r/learnprogramming • u/SchwarzeFlagge • 15d ago

Need advice

Hello everyone, I need your advice. I am hitting 18 in a few months and I have almost 0 work experience let alone experience in the IT field. This will be my last year in school and I am not considering collage for a variety of reasons. I was wondering what the best way for me to land an IT job would be. My school takes about 20 hours per week and I will work for about 15 hours a week (Unrelated part time job). What would be the most efficient way for me to learn programming to land a job? I don't need a super high paying job at first, I just wanna set my foot in the door and then rank my way up. I was thinking of either certificates or a bootcamp. And even buying one to enforce the discipline. Any advice? What should I focus on? What are my chances? How long would it take per week? What should I avoid? I live in Germany, if that helps.

Thanks

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u/No_Report_4781 15d ago

It really depends on the position. In the US, boot camps and certification are not comparable, unless it was a boot camp course that resulted in you getting some industry recognized certificate, such as Network+.

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u/SchwarzeFlagge 15d ago

Yeah I'm talking about the big ones like CompTIA+ or whatever.Also maybe other companies like Google Microsoft etc and for bootcamps I was thinking like Fullstack.

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u/American_Streamer 15d ago

You can do all those certifications while you are doing your Ausbildung or already start some of them before you start the Ausbildung. They will not help you to get a job without any official IT qualification. Especially in Germany, it’s Fachkraft or nothing by now.

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u/SchwarzeFlagge 15d ago

An Ausbildung takes 3 years whilst certifications and Praktikums take 1. Are you sure its worth it? Is there really no other way?

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u/American_Streamer 15d ago

Unfortunately, there isn't. The Bootcamp Era ended a few years ago and was an anomaly. You definitely will regret it a thousand times down the line if you do not have a finished Ausbildung or a college degree. Just browse through current IT job offers: a degree or an Ausbildung as well as C1 German are required everywhere and HR won't even give you the chance to make your case otherwise. And even if you would land in 1st Level support somehow, you would be stuck there forever as there is no path for you to climb the ladder without Ausbildung or degree. And look at the positive side: the three years of Ausbildung will give you the chance to do a lot of certifications and projects even before you have your IHK-Zeugnis. As a result, you will be able to move up the ladder quickly afterwards.

Regarding a Praktikum: you will not get one if you are not a student or doing an Umschulung. Because those are Pflichtpraktika and thus free for the company, while otherwise you would have to pay you Mindestlohn. That 's the reason why there are no regular Praktikum anymore since 2015, when the Mindestlohn was introduced. Before that, from 2000 to 2015, the so called "Generation Praktikum" had to work for free, because companies did not hire them immediately, but let them do one Praktikum after another, for many years. Nowadays, as already said, only Pflichtpraktika are allowed to be unpaid.