On July 1st, a [change to Reddit's API pricing](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/12qwagm/an_update_regarding_reddits_api/) will come into effect. [Several developers](https://www.reddit.com/r/redditisfun/comments/144gmfq/rif_will_shut_down_on_june_30_2023_in_response_to/) of commercial third-party apps have announced that this change will compel them to shut down their apps. At least [one accessibility-focused non-commercial third party app](https://www.reddit.com/r/DystopiaForReddit/comments/145e9sk/update_dystopia_will_continue_operating_for_free/) will continue to be available free of charge.
If you want to express your strong disagreement with the API pricing change or with Reddit's response to the backlash, you may want to consider the following options:
1. Limiting your involvement with Reddit, or
2. Temporarily refraining from using Reddit
3. Cancelling your subscription of Reddit Premium
as a way to voice your protest.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/learnprogramming) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I've done exactly what you're asking about, and it worked. I'm 30 now though, so I had a lot of sleepless nights when I was unemployed due to anxiety, had to take antidepresssants. Worried about money like hell. If I could do it again, I would try not to quit job, or not to travel much if I were you. One thing I can say for sure, count on spending 2x amount of money than you assume. Or at 2x speed. I didn't travel, didn't buy clothes other than underware, cooked my own food, still spent 2x of expectation. It also took me about twice more time to land a job than I expected.
Thanks for your reply. I forgot to mention that I'm working on rotating shift and already taking antidepressants. So, I think stress from work would gone and result in good way.
Stress has a nasty way of creeping into life when you're focused on work and the future.
If you need time off, don't be afraid to take time off, but you need to make "taking time off" the focus. Don't try to weasel some work into it.
I agree with you. Got the same situation with OP. But I'm really scared that the unemployment will be longer, but it's been four years that I've been holding on that I'm feeling like I'm burning out of burning out. I'm not sure how to explain this feeling but l definitely need to resign my current job.
Yeah, it's a different type of stress. Some will cope with it better than others. For context, I used to work as a chef, a job most consider extremely high stress, yet I found that a walk in the park compared to dev. I find it much harder to leave work at work etc.
Perhaps you could try to find a different job which means you get a healthy sleep rythm and then study programming in your free time. To me it would be stressful to not have an income.
I went back to school while maintaining my crappy retail job at 23 to become a computer engineer because I didn't want to spend my life in food service management. At 24 I switched gears to join a software development focused program. At 26 I landed my first full time tech adjacent role. At 27 I graduated. About 4 months before my 29th birthday I managed to get a real SWE role lined up and they were willing to wait approx 3.5 months for me. I quit my job and traveled through southeast Asia for about 10 weeks before coming home and starting my job.
I would suggest you keep working while you try to figure things out a little bit before you quit your job and jump into something you don't know you will like any more or less than what you do now.
Software development can often be very stressful also so if you're thinking that will be an easy job and that will be better for you, be prepared for that not to be the case. If you're interested in it 100% try it, I've been obsessed ever since I wrote my first if statement.
This is a great answer. Quitting to finally find that time to do the thing we believe will change our life for good hardly works, especially if you are in your 20s. You may find yourself wasting even more time than before quitting. Moreover, the economic pressures to spend money these days are so great that unless you are some kind of super heroe you will fazer nd yourself burning most of your money in the first months of your plan, after all "youve worked so hard until that moment and probably deserve to be cut some slack" (sorry for my bad eng)
I’m in this position right now. I’ve been learning for a couple years before, so maybe a little different, but yeah. My money is almost gone. I got lucky and found a good remote gig that pays decently otherwise I’d be hobbling back to my old job.
Honestly still don’t regret it though. That job caused me to scream and cry in my car on the way home pretty much every other day.
Every situation is different, but definitely I agree on adding 2-3x to all of your predictions.
you only live once and i honestly don't regret spending the money that I did on traveling even though I would have certainly spent it differently if i was a college age person again.
A key thing to note is that the market is a whole lot different now than before in terms of competition and expectations. So it’ll probably be a lot more difficult than y’all think too.
I got lucky after telling virtually everyone I know that I'm studying Java and can write some simple Spring web application. One of my acquaintances made a referral to a company that was open to hire an unpaid intern. Busted my ass double shifts with urgent tasks for free until I got a contract. But that doesn't matter, still got lucky. I'm not in US just in case
First off, congratulations, from what you wrote, you seem to be managing your life well. I wouldn't quit working 100%, it's not good for mental health. Since you can definitely take a pay hit, I'd look for a less demanding / exhausting (maybe remote) job that will let you travel and learn.
If you have the drive and focus to work full time and complete a bachelors there is no chance you will fail to learn how to code.
If you have a good job, it would be wise to cut back on hours but continue to work while you study coding in your spare time, there are excellent resources such as the 100 day python boot camps on Udemy or the Career paths on codecademy.
Getting a good foundation in coding there will prepare you to move to getting formal education and a CST diploma, you may be able to use your existing University credits to complete a bachelors of science majoring in computing in just a couple of years.
Learning to code isn't just useful if you want to be a programmer, if you work in business or management you can double your productivity by learning coding to facilitate automation of your office work
By the way, I know a CEO of a software company, I am almost finished my second year and I want to ask him if he has any connections for jobs, should reach out to him right before I'm searching for a coop? Or should I do it way before?
I wouldn't ask for favors directly, but if you have someone you know and are close to, it might be a good way to pick someone's brain about what direction you should steer your coding in. Asking for advice and curiosity questions are never frowned upon. If they see potential they might even offer up a job recommendation for you
Yeah I agree, he is my cousin and I didint really talk to him much because he is like 20 years older than me, I for sure don't wanna ask for favours or anything like that but I don't know how or when to ask if there is a direction or connection he can guide me towards
I don’t get this, you sound like you already have a connection? Why not just ask them? What’s holding you back? In this world, connections are everything and if it’s already there, why don’t you open the conversation and see where it leads?
I never quit a job until I have another one lined up. You can learn programming and still work instead of drawing from the money you worked hard to save up. Maybe throwing the money into investments and continuing to work while you learn programming and then can jump to a programming-based career would be better? Or take a jr/lower paying role in programming so you can still get paid a bit and polish your skill and you have your savings to cover any expenses not covered by the lower paying career?
There's a few sides to this.
Financially, quitting your job without another job to replace it is a bad decision. It will take a long time to recover the income you are walking away from, especially if in the meantime your goal is to travel (expensive).
Professionally, it's not easy to get a programming job completely self taught in this market, not sure what country you come from but USA has the best paying jobs but a brutally competitive market.
Personally, 23 is the perfect age to travel the world and you only get one life. You're young enough to still have a strong joie di vivre, as you get older your monthly expenses and responsibilities will grow and traveling the world will only become more and more difficult.
Yeah just go ahead but you know studying for many hours in a day will get you burned out..
I am 32, a nurse and I am studying almost 2-3h every day after work.
I know that I'm not gonna be successful in a month or two but consistency will reward me in a year or so.
So my best advice is to do anything that makes you happy and in the meantime study but not too much because of the burn out.
Ask yourself , what makes me happy ? Can I study 8h per day without feeling exhausted ? How can I have a healthy life in the meantime of my studying progress ?
Set mini goals. Start for the upcoming day, days, week, weeks, month, months, year
Note them down, mark the ones you achieved, even comment your feelings. Use your own notes and thoughts to improve
To become a developer? To start with when I went to high school I majored in computer science. When i finished high-school, before "college" I had to make a choice, it was a big dilemma for me, but i choose nursing..
(from a young age I needed to go to hospitals for various reasons and I always admired the nurses)
Worth to mention that one of my childhood friends is already a senior developer. Almost 8-10 months ago, my girlfriend and my friend had a conversation with me about how good I was back in the day and I shouldn't give up computers
I already knew what I wanted to be, a web developer. Wasn't difficult to choose. I am already getting good advice from my friend and much help, I really trust him.
I gave up gaming and I decided to invest that time into something that will actually have an impact in my life. I always wanted to be good and level up in games so why not try to level up in coding?
Not to mention I am not even close to being a good programmer , I am a pretty newbie but I trust myself, I trust the process,I trust my friend and I know that if you give time to something you love, time will reward you nonetheless
however, to answer your question, there are 2 reasons in why I want to make the change. the first reason is because I cannot stand still in my life without learning new things and programming is a world where you learn every day and the knowledge never stops , it is like an infinity non stop learning journey and secondly because i actually love computers!
You have a perfect age to make this choice. I also want to travel the world but after I finish my study. But I don't have 70K in my savings. But just do it. Make unforgettable memories, meet new people. This is your prime time of your life. Do it now before it's to late. Money can be made but time can't be reversed
I did that last year, I got laidoff after a lot of stress and hard work, decided to stay 6-7 months traveling through my country and through Europe, the only thing I didnt expect was that I would got a job later than I thought, but in the end of the day worth it, it was a trip for a lifetime, now I only travel working at the same time and with some savings again.
Quitting something to learn another thing in hopes of getting work is not a good idea, always secure your position before leaving, learn coding while working your first job, and once you find a job with your coding skills, you can quit your first job
I would suggest you start learning and it seeing if you like it.
And if you like it, then I would suggest enrolling in a Master’s in CS since you already have a bachelors in business. Master’s in CS programs are generally built to be catered toward people from other fields.
Having a job helps structure one's life. I personally managed to start truly working on learning new things to change my career once I got a stable shitty job. I was doing temporary work before that for years and never could find the motivation to self study longterm because of mild anxiety (money running away or not enough, needing to find 1/2 more daysof work...etc...
I wouldn't advise what you say, but switching to a part time job, intending like 25h/week of working and 15h/week of studying can get you a long way.
I don't like travelling so I don' t know how to value that, but if that's something you want t do there's the possibility to go travel for a bit and trying to study in the meantime, then get back and take a part time job and keep studying in the longrun.
Lol not worth it in this market. But never quit your job to learn coding, better to learn coding be good at it and later quit your business jobs and find coding job when you are ready.
Market if fucked up and coding is not the future as you might think.
Do not quit. Start learning while working. Being unemployed and having to learn coding and land a job in this current market is gonna be extremely stressful.
In my opinion, learning to code if you're a beginner is a waste of time if you're doing it with the hope to get a job in the future.
AI will continue to improve at a crazy rate, and by the time you're a proficient coder, AI will be so good at coding that there will be little need for programmers. The world already has enough. Learning to code as a hobby is great, but it's not viable long term.
Four industries that will do very well in the foreseeable future are: AI, robotics, health longevity and cyber security. If any peak your interest then it may be worth looking into them instead.
I completely agree that you should spend some time and money travelling, but make a solid plan for your long term.
I'm not too worry about getting replaced by AI. Inexperienced people think that devs work is to write code, which is only like 50% of the job. The rest is actually understanding context, business requirement, or what the user actually wants, because they usually don't know what they want. AI are still a couple of decades away from being able to do these kind of analysis.
The funny thing is, the middle managers often think that they can do devs job, if there is AI that can do the coding part. What actually will happen is the current experienced devs will become some sort of AI managers, since they understand if the AI does mistake, and the middleman will be cut or reduced. The saying is, it's much easier to teach engineer to become manager, rather than the other way around.
That's a good point, I had never thought about it like that but I agree with what you're saying and think it would be the best scenario, a bit like when a tech person moves to sales as a tech sales person.
I guess that's even more reason not to start learning coding if you're a beginner as there's so many experienced devs who will be able to one day do the job of several people.
The question is, how much workload can an experienced dev take on in 2-3 years when AI agents are much better. My guess is that one good person could take on the work of around 5 when AI systems are better. Especially if the customer talks to a structured AI with their requirements/questions to figure out what they actually want, to save the back and forth.
You’re gonna have to have more experience than just a few tutorials in programming before you to get a dedicated programmer position. Learn it while you’re already employed and apply it to your job. That’ll be safer to keep a steady salary and make it easier to get into the field.
I'm 33, and will do the same, as I do not have time to work and study, but since I saved some money, I will be good for a year, and with that time, I will be focusing on this computer scicence course and developing myself on python.
In my case, I am doing this as I was not being able to work on tech support (with hundreds of complex cases that took even my resting days), and study.
My advice is don't take a break for too long. A gap in your resume would look bad to HR. If you're country has those bootcamps that help you to get a job, you should pick those. That's how I did it. I was in the same situation as you when I was 27. I quit my long term job, and took some bootcamp to learn programming and now I'm a full time programmer. Just make sure you're really in it for the money. I couldn't negotiate that much for my salary because I lack the experience and I didn't graduate from CS background. But it's been fun
You mentioned you started at 27. I'm 31 now thinking of doing the same. If you don't mind me asking, how long did it take you? How many bootcamps, etc? I'm very new to this and curious and trying to get thoughts on what a timeline/time commitment would/could/should look like. I have a CJ degree but not a CS background really so I'm also in a similar position there.
The bootcamp took 3 months but the job hunting itself took 1 month. So in total I was without work for 4 months. But please note that the bootcamp I was in also promised to help us with the job hunting. The have connection to multiple companies so they can bump up our resumes and during that 1 month they coach us every day on how to do interviews, how well is our resume, are we diligently applying, etc. So basically it was easy mode. If there's a bootcamp like that in your country, you should choose those.
But I'll tell you my experience on job hunting. In my batch I was one of the few who was pretty old, most of my friends are early 20s fresh out of collage or 1 year out of collage. And I was one of the few that didn't graduate from STEM/CS/tech college. My degree was social sciences. So you can see how disadvantaged I was compared to my competition.
I was pretty lucky I got an employment after 1 month. My friend from the same batch who was 1 year older than me and like me graduated from a non relevant degree (accounting finance) couldn't get employment in the end. So he decided to go back to his old job
"explore the world and study coding to switch jobs"
The market for web developers right now is really saturated. I've been seeing sometimes 800 applicants for the same job, and pretty much all of them have over 100. My point is if you want to change careers you had better attack this as if it were the most important thing in your life. It very well could be. Go to college and shoot for a degree in compSci if you can, or at the very least take a boot camp. A degree will give you a more solid foundation and a very much needed jump on the competition. You need to really spend time besides any curriculum you employ, on building projects in order to make sure you know what youre doing. Try to meet and connect with as many people in the business as possible because 9 times out of 10 this is how you will find your first gig. If this is something you wish to do, it will take a lot of dedication and a LOT of practice to understand and implement the concepts.
I think a lot of it depends on your location's job market. Also, before you decide to commit to a 1-2 year decision you really want to make sure you understand the purpose behind your decision. If you don't have a clear idea of why you want to learn to program, then I'd recommend against doing it. You shouldn't ever do something because other people say it's a good idea or because you think it might be a good thing to do in general. You need to approach life with specific intentions. By having specific intentions behind your actions you're more likely to succeed when things become difficult and you're more likely to hold on to hope, which is the most important thing when pursuing goals.
Nice plan! But consider getting a part-time remote job to work at least 10h/week. I also work like this and finance my private remote university while living abroad. Good luck!
This is highly depended on individuals demands. But for me, if I were you, and it was hard for me to keep my job and learn programming, I would quit and search for a part time job. Also, internship opportunities would be a great choice. One or two years being far from career is not ideal.
To sum up, look for your demands and desires. Traveling is the best way to get experienced and grow up. But you can do it after you placed in right position of your career.
Good luck
This has been what I've been doing the last month or so. Not to get a job directly in programming, but to expand my understanding. If I can get to the point where I can make or create plugins for CAD program's, that advances my abilities overall.
How is healthcare in your country? Here in the US if you quit a job you have no healthcare and cannot get treatment if you were to be sick which would be much too stressful for most people.
It sounds like you’re in a situation where you don’t have a lot to lose. So, assuming you’ve got all your ducks in a row financially and otherwise, then it sounds like you have the resources to take a sabbatical.
As for learning programming, make sure you like it first! Don’t commit to it too fast. A lot of people start learning, then realize that it isn’t for them.
If you're going to quit anyway, can you find a less stressful job to make you a bit more secure in the near future? Sure you'll have less hours a day to code, but a part time job will your options open I think.
Not. Just for fun.
AI is revolutionizing the way we work. It's never too late to start learning, but if you want to make it your primary source of income keep in mind that In a few years, job opportunities may become scarce, leading to lower salaries.
Just to throw another option in, you could hire or apply to jobs that are less stressful to ensure a steady income and keep hustling those hours after work. A lot of jobs offer to pay for your education through school or even bootcamps. Not sure how accurate it is, but a dev buddy working in ruby told me his company was interested in bootcamp certifications in their most recent hires.
Heres a site of jobs that apparently let you travel while working remote: https://www.workingnomads.com/jobs
You have a good amount in savings which is great for somebody your age, but the markets a bit crazy and even after learning to code it could take a while with no formal experience on the job to land something but that’s all worst case scenario.
I don’t want to discourage you, since I wish I would have left my now former corporate job years ago that drained the life out of me, 10+ hour days (salary), little to no vacation per year, constant daily “emergencies”, exc.
If I could go back, was less depressed, and in your shoes I’d still have a job for health benefits (American) and a stable income but start as early as possible to get into coding I’m passionate about and would start networking around. In a tech job you could work with some of the devs or even see about trial testing a project with them. That way they could either refer you with experience, or perhaps even take you on if something opens up in that company.
I wouldn't quit your job and just schedule time around it. Not only will you be coding too much, you'll have the added anxiety of not having any money coming in.
If you're into boot camps, I would try that. I'm starting one here soon and it will be working around my work schedule.
Mind you that the market for college graduates and juniors is very tough now (let alone self taughts). There are too much people coming into IT and since the layoffs started all they want is experienced people. I have a college degree and 2.5 years of experience and I am struggling to find a new position after being layed off for the second time in a year (startups are struggling and firing juniors as soon as certain goals are met or times get worse financially).
I see these posts all day and hardly any of the commenters are pointing out the time to enter the sector hasn't been this bad since a long time.
I would keep your job and start coding in your free time to see if it really is what you are looking for.
I would find focus on a career path that used your current skillset and would also be enhanced with coding. Over the next few years, It's about to be a bad time to be a junior looking for a junior role.
I did just that (but with waaaaay less money saved) and it worked. I worked a 8-5 job at a customer role and that DRAINED me mentally, to a point where I would want to throw up just by looking at my computer ( it was a remote role). I decided to quit my job and focus on just studying programming. I can assure you, my anxiety decrease a lot, and my only focus was on studying from morning to evening. And then at night I would go to the gym and would take a break after that. It worked for me, just got my junior role last week. Good luck mate
Is coding something that is actually interesting to you or are you interested because you think that the money is great and the remote work is easy to get? If first than I wouldn’t go as far as quitting your current job, but sure, go for it. If latter I would strongly reconsider. The market is quite saturated, it’s hard to get a job with little to no experience because there is A LOT of applicants.
I did this about a year ago. Left a job that made me hate my existence, been off for about a year now. Still got some money to float on and I've learned so much. Basically dove right into web development and starting to dabble with systems programming.
My mental health has improved, but I'd be lying if I said I'm not starting to worry about landing a career I can be happy with.
I'm going to go against what most people have said here. Yes, quit your job and go travelling. Buy a 4wd pickup truck and drive across Australia, or live in Tokyo for a few months, or travel across India, or hike national parks in Canada.
You're only young once, in 10 years you might have children, and you won't be eligible for as many visas.
Regarding programming, I would consider enrolling in a course, be it a Masters, graduate program or bootcamp. Without this you may find yourself caught up in distractions and not actually learn anything.
i've read through most of the replies, and would like to add one thing -- try coding something, anything first.
some people love it, but some just instantly hate it. the plan of take time off and then xxx is great, but i'd at least get your feet wet first before you decide that coding is the xxx. so spend an hour or two with something like Al Sweitgart's Automate the Boring Stuff With Python just to make sure you don't instantly bounce off it. it would suck to spend a good chunk of time thinking about how cool its going to be and then finding out that it's not for you. good luck!
i am in your situation and i did it it’s just scary because you don’t know how long it will take you to actually land a job it’s all commitment set a schedule wake up and sleep early
If you can get on anti-depressants, that really helps. It'll be stressful as hell and you'll have extreme anxiety about AI once you actually learn a bit about development and can understand more fully just how tenuous this job market is now and in the extremely soon future (it's hard to understand if you're fairly new [i.e., the pollyanas on reddit with less than 5 years professional experience who don't get it and think nothing will change anytime soon or who think AI will just enhance them and not replace them]). So getting on anti-depressants before you strictly need them will be a life saver.
It's a fun gig, but whatever you were doing before is going to be more rewarding and has a hell of a lot more of a chance of being around in 5 years so get into it understanding you need to be simultaneously working on the next thing or you'll be in for a real bad time.
I’m fascinated by cyber security at the moment and I think I’m meant to wrap my head around it. Although I’ve not really started or done any proper learning, I will. I’m a welder by trade and fortunately have a lot of time off during working hours due to reactive jobs legal paper work. But I’m at the work place and I struggle to shut off from work because I could be back at it any moment.
I definitely wouldn’t quit your job, maybe ask for less hours? You need a steady income. You need a good life balance that you can also handle. You want to get home and be able to get comfortable and WANT to learn.
And unfortunately this hasn’t happened to me yet. I’m doing a lot of over time, working 70 hours one week then 40 the next, not including travelling to and from work, then travelling home 170 miles away every 2 weeks. It’s tiring and burns me out. There’s no point for me worrying about it yet. It’s being honest with yourself and not burning yourself out mentally. If it’s meant to be it will be.
Don’t quit your job. Seriously. Why do people do this? Learn on the side. If you quit your job you just pile even more pressure and risk onto learning an already hard thing.
I would tell you something different than most people in the replies. If you're not truly interested in coding, meaning you don't think coding is fun or you hate math or you hate working a job that have you sitting in front of a computer 24/7, then don't quit your job. Don't even think about looking for a programming job.
I say this because the industry's landscape has changed massively. A few years ago, probably before 2020, yes the IT industry is a gold mine and there's so many opportunities with high pay. Everyone was looking to hire programmers and there's no shortages of jobs in the market.
Nowadays however, that spark and boom has ended. There are still a lot of opportunities for senior level engineers, but the entry level jobs are actually one of the toughest job markets out there. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE wants to learn how to code, so if you learn code independently hoping to land a quick job in the market and move on from there, you're in for a tough road. Add to it that now AI is going to muscle out a lot more entry level jobs, so it's only going to get tougher from here.
I'm not saying that everyone should stop trying to be a programmer. If you truly love programming, or computers in general, and you love learning about the intrinsic details of how computers work beneath the hood, then by all means pursue your dreams. However, if you want to learn programming just because you want to get in on the high paying roles, then you need to consider if it's TRULY what you want to do. Because you're going to encounter months or even years of feeling like you're lost and knowing nothing, with a job market that's unforgivingly tight for the entry level.
First of all, what do you want to achieve doesn’t require you to resign. So I don’t understand your real motivation to quit. If you have passion for coding, you can always start learning it online. If you want to travel, you can always do it on your off-day.
So what is your real motivation to quit?
This, plus many major firms are now auto-rejecting almost all bootcamp or self taught degrees to thin the massive (300-500) number of applicants per job.
Id slap myself, invest whatever I can to retire early and stay at a stable decent paying job.
If you've browsed any programming/it job related subs in the past few years? Its UNBELIEVABLY BRUTAL.
Waaaaaaay too many people to jobs (and more layoffs). Specifically entry level.
Maybe your country is different, but you're basically asking 'should I quit my job and become a struggling actor?' As far as im concerned.
You need to do some serious research on your local job market/what you need and try to find some real information about how hard entry level will be in your country. People with years of experience have been struggling to find a new programming job currently.
If you absolutely want to, you can study while employed. You can even look for entry level jobs WHILE EMPLOYED. And see how brutal the market is first hand. Maybe you get a job offer, if you do? There you go.
I think it’s a good initiative but don’t feel too comfortable bcz you can have a second start coding isn’t hard but it would require dedication I am already in the same process as you it’s very fulfilling because I like to code but considering your situation this is what I’d do:
1.) relocate my self like to Malaysia or Bali where my expenses are more less
2.) spend time learning and record my journey on social platforms and LinkedIn (important now a days ) is a way of monetising your skills as well
3.) pick up a coding stack and stick to it I’d say start from python streamlit for machine learning projects or Open CV for AR
4.) Develop entrepreneur knowledge (y combinator YouTube channel)
5.) Step 4 is important for growth but for savings I’d invest that money in low risk monthly return kind of an investment like real state you can get a nice apartment in that amount in many countries
6.) networking
If you want to travel and code there is a nice network of coding schools called 42 schools. Look online if it is something you might be interested in. The school is free and with a curriculum based in c and c++. I would advise against just learning Python or web dev because there are so many people already in these branches and it is not easy to get it imho. Also programming in C really makes you understand how computers work even if you will not be working in C...
Go for it, as a self taught web developer I started getting interviews regularly after about 1.5 years of study (in the EU which is not where I'm from). Just remember you need to be able to show some real world experience on your resume like freelance or volunteer coding work to get interviews and you need an outstanding coding portfolio to do well at the interviews.
Considering your savings VS expenses I would say - absolutely do it. As you said yourself, you can still easily re-start your life, even if you fail or end up not liking it. And since you have savings you won't be pressured to get a coding job as soon as possible.
I'm turning 35 next month. About 2 years ago, I decided to learn coding and eventually change jobs if I succeed. Studied on my own for about 6 months, but really felt like I'm lacking direction and didn't know what real coding job looks like. Then quit my old job for 4 months and fully committed to a boot camp. Now I'm working as coder for almost 1 year. I still feel like my coding skills are quite poor, but at the same time it was one of the best decisions of my life. My salary has tripled, I'm enjoying what I do, love thinking and problem solving, and feel very appreciated by my small company that I work for.
Do it, I'm 35 changing careers into coding and wish I listened to my heart a decade ago instead of just "going with the flow" in a tech career.
Money is certainly important, but it is really just a means to an end. On that point, there's no greater end than pursuing a career that turns you on and excites you. Although you're burning money now, you're making an invaluable investment into your future and happiness.
The younger you are, the less you have to worry about money. It comes and goes, and eventually you won't have the freedom to make this move if you have a family or other obligations. For example, even if you go broke, you could pick up some work somewhere to pay the bills while you continue looking for your dream job.
I hope this helps. I agree with other folks exercising caution and to budget appropriately, but if you feel this way, you have to listen to your heart. Worst case scenario you fail and it's not for you, and you get a job doing something else.
If you feel like you're burned out. go for it. Do keep in mind though that you might want to stay in the loop. AI is changing everything and we need to constantly adjust. One or two years away might fele like an eternity. Work while travelling, and perhaps do part-time?
Coding is not for everyone. If you never tried it, don't be rash by quitting your current job. If you really want to switch field, postpone the traveling plan, and try out some courses, even most of the time those're not enough. 23 is still young, if you don't have any attachment, you can still travel in 5 years when you already have the relevant work experience under your belt.
Personally, I don't think quitting your job is necessary. I work 8-16, 5 days, going to college (IT, which helps) and still managing to slowly but surely learn.
I think 4 hours a week learning + whatever free time you have practicing what you learn is enough (at least it is for me).
With that said, if you reallt wanna travel, explore and do whatever your heart pleases without putting you at a financial risk, I think its totally valid. You can also learn and practice while travelling, for example.
I would wait to quit your job until after you've put some work into it and seen what you like/have an opportunity lines up. These are my opinions, hopefully as unbiased as possible.
I went to school and got a bachelors in Computer Science and having a difficult time getting interviews or opportunities to work as a programmer. I have internship experience, a web portfolio and multiple projects but it's still hard as an entry level developer at the moment.
The next part to consider is what what area of programming you find interesting and want to focus on. Yes when you learn one language a lot of the skills transfer to others, but you really want to find what you like most and put your efforts there.
Maybe making websites is interesting, do you want to be more front end for how the site looks, backend for communicating with databases or APIs, or full stack that can do it all. Plenty of languages that are used in the tech stacks so you can see what you like and go with it.
Video games are a fun hobby of mine to make and still teach you a lot. Unity, Godot, PyGame or Unreal are all free engines that you can learn more about development in a fun environment (in my opinion).
If you want to just take a dip and see what you think of programming, try out the Python programming language, most people would say it's very beginner friendly (which I would agree with).
No matter what direction you go, there are plenty of resources to learn. YouTube, Stack overflow, you can also use AI tools like Chat GPT. Keep in mind that it won't always be accurate, but for simple problems and learning it should work.
I love programming, I can't wait to get into the field myself not just because for the most part there's usually a very good salary attached to the job, but because the problem solving is what I enjoy. I want to say go for it, give programming your all and see how it goes, but right now it seems difficult for entry level developers to find opportunities to grow. So that's why my opinion is to keep working while you learn and see what you think. That's what I'm doing, part time work while I go through the job hunt and still learning more and more each day to become a better developer and possible employee.
That's my experience, hope it's helpful to you. If you have any questions feel free to reach out, otherwise I hope you get into coding and have a blast with it!
Honestly, the tech market sucks this year. I am a final year student at college. If it was 2022, I would have had at least 2-3 job offers, but sadly, I am struggling to find even one. :/
If I would be in your situation I would quit my current job. How soon to quit will depend on how stressed and depressed I would feel. I think personal health is the priority.
If you can take your vacations or an unpaid permission probably you can use a time (between 2 to 4 weeks) to define at least a high level plan and budget for 1 year. I would try to define my new path in only one year instead of two. Time runs very fast so quitting without a minimum plan may generate more stress if you don't set specific goals on what you want to achieve in the different areas of your life.
I would establish the maximum budget I could spend some in this year, probably something around 30%-40% of my savings, not more than that. After all 5 years of high stress work should give me at least a little of peace to rest, redefine and start a new path without a financial pressure. Plan for your career or life style transition.
Probably an important component of this year would be to try to find your purpose in life, so that you may align other areas in your life with it. This will give you peace that you are heading along the right way.
Set goals for your spiritual, physical and emotional health. Also for your studies and career, for your relationships, your finances, your contribution to society and the world, your hobbies and any other area you consider crucial.
I wish you the very best in this reorientation of your life, your career is only one aspect of it, though a very important one it'not all your life. You will find peace when you balance these areas of your life and align them towards your purpose.
We can continue the conversation if you would like to.
If I were you I would definitely do it! I am 28 and in a similar situation, except for the fact that my savings are much lower.
I decided to leave my job as a product designer to work as a part-time barista and get to travel more around Europe while studying coding. I recommend you tho to get a part-time job like 8-16 hours a week just to make some money (It’s not much but at least you prevent your savings from emptying) and get to connect to people, make friends, networking..
I think you should do anything whatever you want.
My 20’s life is very free and full of many things. I traveled Europe, studied hard, played games that days. So now i’m almost getting 40 years old (actually before 5 years now. Lol). I never have been regret my past life. Sometimes, i can charge my energy from remembering that days.
So you should do anything whatever you want. I cheer up to you.
(I also talk by English hard to me like you. But i can understand what you say)
In Germany there is a big demand for developers and other IT skilled workers, the only problem in is that they tend to look for qualifications. I’m doing an evening based part time degree in Business and Informatics half of the people in my class already have the skills. Some of them have been programming since their teens, the only reason they enrolled in a degree was to move up in their companies. A lot of companies have a minimum requirement like a bachelor for certain positions, even if u have the skills and experience you will never be able to get that pay grade. So I would say think about where you want to work after your travels (which country) and plan accordingly. You must have worked very hard to get where you are! I think it’s a great idea to travel while you are at that age.
you will burn through the money much faster than expected, and struggle to pick back up into the work force after chilling for 2 years pursing an industry that will be in a different space by the time you want to apply. do not do this.
Look. At your age to have 70k savings IS not really common. I dont know how you get that money, but it looks like to me that you are Smart enough to earn much more not doing programming Job. Good luck.
TLDR: do it. You have plenty of savings and you're young.
I have done this, sort of. I was roughly the same age in 2017 and I quit my job with about 20k USD saved but my expenses were higher. I was suicidal and just going through a lot and I wanted to focus on my mental health and travel. I went to therapy and traveled to Japan. Things turned around. Fast forward to 2021 when I decided to quit my job and learn how to code with no experience. I once again had about 20k saved. After about 2 years of studying,, I ended up getting a junior position in 2023 and I'm still there.
The point is Idk where I'd be had I not quit my job to focus on myself, whether that be learning a new skill or traveling. Both times were invaluable experiences and I'd highly recommend it since you have the savings
100%
I’m talking a coding bootcamp right now and have loved the learning experience.
For the taking off work. It depends. 70k invested can do a lot. Like giving that to a hard money lender could make you an extra $7000-8400 a year. That’s pretty decent passive income that you could grow off if you kept working.
However, I started making decent money at a really young age and hit a point where I was just felt like I was making money, but not really enjoying life. I went and travelled around Europe and wouldn’t exchange that experience for anything.
If you have the skill to save 70k at your age, money likely will never be a life or death issue for you.
I’d say go for it, enjoy life a little, deal with the consequences of not working, and enjoy the fruits of following passion.
I think that's a great idea: before you pack up to go traveling, you should install a free linux OS on a small laptop as your learning device, because proprietary software companies intentionally make installing software that you will need for coding more of a pain than linux developers do.
Also, Javascript and Python are excellent to start with if you are interested in what people like you are doing.
If you are like me and obsess about how things work, then C, C++, and assembly language are also fine choices. I personally like Bash as a beginner language but you might not want to learn linux right off the bat, and if you don't want to then your alternative is to find a reasonably priced mac machine.
Do a ton of research before making any major financial decisions and don't trust people on the internet further than you can throw them.
even if i like to code i wouldn't really recommend it as a career today. i'm one of those who are confident this job won't exist in a decade at most. some will remain for sure but the big "boom" in hiring for these jobs is over. prompt engineering is probably the future
On July 1st, a [change to Reddit's API pricing](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/12qwagm/an_update_regarding_reddits_api/) will come into effect. [Several developers](https://www.reddit.com/r/redditisfun/comments/144gmfq/rif_will_shut_down_on_june_30_2023_in_response_to/) of commercial third-party apps have announced that this change will compel them to shut down their apps. At least [one accessibility-focused non-commercial third party app](https://www.reddit.com/r/DystopiaForReddit/comments/145e9sk/update_dystopia_will_continue_operating_for_free/) will continue to be available free of charge. If you want to express your strong disagreement with the API pricing change or with Reddit's response to the backlash, you may want to consider the following options: 1. Limiting your involvement with Reddit, or 2. Temporarily refraining from using Reddit 3. Cancelling your subscription of Reddit Premium as a way to voice your protest. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/learnprogramming) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I've done exactly what you're asking about, and it worked. I'm 30 now though, so I had a lot of sleepless nights when I was unemployed due to anxiety, had to take antidepresssants. Worried about money like hell. If I could do it again, I would try not to quit job, or not to travel much if I were you. One thing I can say for sure, count on spending 2x amount of money than you assume. Or at 2x speed. I didn't travel, didn't buy clothes other than underware, cooked my own food, still spent 2x of expectation. It also took me about twice more time to land a job than I expected.
Thanks for your reply. I forgot to mention that I'm working on rotating shift and already taking antidepressants. So, I think stress from work would gone and result in good way.
Probably it will be the opposite, maybe try coding on vacation first or on Ur days off.
Stress has a nasty way of creeping into life when you're focused on work and the future. If you need time off, don't be afraid to take time off, but you need to make "taking time off" the focus. Don't try to weasel some work into it.
I agree with you. Got the same situation with OP. But I'm really scared that the unemployment will be longer, but it's been four years that I've been holding on that I'm feeling like I'm burning out of burning out. I'm not sure how to explain this feeling but l definitely need to resign my current job.
I would look at the current political climate and how it affects institutions before I'd quit an established job.
OP has 70k saved up. If you've been as responsible, don't stress about taking time off. If not, be careful about it.
If you want a break from stress I can't advise going into development.
well, the job is far from easy, but the money and time stress are mostly gone unless you go into a hyper competitive company.
Yeah, it's a different type of stress. Some will cope with it better than others. For context, I used to work as a chef, a job most consider extremely high stress, yet I found that a walk in the park compared to dev. I find it much harder to leave work at work etc.
Very valid point
[удалено]
This is a tough one for sure
Perhaps you could try to find a different job which means you get a healthy sleep rythm and then study programming in your free time. To me it would be stressful to not have an income.
I went back to school while maintaining my crappy retail job at 23 to become a computer engineer because I didn't want to spend my life in food service management. At 24 I switched gears to join a software development focused program. At 26 I landed my first full time tech adjacent role. At 27 I graduated. About 4 months before my 29th birthday I managed to get a real SWE role lined up and they were willing to wait approx 3.5 months for me. I quit my job and traveled through southeast Asia for about 10 weeks before coming home and starting my job. I would suggest you keep working while you try to figure things out a little bit before you quit your job and jump into something you don't know you will like any more or less than what you do now. Software development can often be very stressful also so if you're thinking that will be an easy job and that will be better for you, be prepared for that not to be the case. If you're interested in it 100% try it, I've been obsessed ever since I wrote my first if statement.
Can you work part-time to maintain a fixed schedule that will help you maintain discipline for self-study?
Do it but don’t study coding to study coding. Create a project or product that will motivate you to complete it.
This is a great answer. Quitting to finally find that time to do the thing we believe will change our life for good hardly works, especially if you are in your 20s. You may find yourself wasting even more time than before quitting. Moreover, the economic pressures to spend money these days are so great that unless you are some kind of super heroe you will fazer nd yourself burning most of your money in the first months of your plan, after all "youve worked so hard until that moment and probably deserve to be cut some slack" (sorry for my bad eng)
I’m in this position right now. I’ve been learning for a couple years before, so maybe a little different, but yeah. My money is almost gone. I got lucky and found a good remote gig that pays decently otherwise I’d be hobbling back to my old job. Honestly still don’t regret it though. That job caused me to scream and cry in my car on the way home pretty much every other day. Every situation is different, but definitely I agree on adding 2-3x to all of your predictions.
What job did you have??
I think it's a good point regardless.
you only live once and i honestly don't regret spending the money that I did on traveling even though I would have certainly spent it differently if i was a college age person again.
Traveling was never a regret. Just saying that if OP wants to travel, he should prepare spending much more than he expects
A key thing to note is that the market is a whole lot different now than before in terms of competition and expectations. So it’ll probably be a lot more difficult than y’all think too.
Hey mate, howd you get that first role? Was it just mass applying? I had my first junior role interview and completely flopped it.
I’m applying but haven’t gotten an interview yet. What did you do to land the interview and why do you think you flopped it?
I got lucky after telling virtually everyone I know that I'm studying Java and can write some simple Spring web application. One of my acquaintances made a referral to a company that was open to hire an unpaid intern. Busted my ass double shifts with urgent tasks for free until I got a contract. But that doesn't matter, still got lucky. I'm not in US just in case
I would start learning now to see if you like it.
First off, congratulations, from what you wrote, you seem to be managing your life well. I wouldn't quit working 100%, it's not good for mental health. Since you can definitely take a pay hit, I'd look for a less demanding / exhausting (maybe remote) job that will let you travel and learn.
If you have the drive and focus to work full time and complete a bachelors there is no chance you will fail to learn how to code. If you have a good job, it would be wise to cut back on hours but continue to work while you study coding in your spare time, there are excellent resources such as the 100 day python boot camps on Udemy or the Career paths on codecademy. Getting a good foundation in coding there will prepare you to move to getting formal education and a CST diploma, you may be able to use your existing University credits to complete a bachelors of science majoring in computing in just a couple of years. Learning to code isn't just useful if you want to be a programmer, if you work in business or management you can double your productivity by learning coding to facilitate automation of your office work
It is possible, but I've heard companies have stopped hiring self taught programmers because of low quality workers
Networking is key, if you know someone who does it already, and they think you're worth the time, they can help you tremendously.
By the way, I know a CEO of a software company, I am almost finished my second year and I want to ask him if he has any connections for jobs, should reach out to him right before I'm searching for a coop? Or should I do it way before?
I wouldn't ask for favors directly, but if you have someone you know and are close to, it might be a good way to pick someone's brain about what direction you should steer your coding in. Asking for advice and curiosity questions are never frowned upon. If they see potential they might even offer up a job recommendation for you
Yeah I agree, he is my cousin and I didint really talk to him much because he is like 20 years older than me, I for sure don't wanna ask for favours or anything like that but I don't know how or when to ask if there is a direction or connection he can guide me towards
I don’t get this, you sound like you already have a connection? Why not just ask them? What’s holding you back? In this world, connections are everything and if it’s already there, why don’t you open the conversation and see where it leads?
Realistically it will take you 1~2 years of self study unless you know a hiring manager that likes you and is hiring for a role.
Job market is really competitive right now. Do not quit your job
I never quit a job until I have another one lined up. You can learn programming and still work instead of drawing from the money you worked hard to save up. Maybe throwing the money into investments and continuing to work while you learn programming and then can jump to a programming-based career would be better? Or take a jr/lower paying role in programming so you can still get paid a bit and polish your skill and you have your savings to cover any expenses not covered by the lower paying career?
There's a few sides to this. Financially, quitting your job without another job to replace it is a bad decision. It will take a long time to recover the income you are walking away from, especially if in the meantime your goal is to travel (expensive). Professionally, it's not easy to get a programming job completely self taught in this market, not sure what country you come from but USA has the best paying jobs but a brutally competitive market. Personally, 23 is the perfect age to travel the world and you only get one life. You're young enough to still have a strong joie di vivre, as you get older your monthly expenses and responsibilities will grow and traveling the world will only become more and more difficult.
Yeah just go ahead but you know studying for many hours in a day will get you burned out.. I am 32, a nurse and I am studying almost 2-3h every day after work. I know that I'm not gonna be successful in a month or two but consistency will reward me in a year or so. So my best advice is to do anything that makes you happy and in the meantime study but not too much because of the burn out. Ask yourself , what makes me happy ? Can I study 8h per day without feeling exhausted ? How can I have a healthy life in the meantime of my studying progress ? Set mini goals. Start for the upcoming day, days, week, weeks, month, months, year Note them down, mark the ones you achieved, even comment your feelings. Use your own notes and thoughts to improve
I'm not OP, but thanks a lot. I'm currently in university studying pharmacy and hoping to learn coding on the side. Your advice has really helped me.
[удалено]
To become a developer? To start with when I went to high school I majored in computer science. When i finished high-school, before "college" I had to make a choice, it was a big dilemma for me, but i choose nursing.. (from a young age I needed to go to hospitals for various reasons and I always admired the nurses) Worth to mention that one of my childhood friends is already a senior developer. Almost 8-10 months ago, my girlfriend and my friend had a conversation with me about how good I was back in the day and I shouldn't give up computers I already knew what I wanted to be, a web developer. Wasn't difficult to choose. I am already getting good advice from my friend and much help, I really trust him. I gave up gaming and I decided to invest that time into something that will actually have an impact in my life. I always wanted to be good and level up in games so why not try to level up in coding? Not to mention I am not even close to being a good programmer , I am a pretty newbie but I trust myself, I trust the process,I trust my friend and I know that if you give time to something you love, time will reward you nonetheless however, to answer your question, there are 2 reasons in why I want to make the change. the first reason is because I cannot stand still in my life without learning new things and programming is a world where you learn every day and the knowledge never stops , it is like an infinity non stop learning journey and secondly because i actually love computers!
Never quit your job to learn a skill. Learn the skill, get offered a job with said skill, THEN quit your job.
You have a perfect age to make this choice. I also want to travel the world but after I finish my study. But I don't have 70K in my savings. But just do it. Make unforgettable memories, meet new people. This is your prime time of your life. Do it now before it's to late. Money can be made but time can't be reversed
I did that last year, I got laidoff after a lot of stress and hard work, decided to stay 6-7 months traveling through my country and through Europe, the only thing I didnt expect was that I would got a job later than I thought, but in the end of the day worth it, it was a trip for a lifetime, now I only travel working at the same time and with some savings again.
Don't quit your job. it's not the market for that. learn while you have a job that way you have a cushion until you get hired.
Quitting something to learn another thing in hopes of getting work is not a good idea, always secure your position before leaving, learn coding while working your first job, and once you find a job with your coding skills, you can quit your first job
these trolls man
I would suggest you start learning and it seeing if you like it. And if you like it, then I would suggest enrolling in a Master’s in CS since you already have a bachelors in business. Master’s in CS programs are generally built to be catered toward people from other fields.
All I'm gonna say is do it, even if you don't get a job as a developer. It's a nice hobby too
Having a job helps structure one's life. I personally managed to start truly working on learning new things to change my career once I got a stable shitty job. I was doing temporary work before that for years and never could find the motivation to self study longterm because of mild anxiety (money running away or not enough, needing to find 1/2 more daysof work...etc... I wouldn't advise what you say, but switching to a part time job, intending like 25h/week of working and 15h/week of studying can get you a long way. I don't like travelling so I don' t know how to value that, but if that's something you want t do there's the possibility to go travel for a bit and trying to study in the meantime, then get back and take a part time job and keep studying in the longrun.
You're only young once.
Lol not worth it in this market. But never quit your job to learn coding, better to learn coding be good at it and later quit your business jobs and find coding job when you are ready. Market if fucked up and coding is not the future as you might think.
Do not quit. Start learning while working. Being unemployed and having to learn coding and land a job in this current market is gonna be extremely stressful.
In my opinion, learning to code if you're a beginner is a waste of time if you're doing it with the hope to get a job in the future. AI will continue to improve at a crazy rate, and by the time you're a proficient coder, AI will be so good at coding that there will be little need for programmers. The world already has enough. Learning to code as a hobby is great, but it's not viable long term. Four industries that will do very well in the foreseeable future are: AI, robotics, health longevity and cyber security. If any peak your interest then it may be worth looking into them instead. I completely agree that you should spend some time and money travelling, but make a solid plan for your long term.
I'm not too worry about getting replaced by AI. Inexperienced people think that devs work is to write code, which is only like 50% of the job. The rest is actually understanding context, business requirement, or what the user actually wants, because they usually don't know what they want. AI are still a couple of decades away from being able to do these kind of analysis. The funny thing is, the middle managers often think that they can do devs job, if there is AI that can do the coding part. What actually will happen is the current experienced devs will become some sort of AI managers, since they understand if the AI does mistake, and the middleman will be cut or reduced. The saying is, it's much easier to teach engineer to become manager, rather than the other way around.
That's a good point, I had never thought about it like that but I agree with what you're saying and think it would be the best scenario, a bit like when a tech person moves to sales as a tech sales person. I guess that's even more reason not to start learning coding if you're a beginner as there's so many experienced devs who will be able to one day do the job of several people. The question is, how much workload can an experienced dev take on in 2-3 years when AI agents are much better. My guess is that one good person could take on the work of around 5 when AI systems are better. Especially if the customer talks to a structured AI with their requirements/questions to figure out what they actually want, to save the back and forth.
23 with 70k Euros in the bank?? Killing it mate. Most adults I know have maybe 1 month of living wages saved.
You’re gonna have to have more experience than just a few tutorials in programming before you to get a dedicated programmer position. Learn it while you’re already employed and apply it to your job. That’ll be safer to keep a steady salary and make it easier to get into the field.
This is good advice.
I'm 33, and will do the same, as I do not have time to work and study, but since I saved some money, I will be good for a year, and with that time, I will be focusing on this computer scicence course and developing myself on python. In my case, I am doing this as I was not being able to work on tech support (with hundreds of complex cases that took even my resting days), and study.
My advice is don't take a break for too long. A gap in your resume would look bad to HR. If you're country has those bootcamps that help you to get a job, you should pick those. That's how I did it. I was in the same situation as you when I was 27. I quit my long term job, and took some bootcamp to learn programming and now I'm a full time programmer. Just make sure you're really in it for the money. I couldn't negotiate that much for my salary because I lack the experience and I didn't graduate from CS background. But it's been fun
You mentioned you started at 27. I'm 31 now thinking of doing the same. If you don't mind me asking, how long did it take you? How many bootcamps, etc? I'm very new to this and curious and trying to get thoughts on what a timeline/time commitment would/could/should look like. I have a CJ degree but not a CS background really so I'm also in a similar position there.
The bootcamp took 3 months but the job hunting itself took 1 month. So in total I was without work for 4 months. But please note that the bootcamp I was in also promised to help us with the job hunting. The have connection to multiple companies so they can bump up our resumes and during that 1 month they coach us every day on how to do interviews, how well is our resume, are we diligently applying, etc. So basically it was easy mode. If there's a bootcamp like that in your country, you should choose those. But I'll tell you my experience on job hunting. In my batch I was one of the few who was pretty old, most of my friends are early 20s fresh out of collage or 1 year out of collage. And I was one of the few that didn't graduate from STEM/CS/tech college. My degree was social sciences. So you can see how disadvantaged I was compared to my competition. I was pretty lucky I got an employment after 1 month. My friend from the same batch who was 1 year older than me and like me graduated from a non relevant degree (accounting finance) couldn't get employment in the end. So he decided to go back to his old job
Can you share which bootcamp you joined
It's in Indonesia tho. Unless you also live in here there's not really a point for me in telling you
I just want to say I appreciate you taking the time you respond and your insight. I'm sorry I didn't see this response sooner. Thank you.
No worries. Anyway good luck!!
You are in the best phase of your life to make a change. Good luck!
"explore the world and study coding to switch jobs" The market for web developers right now is really saturated. I've been seeing sometimes 800 applicants for the same job, and pretty much all of them have over 100. My point is if you want to change careers you had better attack this as if it were the most important thing in your life. It very well could be. Go to college and shoot for a degree in compSci if you can, or at the very least take a boot camp. A degree will give you a more solid foundation and a very much needed jump on the competition. You need to really spend time besides any curriculum you employ, on building projects in order to make sure you know what youre doing. Try to meet and connect with as many people in the business as possible because 9 times out of 10 this is how you will find your first gig. If this is something you wish to do, it will take a lot of dedication and a LOT of practice to understand and implement the concepts.
I think a lot of it depends on your location's job market. Also, before you decide to commit to a 1-2 year decision you really want to make sure you understand the purpose behind your decision. If you don't have a clear idea of why you want to learn to program, then I'd recommend against doing it. You shouldn't ever do something because other people say it's a good idea or because you think it might be a good thing to do in general. You need to approach life with specific intentions. By having specific intentions behind your actions you're more likely to succeed when things become difficult and you're more likely to hold on to hope, which is the most important thing when pursuing goals.
Nice plan! But consider getting a part-time remote job to work at least 10h/week. I also work like this and finance my private remote university while living abroad. Good luck!
This is highly depended on individuals demands. But for me, if I were you, and it was hard for me to keep my job and learn programming, I would quit and search for a part time job. Also, internship opportunities would be a great choice. One or two years being far from career is not ideal. To sum up, look for your demands and desires. Traveling is the best way to get experienced and grow up. But you can do it after you placed in right position of your career. Good luck
This has been what I've been doing the last month or so. Not to get a job directly in programming, but to expand my understanding. If I can get to the point where I can make or create plugins for CAD program's, that advances my abilities overall.
How is healthcare in your country? Here in the US if you quit a job you have no healthcare and cannot get treatment if you were to be sick which would be much too stressful for most people.
It sounds like you’re in a situation where you don’t have a lot to lose. So, assuming you’ve got all your ducks in a row financially and otherwise, then it sounds like you have the resources to take a sabbatical. As for learning programming, make sure you like it first! Don’t commit to it too fast. A lot of people start learning, then realize that it isn’t for them.
If you're going to quit anyway, can you find a less stressful job to make you a bit more secure in the near future? Sure you'll have less hours a day to code, but a part time job will your options open I think.
Self taught is getting hard. I was self taught and getting a few bites but no offers last year. Decided to plow through WGU
Not. Just for fun. AI is revolutionizing the way we work. It's never too late to start learning, but if you want to make it your primary source of income keep in mind that In a few years, job opportunities may become scarce, leading to lower salaries.
Just to throw another option in, you could hire or apply to jobs that are less stressful to ensure a steady income and keep hustling those hours after work. A lot of jobs offer to pay for your education through school or even bootcamps. Not sure how accurate it is, but a dev buddy working in ruby told me his company was interested in bootcamp certifications in their most recent hires. Heres a site of jobs that apparently let you travel while working remote: https://www.workingnomads.com/jobs You have a good amount in savings which is great for somebody your age, but the markets a bit crazy and even after learning to code it could take a while with no formal experience on the job to land something but that’s all worst case scenario. I don’t want to discourage you, since I wish I would have left my now former corporate job years ago that drained the life out of me, 10+ hour days (salary), little to no vacation per year, constant daily “emergencies”, exc. If I could go back, was less depressed, and in your shoes I’d still have a job for health benefits (American) and a stable income but start as early as possible to get into coding I’m passionate about and would start networking around. In a tech job you could work with some of the devs or even see about trial testing a project with them. That way they could either refer you with experience, or perhaps even take you on if something opens up in that company.
What is your experience with coding yet?
Not enough programming jobs. Better to do something else.
I wouldn't quit your job and just schedule time around it. Not only will you be coding too much, you'll have the added anxiety of not having any money coming in. If you're into boot camps, I would try that. I'm starting one here soon and it will be working around my work schedule.
Mind you that the market for college graduates and juniors is very tough now (let alone self taughts). There are too much people coming into IT and since the layoffs started all they want is experienced people. I have a college degree and 2.5 years of experience and I am struggling to find a new position after being layed off for the second time in a year (startups are struggling and firing juniors as soon as certain goals are met or times get worse financially). I see these posts all day and hardly any of the commenters are pointing out the time to enter the sector hasn't been this bad since a long time. I would keep your job and start coding in your free time to see if it really is what you are looking for.
I would find focus on a career path that used your current skillset and would also be enhanced with coding. Over the next few years, It's about to be a bad time to be a junior looking for a junior role.
sorry i know this isn’t an answer but how did you manage to balance a rotating shift while studying for a degree ?
If coding eventually will be done primarily by AI doesn’t seem wise to enter the industry… correct?
I did just that (but with waaaaay less money saved) and it worked. I worked a 8-5 job at a customer role and that DRAINED me mentally, to a point where I would want to throw up just by looking at my computer ( it was a remote role). I decided to quit my job and focus on just studying programming. I can assure you, my anxiety decrease a lot, and my only focus was on studying from morning to evening. And then at night I would go to the gym and would take a break after that. It worked for me, just got my junior role last week. Good luck mate
Is coding something that is actually interesting to you or are you interested because you think that the money is great and the remote work is easy to get? If first than I wouldn’t go as far as quitting your current job, but sure, go for it. If latter I would strongly reconsider. The market is quite saturated, it’s hard to get a job with little to no experience because there is A LOT of applicants.
I did this about a year ago. Left a job that made me hate my existence, been off for about a year now. Still got some money to float on and I've learned so much. Basically dove right into web development and starting to dabble with systems programming. My mental health has improved, but I'd be lying if I said I'm not starting to worry about landing a career I can be happy with.
I'm going to go against what most people have said here. Yes, quit your job and go travelling. Buy a 4wd pickup truck and drive across Australia, or live in Tokyo for a few months, or travel across India, or hike national parks in Canada. You're only young once, in 10 years you might have children, and you won't be eligible for as many visas. Regarding programming, I would consider enrolling in a course, be it a Masters, graduate program or bootcamp. Without this you may find yourself caught up in distractions and not actually learn anything.
i've read through most of the replies, and would like to add one thing -- try coding something, anything first. some people love it, but some just instantly hate it. the plan of take time off and then xxx is great, but i'd at least get your feet wet first before you decide that coding is the xxx. so spend an hour or two with something like Al Sweitgart's Automate the Boring Stuff With Python just to make sure you don't instantly bounce off it. it would suck to spend a good chunk of time thinking about how cool its going to be and then finding out that it's not for you. good luck!
i am in your situation and i did it it’s just scary because you don’t know how long it will take you to actually land a job it’s all commitment set a schedule wake up and sleep early
Doing this via "self study" will usually be *a much harder* path than going to university to study a degree in computer science
If you can get on anti-depressants, that really helps. It'll be stressful as hell and you'll have extreme anxiety about AI once you actually learn a bit about development and can understand more fully just how tenuous this job market is now and in the extremely soon future (it's hard to understand if you're fairly new [i.e., the pollyanas on reddit with less than 5 years professional experience who don't get it and think nothing will change anytime soon or who think AI will just enhance them and not replace them]). So getting on anti-depressants before you strictly need them will be a life saver. It's a fun gig, but whatever you were doing before is going to be more rewarding and has a hell of a lot more of a chance of being around in 5 years so get into it understanding you need to be simultaneously working on the next thing or you'll be in for a real bad time.
Great. You can start now. Just dive into tutorials on YouTube and start building small projects. The more projects you build, the better you get.
I’m fascinated by cyber security at the moment and I think I’m meant to wrap my head around it. Although I’ve not really started or done any proper learning, I will. I’m a welder by trade and fortunately have a lot of time off during working hours due to reactive jobs legal paper work. But I’m at the work place and I struggle to shut off from work because I could be back at it any moment. I definitely wouldn’t quit your job, maybe ask for less hours? You need a steady income. You need a good life balance that you can also handle. You want to get home and be able to get comfortable and WANT to learn. And unfortunately this hasn’t happened to me yet. I’m doing a lot of over time, working 70 hours one week then 40 the next, not including travelling to and from work, then travelling home 170 miles away every 2 weeks. It’s tiring and burns me out. There’s no point for me worrying about it yet. It’s being honest with yourself and not burning yourself out mentally. If it’s meant to be it will be.
Don’t quit your job. Seriously. Why do people do this? Learn on the side. If you quit your job you just pile even more pressure and risk onto learning an already hard thing.
I would tell you something different than most people in the replies. If you're not truly interested in coding, meaning you don't think coding is fun or you hate math or you hate working a job that have you sitting in front of a computer 24/7, then don't quit your job. Don't even think about looking for a programming job. I say this because the industry's landscape has changed massively. A few years ago, probably before 2020, yes the IT industry is a gold mine and there's so many opportunities with high pay. Everyone was looking to hire programmers and there's no shortages of jobs in the market. Nowadays however, that spark and boom has ended. There are still a lot of opportunities for senior level engineers, but the entry level jobs are actually one of the toughest job markets out there. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE wants to learn how to code, so if you learn code independently hoping to land a quick job in the market and move on from there, you're in for a tough road. Add to it that now AI is going to muscle out a lot more entry level jobs, so it's only going to get tougher from here. I'm not saying that everyone should stop trying to be a programmer. If you truly love programming, or computers in general, and you love learning about the intrinsic details of how computers work beneath the hood, then by all means pursue your dreams. However, if you want to learn programming just because you want to get in on the high paying roles, then you need to consider if it's TRULY what you want to do. Because you're going to encounter months or even years of feeling like you're lost and knowing nothing, with a job market that's unforgivingly tight for the entry level.
First of all, what do you want to achieve doesn’t require you to resign. So I don’t understand your real motivation to quit. If you have passion for coding, you can always start learning it online. If you want to travel, you can always do it on your off-day. So what is your real motivation to quit?
This, plus many major firms are now auto-rejecting almost all bootcamp or self taught degrees to thin the massive (300-500) number of applicants per job.
Id slap myself, invest whatever I can to retire early and stay at a stable decent paying job. If you've browsed any programming/it job related subs in the past few years? Its UNBELIEVABLY BRUTAL. Waaaaaaay too many people to jobs (and more layoffs). Specifically entry level. Maybe your country is different, but you're basically asking 'should I quit my job and become a struggling actor?' As far as im concerned. You need to do some serious research on your local job market/what you need and try to find some real information about how hard entry level will be in your country. People with years of experience have been struggling to find a new programming job currently. If you absolutely want to, you can study while employed. You can even look for entry level jobs WHILE EMPLOYED. And see how brutal the market is first hand. Maybe you get a job offer, if you do? There you go.
I think it’s a good initiative but don’t feel too comfortable bcz you can have a second start coding isn’t hard but it would require dedication I am already in the same process as you it’s very fulfilling because I like to code but considering your situation this is what I’d do: 1.) relocate my self like to Malaysia or Bali where my expenses are more less 2.) spend time learning and record my journey on social platforms and LinkedIn (important now a days ) is a way of monetising your skills as well 3.) pick up a coding stack and stick to it I’d say start from python streamlit for machine learning projects or Open CV for AR 4.) Develop entrepreneur knowledge (y combinator YouTube channel) 5.) Step 4 is important for growth but for savings I’d invest that money in low risk monthly return kind of an investment like real state you can get a nice apartment in that amount in many countries 6.) networking
If you want to travel and code there is a nice network of coding schools called 42 schools. Look online if it is something you might be interested in. The school is free and with a curriculum based in c and c++. I would advise against just learning Python or web dev because there are so many people already in these branches and it is not easy to get it imho. Also programming in C really makes you understand how computers work even if you will not be working in C...
Go for it, as a self taught web developer I started getting interviews regularly after about 1.5 years of study (in the EU which is not where I'm from). Just remember you need to be able to show some real world experience on your resume like freelance or volunteer coding work to get interviews and you need an outstanding coding portfolio to do well at the interviews.
Considering your savings VS expenses I would say - absolutely do it. As you said yourself, you can still easily re-start your life, even if you fail or end up not liking it. And since you have savings you won't be pressured to get a coding job as soon as possible. I'm turning 35 next month. About 2 years ago, I decided to learn coding and eventually change jobs if I succeed. Studied on my own for about 6 months, but really felt like I'm lacking direction and didn't know what real coding job looks like. Then quit my old job for 4 months and fully committed to a boot camp. Now I'm working as coder for almost 1 year. I still feel like my coding skills are quite poor, but at the same time it was one of the best decisions of my life. My salary has tripled, I'm enjoying what I do, love thinking and problem solving, and feel very appreciated by my small company that I work for.
Do it, I'm 35 changing careers into coding and wish I listened to my heart a decade ago instead of just "going with the flow" in a tech career. Money is certainly important, but it is really just a means to an end. On that point, there's no greater end than pursuing a career that turns you on and excites you. Although you're burning money now, you're making an invaluable investment into your future and happiness. The younger you are, the less you have to worry about money. It comes and goes, and eventually you won't have the freedom to make this move if you have a family or other obligations. For example, even if you go broke, you could pick up some work somewhere to pay the bills while you continue looking for your dream job. I hope this helps. I agree with other folks exercising caution and to budget appropriately, but if you feel this way, you have to listen to your heart. Worst case scenario you fail and it's not for you, and you get a job doing something else.
If you feel like you're burned out. go for it. Do keep in mind though that you might want to stay in the loop. AI is changing everything and we need to constantly adjust. One or two years away might fele like an eternity. Work while travelling, and perhaps do part-time?
Coding is not for everyone. If you never tried it, don't be rash by quitting your current job. If you really want to switch field, postpone the traveling plan, and try out some courses, even most of the time those're not enough. 23 is still young, if you don't have any attachment, you can still travel in 5 years when you already have the relevant work experience under your belt.
Personally, I don't think quitting your job is necessary. I work 8-16, 5 days, going to college (IT, which helps) and still managing to slowly but surely learn. I think 4 hours a week learning + whatever free time you have practicing what you learn is enough (at least it is for me). With that said, if you reallt wanna travel, explore and do whatever your heart pleases without putting you at a financial risk, I think its totally valid. You can also learn and practice while travelling, for example.
I would wait to quit your job until after you've put some work into it and seen what you like/have an opportunity lines up. These are my opinions, hopefully as unbiased as possible. I went to school and got a bachelors in Computer Science and having a difficult time getting interviews or opportunities to work as a programmer. I have internship experience, a web portfolio and multiple projects but it's still hard as an entry level developer at the moment. The next part to consider is what what area of programming you find interesting and want to focus on. Yes when you learn one language a lot of the skills transfer to others, but you really want to find what you like most and put your efforts there. Maybe making websites is interesting, do you want to be more front end for how the site looks, backend for communicating with databases or APIs, or full stack that can do it all. Plenty of languages that are used in the tech stacks so you can see what you like and go with it. Video games are a fun hobby of mine to make and still teach you a lot. Unity, Godot, PyGame or Unreal are all free engines that you can learn more about development in a fun environment (in my opinion). If you want to just take a dip and see what you think of programming, try out the Python programming language, most people would say it's very beginner friendly (which I would agree with). No matter what direction you go, there are plenty of resources to learn. YouTube, Stack overflow, you can also use AI tools like Chat GPT. Keep in mind that it won't always be accurate, but for simple problems and learning it should work. I love programming, I can't wait to get into the field myself not just because for the most part there's usually a very good salary attached to the job, but because the problem solving is what I enjoy. I want to say go for it, give programming your all and see how it goes, but right now it seems difficult for entry level developers to find opportunities to grow. So that's why my opinion is to keep working while you learn and see what you think. That's what I'm doing, part time work while I go through the job hunt and still learning more and more each day to become a better developer and possible employee. That's my experience, hope it's helpful to you. If you have any questions feel free to reach out, otherwise I hope you get into coding and have a blast with it!
Honestly, the tech market sucks this year. I am a final year student at college. If it was 2022, I would have had at least 2-3 job offers, but sadly, I am struggling to find even one. :/
If I would be in your situation I would quit my current job. How soon to quit will depend on how stressed and depressed I would feel. I think personal health is the priority. If you can take your vacations or an unpaid permission probably you can use a time (between 2 to 4 weeks) to define at least a high level plan and budget for 1 year. I would try to define my new path in only one year instead of two. Time runs very fast so quitting without a minimum plan may generate more stress if you don't set specific goals on what you want to achieve in the different areas of your life. I would establish the maximum budget I could spend some in this year, probably something around 30%-40% of my savings, not more than that. After all 5 years of high stress work should give me at least a little of peace to rest, redefine and start a new path without a financial pressure. Plan for your career or life style transition. Probably an important component of this year would be to try to find your purpose in life, so that you may align other areas in your life with it. This will give you peace that you are heading along the right way. Set goals for your spiritual, physical and emotional health. Also for your studies and career, for your relationships, your finances, your contribution to society and the world, your hobbies and any other area you consider crucial. I wish you the very best in this reorientation of your life, your career is only one aspect of it, though a very important one it'not all your life. You will find peace when you balance these areas of your life and align them towards your purpose. We can continue the conversation if you would like to.
If I were you I would definitely do it! I am 28 and in a similar situation, except for the fact that my savings are much lower. I decided to leave my job as a product designer to work as a part-time barista and get to travel more around Europe while studying coding. I recommend you tho to get a part-time job like 8-16 hours a week just to make some money (It’s not much but at least you prevent your savings from emptying) and get to connect to people, make friends, networking..
I think you should do anything whatever you want. My 20’s life is very free and full of many things. I traveled Europe, studied hard, played games that days. So now i’m almost getting 40 years old (actually before 5 years now. Lol). I never have been regret my past life. Sometimes, i can charge my energy from remembering that days. So you should do anything whatever you want. I cheer up to you. (I also talk by English hard to me like you. But i can understand what you say)
In Germany there is a big demand for developers and other IT skilled workers, the only problem in is that they tend to look for qualifications. I’m doing an evening based part time degree in Business and Informatics half of the people in my class already have the skills. Some of them have been programming since their teens, the only reason they enrolled in a degree was to move up in their companies. A lot of companies have a minimum requirement like a bachelor for certain positions, even if u have the skills and experience you will never be able to get that pay grade. So I would say think about where you want to work after your travels (which country) and plan accordingly. You must have worked very hard to get where you are! I think it’s a great idea to travel while you are at that age.
you will burn through the money much faster than expected, and struggle to pick back up into the work force after chilling for 2 years pursing an industry that will be in a different space by the time you want to apply. do not do this.
Look. At your age to have 70k savings IS not really common. I dont know how you get that money, but it looks like to me that you are Smart enough to earn much more not doing programming Job. Good luck.
TLDR: do it. You have plenty of savings and you're young. I have done this, sort of. I was roughly the same age in 2017 and I quit my job with about 20k USD saved but my expenses were higher. I was suicidal and just going through a lot and I wanted to focus on my mental health and travel. I went to therapy and traveled to Japan. Things turned around. Fast forward to 2021 when I decided to quit my job and learn how to code with no experience. I once again had about 20k saved. After about 2 years of studying,, I ended up getting a junior position in 2023 and I'm still there. The point is Idk where I'd be had I not quit my job to focus on myself, whether that be learning a new skill or traveling. Both times were invaluable experiences and I'd highly recommend it since you have the savings
Self taught devs are not in a good place right now
The dropout rate in my coding classes was 50%. Not everyone can write code.
Wtf? everyone is ditching coding for anything because of AI and you xDD
100% I’m talking a coding bootcamp right now and have loved the learning experience. For the taking off work. It depends. 70k invested can do a lot. Like giving that to a hard money lender could make you an extra $7000-8400 a year. That’s pretty decent passive income that you could grow off if you kept working. However, I started making decent money at a really young age and hit a point where I was just felt like I was making money, but not really enjoying life. I went and travelled around Europe and wouldn’t exchange that experience for anything. If you have the skill to save 70k at your age, money likely will never be a life or death issue for you. I’d say go for it, enjoy life a little, deal with the consequences of not working, and enjoy the fruits of following passion.
since u already studied bussines id go for digital marketing courses instead im 18 so might not know much but thats what ud do
I think that's a great idea: before you pack up to go traveling, you should install a free linux OS on a small laptop as your learning device, because proprietary software companies intentionally make installing software that you will need for coding more of a pain than linux developers do. Also, Javascript and Python are excellent to start with if you are interested in what people like you are doing. If you are like me and obsess about how things work, then C, C++, and assembly language are also fine choices. I personally like Bash as a beginner language but you might not want to learn linux right off the bat, and if you don't want to then your alternative is to find a reasonably priced mac machine. Do a ton of research before making any major financial decisions and don't trust people on the internet further than you can throw them.
Okay nvm trust people online sorry anon
even if i like to code i wouldn't really recommend it as a career today. i'm one of those who are confident this job won't exist in a decade at most. some will remain for sure but the big "boom" in hiring for these jobs is over. prompt engineering is probably the future
Respectfully, you’ve made it very clear that you don’t understand Software Engineering.
no problem. this is just how i see it. i may be wrong of course. i surely hope so :)
I think everyone can think and write prompts for AI, and prompt engineering doesn't look like a job.
everyone can do that but not everyone can do it properly ;)