My brother wants to get into tech, what should I tell him?
My brother is in his mid-30s and it's just him and his wife with no kids planned. I've been working as a UX designer for about 8 years now and I've been largely remote for the last 2. He has run his own small business and also worked as a part time nurse for the last few years but I think he's looking for someone that has a more flexible schedule like I have and also allows him to work from home some. He was certified in a lot of IT stuff back in the day (mcse, networking, etc) but didn't really pursue it. He often asks me about what I do or how to get into it. And after some thought I thought maybe becoming a developer would be a good fit. It seems they're always in demand and you can make good money and have the flexible schedule and ability to work from home. Unfortunately, as someone with limited dev experience, I'm not sure where to tell him to start. Should he just start in front end web dev and slowly work his way into software dev? What are good place to start learning from online? Udemy, general assembly, online Stanford courses? Any advice on a widely available and in demand are of development he should focus? I thought maybe even becoming like a Salesforce developer could be a good route. Sorry for the long post and thanks for all the advice you can offer!#tech #career #developerprogram
comments
Getting interviews
Solving LC style problems.
Not sure about his location, but getting interviews are hard even for new grads from good uni. So he’d need a plan on how he will get interviews to get his foot in the door.
And he will need to find out where he stands with LC style problems. I am assuming he knows some coding at least. If not he will need to learn a language. If he can’t solve LC easy he will need to start with a algo/DS book.
Seems like a long project. Not just a few months.
1) Self-Study using resources like FreeCodeCamp and https://teachyourselfcs.com/
2) Go through a coding boot camp (Full Stack Academy, Hack Reactor etc.)
3) Get a CS degree, but do it in a short time-frame 1-2 years. Example program: https://www.wgu.edu/online-it-degrees/computer-science.html
CS degree is still the gold standard for entry no matter what bootcamps try to tell you. However, bootcamps do provide things like an alumni network and career coach to help with job search + a few projects to show case. Self-taught is the cheapest path, just be prepared to move mountains to break into tech. Especially during a recession.
https://haseebq.com/how-to-break-into-tech-job-hunting-and-interviews/
I don't know the bootcamp scene that well. A friend who did Hack Reactor awhile back enjoyed it. Sounds a bit pricey to me, but everyone learns differently I guess...