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Discussion on: Help, Please.

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sargalias profile image
Spyros Argalias

Hi. You are definitely not too old. I started programming from scratch when I was 23 and only went at it seriously when I was 25 and I've done very well in my career so far. I know people that have switched careers at 40, and they were not too old either.

Truth is you are never too old to do something you like, and you are probably never too old to switch careers either, based on other people I've seen who have done it.

But even if it was possible, in your case you are absolutely no where near too old being only 23 years old. If anything your degree in business and your finance experience will actually be helpful when talking to managers, discussing features, and even working as a programmer in finance if you want to go that route.

The only thing that you have to lose is more years if you don't start now. If you're sure you want to go for it, there is no better time to start than now. Good luck :)

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poetryandshitt profile image
Izz

Thank you so much Spyros, I appreciate your insight!

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poetryandshitt profile image
Izz

May I ask, how did you learn to code?

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sargalias profile image
Spyros Argalias

Of course. When I first started out I didn't really have a good path. I just Googled "best language to learn programming" and whatnot. Python came up. So I started with that using the book "Think Python" and also "The hard way to learn Python", then I did some other books on it. I did that very casually from 23 to 25 while working on my normal job.

At 25 I had a browse for programming jobs and realised web development is quite popular, so I thought I'll switch to that. That's when I started programming properly and mostly dropped python to learn front end web development. I went through a few courses and also did some Node for a bit, then a bit of WordPress, then React...

Overall my learning path could have been significantly better, and I could have wasted a lot less time.

If I was to start again, I would ask "what do I want to do in programming". Front end web development? Back end web development? Mobile development? Game development? Whatever. Also see what jobs actually require if that's important to you. Jobs + what you want to do will show you what you should focus on learning.

This way I would feel like I wasted significantly less time. Yes everything you learn is useful, but as a beginner some things are important to learn first and other things may not help you for a long time.

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poetryandshitt profile image
Izz

Thank you Spyros, that's really helpful!