Coding courses to start a career

[Taylor7500]

In short, I've been trying for a long time to start a career in coding and software development, with not a lot of success. I have a masters in Physics which gives some experience, but of course if a CompSci grad comes along they are almost always seen as a much safer bet for the company.

I have come across a few people selling courses to develop your skills, and then using their industry contacts to find you a position when you are done. I am somewhat skeptical of these - I looked into some of them a few years ago who could definitely market themselves well but under the surface raised a few red flags. But there's another one I see which wants to charge £7000 for 13 weeks of JavaScript and while they don't say that you will certainly get a job at the end of it, their marketing is of course set up to suggest that you do.

I just don't have the industry knowledge to know whether these courses are a good idea or if they're a glorified scam. A few of my friends are rather skeptical of it all so I'm not sure what the best course of action is.

In short, are these types of courses worthwhile or am I better off, say, getting specific certs in the languages I know, or getting a coding-adjacent job and looking to transition over?

 

[Taylor7500]

I think it really depends on what you want to do really? Do you do any programming at the moment? Have you built anything for a portfolio / do you contribute to open source projects at all? What languages are you looking at - you mention JavaScript, do you want to do Front End Web Development? Modern App Development on stuff like React? Full Stack?

Thank you for the reply. I know Java and C++ pretty well and have to do bits of SQL for my current job (data QA). I really want to build up a portfolio but I wouldn't really know what to start with. I can recreate the set projects I did for part of my degree but after the more basic ones designed to teach the concept, most of my work was part of a much larger project which I can't easily replicate. I put little things together to help learn new things and keep my hand in but they're usually quick and easy things which I don't think are worth sharing.

Ideally I'd like to do something in C++ usually toward the technical back end of things, but I'm not particularly picky. I know Javascript is much more about web development so is a bit of a different thing but my guess is it's better to get something almost official on the CV to show that I'll know what I'm doing and can do best practices as well as get that first job so I have proper experience to go on. As far as I can see the big challenge is getting things started and working from there. But of course correct me if I'm wrong.

Scam.

Would you mind elaborating? I know that if I already had some good experience and qualifications it'd be entirely unnecessary but as a starting step to "transition" into things does it work?

 

[Taylor7500]

I've applied for a fair few jobs (keeping it simple, entry level bits), but not succeeded. The way my CV stands I had a great bit of simulation work for my degree and I can say that I know my stuff in Java and C++ but ultimately there is an unfortunate element of them needing to take me on faith because after the degree in terms of hard, verifiable evidence, there's not a lot there. I figure something which leads to a starter job, even if I will eventually want to transition away from it, will at least be beneficial since it's actual hard experience.

There are undoubtedly other factors (like the fact I live in the rural back end of nowhere) but I can see that if I were to go up against someone who for example did a degree in Computer Science and has projects out the ass to show for it, then from a company's perspective I am the more risky choice to consider.

As I say, do correct me if I'm wrong or I've got it all backwards.

 

[Taylor7500]

Fair enough, thank you for the insight. As with all these things, they market themselves well. But if you know that inside the industry the idea that they have a steady stream of contacts to take people on afterwards is likely nonsense and they're just doing a shoddier job of the applications processes I'm going through anyway, then it's definitely not worth it. I don't think it's a complete scam as I heard about this course from someone who has been through it and got a job out the other end, but if as you say I'm paying a huge amount to just do what I'm already doing then it's not worth it. To be honest, for me, the course isn't so much about learning JavaScript as it is about getting the career started, but if it's not necessary then I'd much rather not be down 7 grand.

Thanks for the advice on a Github - I'll get started building a portfolio there. I'll need to find a project to start with but I'm sure I'll think of something. And if nothing else it's a good excuse to learn more C++.

On a similar vein, is it worth pursuing certs in C++ and other languages? I see some people say they're good and others say that nobody cares about them. I figure anything that adds evidence that I know my stuff is good but then if I knew how things worked in the industry I probably wouldn't be in the position I'm in now.