Veteran programmer: When programming becomes your second career

In 1973, Liz Beigle-Bryant took her first programming class, BASIC. She remembered that in those days, computers were still in the mathematics department rather than the engineering department. Because her family background was in the arts, no one in the school recommended that she take programming classes.

Beigle-Bryant, 57, didn’t start coding again until a few years ago, when she signed up for a free online course on Codecademy. Although she didn’t see an immediate payoff, she found that learning coding techniques gave her more confidence when she was looking for a job.

“I feel more fulfilled now, rather than wasting time on Facebook or playing games on my phone,” she said. “It makes me feel really good and improves my personal image.”

Beigle-Bryant was laid off from her job as an executive assistant in 2011 during Microsoft's layoffs. She figures that's her fourth career, and she also worked as a stylist on the 1996 miniseries Hypernauts, which was also picked up by IMBD.

In her 50s, Beigle-Bryant decided to try a new career. After being laid off, she spent eight hours a day teaching herself online, first HTML and later Python. Eventually, with these new skills, she found a new job at the University of Washington, trying a variety of positions, including doing data migration. *** She eventually returned to her old profession - business management, and although it was not what she had imagined at the beginning, Beigle-Bryant is glad that she learned programming skills. "When you get older, you become an expensive burden to employers."

Many people complain about their fate after being fired and are even reluctant to look for new jobs. Others, like Beigle-Bryant, improve their competitiveness by learning new skills, such as programming technology.

Take a look at the data:

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate in July was 6.2%. The unemployment rate for programmers in the same period was only 1.3%, and it is estimated that this group will grow at an annual rate of 8% in the next decade or so. Some recruiters believe that there are as many as five job opportunities for every programmer. The result of the talent gap is that the median annual salary for programmers is $76,140, ​​while the average annual median salary for all occupations is only $46,440.

As employers struggle to find enough qualified workers, they are having to lower their hiring standards. A computer science degree is now a plus, not a requirement. Many of the workers they hire don't even have a bachelor's degree.

"We definitely want people who can code," said Nicole Tucker, a recruiter at iCIMS, a software services provider in New Jersey. "It's all about problem-solving, and people who can code are more curious." Tucker also said iCIMS has hired some employees who taught themselves how to code on Codecademy or Coursera, another website that offers open online courses.

Stephen Babineau chose to study more professionally. Babineau, only 27, was accepted by Code Fellows at the beginning of the year. Code Fellows is a Seattle-based company that provides intensive training, promising to help people master programming skills, even if you have never written a program in your life.

Babineau worked as an assistant producer on the TV series Breaking Bad and has also participated in the production of other film and television dramas. He was tired of working 14 hours a day. He felt that as he got older, his body would gradually be unable to withstand the physical labor intensity of working on the set, so he wanted to try programming. Despite his lack of programming knowledge, he was still accepted and came to Seattle to participate in an 8-week training course in the spring.

Learning wasn't easy: Babineau said he studied 12 hours a day at Code Fellows, five days a week, and also completed homework at night and on weekends.

"By about the sixth week, my eyes were sore," he said. "I told the instructor about it, and he said I should just take a night off." Babineau took the advice and eventually completed the training.

It wasn’t all dull. “I discovered that I actually enjoyed programming,” he said.

Tucker said she favors passionate people in the hiring process. The problem is that people who switch to programming usually don't really like programming, at least at first. High salaries and stable jobs are undoubtedly the initial motivation for people to switch careers.

A recent study suggests that switching careers just for the sake of salary and stability is a bad choice. The study was conducted by Amy Wrzesniewski, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Management, and Barry Schwartz, a psychology professor at Swarthmore College. They surveyed 11,320 cadets from nine incoming classes at the Military Academy at West Point and found that cadets who were highly motivated but also motivated by other external factors, such as a secure future job, performed better than cadets who were highly motivated but also motivated by other external factors, such as a secure future job.

"The gap is stark. In every area, motivated but externally influenced cadets perform worse than uninfluenced cadets, with lower completion rates, fewer outstanding officers, and a greater tendency to retire early," the professors wrote in the New York Times article.

That said, if you enjoy focusing on solving problems rather than just getting a paycheck, you'll likely become a better programmer and enjoy your work. This is true in all walks of life.

Not everyone is cut out to be a programmer, but as long as you have a passion for programming, you'll have more job opportunities — even if you're older than the guys below.

However, you may not be sure whether you like programming or not. In that case, you can try Ryan Hanna's method.

Hanna, 30, had been in IT for seven years and knew very little about programming, so he taught himself programming online in 2012. He first learned HTML, then CSS and JavaScript. "I learned each one," he said. In the end, he was programming 16 hours a week. "Sometimes I would force myself to write a program for 30 minutes, and sometimes I would write for three hours." Five months later, Hanna started creating an app called Sworkit, which generates random exercise plans based on your goals.

At first, Hanna thought that 100 downloads was good. Later, after Lifehacker wrote an article introducing Sworkit, the monthly downloads reached 10,000. This year, Hanna sold Sworkit to Nexercise and joined Nexercise to start his new career.

"Not everyone can stick with it and get the rewards," said Zach Sims, a partner at online learning site Codecademy, who said only a handful of students complete Codecademy's courses. "That's understandable, since anyone can sign up. Anyway, since these courses are free, there's nothing to lose by trying them."

"There's a common misconception about programming that it involves advanced math," Sims said. "But programming languages ​​are simple enough for most people to master."

At the very least, spending a few hours online can make you more aware of the technology that is now widely used in daily life. "It's never a bad thing to learn about technology," said Tucker of iCIMs. "Even if you don't become a programmer in the future."

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