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  1. #1
    TwinkMAXXing Azrairc's Avatar
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    Getting into tech, where to start?

    lots of tech company/military chit around me

    currently in the health field and well make 50k a year with low prospects for improvement. One of my patients in the industry was telling me to just applying for random jobs even though I only have an associates in my field not related to anything tech.

    I just started my "career" but years ago earning of 50-70k sounded like enough to me, now with inflation and a field controlled by reimbursements with more cuts coming, meaning no wage adjustments to inflation and possible paycuts, little room for growth. I'm seeing it's simply not a great way to spend what little youth I have left. I'd be lucky to save $1,000 per month after my bills

    I figured I can try another degree and try to change industries or just stick with poverty time my whole life (Even though I'm horrible at math and barely passed college algebra)

    So what options are viable, pursuing a associates at my local college would be very doable (cyber security?, computer science?) bachelors would be harder. Or would be getting some certs and trying to break into the industry be better rough road map?
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  2. #2
    Big Data JeffPesos's Avatar
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    I switched into tech last year. Currently making about 80k -100k at a fortune 200 working as a Tier 2 in a NOC. The range is because of OT.

    You have many avenues to get into tech and you named them all pretty much being a degree, certs, self-study, or a combination of all. I had a combo of all. I did a WGU Computer Science Degree which took me 3 terms so $10k roughly. I also have a CCNA, Sec +, and above average Python / SQL skills.

    Your goal as someone trying to break into the industry is to get an interview. Anyone who brings you on for an interview knows exactly what kinda prospect you are, so you need to simply convey a lot of enthusiasm for the role and you can prove that in many different ways.

    I spoke with every interviewer I had afterwards to see what they looked for, and its always enthusiasm for the role and base knowledge. Every entry-level IT job can be taught.

    A few selected pieces of advice, for the love of god do not do A+ Sec+ Net+. I think its a waste of money. If you are going to get all 3 of those, just get a CCNA and maybe a cloud cert like the AWS Cloud Practitioner.
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  3. #3
    Misc Artisté BillTheBro's Avatar
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    If you want to break into tech, there's tons of non-tech and low tier tech startups out there that are desperate for talent. And you can start at around 100k and work your way up from there.

    The opportunity is absolutely there, and you'll want to either do a degree or a reputable bootcamp. Self studying takes so much longer, it just isn't worth the opportunity cost.



    The main thing is really do you want to do this. Like go start at free coding camp, codeacademy or app academy online and see how it feel to go 2-4 hours a day of practicing for a few weeks. It's not going to be fun like a party, but if it feels satisfying and interesting instead of frustrating and boring, you'll know you're good to go. You did say algebra wasn't great for you and I would say it's the most similar to what an entry level software job actually is.
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  4. #4
    Misc Artisté BillTheBro's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by TugOfPeace View Post
    I'm planning to start as well, self study route - going to become proficient in a couple languages, learn some tools, and then do some personal projects to showcase in the interviews. Bootcamps seem to be all about web design, not really my interest

    I think it's really about how hard you grind, I'm looking forward to the journey.
    That's great and if you are bright and persistent enough then you'll be fine with whatever path you choose. But I would like to expound a bit on my advice to avoid pure self studying, because I really do think it's never a good call to go at it alone.

    The main challenges of learning programming and obtaining a "real" programming job (let's say beyond frontend web development) are information overload and the solitary nature of programming. Time and time again with self-learners I see them get lost in the sauce so to speak. A degree/bootcamp provides you with a curriculum, a community, and accountability. Being smart and motivated will get you where you're going quicker but 99% of self-learners simply aren't going anywhere.

    I've seen this a million times with people online trying to learn alone, they don't know what they don't know, they jump around topics, languages, they have no clue what employers are looking for, and they eventually just fold because they are relying on pure willpower.


    So while you may think you don't need a bootcamp or you don't need to get your feet wet with some dumb CSS, you're shooting yourself in the foot. I went self study -> bootcamp -> frontend web development -> backend/data engineering. And that's the quickest most successful route I've seen from my friends as well. I'll say this straight up, no legit company is going to hire a dude without a degree or prior work experience to do backend work. It's a completely unrealistic expectation. Anyways there's a million different things I wish I could tell myself three years ago so if you want any advice feel free to dm me.
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  5. #5
    Remember the Alamo! Gayford's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by TugOfPeace View Post
    I'm planning to start as well, self study route - going to become proficient in a couple languages, learn some tools, and then do some personal projects to showcase in the interviews. Bootcamps seem to be all about web design, not really my interest

    I think it's really about how hard you grind, I'm looking forward to the journey.
    Syntax is not really that important but rather the logical procress of how to solve problems. Stackoverflow will tell you what code to use if you now what you need to do. ChatGPT will give you a pretty good start as well if you know what you need to do logically. I see too many people focus on what language when that really doesn't matter. I can do anything in pretty much any language, java, php, .Net, C#, Python or whatever.
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