I'm considering a career change to programming. I want something that I can transition to pretty quickly (I won't be going back to college) and earn reasonably good money, and I was thinking of teaching myself programming. I'm wondering if it's a practical idea.

My inspiration actually came from a post here on 2+2: someone suggested a guy could teach himself Java and be earning six figures within a few years. IIRC the poster may have been a successful tech entrepreneur suggesting it as an option for a pro poker player. I probably hadn't thought that teaching oneself programming was an option before I read that, nor realized that you could make that kind of money that quickly. The post stuck with me, though I didn't consider it as an option for myself till recently.

In the past I've done finance, accounting, entrepreneurship (especially online marketing), and played poker. My strengths for this path would probably be: a good quantitative mind; I used to consider myself a bit of a spreadsheet wiz and enjoyed it; I did six weeks of programming in a computer class in college and my TA called me the genius in the class; and I'm interested in technology, especially the web. My weaknesses would probably apply to most potential paths: changing careers in my 40s (would anyone hire a new programmer in their 40s?); a spotty resume; and weak people skills.

My questions are:
1) Is this a realistic career-change option?
2) What should I learn? In what areas does demand most exceed supply? Where does the future lie? What pays well?
3) How should I learn? Is self-teaching realistic? If so, how should I do it? I've read about bootcamps; they sound tempting because they're fast and the good ones should help me get employed. Are they a good option? Also, why do bootcamps mostly focus on web development, specifically Ruby/Rails?

I've been researching this starting from various threads in the Programming forum, which led me to plenty of information elsewhere. I have some ideas on the answers to my questions myself, but I'd prefer to get some responses from you guys, who know much more about it than me, before I start throwing out my thoughts.

My thoughts. Good luck!

If mobile programming is what you're looking to get into, what would you say are the top 5 languages that somebody should focus on learning?

Java for android apps

It depends on whether one wants to go native or not, but if the answer is yes, then it's either obj-c or Java. I'm not up to date enough to give an answer on much else related to mobile. I used to code for iOS two years ago so know a bit but haven't done it since 2012, and can't really answer which platform is better to learn/etc.

I actually just went through this process. Basically no technical background (undergrad Finance is lol). I quit a "data analyst" job, went to a coding bootcamp for 3 months, found a job in month afterwards as full stack dev.

Bootcamps is by far the fastest way imo. I think age matters a lot less than the code you show, but I'm in my 20's.

Saw a boot camp was offering about a 40% rebate on tuition if you accept a job thru their job placement. Is that normal?

They all have different deals, App Academy, for example, takes a % of your salary.

Can any more informed posters giver their opinion on bootcamps.

I'm starting with a bootcamp Monday. Based on all my research it seems like the fastest way to get a foot in the door in the field.

To have a shot at getting in to a good one you probably need to have put in at least a month or two of work on your own exhausting the beginner resources. This puts you in a place to be confident enough to make it through coding challenges ok and shows that you're serious about it. Basically what all these places seem to want is someone dedicated and intelligent.

Yes. By connecting you with the employer they are essentially acting as a recruiter and are paid a fee of some kind as a result. These places generally apply some portion of the fee to your tuition

Can you give an example as this might apply to Python, Javascript, HTML, etc

Hey Roger can you give us a brief overview of what your assignments entail as a dev?

Just to add a little context I was looking at an online masters curriculum at Penn State for a software engineering masters. Those sons of guns want almost $36,000 in tuition for that. I'm pretty sure it isn't really worth $36,000 grand in extra dough to me.

Not sure how much these camps are but jeez if it launches a good career for the participants it has to worth it.

I'll go over the things I completed before my application process.


codecademy javascript, html, css tracks - html and css were pretty much worthless for the application process. Javascript was helpful in that the basics I took away from the codecademy track gave me enough of a foundation to make it through Hack Reactor's application project

MIT CS 6.00x via edx.org - very helpful. This should give you a really solid base of knowledge from data structures to algorithms and big O complexity you should have the tools to solve the basic programming challenges you'll see in your applications.

An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python via coursera.org - meh. Fun course, but aside from the additional Python practice won't be too helpful in applying.

Berkeley CS 169.1 SaaS via edx.org - helpful. The Ruby specific stuff at the beginning prepares you well for Ruby coding challenges you'll face in the applications process. Be warned that the vanilla course does not provide much in the way of resources to make it through the quizzes/homework but the research you do on your own will. The Rails section is basically a rails tutorial with less hand holding. I found this to be pretty tough to get through at the time and I think that some of the tutorials out there are better resources for Rails.

Rails Guides basic blog tutorial - meh. Too much hand holding but good to get introduced to Rails.

Django tutorial - meh. Tutorial is very basic with too much hand holding

coderbyte - helps you get used to coding challenges. many of the ones you'll see later are variations on these plus the practice helps a ton

The two edx courses were definitely the most helpful and gave me the ability to breeze through all the coding challenges. It's better to overprepare because when you're on that skype interview and asked to code you're going to be nervous as all hell. You want to be really comfortable with the basics of the language and to be able to solve the coderbyte easy/medium questions easily

The stuff that I listed as meh or not helpful was still helpful in showing that programming is something that I'm seriously interested in and dedicated to learning

For example I got screwed by black friday and had to enter the job market with no college degree, job experience, or marketable skills. I managed to get a crappy job making about 40k

Bootcamps cost generally 8-20k. Mine takes 18% of your first year's salary. For someone like me to probably be able to double my salary and enter the field where I want to work in such a short amount of time it seems like a no brainer

http://www.bootcamps.in/

site runs slower than a cat turd rolling down a hill, but it seems to have a fair amount of information, and the ability to check for programs by tuition rate (the free ones, I imagine, do the "take x% of your first year's income" as described earler).

The one I mentioned earlier was 4 grand, with a 1500 dollar refund possible. Do many or all "graduates" have a good chance of getting in with one of the refunding companies? No clue. Do many even get jobs out of school? Still no clue. Where to find that info? No clue. Not much is turning up when I google the company for reviews.

So, how is the best way to find out if the place you're looking into is worth the money? Most of these bootcamps seem so new they don't have a chance to build up much rep yet.

I guess that's debatable. If you get an entry-level job, you might make 30-40k right off the bat. Of course, you only know one or two languages at most, or a specific platform or whatever. Everything I've read says that learning that first language is the hard part, and after that you can mostly apply what you've learned to other languages and just learn the syntax. So it might be beneficial in that sense.

In most cities, an entry level programming job is paying way more than 30-40k.

Not that hard to make a 6 figure income in software development with some experience. New grads with CS degrees from what I understand in reading this forum are making between $50k and $60k maybe more. Net tuition costs it takes a while to reach parity.

Testers that basically do no software development make over $30k easy in the Seattle area. If you want to go the contractor route as testers easily $50k+. These boot camp graduates are going to do better than testers. Not really debatable.

I'll seriously consider that, thanks.

I'd love to hear more about your experience, like which one you went to, was it a good choice, and did you have to do a lot of preparation to get in/survive the bootcamp?

Very useful post, thanks. Congratulations on getting into Hack Reactor: it seems to be one of the best bootcamps from what I've read (selective, good employment record, etc.). Did you apply to/consider any other bootcamps?

I thought Hack Reactor was the expensive one, like 18K, and App Academy was the one that took 18% of your first year's salary. Which one are you going to?

I've found more information than I can absorb about bootcamps. Some to start with:
The Ultimate Guide to Coding Bootcamps: The Exhaustive List Read the comments of articles too: some give reviews or mention other bootcamps.
Quora on Programming Bootcamps There's a lot there, including posts by founders and instructors, and I haven't even touched it yet.
One of many articles I've read

The Denver one seems pretty good. Amazing how high their success rate in job placement is so far. First batch of students, all but one had a 60k+ job within one month of completion.