Can anybody offer any advice about coding “bootcamps” like Dev Bootcamp or General Assembly? Most are $10K+, and none are in my area, but there is a coding school called
Thinkful that offers online classes in “front end web development” for $300 a month for three months.
I know very little about coding. In the late 90s, I took courses in HTML and SQL, but never really used it. I was between jobs as an attorney, and thought about leaving the profession. But I found a legal job at an association shortly after completing the classes. That and then another job eventually ended, and I have been doing consulting work for the first employer for the last four and a half years. But I recently learned that his business is dramatically cutting back because of the economy. He laid off his only employee, a secretary, at the end of June, and won’t be renewing his lease when it expires. (He will run the business out of his house instead). He does have $2,500 of work for me in the next few months, but that’s it until the end of the year. I am nearly 49, and no legal employer will hire me. I have no litigation experience and no clients. My legal career is over.
I have no illusions that coding would be easy, but I did pass two bar exams the first time. My concern is that no one would want a 49 year old junior web developer with no experience. Thinkful apparently tries to place its students, but who knows how successful they are in that regard.
Thanks.
its free and they have courses for a number of languages.
It may be a good place to start
Link - ( New Window )
Codecademy is a great place to start. Tackle HTML, CSS, Javascript first. After that you should start to latch on to the idea that the best way to learn is to do a personal project for fun.
Stackoverflow will always be your friend. Good luck.
As someone what manages a team of Front End Web Developers, I don't care if you didn't go to school for coding or how old you are. If you can prove to me that you can code (either through a portfolio, github profile, or the interview process) I'll give you shot.
I've read about the boot camps and they are more intense than what you can do online for free. They aren't cheap. But I'd say that it would show a level of commitment to career change that doing stuff for free won't.
But there is a lot of stuff available online. The key to getting started will be coming up with some reference-able work product that you can show a potential employer to describe what you can do for them. You will need to have projects that folks can look at. A website you built and even better a gitub of code. I hire developers and I don't care about certifications from anyone. Show me your code.
It was a plus to have a teacher available that could answer difficult questions. Some stuff that came up in Photoshop and Illustrator really needed a live person to assist.
I'd try out the free web classes first. Make sure you do a personal web site as suggested already. See if you like coding.
Codecademy is a great place to start. Tackle HTML, CSS, Javascript first. After that you should start to latch on to the idea that the best way to learn is to do a personal project for fun.
Stackoverflow will always be your friend. Good luck.
This.
Can't emphasize enough how much of a resource Stackoverflow is.
If you want to get into development, HTML/PHP/SQL will get you there, at least to start. After that, Javascript is good to know.
I still see positions for email coders, you may want to search Dice.com and Monster for that. It's real basic coding due to the numerous email clients.
There are enough free online resources (as well as very inexpensive, which I count along with free) to get you going to see if you have interest and would want to proceed with a career in the field. It's so easy to develop code in your spare time, all you need is a computer (or the mobile device of your choice if you're looking to write mobile code) and some free time.
Good luck either way.
I'd advise you to avoid shortcuts and take the time to learn how computers really work. You need to understand how compliation and linking work , the difference between byte code and native code and what application servers do. These will be important in any decent job.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry, these are easy concepts to learn. You'll learn them from either an intro course online or a book.
After dropping 50 to 100K + 3 years of your life on a legal education you should be pleasantly surprised how quickly an inexpensively you can obtain a programming / high tech education. I broke into this business when I was thirty seven years old after taking a 6 month program of courses. There were a lot fewer education options back then but all and all its a lot of fun.
Its especially satisfying to write code, see it compile without errors for the first time, and see it run as you expect. Also, as far as I know there is no "bell curve" that I know of in any kind of programing education. Whether you take an online course, go into a dev boot camp or officially enroll in a program at a university for a grade, everyone can excell provided they have an aptitude for it.
Problems will always have multiple solutions... knowing which solution is more correct is what will separate you during interviews. The easiest way is just to learn some basic data structures in addition to any programming language. You don't need to concern yourself too much with graphs, but it will help you immenesly to know when to use a hash table. It could be the difference in a web page loading in under a second, when it originally took 10 seconds to load.
After you learn a language, I would take the time and watch a few of the videos from the following site. I recommend the Intro to Comp Sci and Intro to Algorithms. Just be aware of the concepts...even if it means skipping the videos and using wikipedia. That's all.
MIT OpenCourseWare: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - ( New Window )
Since you have the law degree you can pursue several areas:
-Government work specifically acquisitions, a technical background could give you an edge, but you may have to start low and work up.
-As others have mentioned, strongly look into IT compliance. Look at the Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and see if that interests you. If you can obtain that (You would need to evaluate if your resume gives you the required experience) then it will help break into IT Auditing where the legal background is a bonus
-You can try some of the coding freelance sites to get some paid jobs (you will be competing against people in 3rd world countries price wise) for some experience when you are proficient.
Don't spend tons of money on coursework until you read the whole book. If you can't get through the book any programming courses/boot camps are probably going to be a waste of money.
We currently have job listings for 20+ C#/.NET/SQL developers in the Burlington, Vermont area if anyone is interested...
Head First Labs C# - ( New Window )