Hello, i just find FCC couple months ago.
Short story, im a Lawyer from Venezuela, had to leave the country by the known reasons (quick google it if need to know).
As a 27 years old person, i lost my passion for going back to study law in London (where im currently at), found programming as a interesting thing that someone advice me to look at.
Does programming still a reliable source of future income? from a person that comes from those paradigms of having to had a University degree to apply a career, i feel kind of lost just thinking that a path forward my be learning on FCC, find something that i like there and specialise on that.
Hope well.
D.
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Programming is is definitely a strong career choice if it aligns with your interests. I’ve noticed a trend of lawyers/legal students to come over to programming. freeCodeCamp is a good place to dip your toe in programming and see if it’s right for you.
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Is programming still a reliable source of future income?
Yes, it’s probably the most reliable of all available choices.
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“Employment of software developers is projected to grow 21 percent from 2018 to 2028, much faster than the average for all occupations. Software developers will be needed to respond to an increased demand for computer software.”.
Quoted from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for Software Developers
“Employment of web developers is projected to grow 13 percent from 2018 to 2028, much faster than the average for all occupations. Demand will be driven by the growing popularity of mobile devices and ecommerce.”
Quoted from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for Web Developers
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Look up pay scales for attorneys and software developers in your area.
Based on your question, I think you’ll be surprised at which is higher. And by how much.
At one of the big companies, a fresh-out-of-college developer (with maybe an internship) in my area (Seattle, WA) can expect $150k (salary + stock + bonus) per year in their first 4-5 years.
I googled real quick, London’s cost of living seems to be 10-20% less than Seattle, so adjust that as needed.
And… do you think we will have less or more reliance on computers 10-15 years from now?
Answer that and you can decide if software is a good career.
Nothing about today tells me we’ll rely less on tech tomorrow. My GF doesn’t go a day without saying “OK Google” at least once.
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Let’s go to be a part of the future !
Toilet paper vs 3 shells
More programming, less dirty words 
Programming IS the future if income.
BTW If you decide to go into programming, be sure that you love to learn, because you will be doing a lot of it for the rest of your career. Programming is an occupation where you are always required to learn just to keep up with your peers and coworkers. That said, for me it is both a job and my favorite hobby. I feel blessed to be able to make money doing something that I love.
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I don’t love to learn but I love to code, thus, I learn. Is that what you mean?
It’s still learning even if it’s by accident. Often that’s the best way 
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Just need to say: US has ridiculously high average salaries for software engineers relative to elsewhere, it’s not just a case of adjusting for living costs.
UK (London): fresh out of college developer, £25k (if really lucky 30k). Mid level £45-55k ish? That’s London, and with a premium for living costs included* (outside London, take 5-10k off). On current exchange rate that’s around $30k start going to around $70k. They’re very good wages, relative to the average wage! But they aren’t crazy wages (by comparison, averages for solicitors, averages hit £50k [$60k] with only two years experience)
I cannot stress enough that US salaries seem unbelievably high. I guess a combination of things. Wages are higher in the US anyway for certain high-skill jobs, and software engineering sits alongside those. FAANG wages seem to be distorting the averages as well? The top companies are making staggering amounts of cash. So then salary becomes an arms race – they definitely index compensation against each other. Plus free money pouring in from venture capital, the sums being burnt are jaw dropping. It looks (from outside the US) like a bubble.
There also seems to be a trend of wages depressing for developer skills taught in bootcamps as more graduates flood the market. Plus a move to more remote working would definitely depress the averages.
* so highest cost of living in the UK, 28th in this list, not at all far off most of the US cities ranked above. So to take Seattle, that’s equivalent cost of living but about half the compensation
Not to be too much a wet blanket, software engineering pays very well and will continue to do so for a long while
Interesting, good to know thanks
Most of my experience has been with seeing the pay for people that reported to me (and coworkers I’ve spoken with) that were based outside the US.
I have no experience with companies based outside the US.
hi davinci322
i have an Honours Degree in Accounting, but have made the decision to make programming my number 1 focus. Someone with 5 or more years experiance with some accounting software and no idea of GAAP or Accounting standards will be hired before me.
i also want to refer you to a series (BULL) of someone who makes a killing in the legal field, but he’s just has fancy software that predicts how a juror will decide.
The short answer for me is that, I am better prepared for the future with some programming knowledge and experiance beause as I speak, someone is writing a program on how i make my decision.
In south africa, 75% of all new job listings are in front back end development, and 5 years experiance will get you a salary that’s 100 times the GDP
with collaborative sites on the NET, (and work from home thanks to COVID19) the programming/development jobs space now knows no borders…
The reasoning the US wages are higher is because the demand for good programmers in the USA is higher. Most employers here want to see their employees.
Also, outsourcing your code to citizens of another country is risky. You can’t sue them for stealing your stuff. A NDA means nothing to a citizen in China, India or any other country.
Most of the smaller companies in the USA want to feel their employees care and plan to stick around. Many of the international students who are highly proficient tend to leave as soon as they’re “trained” with real world experience. They typically go for the larger companies such as Amazon after they get 3-4 years of experience.
In most of the interviews I sit in, people oversell themselves. I ask basic questions about Linux, Javascript or MySQL and you can see them trying to wing it instead of giving direct answers. Lack of knowledge is not a problem, it’s when the person claims they know everything and their code looks like garbage is the problem.
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I am going to stick to the smaller companies in the US for my job. I want to build them up!
Programming is always changing. Many of the most popular languages and frameworks of 2020 didn’t even even exist 5 years ago.
Here is an example. Angular is a popular framework for front end web development. The creators of Angular release a new version of the language every 6 months or so. Right now, we are on Angular 8 (or maybe 9 by now).
When I learned to code with Angular, the newest version was Angular 2. If I were to install angular on my PC right now and try to run any random app that I wrote back when I was learning Angular, I would likely just get a crap ton of errors. This is because a lot of the keywords and constructs that I used to write the app a few years ago are no longer part of the language anymore. Likewise, a lot of the most powerful parts of Angular 8 didn’t exist when I learned the language.
In summary, your programming skill set in 2020 will almost certainly be different than your skill set in 2024.
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My uncle has a huge pile of new books on coding to keep himself updated and he is always getting more. That is his bedtime reading.