlike the training required to be a jet fighter pilot or a doctor or a lawyer. To be a pilot/doctor/lawyer, you HAVE to get into a training program and find someone to pay (or pay yourself) for the instructors/equipment.

But starting a career in IT nothing is like it. All you need is a computer, internet, and time. Half of the coders surveyed on HN (or Stackoverflow?) stated they were self-taught programmers. Of course many others may have started out but gave up. It would be dishonest to not bring that up.

So how do you get that initial start and experience to start the journey to be a coder/IT worker?

So what to do?: Research. There are many different types of coding, like HTML/CSS. Or coding backend. Or create an iOS app. I think Mr. In the article, Mr. Molina trying his hand first on iOS app was ill advised. He should've first learned about HTML/CSS or bash scripting, not to be an expert but at least know how's it's done. Read a little about different jobs, like tutorials for a few days to get a sense of direction.

Spend time on job postings like indeed.com and see what skills/tools are in demand. Spend time on HN and read, to soak up the culture/ambiance, not too much though. Not to be a pretender, but to start thinking like a coder.

Find time, lots of big chunks of time. Coding/hacking/building-a-computer all require hours of continuous tinkering, changing, testing. Not like 1 hr here and there but like half a day, or all of your evening. I find myself most productive when I can spend bigger chunks of time working on the same thing.

Watch how you spend your time. Use tools like RescueTime or other tools to keep track of how much time you spend. You will be surprised how quickly time passes when you start watching an episode of something on Netflix. Just stop it, until you get a jog as a coder.

Find office like environment. This is necessary especially if you are just starting out. Trying to do it alone at home will inevitably lead to netflix/xbox/etc. I've made that very mistake. And I recommend against Starbucks. You want to maximize productivity, and starbucks is not the place.

If you can spare $200 - $500 a month, try out co-working spaces like WeWork or NextSpace. It will make you sit down and stare at the laptop screen at minimum. I used the service in between jobs to learn some very basic html/css and it helped. I didn't get a job as HTML/CSS coder but it definitely beat trying to do it at home. Try cheapest plan which usually allows you to use any open desk. If you can only spend evening/weekend, try reserved desk/room. More expensive but you can leave external monitor to go with your laptop, boosting your productivity.

Go to meetups. I personally don't because I'm an introvert, but attending a few doesn't hurt imho.

Write out things you want to learn. Doesn't matter whether you stick with it or not. Adjust it if necessary. But write it out so that you know what you are doing now.

Use Google Doc to take notes as you try out commands, tutorials. Spending time writing out what you learned really reinforces. Especially useful in the beginning.

The path to learning anything in IT/coding will be really circuitous. Let's say you want to put up a HTML/CSS website on a VPS server like at DigitalOcean. But before you even touch the server, you may have to learn about vim, ssh, rsync, ftp, Domain registration, yum install, etc. It may be days/weeks before you actually get to do what you initially set out to do. But that's the fun of being in this field.

Try setting up a study group, virtual or physical. Use free/cheap tools like Slack, Zoom, codeshare.io, etc to ask questions, help stay focused.

Negatives you have to know: Ageism is real. If you never heard of it, search on google and read about it. You are considered over the hill at 40. Many are sharing on HN that recruiters are not returning calls because of perceived age on the resume. I'm near that age and experiencing it myself.

You will have to constantly spend own time learning new things. It may even feel like you have to get a new associate degree every 3 - 5 years. I think no such issue exists in the law enforcement, firefighting and such industries.

But if you like computers, now is the best time.