Backstory: I’m 46 working as an IT Support tech. Basic hardware stuff, AD user management, GPO, software installs, etc. In my area, this doesn’t pay the best, average is $38k - $50k annual. I want to enrich my income source.
Frontstory(?): I took programming comp-sci classes in high school during the early 90’s. This included Pascal, C, C++, Basic, Assembly, Fortran, etc for the time. I took to it pretty well and probably should have stuck with it but ADHD(undiagnosed) and other whimsical interests pulled me away.
With a fundamental understanding of coding from that viewpoint and looking at today’s tech world, what direction should I go and where do I start? I’ve been looking over at BleepingComputer’s deal packages they always have going on. If I can get some good coursework and training via that for a fairly low price, I should be able to get myself some side-gigs for extra income and maybe parlay that into a full on position somewhere in a couple years maybe that would allow me to work from home more.
If you haven’t seen the bundles they offer, here’s the link to the site. I’m already going to start on the free ones they have there for basics of coding.
For those in the field, I would love your thoughts and feedback on where to get re-started in this.
ETA: Apparently the 4-week free coding course is sorta free. After 4 weeks, $70/month. Sigh …
I know it’s not much help currently but it’s something to keep your eye out for.
About a month back I caught a set of C# courses on sale at udemy. Normally it would of been like 500 bucks for these three courses. They were on massive sale and I paid 50. It’s all video lectures but worth keeping an eye out for in case they go on sale again.
one thing i would say about online courses.
you can often find the entire course for free.
i recently did a MS. MTA cert. and while it was different joining a class and having a tutor available for help.
googling around when i got stuck, i found the entire curriculum on another site for free.
all the same video content and lesson material.
so basically what i paid for was the tutor reading the content aloud for an hour and a half 3 nights a week.
so yeah before you put the money down for the course. check to see if you can find the same for free.
then if you can just pay for the exam/cert.
I never paid full price for a Udemy course. They are constantly on sale. I think it is safe to view any of the sample content available and this will flag you as a likely buyer, and you’ll likely get a reduced price offer within a week or two.
Also spend time trying making a plan for deciding where you will focus your studies. Programming is a huge field, even after you knock out topics requiring advanced degrees. You may be able to find a niche because of your particular exposure to a particular industry or work stream.
As one place to start, think about how would you run your business as a web developer VS a mobile app developer. Either one will all take a lot of non-programming work to make it last OR maybe you know someone that will be your “broker” where you give up 30-40% as a finders fee and concentrate on programming. When you start reading about the on-line automated job brokers, you see lots of horror stories, but also some people seem to do pretty well at it, so time researching may save you pain later on.
This is just barely the surface, and while I trust printed books more, specialist info like this is hard to find in a store to look at before you buy. (Buying used for 5-10$ on ebay reduces the risk). You may have to rely on online courses like “run your own Tech consulting business” or spending time finding a good website/blogger that is doing what you want to do already.
Just my retired corporate back-office developer view of the world, others hopefully will provide more up-to-date resources!