Hello,
I am in my mid-50’s with a FT non-IT government job (analyst field - yawn…), but I want to diversify my opportunities by expanding my technical knowledge and skill sets. I stumbled upon fCC and decided to just start it to see if I’d be interested. I just completed the Basic HTML/HTML5 courses and I am loving it! The exercises are progressively challenging (for me anyway, I’m a newbie), but I eventually figure them out (without cheating). I confess I don’t feel confident enough in the amount of knowledge, even after I “pass” an exercise, but I am learning quite a bit and each successful test run motivates me to go on to the next.
I have quite a busy job, but find time in the evenings and weekends to knock out exercises on fCC and review what I’ve learned.
I don’t have any sort of tech degree (only an AA degree in a non-tech/IT field) and I don’t have the resources of time/money to go to a university. My work does require me to have a basic technical and systems knowledge, but nothing to the level of an IT profession. I don’t even know what my long term goals are for learning all that fCC can teach me. I just feel compelled that it is a good idea to do this and those reasons will become more clear to me as I progress deeper into this field. In the research I have done, it seems this is a very competitive, but also high demand field and that has me wondering what opportunities actually exist for me in this at this phase of my life. Can I pick up extra income doing side work in programming or some other certification course offered through fCC? Without a degree in this field, can fCC training alone give me a realistic shot at even a lucrative full time career?
I guess I’m just looking for advice and maybe some testimony from those who have gone this path from scratch, what new opportunities were opened, were they able to actually build a new career, or at minimum have some side-gig to supplement their current career. Even though I find myself enjoying the course, I’m exploring where all this could realistically take me.
I appreciate any and all feedback.
All the best!