Career Change/New Hobby.

CemeteryBloom · 27 Sep 2019 at 16:04

Hey everybody!

So I'm currently fed up of feeling stuck in a rut and would love a career change that can be used as a hobby outside of work as well.

Now I've recently started looking at picking up Python as an interest and wondered would this be something worth learning for a change in career.

(Any advice as a beginner picking this language up and courses worth looking into would be great too!)

However if there's one thing I'm terrible at, it's decision making. So I don't have a preferred field of work/interest that I'm looking at to get setup into. I'm just looking for something new that I'll potentially feel better about doing.

Any help, advice & suggestions would be greatly appreciated..

AHarvey · 28 Sep 2019 at 12:00

Python is great to learn and opens up a lot of avenues for you. It can be used for basic web scraping, mobile development, web development, software and games as well as simple scripts.

Lots of videos on youtube, loads of courses, too many in fact at times, lots of **** to wade through.

Freecodecamp Python course on Youtube isn't bad.

You can join Python Programming Society and/or Python Programming Language on Facebook, I admin both sites and lots of info on there. I keep society more noob-friendly, no adverts or random posting of rubbish on there. The other site allows more articles etc.

Best way is to decide what you want to make and learn the bits around that, otherwise you'll get swamped with lots of terms. Another good way to see what to learn is to check local job adverts and see what skills they are asking for

CemeteryBloom · 29 Sep 2019 at 11:48

Thanks for the advice AHarvey, I'll take a look at some videos and I'm going to try and find the Facebook group.

I guess my main problem is finding what to make though if I check local adverts and what not, it could give me a template to work from as a way to learn what things do and how they work easier.

dowie · 29 Sep 2019 at 12:48

CemeteryBloom said:
So I'm currently fed up of feeling stuck in a rut and would love a career change that can be used as a hobby outside of work as well.

Now I've recently started looking at picking up Python as an interest and wondered would this be something worth learning for a change in career.

I could be, it depends on you really, it is a language that is increasing in popularity and can lead to very well paid jobs. That can, in part, depend on your skills, qualifications etc.. I mean you do also get programmers who no degree or professional qualifications etc... if you're very good then you'll get work regardless, but that can be a harder route to take.

(Any advice as a beginner picking this language up and courses worth looking into would be great too!)

However if there's one thing I'm terrible at, it's decision making. So I don't have a preferred field of work/interest that I'm looking at to get setup into. I'm just looking for something new that I'll potentially feel better about doing.

Well you mention you're terrible at decision making/don't have a preferred field of work etc.. is there any time pressure here - have you recently been made redundant or something etc..?

You've made a decision re: language but that isn't necessary at this point, it might be better to take a look at some online courses, CS101 type stuff and be a bit more language agnostic initially:

Example:

https://online-learning.harvard.edu/course/cs50-introduction-computer-science

or this sequence of three courses perhaps:

https://see.stanford.edu/Course

or this sequence:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/programming-languages
https://www.coursera.org/learn/programming-languages-part-b
https://www.coursera.org/learn/programming-languages-part-c

They all give you exposure to different types of languages to some extent and are more about the concepts etc..

CemeteryBloom · 3 Oct 2019 at 10:42

dowie said:
I could be, it depends on you really, it is a language that is increasing in popularity and can lead to very well paid jobs. That can, in part, depend on your skills, qualifications etc.. I mean you do also get programmers who no degree or professional qualifications etc... if you're very good then you'll get work regardless, but that can be a harder route to take.

Well you mention you're terrible at decision making/don't have a preferred field of work etc.. is there any time pressure here - have you recently been made redundant or something etc..?

You've made a decision re: language but that isn't necessary at this point, it might be better to take a look at some online courses, CS101 type stuff and be a bit more language agnostic initially:

Example:

https://online-learning.harvard.edu/course/cs50-introduction-computer-science

or this sequence of three courses perhaps:

https://see.stanford.edu/Course

or this sequence:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/programming-languages
https://www.coursera.org/learn/programming-languages-part-b
https://www.coursera.org/learn/programming-languages-part-c

They all give you exposure to different types of languages to some extent and are more about the concepts etc..

There's no time constraint really at the moment. I'm still employed, an this was something to pick up in my spare time which would result in a future career change a long with the possibility of working from home and in my own time as well. The work I'm in at the minute is pretty much a dead end with no optional over time or ways of acquiring any additional income. It's also not very rewarding mentally.

Thank you for the advice and help. I will definitely check out the courses. It would be great to have some structure and reward at the end.

dowie · 3 Oct 2019 at 10:50

CemeteryBloom said:
There's no time constraint really at the moment. I'm still employed, an this was something to pick up in my spare time which would result in a future career change a long with the possibility of working from home and in my own time as well.

Well that is a good situation to be in. Do you have a profession at the moment or a STEM degree - for example you might want to focus on a particular domain, apply your programming skills to a particular area - can make for an easier transition than a complete career change. Also gives another possibility - looking at more of a BA type role (sometimes could be a BA/developer hybrid role too) where you'll make use of your existing professional experience.

For example if you were already an accountant then picked up some dev skills then you could probably transition fairly quickly into working on accountancy software, writing specs etc.. using your existing experience and then as your programming skills increased take on more technical work over time etc...

If you have a degree already and were to go all in/take a career break then a conversion masters would be an idea (or indeed a specialist one if you have a STEM degree) - this can also mean getting a better branded university on your CV (assuming 2:1 or higher in your first degree and some good work experience in your current field).

If you don't have a degree then some distance learning option like the OU or University of London international program could work (or a degree via one of the MOOC platforms like coursera) or if in London then Birkbeck could be worth a look too (evening classes). You don't necessarily need to wait until you've finished such a program either - you could potentially go for a career change when part way through - it demonstrates your commitment and employers appreciate self study etc.. shows you have plenty of motivation etc..

Beerbaron · 3 Oct 2019 at 12:12

What is your current job?

morbid42 · 3 Oct 2019 at 17:50

CemeteryBloom said:
if there's one thing I'm terrible at, it's decision making.

You would be best to stay away from coding then