Life is a wonderful and complicated mess…at the best of times. Sometimes we think we know what we want right out of the gate and we follow it only to realize it’s not what we wanted after all. Then we find something else and maybe we do that for awhile, then something else strikes our fancy (or need to pay bills) and we gravitate towards that. The point is all these things cost us really is time. How much of it we’ve spent, how much we have left and what we want to spend it doing…man, this got serious and sobering real fast… So, is it possible to become a coder a little later in life? Say 50? It’s a nice round number, and the answer is ‘Yes, but…’
Alright, sirs and madames…I was trying to sound respectful but it sounds like I called you a bunch stuck-ups and brothel owners, apologies; let’s try again… Alright, I’m just going to jump into it. The answer is YES, you can become a coder at 50, BUT there are going to be some things that will be an advantage to you and others that will be a disadvantage:
Advantage: “When you’re getting into this game at an older age, you’ve probably got a lot more discipline, you definitely have a lot more life experience, and you may have a lot of domain [industry] knowledge.” By domain/industry knowledge we mean the business you were part of in the past. Maybe you worked in the coffee industry, maybe you were an accountant, etc. That insight into your previous business is worth a lifetime of experience and could help you to create a more streamlined/intuitive program for that industry. Companies would value that experience in a coder much more than a young nerdling with maybe a couple years programming experience and no industry knowledge…which brings us to the disadvantages…
Disadvantage: “A lot of companies will be reluctant to hire somebody in their 50’s or older because they know that this person is close to or closing in on retirement more often than not.” People are healthier these days which means they’re living longer (Although why you would want to live longer to work more is beyond me…).
An example is start-ups; they usually hire young coders that they can abuse or burnout but there are start-ups that have hired older and in their 50’s too for their specialized industry knowledge, it’s just a little more rare…
Honestly, there’s a lot more positives working in your favor than negatives, including going into freelance work which means you collect and retain clients at your own pace. The VLOG covers this in way more detail including some paths/specialties that we think would compliment your experience, so please check it out. Bonus: Some nice footage at the end of winter in Montreal at a devastating height… -Enjoy!
Marketing yourself as a developer is the best way to get the word out so you can build a reputation and secure work for yourself, especially if you intend on being a freelancer. Great, so what do I need to start getting myself out there? I’m Glad you asked…there are essentially 3 things you need to get started: 1- Skill Sets (both Technical and Social) – Skills you’ve developed through education/experience. 2- Reputation – The better it is, the better the chance you have of getting work. 3- IP (Intellectual Property) – What have you done in the real world. Projects you’ve worked on, jobs you’ve completed: for free or for pay.
Now, I know you’re looking at this and thinking these are all things that you get by doing real world work, how can I get real world if I don’t have these things? Ahhhhh…the catch 22, my friends…
The short answer is by any means necessary. Go out and do some free work/small project(s) for a small local business (not a long time, maybe 3 months or until the small project is done). At the end of that, yeah you may not have any money, but you’ve just got all three things you need to put towards getting a paying job (it might not pay much, but it’s a start), and when that paying job is done, you’ve got even more skill/rep/IP to put towards your next gig. From there you rinse/repeat ad nauseam and BOOM! work/life balance and a happy ending, LOL. Just kidding,, but it’s a good start.
Wriggity-wreck yo’self on the VLOG for some great advice on this subject from an almost 3 decade experienced ‘warrior of the code’ turned ‘diplomat of the code’, I guess… also a great analogy that might make you real hungry…you’ve been warned. -Enjoy
Ever wondered how different apps or OS communicate with each other? For example, maybe your working on a JAVA app but it has to communicate with another app in California and they’re not the same app? Or you have an AI developed in PYTHON and it outputs a certain amount of data, how does it get that to a PHP web app (for arguments sake, I don’t make up your own scenario…)? How are the two going to communicate to sync or rectify data?
Well way back in the day there was RMI (Remote Method Invocation) and that was possible in JAVA world only. After that they used XML (eXtensible Markup Language), “XML code was so verbose, meaning there was so much XML code, …often times there was more XML code than data you were exchanging from system A to system B…”
These days the most commonly used method is something called JSON (JAVAscript Object Notation). “JSON is just basically a little bit of JAVAscript code wrapped around the information event you want to send from computer system/software A to software B. It’s pretty much the universal standard these days.” “It’s much more lightweight than the XML solutions…typically if something is easier and faster, it wins.”
If you enjoyed this soupcon into inter-operability, then check out the VLOG for a meaty main course and a little ‘digestif’ of advice on what to learn to be able to handle JSON effortlessly should the need arise. Keep on doing your good work and ponder the thought of two computers in a room trying to talk to each other in a human language…what would they even say? -Enjoy
Alright, so you’re learning to code and you feel like you’ve got a relatively good grasp of the fundamentals, you’ve done a few tutorials and they confirm that from a theoretical standpoint: you got this!
Well, that’s good news…so what’s next? Maybe some more challenging tutorials to really put your knowledge to the test? Perhaps we send out some resumes to companies telling them we’d be on board for some intern/unpaid work to “try things out”? …Oh no, my sweet little birdie…it’s time to spread your wings and fly! “When people are learning anything new (and coding is not unique in this regard), …there’s often a lot of fear or trepidation: the unknown, the new, is kind of…it’s anxiety-provoking for people, especially career-oriented choices.”
Just Jump In, Man… Now full disclosure here, when we’re advocating “jumping in”, we’re assuming 1-That you’ve done our courses (shameless plug), which are designed to take advantage of over almost 3 decades in the business and to prepare you quickly and efficiently to handle almost any problem right out of the gate, or 2- That you’re trained to the gills and really just don’t know what you’re next step is. “A good course will give you the confidence to feel that you can move forward and actually do something for real. [When] you can build responsive a website, you’re ready to go. Do you know everything? No. But you’re ready to go.” “You learn so much more by building real-world projects for real people as opposed to walking through tutorials. Because what you’re going to learn: a big part of being a developer is interacting/speaking/communicating with the client; figuring out problems along the way.”
The VLOG goes into more detail and closes with a really nice bit of advice, which we recommend checking out, but it wouldn’t be a great VLOG if we didn’t have a mind-bending, super mario galaxy-inspired shot at the end, which we also recommend checking out. -Enjoy!
Selling online is really the future of selling; no question. So, is getting into a niche eCommerce business the way to go?
Niches historically have their highs and lows, depending on subject matter. A niche band that your buddy introduced you to might be music to your ears, but perhaps that band isn’t making a lot of money at shows because only a hand full of people who really appreciate what they do turn out…
On the other hand, finding a niche in eCommerce that you can fill would be a good thing. “Niche is the key to success, because if it’s not niche then you’re going to be competing with a lot of big players (possibly), meaning bigger companies or you’re just gonna have a lot of competition.” This is gonna be a shameless plug, but we go into this in better detail in our ‘Complete Entrepreneur’ course that we offer (link below).
“…If you want to get into business go into niche or you go into an industry where there’s just a huge amount of demand that the demand outstrips the supply.” One of the reasons we recommend finding a niche on the web to fill, whether it be eCommerce, WordPress, etc. is that you don’t necessarily have to go to school to be able to jump in. We’re talk about 3-5 years of schooling here… for example, you don’t have to get a data science degree, or a software engineering degree. You can simply take a course…like the ones we offer…nudge, nudge, wink, wink… and be able to jump right in, get your experience, grow your reputation and make your living.
VLOG your face off and check out more in-depth reasons to find a niche market to go into and stick around til the end (or just jump to the end), to see Montreal in the winter…just in case you’ve had enough of this wonderful July heat and forgot about what comes next… -Enjoy!
Does it make sense to use open source software … or should you write all your software from scratch?
Ask any grizzled old veteran of any industry if it’s best to build from scratch and they’ll more often than not say ‘Hhhhaaaaiiiiyyyyyllll no!’ “The last thing you want to do is reinvent the wheel.”, but hopefully they’ll have a funky beard and a Texan accent…no wait, I’m thinking of a prospector, yup. Sorry.
But the same answer can be applied (sans accent, I guess) to the question, is it better to build from scratch or use open source software? “The last thing you want to do is write code that someone has already written. …Remember when you’re using a high level language like JAVAscript or PYTHON or PHP…you’re using somebody else’s code; …you’re actually using code based on other code. This notion that it’s best to rewrite from scratch, it’s something that young developers have…”
Is there a time when you don’t want to use open source code? Absolutely, and I’ll let the VLOG do the explaining for that. Plus, there’s some sweet top-down car riding all over Montreal with a 360 camera. Check it out, and when in doubt, remember the three rules of software development: 1. Reuse 2. reUSE 3.REUSE -Enjoy!
Starting a business can be very exciting and it can also be very challenging. “You gotta figure out what the business model is going to be, …figure out what product or service you’re going to sell and how you’re going to deliver that product or service in an efficient manner so that you can make money.”
We’re going to give to the short version here but for the most robust version we recommend you check out our entrepreneur course, you won’t regret it. We cover everything from different business types to generating new ideas for businesses, etc, etc.
But that being said, let’s jump into it: Skillz that killz: No matter where or how you learn to code, it’s going to be one of your most important skills; almost like a superpower. Businesses need online presence and they more than likely are “going to be dependent on sort type of software.” See where we’re going with this? Even if you run a travel site, someone going to have to program your search engine and SEO (search engine optimization).
Keep an [eagle] eye out: You may hate your job, but guess what? You’ve probably been there for so long that you know all the ins and outs and what’s lacking and what needs improvement. You could develop an app or a technology that improves how that industry operates and suddenly you’re not working there anymore and now they’re one of your clients. Find your niche, learn everything you can about it and how you can improve it.
Hitting a wall is okay: If every business succeeded right out of the gate, then I guess everyone would be millionaires that had businesses and we’d all be…okay, I don’t know where I’m going with this but the point is it’s okay to hit walls or have little spills and make mistakes. “I believe that if you follow certain basic principles in business and you’re persistent and you manage your finances well; you manage your psychology well, it’s inevitable you will be successful. But you have to expect there’s going to be some work in the beginning…”.
The VLOG goes into a nice little car-chat about some of the ins-and-outs of your business venture but again, check out the link below to our outstanding and experience-based ‘complete entrepreneur’. It’s definitely worth your time.
What kind of highly complex and crazy work will you be doing? The answer may surprise you…
So what is the most common web developer job that is going to be out there in 2019? Are you gonna be building the next FACEBOOK from NODEjs or the next WordPress.com with PHP? The short answer is…maybe, but probably not…
“The most likely situation is you’re going to be working with small to medium sized businesses. Web developers will be building wordpress-based sites with custom mini apps, perhaps. You might be modifying shopify sites and deploying those for people.” Not as glamorous as you thought, is it? Well, it’s the truth…
Think of your standard web developer “…like a GP in the medical [professional]. You got medical doctors that are general practitioners, they don’t specialize in brain surgery, which would be kind of the equivalent of a NODEjs master or a PHP-Laravel master. The most common doctor out there is the GP (general practitioner): someone who takes care of most people’s medical needs. That is what a web professional is, you might do a Paypal integration, another day you might do a WordPress theme customizer…this is where a lot of the professional web-based jobs are gonna be.”
Don’t get us wrong, there’ going to be plenty of work building highly complex apps from scratch, “… but at the end of the day for every advanced app that’s built with NODEjs, there’s going to be five hundred, maybe thousands of jobs where you’re going to modify and build up a WordPress-based site, or work on a Shopify site for somebody.”
The VLOG really does this subject justice, including an answer to the common question of money. Specifically why does the NODEjs master make as much as the common web developer who’s just modifying Shopify or WordPress, etc. and it’s a good answer. -Enjoy!
So you’re a wordpress ‘dabbler’, maybe you use HTML or CSS to install plugins or themes? Maybe you do a little work for people and make a little bit of cash? …Maybe you realize you can make a lot more money if you knew more.
If this sounds like you then you’ve probably come across two options: learn PHP or learn JAVAscript/Node? And as a freelancer, you’ve probably got some other things on the go, time is money and you don’t have the time to learn them both. Well we gotcha…
“If you want to become a complete WordPress developer, which means a lot more contracts …then of course you gotta learn PHP because WordPress is built with PHP…you’re going to have to learn some JAVAscript if you’re going to be working with WordPress, but it’s not nearly as important.” Don’t get us wrong JAVAscript and Node are useful and have their applications, but learn PHP. Another reason being that “PHP is going to open up a huge number of opportunities in that regard.” So, sweet bonus…
Check out the VLOG for some more detailed responses to this question and if you’re really interested, we offer a kick-ass course where you can become a complete web developer fast. You would be given the tools to learn and to use most programming languages (PHP included) with speed and efficacy <link at the bottom>. -Enjoy
Wanna come up with the next great business idea? Better know the industry and know it well.
Haven’t we all at one point been in the shower or brushing our teeth and BOOM! We think we’ve come up with this amazing business idea. We’re sure it’s so good it’ll make millions and we can buy our own island and start working on our delightfully eccentric hairdo…
Fact of the matter is “the key to finding a really good idea as an entrepreneur, is to get yourself into a particular market or particular domain and really understand it”.
Yes, you’ll hear stories about that one person who had this great idea out of nowhere and now they have an island (and a super weird hairdo!), but that’s the exception rather than the norm. Too many times people jump into an industry they have little to no experience with, spend a whole bunch of money on product and just have it sit there because they missed a small but crucial fact about that industry. To really know the industry your in, is to spot where the weaknesses are that you can fill with your great idea or, if we were to work backwards; you could have what you think is a great idea and start researching the industry that idea could help. Learn all you can about it ie: talk to people in that industry; business owners, etc. Maybe even take a job or a few gigs in that domain to really get a sense of it and how it works. Yes, it’ll take awhile but if you’re serious about getting island(and crazy hairdo) money, it’s worth the time.
And lastly (not a real word.), Don’t get ‘married’ to your idea, be prepared to change it to match what the industry needs. ANY entrepreneur worth their salt will tell you that flexibility is the key to success, so be prepared to change elements of your idea for maximum efficacy.
Check out the VLOG for not just more details into getting a great business idea, but also for “the bird food incident” story…you’re welcome. And if you’re curious about becoming an entrepreneur, links are at the bottom to a course that we offer which no doubt is built on research and knowing the market your in …and some real world experiences(like ‘the bird food incident’) too. Keep on having great ideas and who knows, maybe an eccentric hairdo is in your cards? Well, for those of us that still have hair, at any rate… -Enjoy!
