Ask HN: Starting out as a programmer in the UK
Long time lurker here - HN is a fantastic community. Thank you all!
Background: I have a bachelor's degree in Physics from a prestigious university in the UK. My work history (internships and current position) has primarily been geared towards finding employment in the more traditional careers - finance and so forth. It seems to me that the UK is a difficult place to come of age in nowadays - housing costs in particular are astronomical - at times I have felt that my hand is forced if I wish to ever provide myself and my family with a decent standard of living.
I would like to change direction and pursue a programming career. As many here can hopefully relate with I've spent my youth tinkering with computers and producing the odd tool here and there to deal with personal needs. I am increasingly starting to realise that in order to succeed one must find a job that they are truly passionate about - and also to be surrounded by colleagues who are similarly minded.
My question to you all is how I could go about achieving such a transition. US centric advice can only go so far, unfortunately.
My focus at present is on finding employment that will allow me enough flexibility / free time to contribute to open source projects in my downtime.
The question then - how does a beginner pursue a career in programming? Are there companies still willing to train new starters, or is the best approach to produce a solid portfolio of OSS projects/contributions?
Many thanks for any advice.