Profession programmer. What time is it too late?

I just didn't know that I missed the train, so I went

When I first thought about changing my profession, my youth, alas, had already passed. Not that it was a critically long time ago, but the number indicating the number of years lived began with a three, and this, as you probably know, is a very advanced age, if we focus on the measures of information technology personnel managers. However, I had no idea about my pre-retirement status. It didn’t even occur to me to ask myself “Isn’t it too late?”. I think this frivolity saved me. If at the first stage of my studies I stumbled upon motivational articles from the series “it’s never too late, even at your gray-haired 29!”, I would get worried and decide that I probably don’t understand something important about programming. For example, the fact that this activity requires the nutrition of brain cells characteristic of young people, and at 26 an irreversible mutation begins - and that's it, drain the water, turn off the light. Either drop the idea, or do radical brain surgery. It's kind of like they did with treble boys in order to keep their unique voices until they became coarse. Or, here, gymnastics. Due to the peculiarities of muscle development in these athletes, everything ends in their twenties, and they will not be accepted into the professional section at the age of eight. Yes, and the old man for the first time in my life will be called. I did not directly come across such "young" industries. I studied mathematics, studied science for a while, and then left to teach at the Lyceum. A high school (even a high school) is the last place you'll hear "How? You <substitute any number from 18 to 105> years old! You won't be able to become a teacher, it's too late (early)" or "You have no inclinations for teaching at all." There, with hands and feet, they will tear off anyone who expresses even a fleeting desire to sow reasonable, good, eternal in the minds of our youth. They won’t even check for professional suitability. If only there was no criminal record (and who knows ...). I have never heard of strict age limits for mathematicians or non-programming engineers. So I decided that I needed to do something, because at some point I realized: if I stay at school, I will get a full social package somewhere in Kashchenko. Or I just won't last long. When I decided to change my profession, I still loved mathematics, I treated children for the most partneutrally with quiet hatred , and with a slight bewilderment to his salary, given the number of nerve cells that died in an unequal struggle with young creatures. Okay, leaving school is an idea. And where to go? At the institute, I liked solving programming problems. True, there were few of them, and I had already managed to forget everything. However, I made up my mind. I had no idea that I was late for this train, so I just got on it and went .

How I learned to program (very briefly)

1. Taught Pascal quite a bit at school
2. Learned a little C and Java at the institute
3. Tried full-time Java courses - dropped out (10 years after graduation)
4. I came to CodeGym (a year after I quit full-time courses) - I liked it, but quickly "flew", there was not enough time to go deeper.
5. Then I decided to take it seriously. He quit school, taking with him several students for tutoring (by the way, if you show yourself well, in this field you can earn twice as much as at school with four times less time spent (I won’t even say anything about saving nerve cells). I continued to study at CodeGym , sometimes tormented a programmer friend with questions, read books, searched for answers on the Internet - a classic!
6. Went for an internship at the company, finished it.

At some point, I really encountered a number of “age-related” problems, some of them directly, others I studied on the forums or in communication with “colleagues in happiness”, future thirty-year-old Junes. However, are these problems real? Are they related to physiological age, as in the gymnasts mentioned above, or are they of a socio-psychological nature? I will describe these factors below. And I will expose them, although I will not say that “just about anyone” can become a programmer.

Factor number one. Psychological barrier or "and the clock is ticking ..."

It wasn't until I was in the 20s of CodeGym, and I was starting to think about getting a job, that I felt a little uneasy and began to suspect that I was not at all the young and promising that I felt (and feel). And not because I did something worse than 17-year-old Ivan or 23-year-old Kirill, with whom I spoke on the forum. But because they wished me good luck all the time, because it is so difficult to study after 30. And to get a job as a "joon" - and at all! They won't take it, and if they take it... it's a shame for the boys to obey. And also because all the time I came across articles “It’s never too late” and I understood that since such a question is worth it, it means that someone is asking it. And once my good programmer friend said, they say, hurry up, otherwise there will be no case, your resume will not be considered at all. Here I completely sank ... And I understood what girls feel when they are constantly driven by rude hints to get married and have children. Remember the caustic phrase, veiled under anxiety: "and the clock is ticking." I specifically stalled and could not solve a single problem. I opened IDEA, but I could not type a single line: instead of my heart rate, I heard these very “ticking clocks”, and their ticking was not a ticking at all, but a battle, formidable and loud, like the Kremlin Chimes. Frankly, for some time the Chimes in my head put me out of action. I decided I was just wasting my time. That programming for a thirty-something-year-old beginner is the maximum hobby, and I can’t become a professional. At the age of 22, I began to learn how to play the guitar and went to swing dancing. Only now the guitar and dancing took much less time and I had no hopes of becoming a dancer or a pro guitarist. And then what to expect? ... Fortunately, this self-criticism did not last long. Logic kicked in. And this logician said that this is all - the usual injection. That I just have a psychological problem, they say, there are “23-year-old seniors”, and here is such an uncle - and not even a junior, and I will never keep up with them. “Why chase? I asked myself, “wouldn’t it be better just to keep studying honestly and see what happens?” And I safely continued to write the code. And the more he wrote, the better he did it. It's logical, isn't it?

Factor two: do adults get worse at school?

Adults do not always have easy learning. But this is not because their brains shrink automatically at 28, no matter what a 28-year-old person does in life. In fact, the reason is that many adults are simply out of the habit of regular study. It's like a gym. You walk - at least you stay in good shape or pump your muscles, you don’t walk - all indicators are slowly falling. As in the beautiful, albeit hackneyed phrase from Through the Looking Glass about how you need to run very fast to stand still, and run twice as fast to move forward.. So, if you are 30 or older, but you regularly occupied your brain with study in a broad sense (read, wrote, studied a foreign language, mastered a musical instrument or aircraft modeling) - it will not be more difficult for you to study than for you at 20. Only here it is important one moment: you were doing something regularly. I've been studying all the time. There were mathematical studies, then - I learned how to teach (in all seriousness - studied child psychology, thought out how to convey mathematical information to unprepared minds, wrote notes, and so on), and also English, dancing and guitar. And more recently, boxing. I have been a teacher for several years, and I can say with all responsibility: children's age is extremely overestimated. I've met incredibly, unimaginably stupid kids, pardon my rough wording. They sat in the classroom like ninety-year-old elders, or not, like opium smokers. In the eighth grade, they were unable to add fractions, and some had the vaguest idea of ​​multiplication. But I also met extremely weak guys who began to learn and develop their abilities. I have seen very gifted children, and I am sure, unless something very bad happens, they will come out of equally gifted adults. Similarly, I met an adult classmate of mine who had a chronic "3 out of pity" in English. At the age of 29, she took up English, studied the language and now works with translations, and at the same time she trained me. Yes, there are some things kids can do better. But this is not programming, believe me. If you have become unaccustomed to the process of learning, it is important to try to get used to it again, to give yourself time for just that, to form a habit. Perhaps the "out of the habit" should be like face-to-face courses (not even necessarily programming), and then proceed to CodeGym or self-study programming. If you are not ready or do not want to study a lot, then yes. It's really too late for you. Even if you are 20 .

Factor three: lack of time

I encountered this moment at the beginning of my attempts. For schoolchildren and students, two-thirds of active time is devoted to studying in any of the senses. Therefore, the appearance of another academic subject for them is not so noticeable and critical if the processes are built correctly. Half of my time was spent on work, another part - on my personal life, an hour a day I devoted to hobbies, part - I rested (but most often I checked the hateful homework). Well, I slept sometimes. With my schedule, even with the complete rejection of hobbies, I did not have enough time for serious brain-intensive study. I was too tired at work. Perhaps this is a very difficult question for most people. The moment of study needs to be coordinated with relatives, to give up some entertainment, to think over the system of classes and not to idle, despite the fatigue. I quit easily because, firstly, I thought in advance about my ways of income (tutoring), and secondly, I knew that I could always return to school for the reasons described above. So here I will not shout "it's easy, just do it." This is wrong. Especially when there is a family. But in most cases, you can find a way. My family friend, for example, cut down on the number of smoke breaks and chatter with colleagues at work. After doing the math, she realized that it took about two hours of work time. She began to work harder and freed up another hour. As a result, she managed to do everything and spent two or three hours freed up on CodeGym. By the way, it was she who brought me to this site. And yes, she is already Middle. And yes, she is my age. The conclusion is this: the problem is serious, but in many cases the solution exists. Radical, like mine, or rationalization, like my friend's, or something else.

Factor four: someone's janitor complex or "oh, this HR girl ..."

I have always easily communicated with people who are much older than me or much younger. But after analyzing my acquaintances, I realized that this is far from always the case, that I am rather unusual in this regard. I don't know why it's like this, but it needs to change. And in IT, and just in life. Although in all IT forums they trumpet that “age is not important, knowledge is important”, in fact, age often affects the selection of resumes. Especially when it comes to internships at companies. My friend went to a good paid full-time programming course, and said that they had the most intelligent guy in the group - my age, he was constantly praised by their teacher. The teacher, by the way, is an excellent, current programmer, Java Senior (before the selection for the internship, which I entered and graduated from, I took several invaluable consultations from him). Also in the group of this teacher were two university students. One is good, the other is bad. So, the guys from this group applied for an internship (not the one I completed, another one) after graduating from the course “Java Enterprise, Spring, Hibernate”. From the whole group, two people entered, who do you think? That's right, two students. Even the "zero" one. True, he quickly flew out of that internship, but this changes things: he was given a chance solely because of his age, just like the most promising person from this group was not given a chance, and also because of his age. As a result, the "promising" became a programmer, but he, the "old man", had to work hard. I did not receive a single response to my resume with the date of birth, and as soon as I removed it, things started to work. No, really, HR managers, are you serious? Another thing is, when I already came for an interview and was able to win people over, then age really already plays a smaller role, and knowledge and the ability to communicate really come to the fore. So my advice to you is: remove your date of birth, and remove information that says about your age from social networks (HR managers sometimes look at them). Let them judge you not by your age. In fairness, I note that there are excellent HR managers who do not screen out "oversized" resumes.

conclusions

1. Programming is not ballet. Not treble singing. Not gymnastics. Here, age-related changes in themselves do not play a fatal role. More important is lifestyle.

2. It is important to overcome the psychological barrier. Young guys in higher positions? Just think, why do you even compare yourself with them, it’s enough to measure yourself with potential positions. Measure later. Is it too late to become a pro in a new activity? Well, ok, maybe you won’t become such a programming virtuoso as you would be if you started at 17 (and even that is not a fact), but decent middle peasants in Java projects are needed no less than “stars”, if not more. If you like programming or you know how to think logically, and you are determined to go into an area that pays well, take the first step bolder.

3. Time for regular study must be set aside. This is indeed a problem for an adult burdened with work and family, but in many cases it can be solved if you search well. Analyze what you do during working days and on weekends, think about what you can refuse, what can be reorganized - and go ahead.

4. It's never too late to learn, said the one who never stopped learning. If you have a break of ten years or more, it will be really difficult. It may be worth setting aside a couple of months for some simpler hobby or taking courses just to try and get used to the learning process. If you have already learned (something and somehow), then learning programming is not a problem for you, at least not an age problem.

5. Points 2-4 are solvable for you? So it's not too late for you to be a programmer. And I don't ask how old you are =).

6. A dim-witted HR manager is a major hurdle for an adult job seeker, but it can be overcome. When sending out resumes, still block strangers from information about your age. Let them look at the technology stack and your ability to communicate.

7. Late - only if you are too lazy to study and spin, if you are not ready to sacrifice anything for the sake of studying and cannot find time in any way. And in this case, it's too late even if you're 19.