Can you Learn to Code at 55? 

Cool!

Don't give up ...i'm 61 quit my job as a high school math teacher and have been 'knocking the rust' off of my skill set, cs grad from 2000 ...worked through a ccna course, got the security + certificate did a master python programmers course and start a video course on coursera tomorrow to start building my portfolio and build out a youtube channel ...things i hope to cover: building out a homelab, network programming/scripts, and cysa+ security objectives,

@@markgreen2170i would love to know how you ended in teaching coming from CS

This is my plan. Reaching a point where I'm going to have to retire from my current occupation. However, I have to continue to build wealth.

@@David5.Pumpk1ns They tax around 70% of the money we make when you add up all the fees, taxes, and taxes on taxes. Pharaoh in the Bible only took 20% from his slaves. Also, lose your paid off home if you don't pay the property taxes that have doubled in just a handful of years. What does that make us? 🤔

Hell yeah

Facts! One of my colleague she came from bootcamp she’s 50 and was hired as a dev but it seems like she’s doing helpdesk which she didn’t like.

@@woody-xm5ve My company will hire boot camp grads for help desk but not for dev roles. Unless there's a bubble and everyone is hiring like crazy self taught and boot camp folks aren't getting dev jobs. Unless they know somebody. Most entry and mid level jobs go to offshore and H1Bs anyway.

It may sound banal, but that's the proven psychological mechanism: you become what you believe. It's a dangerous thing to strongly believe in something negative for you. For example a chain smoker who thinks to himself constantly "I'll never give up smoking, my will is too weak for that". Guess what, that person will never give up smoking. The opposite happens if you strongly believe you are capable of doing something and you keep reassuring yourself about it. I almost got my CS degree in 2006. Almost. Let's say life took a bad turn. I worked in lotsa shitty jobs for 10+ years. At around 34 I thought to myself: "I need to do something that pays well and will continue to pay me well even after my physical health is not that good anymore". I went to a java coding bootcamp, 7 months on weekends, lotsa cash. 3 months after it finished, I almost gave up on searching entry level job in IT. But I got selected to one. There were 100+ candidates, one position to fill and I got selected. I consider myself very lucky, but I had to show some capabilities and the main thing that got me there IMO was I strongly believed I can be successful in this field. I became software tester/test automation engineer. Not my dream job but at least I got into the industry. After about 2 years proving myself as decent problem-solver in test automation related stuff, I changed jobs to become intern java software developer. Fast forward 3 years to now, after some ups and downs during that time, I'm a mid backend java dev. Mainly doing spring-boot stuff. Decent understanding of various databases. Nothing too crazy. Got some experience with html/css/js. Not too much, but enough to craft some simple frontend or make simple changes to existing one if needed. There were times I started really doubting myself, like 'do I really belong here, am I good enough' and such. But I somehow managed to overcome it. So I'd say in your situation, just keep building your confidence that you can do the software dev job decently with every problem you solve, with every new thing you learn. And treat every setback as learning experience. Harsh experience (everyone has them), but one that makes you better, stronger. And try not to feed your sub-consciousness with negative stuff like " I feel like I'll be 50+ by the time I finally get a job in the industry". All the best in yar journey!

Even 3/4 years ago you’d have been golden but nowadays..ive been coding for 5 years and ive been feeling i should replace my keyboard with a hammer and nails.

😂😂​@@vanamutt43

No. AI will blow away 90% programmers jobs in 5 years. 🎉❤

@@DihelsonMendonca By that figure, AI should have already replaced 30% of jobs by now..

that's great! good for you!

That's great. What resources did you use to learn. Did you start with Python?

Awesome. Love reading comments like yours. Gives me motivation. Thank you. I have family in LE. It's a tough job. Thank you for serving.

Why are you learning all those languages?

@@neomangeo7822 because it's fun for me being able to build something in 4 versions, each one with different language, and connecting it with the UI and database. It's just fun for me, don't know how to explain it. And when I knew JS quite well, I started to compare it with the other languages, so it was just curiosity. So easy to understand the other languages when one knows the basic building blocks of a programming language...

It's great that people give up. They give us, who carry on, more options.

@@longrolstral If you like that, I'll give you another quote, "Success is simply going from one failure to another without losing enthusiasm" - Winston Churchill.

@@lordsalisbury1 Very wise and true. It will survive the test of time, for sure. The people who give up, never _really_ wanted to do what it was in the first place.

There are lots of guitarists that know music inside out and are excellent but they never write their own music even the ones that do dont let you listen to it because they think it is not good enough.

@@pope1089 Absolutely

why?

​@@SamuelGriffin A lot of companies just won't hire older workers. And in tech it's even worse. I've worked in places that thought older workers couldn't learn new tricks and other places that prefer younger folks they can force people into doing unpaid work.

@@SamuelGriffin Hard to be hired at 55, even if you have a lot of experience , tech is a young men's game

​@@SamuelGriffinLots of ageism in the industry.

​@@JD-vj4goits funny what you said.. because im 56 and i ve been working in this field for many tears...

Bro it's impossible to get a junior job after 40s, I like stef but sometimes he's selling dreams to sell his courses. The real world is brutal.

​@@-Engineering01-It's not impossible, but certainly very hard. I was hired at 38 as a Junior with 1.5 years of experience. It was a startup, and although I tried hard and solved many hard problems, my co-workers were condescending towards me, and there was a also a generational gap. Almost 2 years later, I was let go. The good thing is I'm so resilient and pushed through, I've been employed 3 years in a row now, I'm 44. It's hard and I still have so much to learn even with 8 years of experience already. Had I been married or with kids, I'm possitive I couldn't be studying long hours and I would be working a dead-end job now.

@@-Engineering01- I think it can be done by leveraging your domain knowledge as the advantage and building software around that, then sell yourself as "I have 30+ years in knowledge in this field" and now I also build software solutions around it

Well said. Finding work in tech after 50 is hard if you have experience.

Well said….

probably the advise none of us elders want to hear , think this is the reality of someone in their 50s

@@IfItAintBrokeStillFixIt believe me, it is the reality of even people in the end of their 30s and beginning of 40s and Not all places can afford to give you management position or staff engineer, I feel I am like football player who needs to retire but I don't know where to go next because not all clubs can afford to offer all of their retired players unlimited positions as coaches, they might need one or two, so the reality that you might retire and go no where, this is exactly what I am facing, they now prefer people in their mid 20s or late 20s and I look older compared to them but in the same time they will not offer me management position or staff engineer as they don't need to so It is time to get out but to where!!!! The RU-vidrs did a huge damage to make people think that coding is a job for life and blablabla, it is in one case if you are your OWN BOSS or you are an entrepreneur or have a software company that you are running it like uncle Stef for example but to be an employee in Tech, Ageism is soooo realllllllllll, it is like football career very few lucky players that can make it and the rest you will never hear about them, so take care regardless to you age, I wish if someone told me that!!!

​@@IfItAintBrokeStillFixIt learn to code if you want but believe me, it is the reality of even people in the end of their 30s and beginning of 40s and Not all places can afford to give you management position or staff engineer, I feel I am like football player who needs to retire but I don't know where to go next because not all clubs can afford to offer all of their retired players unlimited positions as coaches, they might need one or two, so the reality that you might retire and go no where, this is exactly what I am facing, they now prefer people in their mid 20s or late 20s and I look older compared to them but in the same time they will not offer me management position or staff engineer as they don't need to so It is time to get out but to where!!!! The RU-vidrs did a huge damage to make people think that coding is a job for life and blablabla, it is in one case if you are your OWN BOSS or you are an entrepreneur or have a software company that you are running it like uncle Stef for example but to be an employee in Tech, Ageism is soooo realllllllllll, it is like football career very few lucky players that can make it and the rest you will never hear about them, so take care regardless to you age, I wish if someone told me that!!!

Don't give up. Look up my videos on learning to code for tips.

@@StefanMischook I will. Thanks for putting your advice out there.

No. I wrote it to be evergreen. There is nothing in there that is outdated …. But if I would do an update, I would add a few things. I don’t make money off it so my recommendations are not motivated by cash.

@StefanMischook ... Sir, I'm not concerned whether you're making cash. In fact, I want you to get a commission.😊 I just want to make sure I'm getting the most recent information, that's all.

I agree but you have to start somewhere just to find out what interests you, any advice on learning Cobol. I have no interest in javascript and making websites.

​@@pope1089the bad thing with Cobol is that it's almost impossible to get a job without a degree because banks don't take risks. Learn Java, all the Java ecosystem, and even SOAP, and focus totally on it.

Javascript is hard. It takes time. take courses from Brad Traversy - Modern Javascript from the beginning 2.0. you can find on its site or on udemy. you should probably start with some other courses from him on html, css and JS based on creating projects. Don't give up, we've been there before... :)

Mentorship for React? My mentoring is about advanced development, career building, freelancing. I also provide a strong curriculum for beginners. What are you looking for?

@@StefanMischook am looking for guidance, some one who can help show me the right way of doing stuffs and help me out when am stuck in my projects advice me on how to tackle certain problems in web development and a react developer but I have been self learning for about 3 to 4 years but I feel and lack that professional experience

I think it will remain a niche language. But always consider the number of developers floating around out there vs jobs.

Depends on where you are working - generally yes. Consider the process of learning the skills and getting a job a process; you will adjust as you go.

@@StefanMischook thank you uncle Stef!

Check out unclestef.com

Good for your mind.

Easily!

what languages do you use?