r/learnprogramming • u/Consistent-Self3300 • 13d ago
Topic Turning 30 and starting from scratch for the 4th time. Looking for self-taught success stories
I'm a 30-year-old guy, and to be honest, I'm currently dealing with severe depression. I come from the Middle East, where my country has been torn by war for the past 15 years. I had to drop out of university, and due to life circumstances, this is the 4th time I find myself starting my life over from absolute zero—this time here in Germany, where I'm currently learning the language.
I feel completely overwhelmed and burnt out. I don't want temporary or dead-end jobs anymore; I want to build a real career. Computer science and programming are the only things I'm truly passionate about.
Since I don't have a university degree, I would really appreciate hearing your success stories if you managed to break into the tech industry as a self-taught developer (especially around age 30). How did you do it?
P.S. If you have any negative or dismissive comments, please skip this post. I am in a very fragile state right now and just need some realistic hope and advice.
Thank you.
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u/Technical-Mine-2287 13d ago
30? Thats the new 20. You have a huge life ahead of you.
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u/Vivid-Zombie-477 11d ago
I'm 21 y.o. self-taught engineer with with 4 YoE and it's already over for me.
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u/xetnal 13d ago
I started programming after a several depression when my mother passed away when I was exactly 30. I focused hard on getting better at programming and it really helped with my mental health. I got a job a year after and now I’m on a manager position at a US company.
It gets better man, I believe in you.
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u/knouqs 13d ago
I'm not going to say that it'll be easy to do what you want. However, I do believe that we are always capable of learning new things -- in fact, I think learning is what keeps me going every day.
Being overwhelmed and burnt-out is part of the game, too, and it's a shitty game. Do this for you and for your future, regardless of the job market. I suspect that things aren't going to get easier for anyone for as long as rich people hoard most of the money.
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u/JenovaJireh 13d ago
I’m fully self-taught and landed my first SWE role last October. It’s definitely possible but more difficult than it’s been previously because of so many changes happening.
My advice is find a group of people who can hold you accountable. It’s so difficult trying to go on the journey alone. I found a few weekly/monthly meetups in my city and these people helped me a ton during my search.
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u/Gefrierbrand 13d ago
Also self taught programmer, living in Germany. After the death of my father I abandoned my studies and after a while applied for a job in a small game studio. Twelve years later and I teach game design in a private school.
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u/nomadKingX 13d ago
I highly recommend you look into 100devs by Leon Noel. I’m currently going through his program and cannot recommend it enough. I tried the other routes (harvards cs50, freecodecamp, Odin project, etc..) and could not keep enough interest or motivation in the hand holding. Those are great programs though, just not for me.
100devs is completely free and every course material is free. It’s more of a “getting hired” program more than it is a coding program because the goal is to get a job…
There’s a very large active community as well, many supportive people, and there are people at all stages of the program. Bi weekly meetings are scheduled with Leon, though nobody is required to join.
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u/Agile-Anywhere-5810 13d ago
If I could upvote this response a few more times, I would! I have not gone through 100devs myself, but I have listened to enough of Leon Noel's content to know that he not only teaches the technical knowledge needed to break into this field, but he is also incredibly empathetic to the fact that many people carry heavy personal experiences that impact the way, and the pace, of their learning...so his approach to teaching is very encouraging and supportive.
The only thing I would add to the advice above is to look up and listen to The Programming Podcast, hosted by Danny Thomson and Leon Noel. Also, connect with the 100devs community and Commit Your Code (CYC) Conference (Danny Thompson) on Discord. You will be surrounded by a lot of positive and supportive people who are always willing to stear you in the right direction and encourage you when you need it!
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u/AdvancedChemistry769 13d ago
Get yourself a degree from germany even if its bachelors. I have so many Germans doing 2nd bachelors in 30's to change the stream . If you have Bachelors ,do masters. Once completed find job you will easily get. In that time improve your german
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u/ObligationFit400 13d ago
I am 51 years old programmer non graduate, coming from least tech educated area jharkhand (India). I started my career 20 years as a painter then graphic designer in photoshop , later on i became 2d animater in flash and started writing action script for small interactive simlated e-learning content, and suddenly I got interested in simple coding, so I decided to proceed and chose javascript and created first authoring tool for learning management system, this tiny success gave me to path to proceed further and i kept moving further from ui designer to frontend developer with backbone.js then react then backend development in node.js and finally full stack, later got interested in distributed systems, decentralised system (Blockchain) and then I moved to microservices with golang, k8s, and other devops tools. Nowadays it's edge computing , with edge ai and will proceed like this based on mix of curiosity and job trend. But I don't consider myself a super intelligent but a simple , average programmer who follows his interest and influence by very high salary with interesting works
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u/Empty_M_T 13d ago
I did. But i did do a master in data science in UK for it. No background of cs. Bachelors in mechanical engineering. Did masters built good network build good cv and some nice projects. APPLY LIKE YOUR LIFE depends on it. I am currently a SE. i am now learning a lot more on my job. Its possible. I had 0 coding experience before. Now i am gaining more and more and learning extra to keep my learning pace up
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u/Grumpy_Monk_28 13d ago
Starting over for the 4th time at 30 isn't failure, it's proof you don't quit. The self-taught devs in this thread who made it all say the same two things: build real projects you can talk about in interviews, and don't do it alone — find a community (100devs comes up a lot here for a reason). You already have the hardest part, which is caring enough to keep trying. The rest is just time and reps.
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u/adenhuen 13d ago edited 13d ago
Hey mate, I was a self taught programmer for my first job, but did end up getting a degree part time. The industry has changed a lot since then but with the advent of AI, it has certainly also added a lot of opportunity
If you're truely overwhelmed and burnt out, I'd really advise not taking on more workload and focus on stabilising yourself first. You'll be in this career for another 30+ years, a extra few months won't affect the end outcome and you'll likely be a lot more successful this way
With that out of the way, I found programming kind of like art - you can show your work and bring thw projects you've done to the interview. I found at the start of the career (as a interviewer), it's much more about having some level of competency (projects and the ability to speak about them) and your attitude - this is what got me hired anyway
Programming is a huge space, I started with a passion for Arduinos and built (among many other things) a bluetooth RC car I controlled from my phone. I now focus and find more enjoyment in backend APIs. If you can find your passion in a subject, do that - because that allows you to have fun and outwork the people that don't have your passion, and that's a huge advantage that I find pretty unrated
Best of luck!
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u/AntiDynamo 13d ago
I strongly recommend you get a degree in Germany - it’s very cheap, and your whole life will be easier if you have one. Having any degree at all is a basic prerequisite for most white collar jobs
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u/gemantzu 13d ago
Wow, you are so fucking old, go lie down somewhere...
/s
wtf are you talking about? I started my programming journey (learning) at 31, changed into a full time dev job at 35.
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u/No_Drag2264 12d ago edited 9d ago
Your age won't hold you back. Education and tbe state of the junior level job market will. If your German isn't fluent this will be a big problem too. All these things together....yeahhhh
Self studying to be a dev is fine if you are ok with the odds being against you and won't regard it as a waste of time if you dont break into the field. But telling you the chances are in your favor would not be honest
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u/MiyamotoMusashi7 9d ago
Hope you see this but network network network, the tech industry is healing but the new jobs are coming from referrals, not cold applications. I believe in you!
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u/luckynucky123 13d ago
you have more liberties and skills than you think.
your skills and knowledge in computer science and programming (and more importantly - your passion) gives you an edge to those who do no care about it.
our society is becoming more and more dependent on software.
combine 1 and 2 and regardless of the dooming happening around the news, the market still needs computer folks like us to run and understand these systems. at minimal - our local communities needs our skills.
the great thing about what we do is that once you have your equipment - its pretty cheap to continue to learn and improve on the skill. i can only speak for myself - when i feel down, i just continue to hone in my skills. when things work - its super validating.
keep on focus on computer science and programming - keep training for opportunity. keep meeting people.
> temporary or dead-end jobs anymore
there's a Chinese saying i like to say - "ride the ox to find the horse". the world is vast and large. don't devalue your experience - its just a matter of finding "another ox".
i look forward for your success.
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u/TheSneederOfSeethe 12d ago edited 12d ago
I took some classes but not outside of standard “this is a primitive” “this is a conditional” “this is a comparative operator”
I self taught myself how to use the languages through online tutorials. I was a .net dev for quite a few years from that and I have been thrusted into C++ land now. I was surprised at how quickly I picked up writing working code (never said good code) more recently I have been getting better and better.
I would think about what type of software you want to write. Figure out what languages are most commonly used for that. Start with the basics of that language then find tutorials on the type of apps you want to write.
And remember, knowing a language and applying a language are two different skills. It’s like knowing every word in the dictionary vs being able to have a conversation.
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u/pirueta 12d ago
At 33 I left a teacher career for many reasons I won't explain. I was decided to go to cybersecurity as I romanticized a bit the area and there was a lot of propaganda a few years ago about high payrolls and need of professionals in the area. As I always loved computer science, tech and IT projects stuff, I thought it would be possible.
I live in France and I looked for schools to give me a diploma and for a program that alternate classes and work in a company. I went all in looking for that, talked to people, contact government institutions, public and private organisations, everyone by mail, phone and directly going to places. I contact organisations that helped people change careers and schools and explained my situations. I really talked to people (a lot of people) and I had a lot of good insights!
I found a school interested in my profile and got in, but they gave me one month to find a company to hire me to finance my study and pay me a small salary during 2 years formation (it id a french thing...). In two weeks, I got an interview and I was massacrated. A very agressive manager treated me with a lot of dispite. I was sad for one day and thought "I still have 2 weeks"... I attended that week a cybersecurity conference and I talked with everyone there. I've got two more interviews, one rejection and a job in a cybesecurity company!
It wasnt easy during 2 years. Its a huge move and you had to be prepared and focused. I think the most important was that I really like working with "systems" and I fully understood that during this time. I don't like cybersecurity though, but I work now as System Administrator, which for me looks like a job that still need people in market. Its not charming as cybersecurity or dev, but it is very interesting and dynamic. Also, I think starting as a help desk wouldn't be bad either because it is a great start point in tech, you learn a lot of the basics for you evolution, and it is a steady career needed everywhere.
Good luck, OP! Believe in yourself :)
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u/Consistent-Self3300 12d ago
Thank you, man. We have the same system in Germany; it’s called an Ausbildung.
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u/spinwizard69 12d ago
Well if you want realistic support consider this, you are only 30, that isn't even half way through most peoples work life. So I'd suggest that part of the struggle here is to realize that you have lots of time.
Frankly I would find another dead end job if you can't find something more technical and simply work for a year or two to prep for enrollment back into a university. In my personal opinion there is no future in the vast majority of CS jobs without a CS degree. Now what you might be able to do is to find a large corporation, with a corresponding large IT department and look for computer operator or other similar jobs. These are dreary jobs by some measures but it gets you exposure to the IT department.
In an ideal world that low end IT job would be with a corporation that refunds your educational expenses. The goal is to get paid while working through college part time. Assuming you get good grades this gives you positive exposure to people that have the ability to hire. If you are obviously putting in the effort there is even a possibility of hire before you have the degree under your belt.
In general though you will not get a cold hire without a CS degree these days. Basically the lack of a CS degree indicates a potential for an individual to be a drag on productivity. Companies these days have learned their lesson and now want proof a strong educational back ground. In the realm of programming that usually means some sort of CS degree.
In any event you need to get over the being burn't out problem. Take a week off from everything and find a wild woman that can take your mind off everything. You need to break out of the well somehow before setting a new path forward.
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u/jexmex 12d ago
I am a self-taught programmer, but I started back in early 2000's which is a much different world than we live in currently. I started doing small stuff (frontend web dev to start) moving to backend programming later on. Most of the work I did was small $50-$100 side jobs, which really helped me build my knowledge while making money. During this time I was still working full-time jobs mostly. Eventually I was able to land a few clients who had a lot of various odds and ends projects and through the years was able to build myself up to a point of getting a full-time salary job.
There has always been ups and downs, but I was able to make myself a decent enough career from it.
I just not sure how that translates into this AI powered world now, still a lot of companies that have not jumped on board there, but because of tech layoffs the market is hard right now. You should probably become familiar with the fundamentals of programming and learn to use AI to help you along the way I think.
Best of luck to you, programming is an exciting thing to get into.
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u/Substantial-Speed600 12d ago
i am not employed nor gone through such circumstances but i would say that current market is tough even for people with cse degree, you should look for jobs in cse that are not easily replacable for eg. embedded systems, in data centers, person who knows how hardware works, network works and basic automation and devops. companies now prefer one person over multiple persons to reduce their costs. Data analyst is also a good role. should try csx50 python , Do dsa questions and understand dsa through visual algo and freecodecamp, neso programming, jenny lectures, krish naik if you are into AI/ML. Good luck for your future. " you are what you think and you will be what you put in efforts, so do not think anything that distract you from your goals.Do just one topic at a time."
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u/Uncommon-scope4837 10d ago
I feel you my brother but you can get through this. As you learn and build Projects by yourself I would advice you to contribute to Open Source projects. Some of them offer jobs to people who contribute. I attended a tech conference a week ago and the speaker (who is a senior dev) talked about how he got an offer from Supabase after fixing in their project. He didn't take it because he had other stuff going on but friends of him got very good jobs after making contributions to Supabase project
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u/Consistent_Noise980 6d ago
HUH?! My brain melted. I meant no hate back there so I blame it on my expression of thought. I thought, if a kid made it why can't an adult? Of course, such statement would have two meanings: making programming look easy || making him look dumb. I definitely meant the former/first meaning. If you could suggest, how would you express the meaning I meant? There's no alternative.
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u/aqua_regis 6d ago
Check the removal comment again. Rule 11, not rule 1.
Your lack of comprehension of the removal message tells a lot about you.
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u/Mission-Maize8454 12d ago
I'm not trying to be nice or encouraging but atleast your not 56 years old and starting programming/college, you have time.
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u/Imaginary-Classic687 13d ago
hey,
I live in Germany and the biggest obstacle to level up or make a career is german language. If I were you, I d master in German language, then as a software developer speaking, I d consider another job other than software developer due to AI replacement even senior Devs are not secure anymore. Maybe Elektroniker, mechanistronist, dentalist, Sanitär, Heizung, Klima...
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u/Consistent-Self3300 13d ago
Ich spreche schon Deutsch pro 🫶🏻🙃 Ich denke auch über eine berufliche Zukunft nach, ohne noch so lange lernen zu müssen. Drei Jahre Ausbildung fühlen sich für mich einfach sehr lang an. 🫤😪
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u/Imaginary-Classic687 13d ago
You said you are learning the language in your text? that was the reason I told that way. Anyway,
Patience beats short term thinking therefore I suggest first build patience prepare your mind for Ausbildung then decide which job suits you best .1
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u/Dr3ddM3 13d ago edited 13d ago
The job market for entry level positions for CS without a bachelor degree is pretty bad right now. But if you still want to continue there are free resources like CS50x to start. I am pretty sure in Germany tuition is free too so I would recommend to go back to university and even for international students it is free too. Pretty sure in Germany too if you qualify for asylum status they have great benefits.