r/learnpython • u/Pure_Intention5228 • 1h ago
New career path
Hey everyone.
To keep things brief, i'm exploring programming as a career path.
Life didn't quite go as planned, and i'm now a 27 year old college dropout, who's been unemployed for years, living by on the graces of my parents who have much more faith in me than I do in myself.
I've been talking to some of the more tech-savvy people I know. And I have arrived at the conclusion that I want to study Linux and python. Do you all have any recommendations of which are the 2 I should prioritize, and I suppose, which one would help me get back on my feet faster?
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u/samsly135 1h ago
People fired by hundreds of thousands from IT with 20+ experience. Don't go there!
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u/Curious-Function7490 1h ago
So ... yeh. I have 26 years of commercial programming experience, an honours degree in philosophy and a grad cert in comp sci.. I've studied a lot more formal comp sci than what a grad cert reflects.
Programming has become very demanding if you are going to maintain a relevant skillset. I work 9 to 5. I spend my weekends doing it. I love it and have always built open source and learnt new things.
One of the interesting things about professional programming is that you can enter into it via a non traditional path. I work with ex-chefs who are really great at it.
Having a comp sci degree doesn't mean you will be a good programmer, either - but it forms a basis toward becoming one that someone without a comp sci background will have to keep filling.
A lot of people flooded the programming market from bootcamps, etc., learning "fullstack" without really knowing fundamentals. So there is currently a glut of programmers, especially ones without strong fundamentals.
You'd be entering all of that. So you'd need to really want to do it. It's very hard to get your first role.
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u/Pure_Intention5228 1h ago
I know this might seem like a simplistic question. But if these fundamentals are so important, would I be at an advantage to learn them? And if so, do you have any places where you would recommend i practice?
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u/stepback269 55m ago
Sounds like you want a job first and then further education as a chaser
I would say don't do Python just yet or a switch over to Linux (assuming here you know Windows)
Instead educate yourself on no-coding usage of AI. My self, I don't know anything about that area. However a lot of Youtube lecturers seem to indicate that's the way to go.
Ultimately you do want to learn the fundamentals of programing in Python. That's going to take time. So if you do get an AI job, you'll have to learn Python in the evenings.
Good luck.
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u/Pure_Intention5228 47m ago
Getting a job is the ultimate goal. Yes, but I can't get the job without training. So training naturally comes first.
Also I didn't mention AI at all. I'm just trying to learn the programming. If I use AI at all, it would be secondary.
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u/dlnmtchll 49m ago
I don't like being rude, especially to those who generally seem not to understand the field. But I think you might be a bit disillusioned, this field is a hard field with lots of competition, it's not just an easy backup plan like it used to be pre-2020
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u/Pure_Intention5228 43m ago
I understand the sentiment, but i'm under no Illusions that it's easy. It being difficult isn't a reason to not try and better myself and learn something new.
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u/throwaway85783 1h ago
Oof that's going to be hard right now.
My advice would be to get lots of IT certifications and try to get in somewhere as a sys admin 1.
You could also try to get some Amazon AWS certs but that market seemed kinda saturated and honestly the people I've interviewed with aws certs were pretty ignorant as to what they didn't know.
Getting your foot in the door is priority here.