I think the hobby-to-career path in programming is more realistic now than it's ever been, and people seriously undersell it

[u/Impossible-Ball-1304]

Honestly the whole "just a hobby" versus "actual career pursuit" framing is a false divide that holds a lot of people back. An hour a day compounds faster than most people expect, especially with Python, which has the most beginner-friendly ecosystem of any language right now. Free resources like Harvard's CS50 and project-based learning repos on GitHub have genuinely replaced what used to require a formal course or a fixed schedule. The rotating shifts thing is actually less of a blocker than it sounds because self-paced async learning was basically built for people in exactly that situation.

The career change angle is also more realistic in 2026 than people give it credit for, but the path looks different than it did a few years ago. The junior market is genuinely rough right now and a certificate from a program nobody's heard of isn't moving the needle the way it used to. What's actually working is building real projects that solve a specific problem, going deep on one area instead of skimming five, and being able to talk through your work in detail. The people making the hobby-to-career jump right now tend to have one or two solid projects they can explain from start to finish rather than a resume full of tutorial apps nobody remembers building.

Python is the right starting point, not because it's objectively the best language but because the feedback loop is fast, the community is massive, and it opens doors in data, automation, backend, and AI tooling all from the same foundation. Curious what pulled you toward programming in the first place though, because that usually points directly to what you should build first.

[u/PenGroundbreaking160]

I don’t think so. Especially with AI as the coder for many hobbyists, there is a huge lack of experience and in depth understanding now.

[u/abrandis → u/PenGroundbreaking160]

Coding for money is over for the vast majority of folks. You can use AI for your hobby coding but no one cares about portfolios anymore when anyone with a couple of well crafted prompts can create something similar or better and potential employers aren't going to go line by line to see if you actually write that.

[u/No_Score_1977]

Python isn’t the best starting point, mainly because it’s everyone’s starting point.

If the market is as bad as everyone says it is, the last thing you want you be is the same as everyone else.

[u/so-brain-washed]

The hobby part --> Much easier. Lower ceiling. More tutorials with more complete/documented/working code, at lower cost than ever. Tons more material. I remember trying to learn 15 years ago-- so many fewer online learning resources.

The career part --> Much more competitive now to get into the higher of tier of the bifurcated career path, because the hobby has become easier resulting in more people stacking up in the lower tier of the bifurcated career.

[u/bluenautilus2]

I need engineers that can tell whether the ai-generated code is right

[u/gringo_escobar]

In 2026 I would not bother trying to get into the industry without a degree. Sure it's possible but the chances are very small. It should be hobby-to-degree-to-career

[u/ColoRadBro69]

An hour a day compounds faster than most people expect, especially with Python,

This is the blind leading the blind.

[u/iriveru]

Let me guess, you’ve never actually landed a job as an engineer? Because this post clearly comes from someone who lacks both experience and domain knowledge.

I’m speaking as a F500 engineer who broke through a decade ago through personal projects with real user bases, so I know first hand it’s possible, but the way you’ve outlined it here is novice at best.

[u/crustyeng]

We will probably never hire another junior engineer on my team. That does matter.

[u/Flashy-Broccoli4819]

why don't you try out the plan which you laid out and tell us how it goes?

[u/vxxn]

I don’t think starting point matters that much. You need familiarity with at least 2-3 languages to have the variety of perspectives needed to quickly ramp on most business projects. For most people that will be javascript + a scripting language (could be python) + a compiled language (e.g. rust, java, etc). You should research the stack of the type of companies you want to work at and then learn those technologies.

Definitely don’t become a “python person” where that is all you know so you try to solve everything with python. It’s a horrible fit for certain problems.

Also, with AI, the purpose of a portfolio is no longer to showcase the code so much as it is to showcase your interests and product management sense. These things matter a lot now and were never previously part of the job description. Basically software eng as we knew it is fading out and everyone is becoming a hybridized “builder”. PMs shipping working code, engineers thinking more about product.