Can I become a developer from scratch at the age of 26? | Hacker News Reader

Can I become a developer from scratch at the age of 26?

2 pointsAcidpunk7 comments

First off I am based in London England ( UK )

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.

I tried my hand at a few professional courses afterwards starting with A+ and MCSE & Cisco's CCNA and again I was getting involved but the teaching always seemed to be the stumbling block and I'd lose interest.

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 & Fruther Programming Modules kept me entertained and I got really nice grades 93% and 97% respectively.

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.

So as you can see limited practical experience little to no formal education.

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.

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?

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 & CSS

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

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.

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.

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).

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 !

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.

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.

"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.

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