What's the best way to get into programming?

Tee Hee Johnson · 24 Dec 2018 at 17:07

I went to university. Learned a little bit of all sorts.

Now work for a housing association doing all sorts, from legacy VBA, lots of C# and T-SQL (with a touch of MySQL too, unfortunately lol)

Randomface74 · 24 Dec 2018 at 17:21

Don't try to move into programming at 33.
Your competition is:
At age 33: people with 10+ yrs experience (me)
At age 23: graduates with a year or two, who are willing to put in silly hours overtime
You won't be able to compete with any of them.
Programming is a young man's game.
All but the best programmers tend to move into management or find a new career by about 40.

If you're going to ignore me, then:
The best way to learn is on the job.
Learn the basics online, then take a junior job, which might be tricky to get without a compsci degree.

Tee Hee Johnson · 26 Dec 2018 at 21:16

billysielu said:
Don't try to move into programming at 33.
Your competition is:
At age 33: people with 10+ yrs experience (me)
At age 23: graduates with a year or two, who are willing to put in silly hours overtime
You won't be able to compete with any of them.
Programming is a young man's game.
All but the best programmers tend to move into management or find a new career by about 40.

If you're going to ignore me, then:
The best way to learn is on the job.
Learn the basics online, then take a junior job, which might be tricky to get without a compsci degree.

I was 31 when I went back, qualified at 34.

malachi · 26 Dec 2018 at 23:58

billysielu said:
Don't try to move into programming at 33.
Your competition is:
At age 33: people with 10+ yrs experience (me)
At age 23: graduates with a year or two, who are willing to put in silly hours overtime
You won't be able to compete with any of them.
Programming is a young man's game.
All but the best programmers tend to move into management or find a new career by about 40.

If you're going to ignore me, then:
The best way to learn is on the job.
Learn the basics online, then take a junior job, which might be tricky to get without a compsci degree.

You can jump into programming at any age, its down to motivation of the person.

Thankfully programming jobs are not limited by physical fitness.

dowie · 27 Dec 2018 at 14:21

It is all a bit irrelevant anyway as the OP hasn't bothered coming back since making the thread.