Learn to code competently – I would highly appreciate your advice

[ArthurParticipant 2]

I am in my mid forties and most of my working experience has been in the financial services industry. I am very motivated by a career change into tech/coding that will enable me autonomy, the ability to work from home and importantly the chance not to work in a corporate environment along with an army of crazed women.

I am thinking of quitting my job ( I can afford it since I have never been married, have no kids, no mortgage, no debts etc) and dedicating my self to intense self study for a full calendar year period of computer science and coding matters via books, online courses/MOOCs, online study groups etc.

Kindly note that I will start from zero since the closest I came to programming was back at the university….almost 25 years ago when i took some Fortran 77 classes. I have also some satisfactory grasp of mathematics (Algebra, Calculus etc) as well as statistics.

Can I learn to code competently if I study for 10 hours a day for a whole calendar year? Competently I mean to be able to render coding services for money….

What effective and efficient routes/methods (courses and learning approaches) would you suggest?

Please note also that I have done some research and some rough calculations about the relevant opportunity costs and ROI’s involved (In strictly financial terms) but since my familiarity with the tech industry is minimal I would appreciate your insights on these issues as well..
As I mentioned above though my considerations are not only monetary. Escaping the corporate feminist plantation is of high importance……

Thank you very much for having the patience to read my posting.
I would very highly appreciate your advice. Please be brutally honest.

Kind regards and Happy New Year to all MGTOWs

[Blue SkiesParticipant 15665]

Arthur wrote:

Can I learn to code competently if I study for 10 hours a day for a whole calendar year? Competently I mean to be able to render coding services for money….

yes you can do it. search tutorials online

learn c++ or python language

MGTOW is not a movement, it is a way of life.

[DungeonMasterParticipant 27]

Great field for return on investment! I will give you my experience so you can take from it what you will. I am a Software Architect/Principal Software Engineer.

I have an associates in Computer Information Systems. Not much right. It got my foot in the door which is the hardest part. The languages I use are C#, JavaScript, HTML, and T-SQL. Learn C# well and javascript/html on the job. T-SQL learn a little up front then the rest on the job. At least this is how I did it. Then I use angularJS, Kendo, and JQuery. There are a lot of terms here so just start with creating a website using C#. I strongly recommend taking at least 1 programming course. This will give you a foundation of understanding. My favorite interview question is to ask why in the NES version of Zelda you could only have 255 rupies….next to no one has been able to answer it because they lack a simple foundation. The answer is because they use a byte datatype. 2^8 = 256. So 255 rupies when you account for zero. This isn’t even when I get into acronyms like SOLID. Sorry, I digress.

I have spent many nights pursuing my own projects. But, nothing compares to having to achieve a business analysts set of requirements. Sometimes it seems shoving a pineapple in the enema area would be easier but, you learn a ton out of it. In a basic set up your business analysts or product manager will tell you what they want from the application, these are the requirements. Never underestimate the crazy crap they can concoct! What I’m trying to say here is that finding a small gig when you have some knowledge will propel your knowledge much faster. In my early days I used craigslist to find quick work that just needed updates to their application. This is very easy work and easy money and added to my resume which is important.

Now for the return on investment. I live in Arizona and am nearing 8 years experience. The year 2015 I cleared $134k revenue. Which would most likely be around $122k if it was a W-2. (I do corp to corp) I will say that I am quite high in my field though. If you don’t stay on top of technologies you will be worth substantially less. At year 5 is when I first cleared 6 figures. Earning $80k/year would be easy.

After 2 years of experience I would start looking up the Microsoft Architecture guide. It is a super food of knowledge.

Conclusion
1. Create a website with C#
2. Take at least 1 programming course
3. Find a small gig
4. Make money

Sorry, forgot to actually answer the question. Yes. 1 year, 10 hours a day should do it. 🙂

[ArthurParticipant 2]

Thank you very much for your kind replies $aver and DungeonMaster .

[Jan SobieskiParticipant 28791]

But what is the future for this field and skill set?

Isn’t everyone going into it?

Are all the jobs going to India?

I think these are important questions too.

Love is just alimony waiting to happen. Visit mgtow.com.

[DungeonMasterParticipant 27]

The future of companies that need people to code is going to grow.

The dangers to this job is more and more large companies merging because then they use the software from only one of the companies. So they layoff the engineers they don’t need. This isn’t happening enough to dim my value yet though but it is something I look at. It is a long term risk.

About people going into it. Most people that try, suck at it. IMO, I feel it’s because they lack a foundation and/or don’t want to keep up with technologies. At least in Arizona. 1 in 10 candidates that actually get the interview, should even be at the interview. The other 9 just know how to put together a passable resume and use a good headhunter.

India will always try to push in. What we have going for us is that as bad as what typical people are at programming, most Indians are even worse. I kid you not I had to explain how a text file held onto spaces when it reads it from a stream reader and she had a f***ing masters in Computer Science!!! That one p~~~es me off.

Back to India, many companies have been burned by India because they write such horrific code. Companies find out they not only are not saving money but the missed deadlines are losing them business when it is a much needed application.

I have met good programmers from India but they are not the typical engineer from India.

[ArthurParticipant 2]

Do you think that when am ready to render programming services for money, If I decide to relocate somewhere in Europe or South/Central America I will be able to source businesses/projects from mainly USA but also from any other places in the world or it matters to employers where I am based, and if yes for which reasons? (I assume certain issues such as communication/feedback, time zones/working hours etc, issues of trust may be due to you being located in a remote/”exotic place?).

Also when ready, what is the best ways to start getting some businesses/small projects to complete? You mentioned above Craiglist. How about the various Freelancing websites, do you recommend them or no? What is the best ways to promote your self and show your capabilities to potential employers?

Thank you again for your contribution and valuable insights.
Happy New Year

[DungeonMasterParticipant 27]

Relocation is tricky. Before you have at least 2 years experience it can be difficult to find work. Foot in the door is that hardest thing. Not being in the office makes this even more difficult. I would recommend starting out taking what you can get. You need to pay your dues in the beginning until you have a proven track record of being a competent programmer.

I like finding local stuff via craigslist because they are not doing that to find an Indian who claims to know what they are doing for $3 / hr. IMO, free lancing sites aren’t very good for 1st world citizens. Here is where you compete against people who are willing to work for much much less. Take with a grain of salt though. I haven’t attempted a freelance site in many years. You should at least check it out and Google for reviews before taking my opinion.

Showing capabilities to employers. Networking is everything! Meet people in the industry. Just working places and contracting will put you in contact with people. Much less so if you try to directly go to remote work.

With all this being said, if you can just find a handful of clients they often need repeat business. Working 10 hrs a week for 4 different companies should keep you paid. Working for yourself you will not just be the techie but sales, accounting, and customer service as well.

Almost forgot. Use recruiters. They will do everything they can to get you in because they get paid for putting butts in seats. Recruiters are useful before you have a clientele yourself.

Recommended Conclusion;
1. Pay your dues and get at least 2 years experience before attempting remote work.
2. Make friends with everyone like a true salesman. You need people on the inside to get business as an independent contractor.
3. Use recruiters to your advantage.

[ArthurParticipant 2]

Thank you very much DungeonMaster for your incisive and comprehensive explanations.
I very highly appreciate it.

[SephirothParticipant 13]

First of all, start from something small like learning if, else, while statements by compiling console applications in c++(Download Bloodshed Dev c++) And copy paste hello world program, then run. After that change words into something other. Learn new things and experiment, try to create virtual terminal shop. For ex.

>Enter help for list of commands!
>Help
>’Buy diamond’ costs 10
‘Earn’ You get 100
‘You have 0 diamonds; 1000 $
>Buy diamond
‘You have 1 diamond; 900 $

Then create some text based RPG with classes OOP, because those things are really fun to play with.
If you already know classes, conditional logic, while, for cycles, some basic algorithms, functions of course and main operations then you can go to play with graphics. Download plugin called allegro inside Dev c++ package manager and try making simple ping-pong game. Or maybe own OS with buttons and stuff. It’s up to your creativity.

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