[HN Gopher] Ask HN: I am in my late 20s looking to change career...
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       Ask HN: I am in my late 20s looking to change careers. Any advice?
        
       Hi HN, I have been feeling very lost and out of place for as long
       as I can remember (with some temporary periods of feeling
       belonging). I have made a lot of mistakes, career mistakes. But I
       am doing slightly above average (by most society standards).  Yet I
       feel I am not doing justice to my role/calibre. I am thinking of
       moving full time to becoming a developer (I don't have an
       engineering degree, but have been learning on my own). But I am
       unsure and scared. Has anybody been through this? What advice will
       you give?
        
       Author : knlph
       Score  : 3 points
       Date   : 2022-12-19 22:13 UTC (48 minutes ago)
        
       | jamesfinlayson wrote:
       | I haven't been through it myself but I've worked with two people
       | that I know didn't have tertiary qualifications (probably other
       | beyond those two that I didn't know about). Those two people were
       | hard workers and were some of the better people I've worked with.
       | 
       | If it's what you want to do, go for it. When I'm involved in
       | hiring it's not something I'd care about.
        
       | magicalhippo wrote:
       | Haven't done it myself that late, but at 18 I knew I didn't want
       | to do what I had studied up to that point, but rather wanted to
       | do programming, so I spent some years to get the necessary grades
       | to go to uni and did that. I landed my first programming job when
       | I was 30.
       | 
       | One of our devs worked some regular office job without any
       | special education, started programming on his own, ended up
       | taking a bachelor at a local college before getting hired by us.
       | He was just shy of 30 then. Been with us for several years now.
       | 
       | So it's certainly possible. Now, I started programming when I was
       | 12, and I could probably have done a lot of good work without the
       | degree, but at least here it's a foot in the door kinda thing.
       | Though if you do good work and put it visible on GitHub or
       | similar, one would hope employers would consider that favorably.
       | 
       | Anyway, even though it took me several years longer to get going
       | compared to others I know, I do _not_ regret switching.
        
       | wodenokoto wrote:
       | I didn't start my career until my thirties, so it's not like
       | you're late to any game.
        
       | vouaobrasil wrote:
       | Well, I went the opposite way and I would say I've had my fair
       | share of career mistakes also. I would say that you gotta just do
       | it, because there's really nothing worse than doing something
       | uninteresting for decades. (Or even a few years).
       | 
       | At the same time, make sure developer is what you really want. I
       | am transitioning out of being a developer because even though I
       | loved that kind of thing in school, I find real-world development
       | a lot different and not what I expected it to be.
       | 
       | What would you do if you could do anything in the world? Maybe
       | that open-ended question will give you some ideas.
        
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       (page generated 2022-12-19 23:02 UTC)