I have a degree either so I'm not sure that avenue would be open to me. Salary atm is £35k. So I'm guessing without a degree I really am screwed?
Coding courses to start a career
- Thread starter Taylor7500
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I have a degree either so I'm not sure that avenue would be open to me. Salary atm is £35k. So I'm guessing without a degree I really am screwed?
Soldato
Some companies will specify either a degree or relevant experience
Alrite I'll have a look around, is it likely they'd take my 20 years CNC programming experience into account? I wasnt sure if it would be comparable or relevant.
Soldato
I would have thought so, from memory when I did CNC programming at uni, there are a few parallels in the thought process and general structure to the code
But ultimately it depends on the company
I think your best bet is to start looking at tech companies, but not the larger ones like Google/MS as they’ll have standardised processes to follow.
Perhaps in the 100-1000 employee range, as they’ll likely have a turnover big enough to warrant spending the cash on you but not too big they don’t need to.
What’ll differentiate you is your attitude - if you go in with a strong, positive outlook and an obvious desire to learn and develop, I can’t see why a good company wouldn’t take you on.
Graduates who have been at the company 4+ years where I work tend to be on 45-55k, some of these won’t have had any prior work or coding experience.
It’s just finding the right people
Try and work with some decent recruitment firms too, get your CV up to date and try and understand the synergies between the work you’ve been doing and coding - it’ll help your argument
I would have thought so, from memory when I did CNC programming at uni, there are a few parallels in the thought process and general structure to the code
But ultimately it depends on the company
I think your best bet is to start looking at tech companies, but not the larger ones like Google/MS as they’ll have standardised processes to follow.
Perhaps in the 100-1000 employee range, as they’ll likely have a turnover big enough to warrant spending the cash on you but not too big they don’t need to.
What’ll differentiate you is your attitude - if you go in with a strong, positive outlook and an obvious desire to learn and develop, I can’t see why a good company wouldn’t take you on.
Graduates who have been at the company 4+ years where I work tend to be on 45-55k, some of these won’t have had any prior work or coding experience.
It’s just finding the right people
Try and work with some decent recruitment firms too, get your CV up to date and try and understand the synergies between the work you’ve been doing and coding - it’ll help your argument
Thanks for your help and advice, I'll definitely have a deeper look tonight. I've demonstrated this throughout my career from machinist apprentice to now factory programmer and hopefully I can convey that across when I need to and demonstrate anything they need.
Not necessarily, tech companies can be very meritocratic if you've got the skills. But the latter part is perhaps the issue in that you haven't (yet).
Obviously, there are more opportunities perhaps for people who have some limited skills/potential and be given the opportunity to learn on the job if they have a degree.
That doesn't mean the door is closed for you though, firstly it's not too late to get a degree even you can do one part-time, online etc.. nothing stopping you from then applying for jobs when mid-way through a part-time degree, you could list the degree on your CV being currently undertaken:
Code:
BSc [some science or engineering subject] [some online/distance learning uni] 2022-2026 (expected)
Completed modules [blah 1], [blah 2] etc..
Current modules [blah 7] [blah 8] etc..Secondly, you could just get the required skills, put in more work. Rather than just learning a few basics to demonstrate some interest you could put a bit more effort udacity offers nanodegrees with a project component IIRC. Or just get the relevant books for the language you choose and build stuff...
Soldato
Have you got a job right now? There are tonnes of companies that’ll take on people who want to code but don’t yet have the experience. You’ll just have to go in at entry level
Do you have any suggestions?
I have been looking at a set of things I want to learn on Udemy aswel to get me started.
Soldato
Sure, the stand out for me would be Capgemini, specifically the HMRC division.
They invest tonnes in training and have excellent support networks.
Thanks for your advice, I have contacted my local uni and have a meeting with someone in the CS department next week. They offer their CS part time so hopefully I'd be able to get the ball rolling this September if there is any space and I have what is needed to enroll.
In the meantime I'll just keep doing what I can at home, I've been doing HTML stuff to start and find it very similar or at least the concepts to some CnC work I'm doing now.
If you could advise someone to study anything specifically, what would it be to start off?
Nice one, just one thing to be aware of (in case you aren't already) part-time options at various universities might simply involve you taking on half the workload (spreading the degree over 6 years) and attending lectures during the day, so you might need to have some flexibility from your employer and/or find out about attendance requirements/monitoring etc... Often lectures are recorded so you could miss them but you don't want to get caught out by some attendance requirements or labs which need to be attended etc. so worth asking about when you meet them.
You could get a 3-year degree done in 4 years part-time if you're super keen. I'd suggest taking a look at a few options, don't necessarily just go for your local uni by default, here are some specifically set up for either part-time (evening) or distance learning;
https://www.bbk.ac.uk/study/2022/undergraduate/subject/computer_science/
https://london.ac.uk/courses/computer-science?
https://www.open.ac.uk/courses/computing-it/degrees/bsc-computing-it-q62
Depends what you want to really, learning HTML isn't necessarily going to help too much with programming but is obviously useful if you're keen on web development.
This is often recommended as a nice intro, you can pay for a certificate on edX or just go through it for free here:
https://cs50.harvard.edu/x/2022/
After that, perhaps pick a language and build stuff, Python is quite popular as a first language or if you do choose a particular degree course then perhaps take a look at the language/languages they'll be using (quite likely either Java or Python will be taught)
Then hopefully you'll be in a position to apply for jobs when only part way through a degree.
That is super helpful, thanks so much. Appreciate time everyone in this thread has taken to give advice. Thank you!
Soldato
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What role do you see yourself doing? You need to have a specific idea of what you are aiming for. Learning a bit of HTML is never going to hurt, but it's not necessarily going to be relevant.
Soldato
If you’re not sure, start broad.
Also a good idea as a developer to do something business and IT - depending on the role you end up doing, it’s generally good to develop a holistic view of how businesses work and pick up some other skills on the way.
Lots of people can code, fewer can code/present/lead
Especially important if your plan is to then move towards a solutions architect where you’re client facing
I read that question as just a starting off point (thus the CS50x answer as it is an intro and covers a few things), but if "study" refers to formal study/subject choice then (IMO) maths>programming/tech>business. Ultimately it all depends what you want to do and your aptitude for those subjects really.
As far as informal study is concerned - there are various MOOC MBA modules out there and some websites listing them - for example: https://github.com/dperconti/MOOC-MBA
Also, this org is set up to help with leadership and presentation skills: https://www.toastmasters.org/
As far as informal study is concerned - there are various MOOC MBA modules out there and some websites listing them - for example: https://github.com/dperconti/MOOC-MBA
Also, this org is set up to help with leadership and presentation skills: https://www.toastmasters.org/
HTML isn't coding, don't waste your time on it.
Unless you have a burning desire to get into games (in which case I'd say start with C++), then if you want to be a 'coder', I'd go with C#. It's modern, has good free toolchains, is typed, has classes. You'll cover a lot of fundamentals with it, and you'll be able to find jobs with it.
Some people will suggest JavaScript or Python, but frankly, if you want to be a software engineer, start with a full-fat language. Once you can work in C#/C++, you can pick up any of the high level stuff very quickly and easily.
Agreed. Generally starting with C/C++ (and to a lesser degree C# and Java) helps people understand fundamentals a lot better and that knowledge transfers to all other languages.
Alrite, thanks for the direct response. I think the HTML was just a introductory piece of the online free stuff I have started to do. I finished the first module and it has started with some C++ right away.
Will concentrate on trying that then.
Associate
Sorry to jump on a very old thread but this is an area I am looking to get into. I have ended up doing some or rather lots of coding in my current job due to the IT experts post sitting vacant for months. I have basically had to learn it for myself only using the templates of similar codes that are alreadt in the system as a guide. It turns out I love coding a million times more than my actual job and want to move forwards with this as a career.
Please could somebody point me in the direction of any online courses that result in some kind of accreditation that might help me gain a junior or trainee role? I have started doing some learning on youtube and using Python but I will need something more formal to start looking for jobs. I appreciate that a few have been mentioned on here but are there any that employers tend to prefer?
Please could somebody point me in the direction of any online courses that result in some kind of accreditation that might help me gain a junior or trainee role? I have started doing some learning on youtube and using Python but I will need something more formal to start looking for jobs. I appreciate that a few have been mentioned on here but are there any that employers tend to prefer?
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Why do you need something formal? Do you have a STEM degree? Or indeed any degree?
Courses don't need to be accredited to help get you a job though some online certificates might not be worth much more than simply stating you know X (udemy certs can be from literally anyone, coursera and EDX tend to be from good universities but can be watered down, they're generally cheap though), some bootcamps work with large employers and so are a known quantity for them... though if economic times are hard that might be riskier as they are expensive (could cost a few thousand) and bootcamp hires are "unconventional" vs regular graduate hires.
Udacity nano degrees might be a kind of happy medium between the shorter coursera & EDX courses vs a bootcamp, they're priced in between those two things too.
You could look at some distance learning degree modules if you want academic accreditation, if you already have a degree then maybe a graduate certificate or diploma might be sufficient... also if you were to sign up for a full degree part-time there is nothing stopping you from applying for jobs when part way through it, just list the modules you've already completed and when you're due to complete the full degree etc..
There probably are some vendor-related programming certificates if you want something quick, I guess that could be an option though I'm not sure what they're like.
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What sort of coding would you like to get into?
Desktop? Web? Mobile? Games? Embedded? Data? ML? <insert others>