Hi! I have just recently deciding to switch careers and leave the vet industry , go into tech. Have spent past 2 years in tech school to become a vet assistant but after being in my field, I always wondered how it would be like to have a career in tech, ive always thought for so long that being in tech comes w Math and science and i suck at both 🤣🤣🤣. so I’m deciding to enroll myself in a completely online program to become an IT tech yet i have always admired hacking and coding so without getting sooo much into it, which leads me to my question:
- what do I have to do to be in the code career?
- do I have to go to boot camp out of my state or should look into going online completely?
- is coding beginner friendly especially as someone who doesn’t have ABSOLUTE NO IDEA about coding?
Please let me know and I love that I have found a community of women jn the tech industry, it’s pretty inspiring which why I want to go into the tech career.
Hi Stone, first of all welcome to our small and growing community.
I'm glad you're giving yourself this chance to try technology and see if it's for you or go back to vet or even go to art(yes I stalked you UEUHEHUEHUE) and I also thank you for finding my opinion relevant.
As you said that you wanted a career and that you are interested in coding and hacking, here you need to choose which one to prioritize. Because whether back-end, front-end, mobile, fullstack or cybersecurity there will be a lot to study, practice, make mistakes and practice again.
Here I give an addendum that if you don't know what these areas mean in technology, I recommend doing a search, reading and watching videos on youtube about it to see what might please you.
So based on what you've told me, again I think the best first step is to know what you want to prioritize and what you want to make money from.
Because trust me, you won't be able to study everything together at the same time. And if you manage to find an hour, there will be a burnout, so take it easy my friend. (from personal experience)
Even more so if you want a job, it's best to focus on 1 and then move on to others. Then find out what might be best for you / what you most identify with.
I also like hacking, I have books and I have already found courses. But this is something I want to study as a hobby and a safety measure (after all, there's no shortage of motherfuckers doing shit with others with that knowledge). So I put it in the background. Because my priority is money and hacking has work, but not in my country.
Now about entering the code career. Despite being a junior/student, I've seen a lot and I've also learned in these 2 years in the technology community in my country and watching you from the outside, so I can have a more mature view to help you with that.
So let's go:
1) - To know what you need to do to enter your career in code, you need to know how the technology market is in your country.
Because with all these layoffs, we have a lot of professionals with experience and academically well qualified and depending on the country, we currently have more demand for professionals than job offers. (Here in Brazil this is happening, because the layoffs in North America reflected here).
And here I don't want to discourage you, I just want to give you a realistic parameter for you to enter the area without illusions and not get frustrated like me and a bunch of people on the internet. (I wish someone had guided me like that). Because what we have most on social media is people making it seem like programming is easy and getting a job is even easier, or that you're going to earn A LOT since you're just a junior and THAT'S NOT THE REALITY..
BUT all the effort pays off in the end.
Within that, here I think it's cool that you try to observe what vacancies in your country ask for juniors/interns.
From Skills like knowing python to asking college or accepting bootcamp. See what's most in demand out there and within that see if you like what's in demand.
I tell you this, because here in Brazil, for example, we currently have more vacancies for internships (and here you need to be enrolled in a college to do an internship) than for juniors without college and only with bootcamps. So if we want a job around here, the first thing is to go to college and not be completely self-taught. So again, research and study your country's technology market.
In my conception TODAY getting a job in programming without college will be 10x more difficult than in 2020 for example, things have changed. The market now is not lacking developers, quite the contrary, now it has hight demands from developers but not for JOBS.
What the market wants most are senior people (and I've seen seniors I know saying that after layoffs even for them it's more willing to get a job, again supply and demand), but there are still opportunities for us beginners, in some countries there are more and in others less.
Speaking in the sense of the United States from what I observed from the US (content producers and twitter) + my experiences here in Brazil.I don't know the current situation of the technology market in Africa, the rest of Latin America , Asia and Europe.
Of course, you can be lucky and succeed without , but I, for one, got tired of believing that I would be lucky and be one of those people who succeed and changed my strategy to get a job.
Or you could also join a job-guaranteed bootcamp. Check how it works and if you have this type in your country.
And here we come to your second question.
2) The answer is it depends.
For example, will this bootcamp in your state guarantee you a job or is it possible to do an internship at a company or will it connect you with companies after the program?Or is he recognized by technology companies in your state?
If so, I would recommend doing it and dedicating yourself to getting in.
Because look, if they guarantee you an job is even better , you'll just have to study and do what they tell you to get your job.
But if you don't guarantee it, but this training has merit/respect in the market, it also pays off.
Here, I wanted to take the opportunity and talk about apprenticeship.
In our community we have our queen @xiacodes @xiabablog (it's the same person), she did an apprenticeship and today she is a junior developer in UK .
She shared her journey on her blog and is also the most engaged and resource sharing person in our community.
Here I would like to say that FOR ME Apprenticeship is one of the smartest strategies today to get into the technology market.
I myself will start on a Monday and it was my solution to get a job in code by the end of the year. (I'll talk about this in another post too)
So I recommend looking for apprenticeship in your country / state and how they work there.
And obviously observe and read the rules of the program to see if there are any catches that put you in absurd debt or contractual fines.
And see if you can handle it if you have the possibility.
Here I give an addendum that if you find an apprenticeship but that you will earn little in the beginning, for you to analyze well before saying no. Because salary we can evolve after we have experience, the important thing for us juniors/students is to get the first experience and the rest later becomes easier. (At least that's what the Mid /seniors I know say)
Now if in your country you don't have this kind of opportunity, I would recommend trying to see if it would be possible to do bootcamp/online courses + college to get an internship.
And you don't even have to start with paid courses, in my opinion if the bootcamp won't guarantee you a job, it's not worth paying for it. We have a lot of free resources on the internt (youtube biggest school) .
But it's up to you.
Free Courses:
-Freecodecamp
-Odin project (And it has both fullstack with ruby and with node.js. )
For me, paying will only pay off when you don't find quality resources for what you want to study. So I would advise you to always think about whether it pays off or not.
Accessible paid courses:
- Codecademy
- Udemy (there are good courses there and there are always promotions)
+++ Here I also wanted to talk about knowing that public colleges (100% free) are not possible in all countries or when they are, they are very elective and difficult to get into for poor people as it is here in Brazil.
But here despite that, studying A LOT to pass the exams and having worked to save money and support yourself until you get scholarships to support yourself (and if you do), you manage to get into the best colleges that are free and that is more viable than being poor and being able to pay for college in the US, for example.
So I know that it might not be very viable depending on where you live and whether or not you are a resident of the country.
So I don't know if college can be an affordable thing for you, but if not that you can find the best strategy to achieve your financial prosperity in technology!
But if you are from the United States for example, this week I discovered this spotify program: https://fellowship.spotify.com/
The one where they only hire people with bootcamps and not colleges and open in the summer there.
And despite the layoffs, I still think there are more entry level openings there than here HUEHUEEHEU.
3) What do you mean by friendly?
If you mean easy, no, she probably won't be friendly to you at all AND THAT'S OKAY.
As you yourself said that you know absolutely nothing, it will be natural for you to have difficulty, to think about giving up and to make a lot of mistakes to get it right.
It's going to be a process of failing and trying again and again.
NOTHING IS EASY. And since you've already taken a veterinary course, I think you already know that things are really difficult. So this is another reminder that it won't be any different here.
BUT it will end well because EVERYTHING IS LEARNED.
And that also goes for math, if you ever have to deal with it (and if you go to cs college you will) you will make a lot of mistakes, but you will succeed, because EVERYTHING IS LEARNED based on trial and error.
And that doesn't mean you're bad or stupid, just that you're learning something completely from scratch. It won't be overnight that you will understand, it may take months or years, but persisting you will succeed. THIS IS NORMAL.
I cried (literally) to do conditional algorithms in 2021, I banged my head in books, said I would never make it and felt like the biggest dumbass in the world and today 2023 are the easiest things for me. I have no problem making them.
And that was only possible because I didn't give up.
Here I wanted to advise you to start your programming studies with low expectations, to help you manage your frustrations and maybe burnouts. It won't be overnight that you will become the best programmer and do many projects at the level of a senior developer or the people who do tutorials on youtube.
They will be small steps that lead you to your goals in studies. Again, constants.
There are people who could get their ek code jobs in 3 to 6 months of study.
BUT FOR ME, currently having a plan to get an opportunity between 2 years and 4 years (if you actually go to college) study is the healthiest way to pursue your studies and goals. If you get it sooner, even better for you, but if not, you'll be fine with yourself because it's within the period you stipulated.
Finally, I ask you not to take anything I say as absolute truth.
Question what you read Take what I said, analyze it and see how it works in your reality.
I also recommend trying to find women in technology from your country on linkedin and see if they can help you with tips and so on. I feel very good knowing so many Brazilian women in tech since I did this, my network there is composed only of them precisely to create a place without judgment but of welcome and inspiration.
Well, I invested about 3 hours answering the best way I can, I hope you read it and that it helps you.
Anything, if you want to talk more, you can call me in the chat, I'll take a while but I'll answer.
I wish you good studies, discernment to see which is the best path for you and that you stay well! Lots of protection in studies and career.
