After my degree I didn't want to pursue it as I fell out of love with it, possibly due to stress and letting uni life get the better of me. It became stressful environment but through recent experiences and talking with close friends who are in the field of CS, overtime I've realised and processed that I still have a massive interest and constant want to learn more within it or somewhat be involved in it. The years of teaching it has definitely played a part in showing students my passion for the subject, reminding myself how much I love it too.
I've started picking up on python again and taking online courses to refresh myself but I want to make myself employable after these years. I have previous experience in java, php and C+ also. I've never worked in a professional coding environment either, hence why I am coming on here to seek advice on what would be best.
Any recommendations/advice would really help. What stacks I should be looking at?
The stack doesn't matter. The problem itself doesn't really matter. The "sexiness" of the result doesn't matter. Just do it. Something... Anything! Working through the problem is the goal.
The result: You will learn things that you didn't know that you didn't know, and you will be able to transfer that to your next project.
Rinse and repeat. Then, all of the sudden you will have stories to tell and mistakes that you know you should avoid.
Your first project will be bad, and I mean UGLY! You will make all sorts of bad decisions. Don't use an AI agent to help you write it... you won't learn anything. Don't waste your "best" idea on your first project, either. You will forever be disappointed because you didn't do a good job on it.
If you want to bounce any ideas off us, then go ahead and post them. We could proffer ideas to you, but it really needs to be something that captures your attention. So what are you interested in? Low-level, web, graphics, games, tools, mobile, industry-specific, entertainment, edutainment... the possibilities are wide open!
Good luck and have fun!
I may come back here and let you know how I get on once projects are started. Thank you man.
Best answer I have, find some volunteer work that supports what you want to do. Do it for 6 months, add to resume. Possibly find an open source project to add to. Be sure to professionally document your changes.
Top advice though thank you.
also for people who might want to recommend jobs it could help to give a lower limit for compensation. what do you need atleast. and work hours.
i think coming from teaching there's a lot of work in research that might be an easy match up but that might not be the type of role you want.
for programming there are also different kinds of programming roles. automations, applications, mobile, desktop/server, embedded etc.
what makes you tick when you think of work or what keeps happy when ur doing it, regarding what you think you wanna do?
I'm definitely one that enjoys the creative/technical mix of coding and design. I assume that I should be learning new tools too as in 5 years, a lot can change in the programming world.
I know I'll have to enter at entry/junior level too which is fine as long as there was growth potential.
I've thought about the research side of things but definitely want to be more hands on.
But good news is that many companies want to fill some quotas and they require degrees, so you'll likely find some place in a larger company where what you can do means less than the letters that go before or after your name.
A situation from a personal experience - some years go, in a company where I worked at(advertising agency, i handled the websites), we were looking to hire someone. I do not rememebr what position it was. We were small company, 15-ish people. We got a ton of CVs. I rememebr one specific CV - there was a guy who had THREE university diplomas and was in his 30s, but had no work experience. This guy had 0 chance of being picked and his CV went straight to the trash bin. In tech, this is 10x more prominent as this sector is about what you can actually do and what you did in the past. Not what you know in theory and whatnot.
It is what it is. Good luck with your search. Definitely pick some popular language though, to broaden up your pool of opportunities. Don't be looking for Rust jobs or any of that nonsense. And don't expect large salary either. You have to earn it.
I'll be happy to get a junior level entry job to build that experience first. Right now I will focus on expanding my 'freelance' work.
The thing is that diplomas matter only in very few sectors. Like medicine, law, physics and such. But in tech, realistically, the value of a diploma is 0.
Again, focus on a popular language, do some projects with it(so you have something to showcase) and after you get hired you can start specialising on specific things. Like web services, 3D engines, database and whatever else you'd want or need.
In short, you have to be smart about transitioning from academia into the "real world". As you have a diploma and you have been teaching, it means you are likely in your 30s, which is great, because id you would be Gen-Z or Gen-A, you'd have much harder time getting hired. So you are not position all too bad.
There are tons of tech companies, with very different ways of recruiting. Some companies do care about academic backgrounds, or niche programming languages, or ability to solve questions like leetcode.
This might sound stupid, when building the project, focus it on something interesting to me or should I aim to make it more accessible to show off skills if that makes sense?