
Can I become a developer from scratch at the age of 26? - Acidpunk
First off I am based in London England ( UK )<p>Basically I was the typical kid during school up until about the age of 14 when I lost interest academically. My grades suffered and I limped through until I got out of secondary school barely getting qualifications as nothing interested me. I went through several college courses BTEC in IT and lost interest in those pretty quickly as the pace of academic study just doesn't seem to suit me.<p>I tried my hand at a few professional courses afterwards starting with A+ and MCSE &#38; Cisco's CCNA and again I was getting involved but the teaching always seemed to be the stumbling block and I'd lose interest.<p>I bounced around for a few years and then finally made the choice to go back to University about 2 years ago. I started off well and obviously my interest in Intro to Programming &#38; Fruther Programming Modules kept me entertained and I got really nice grades 93% and 97% respectively.<p>However once those parts of my Computer Science course finished the other 6 modules served 0 interest for me and I dropped out shortly after.<p>So as you can see limited practical experience little to no formal education.<p>What I do have is an insatiable passion for Computing in general, I grew up addicted to Hardware and followed it relentlessly then got really into Web Dev when I was 16 and then Networking which is what lead me to Cisco and I really enjoyed coding at University.<p>So for someone who's terrible at going the Academic route have I missed the boat on me becoming a developer or am I just not going into things as I should just become self taught?<p>I've been to Google Campus in London there are a ton of startups and the prevailing tend it seemed was the need for Javascript developers. I'm sure I could pick up Javascript quickly enough as well as relearn HTML &#38; CSS<p>Question is, Can I realistically expect to find work with nothing but being self taught &#38; making a GitHub account to show my work ?
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toyg
Restarting a career at 26? Piece of cake. Finding work? Easy. Finding _good_
work, as in "well paid"? Probably not straight away, maybe never. Without
connections, you'll have to build your rep from scratch and show that you're
worth it.

I've had similar experiences with the academic world and the occasional webdev
gig. By pure chance, through various connections, I ended up as
sysadmin/integrator in a specific niche which happens to pay quite well; every
time I check the going rate for entry-level developers, though, I'm reminded
of why I can't go back to that career, not without a good degree and hardcore
mad skillz in real computation (algorithms etc), unless I want to cut my
salary by 70%+. At the bottom end, there is a basically-unlimited supply of
html/css/js monkeys and .Net drones, and you're competing with them and with
cheap offshore companies in Bangalore; unless you can stand out and/or develop
quickly, you will be underpaid forever, at least in UK.

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Acidpunk
Honestly like I said in another reply, I don't mind the well paid part at all.

In all honesty, Money is the last thing on my mind when it comes to becoming a
developer, I literally have no interest in attaining wealth. As long as I have
my basics and a roof over my head with internet I'm actually quite happy.

So I'm pretty much willing to start from the bottom and work my way up to
whatever I can get, I have little interest in being paid well in the next five
years so to speak.

What I do have more interest in is gaining good experience and practical
skills that I can use and a good working environemnt.

I think as for the bottom end, honestly I just was looking at Javascript as a
way into the industry. It's far from my preference of something to learn,
Honestly I'd much rather spend time learning Python or Java but I need a way
in.

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robdoherty2
I don't know how much emphasis there is on college degrees in the UK, but in
the US you can definitely get good work in this industry without formal
education.

You have to be willing to put in serious effort to get up to speed. For
example, you'll need to spend your free time doing MOOCs and side projects
until you have a sufficient amount of knowledge + experience to be attractive
to potential employers. Go to meetups, keep up to date by reading.

Also, at first you'll likely need to take jobs with companies that aren't
necessarily "sexy," but you can hone your skills and continue with those side
projects.

Before long, you'll notice that you can get interviews at better and better
companies (better=according to your preferences).

~~~
Acidpunk
Yeah putting the serious effort in isn't a problem, my love of all things
computing attests to that. Spent the weekend installing arch and tweaking the
hell out of it for no reason other than I found it the most fun I'd had in
months.

I've looked into Codecademy for HTMl5+CSS+Javascript + Jquery and
<http://eloquentjavascript.net/index.html>

I'm just afraid that I'll be looked down on with nothing but knowledge and
lack of degrees I've always been told no degree = no job by parents / family /
friends etc.

As for the companies that aren't sexy, honestly I couldn't care less what kind
of company I worked for or for what salary at this point all I want is the
practical experience to have something on my CV to say hey look I did this !

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rman666
Hell, yes, you can become a developer at age 26. I'm 50 and I'm doing it, with
no problem. I have no college degree (and attended very few classes). Yet I've
attained CISSP and CISM certifications in information security. I'm currently
learning Ruby on Rails. In the recent past I learned HTML and CSS. At age 26
there is no reason you can not learn new technologies, programming, etc. And,
yes, you should be able to find work even if you are _only_ self taught. In
fact, I'd say it shows considerable motivation and self-discipline. Caveat:
I'm in the US and things may be different here than in the UK.

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bjoe_lewis
Quick answer would be definitely, yes. Infact, formally educated programmers
took it up simply because they studied it. That said, modern startups and
organisations are starting to pay attention to works done by one, than
academic excellence, while hiring. Go ahead, stack your github with projects
that prove your worth, get your hands on some open source projects to earn a
bit of popularity and chances are companies will find you by your work.

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kclay
"Question is, Can I realistically expect to find work with nothing but being
self taught & making a GitHub account to show my work ?"

This is me without having a GitHub account, but I've been doing this for
7+years (27 now), started when I was in college and has been my own form of
income. So if you have the time and will power and discipline you can make it.

