Programming diploma and career advice

[Violater]

Hey Carbs

Hoping to get some advice and guidance - would like to start getting into software development.
Basically, I'm 37, and for the last 18 years I've been running my own business. But my situation is changing, and I'm trying to lower my stress, and reduce my driving.
I always wanted to program (Originally my plans after school) but life happened and I followed a different path.
I've got a accounting degree (Unisa BCompt) - but I don't want to do accounting. I'm hoping my degree might be worth more than just the paper it's printed on.

I've finished a into into C# course on Udemy (I know that's not really worth anything) but I did enjoy the problem solving side of things.
So my question is - how do I proceed?
Ideally I don't want to do another degree at my age - so I'm hoping I can get some sort of software development diploma and somehow leverage my accounting degree for a Job.
Any questions, thoughts and advice would be appreciated.

 

[Violater]

Has anyone got any advice or suggestions?

 

[lowracer]

just see if you can get a job at one of the companies that does auditing, but tell them you want to get into IT auditing

(deloites/ernest and young/ grant thornton, etc)

at this stage starting out as an programming intern much not be ideal, so rather start with your degree and move into the it field

 

[RobinGast]

@PandaAttack1 Gief the mans some advice

 

[Arclight101]

I actually agree with @lowracer. TBH today's degrees are little overrated and more a key to a door then you actually walking through the door. Companies, in the IT field, are now more focused on experience and what you can offer than what you studied. Don't get me wrong they can require degrees and such as its somewhat proof of your commitment and achievements, but when your foot is through the door, your chances are quite high. For an example if you have a GitHub repo that you have been committing to for 5 years and you are straight out of varsity with your B.Sc., and in my opinion looks better than someone that has been working for 2 years and has no proof of this, besides a few timesheets and a LinkedIn job reference.

Also adding to @lowracer, If you do go the intern route, you will have to understand that there will be payment gaps and if you are lucky some companies might consider you as more of a consultant and include you to bridge the gap between technical and business and this can put you more to a intermediate to senior role, but on the coding side the difference between intermediate and senior is quite noticeable and this speaks quite loudly. (This is only my opinion)

I do suggest in the mean time, start creating yourself a GitHub account and start getting some of your projects on there. Code and paste your code into ChatGPT and ask how you can improve your code and why? (As an experienced programmer, this actually showed me I might not know as much as I thought, maybe 0.25% of coding). Also try looking into doing part time consulting? This might be beneficial and you can get paid for hours worked.

This might just be my two cents on this...

 

[TRINITRON]

Check out the graduate IT programmes, some of them do not require you to have qualified in an IT related degree.

I'll edit this when I recall which ones specifically.

Also if I recall a few places like Momentum etc have departments that use their own systems etc so having a programming degree doesn't help much anyways.

 

[Serenath]

Since you already have some good business background and accounting degree, i would say try and go for something that you can combine the two, maybe Financial Information Systems etc.

If you fancy the Programming side of things more, do a few more Udemy courses (Java, SQL, Python etc.) to give yourself a broader overview and set of programming skills, then try and either apply for an internships or try and build a GitHub portfolio doing some freelance work (there are a few sites out there that you can try, Upwork being one.)

Another good route to go is the Amazon and Azure Certs, and offer great specialisation routes.

Also i just want to add that doing a Udemy course on C# , and enjoying the problem solving etc, and working as a Developer is totally different.

 

[chriswp]

https://carbonite.co.za/index.php?threads/are-you-looking-for-a-career-as-a-software-engineer-software-dev-no-qualifications-required.408045/page-2

This could be a starting point for you if you want to get development experience.

 

[ramsayied]

I sounds like a broken record, but Harvard Cs50 and then a followup in the direction you want. Cs50 is a great foundation to understand how programming works and starts you off on C. You will understand memory allocation, algorithms and security 10x better than what a Udemy course will teach you. Plus having a professional certification from Harvard will give you a great look on Linkedin. You don't have to pay upfront, but can always upgrade the certification. Another great addition is a Github bot that will mark your work and also having a better github profile due to the course itself.

Harvard University: CS50's Introduction to Computer Science

An introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science and the art of programming.

www.edx.org

It also covers a lot of languages and you will have a better understanding in what direction of Software Engineering you want to go. If you want to become a C# dev, use the cs50 as a baseline, then go to Microsoft certifications for c#. I'm a .Net Full Stack Cloud Developer, but also did the cs50 followup for AI due to ML and it really gives a solid foundation.

 

[ramsayied]

Forgot to add, since you did a degree in marketing, you can always do the followup from cs50 into data science with Python. Companies love data engineers/analysts that have a good background in business combined with a solid programming stack.