I have an extremely long question in which I was debating whether I should ask or not!, but i ran out of ideas and in desperate need of an advice; I hope someone out there can give me a good advice! so I’m an immigrant living in the states for a while now, and I’m taking care of my family, since they don’t speak English. i had a rough time trying to learn how to speak and write English while working, I feel that I improved a lot and I wanted to achieve my dream of becoming a full stack software developer, the problem at that time was that it is almost impossible to support a family of 3(mom and sister) and go to school to learn, so I figured that the best way to do it is to move to a cheaper area, that way I have enough time to study and work
now I’m studying in a community college and work as an rideshare driver. what worries me the most is that I’m 30 years old, and if i want a bachelor’s, I need 5 to 6 years to finish since I’m not going to school full time. and bootcamps are impossible since I need an income to support a family, going to a bootcamp would require my full attention and the closest good bootcamp is 2 hours away from where I live(I live about 2 hours from the bay area). now i have no idea what to do or what to focus on. i thought myself HTML, CSS and JavaScript, some Node.js and React, I’m enjoying working on algorithms to no end!, and I don’t see myself doing anything else but to code. i code on my free time for fun on code wars and freeCodeCamp.I keep thinking that i did a mistake going to a community collage even though i want that bachelor’s degree, but living on the edge of poverty is not helping. is there a way to get into the industry without finishing school or a bootcamp? and if not, what kind of job is best suitable for a student? uber/lyft is driving me insane to be honest and i can’t handle driving in the bay area anymore. sorry for the long post and i appreciate any suggestion i get whether it is positive or negative!
You can get a job in this industry without a degree or cert but work still needs to be done.
Build your portfolio. You need to be able to show employers what you can do. If you need a starting place try the projects on the learning site here.
Go to meetups and network. You can find groups in your area by going to meetup.com
FCC should have meetups posted here soon look for those
Start applying for jobs. If you know 60% of what they are asking for you qualify. So apply. You have to apply alot.
Keep learning…try to do a little every night if you can.
Depending on your immigrant status you might be eligible to get a library card and check their resources.
For example, here in San Francisco, CA my library card gave me access to Treehouse website, and they have several coding tracks, depending what type of programming language you want to learn, and they even have some other great course that help supplement the curriculum (Design, UX, Copyrights, How to Freelance, etc)
They also might have language programs for your family, and its free…so take advantage of their amazing resources
You can absolutely get a job as a developer without having a college degree. I do not have a degree and have been working as a developer for several years. However, as @Tirjasdyn mentioned, it will require work. You will have to make yourself stand apart somehow, especially in the Bay area. You will also need to network and meet people. Going to meetups / user groups is the easiest way to make connections that could eventually land you a job and learn something – it’s win / win.
Here’s a podcast that talks a bit about what’s needed to break into the industry: https://bit.ly/2UhFgnn.
Full disclosure – I’m a cohost of that podcast, and the language can get NSFW.
thank you everyone for all the encouragement, i’ll start going to meetups and build my skills and network. i had someone telling me that i should get a AWS Cloud Practitioner Certificate as well, so I’ll look into that as well. thank you!