Career Change to Code - The Complete Guide [Full Course for Aspiring Developers]

[@quincylarsonmusic]

Imagine being a highly-paid corporate lawyer and thinking: you know what? I'm going to leave all this behind and become a developer. That's what Zubin did. And it's not just him. Over the years I've met so many folks who've transitioned from the legal profession - and from other careers like chefs, teachers, truck drivers, and construction workers. Anyone can get into tech if they put in the work. And unlike with other fields, you don't necessarily need to go back to school to do it. A huge thanks to Zubin for his many contributions to the freeCodeCamp community over the years, and for helping encourage people to develop these skills. There is so much work left to be done in software. The field has had its ups and downs, but the number of developers has steadily grown over the past 50 years and will continue to, even with recent layoffs and emerging AI tools. Start preparing today for where you want to be 5 years from now. If that's in tech, freeCodeCamp has got you covered.

[@jacquesz9916]

Thanks! As a law graduate who is deciding to go into tech, I feel motivated!

[@zubinpratap]

@@jacquesz9916 That's the spirit!

[@zubinpratap]

Learning to code at 37 and then my first dev job at 38 and then Google SWE at 39 was made possible by mentors like you @Quincy! I remember the FCC podcast where you and I talked about the transition (but that was pre Google) and how coding is perhaps the "easy" part compared to all the other compound skills. I've distilled a lot of those learnings in this mini course!

[@Dipj01]

I cringed reading this comment. Please anyone looking to switch careers, especially if you're a "highly paid lawyer", please don't! Freshers have no jobs in the market anymore, and even experienced people are struggling! Its true that there was once a lot of opportunities in software, but its gone now. It really is, as much as it hurts to hear that. Don't listen to software "influencers" on this topic who are motivated to sell shovels for a now gone goldrush, ask actual freshers how their experiences are trying to land a job in 2024. You may get a job, its not completely impossible. But it is HARD!! If your luck is that good, why not try the lottery? And no, simply "trying harder" isn't going to do anything. Everyone else is already trying EXTREMELY HARD! You trying hard will only make you an average, not special, because that's exactly what everyone else is doing. I'm just trying to help you.

[@jacquesz9916]

@@Dipj01 That's more about the current situation than the state of tech as a whole. Do you think kids 5-10 years from now should disregard tech careers? I dont think so. Back in 2008, finance folks wer ein a tougher spot and yet finance as a career hasn't died.

[@KazumiShiunsai]

i'm an architect (the buildings type) with a master's degree in BIM, so i'm already interested in computer sciences, i started learning python because i'm really tired of my profession and really dissapointed with my career. Thank you for this course, i'm 35 and i'm hoping to get the type of job i want, i want to feel happy and able to work at home. Hoping to achieve this dream. someday

[@rhaviealvaro2687]

same here

[@rhaviealvaro2687]

what role u want to be?

[@JeshwanthShivaSai]

Same here

[@hegnisrivera2643]

Same here buddy!

[@Kirby-Bernard]

This is awesome. I mentored a handful of people career switching and sometimes I feel a little out of sync with all of the changes in the tech space over the last few years. This feels refreshing.

[@perezident14]

This is awesome. I mentored a handful of people career switching and sometimes I feel a little out of sync with all of the changes in the tech space over the last few years. This feels refreshing.

[@Gabriel50797]

What an absolutely fantastic video. Thank you guys so much for putting this together and sharing 🙏🏼

[@MsVersus]

Thank you to free code camp and bigger thank you to Zubin! It took me few days to watch the entire video but I’m glad I did. I’m so glad you made this video available for free. Lots of great information that I will be thinking about and applying to my day to day.

[@SHKEVE]

i was able to change careers to software engineering, but i’ll admit it was really tough. i started at 30, i was already working in tech startups in revenue operations, and even though coding was already a big part of my job, it still took 6 years before my first full time engineering offer. that was 2 years ago and the job is still very challenging. in fact, i’d say that i’ve had to expend more effort getting to this point than getting my bachelor’s and master’s. would i do it again? hell yeah.

[@zubinpratap]

awesome!!!

[@CodingAfterThirty]

yes definitely not easy but possible. I started learning at 36 got my first job at 39 now I am 43 and loving it.

[@zubinpratap]

@@CodingAfterThirty wow that's exactly my story too!! Where can we connect?

[@cloudcloud0608]

​@@CodingAfterThirty🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤

[@shemuelx]

Same thing here!@@CodingAfterThirty

[@Khadi-C]

Wow, look at all the bitter and salty people in the comments. How dare anyone learn anything because it didn't work out for you?

[@ed23333]

Thank you! I haven't finished yet, but couldn't help to leave a comment. This is a valuable course demystifying software development.

[@anthonyrodz7189]

Python crash course book is a very good to learn the fundamentals

[@nagendradevara1]

Hi freeCodeCamp, could you please create a course on how software engineers can transition to managerial roles?😢

[@zubinpratap]

This transition is not specific to tech. The best bet for this transition is to take on managerial responsibilities WITHOUT the promotion, and then read up on financial management and operational control -- any good business textbook will teach you these principles. Then applying them to your day to day work is a skill in itself. The BIGGEST skill for this transition is communication -- which is not what you say but

[@ariosetiawan173]

This even so useful for whose have coding career currently 🤝

[@komlatselougou8369]

That's awesome. Very useful video. I just need it now.

[@nocopyrightgameplaystockvi231]

Whatever you learn, keep python as a side skill. It's scarily useful.

[@Pyrate_Of_Las_Vegas]

I've been trying to change to a Coding career, but it's been near impossible. I seem to be too old and too inexperienced to fit anyone's needs. Who wants a 60 y.o. self taught Jr. Web Developer?

[@RH-zf3ki]

hmm... build your own saas?

[@phanikishanyt]

Enjoy the process of learning and building and let the career come as concomitant reap. Read it somewhere..

[@Jean-rg9zg]

I'm 19 yo in same situation

[@growinguniversally216]

@@Jean-rg9zg same

[@edbrito-swdev]

Be sure that it is what you really want to do. I loved studying Computer Science and Software Engineering but the day-to-day work for most of us software developers is mind boggling numb. I hate it and after almost 9 years in the industry, I just want to leave this s**t behing.

[@shemuelx]

Thank you! This was very insightful!

[@ScepticalObserver]

Great, and still one aspect seems not to have been covered enough ... which is assessing the requisite levels of psychological and physical resilience... for example, will your spine and back allow you to spend ours and hours motionlessly in the chair while coding, reviewing, etc.... what about moving to the potentially completely differently communicating, behaving and overall using other thinking patterns group of people. Plus the age factor: are you in the bracket that does not exclude you out the outset?? Video tackling these "non-technical" aspects in detail would help, kind regards

[@DavidJ144.]

Thank you so much for this, saw myself in this

[@MiroKrotky]

When by is my favorite part

[@redbarn8481]

2:42:08 resume here 2:11:35 Resume here 1:23:00. Resume here. (Took a break....) 28:23. I went through the exercise and now I'm exhausted. Resume @ 28:23

[@pin-the-globe8271]

Reached learning formats. Golden words

[@bisforben2010]

great video thank you

[@awaisahmed8584]

Great video

[@edp5226]

hey, thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[@乾淨核能]

this is amazing!!

[@toddstrain3629]

Around the 2:20 mark I think the first secret was left out. The 2023 updated comments are missing context. Otherwise this is excellent. Thanks.

[@doribel7039]

I was ready to give up and your wisdom showed up at the right time for me. I have saved this video to revisit when doubt overshadows my goals. Thank you so much 🥹 🙏🏼

[@BakiFit2003]

Don't give up. Why would you give up? I like to think: Do I have reason not to do this? Answer is almost always No. Keep rocking. I'm learning Python. We grind togetger. You're not alone!

[@pradyutkumarghosh9843]

Giving up was never an option for me. 780 days back I was jobless, tried to get into a high entry level cloud job but I didnot receive any assesment link even though I was overqualified for the role. I was seen as a looser by my family. I had filled thousands of jobs be on linkedin, job sites. Never had any progress. Now even that I am in my dream company I am not in my dream job and there is no way to move internally as I'm contractual worker. I was pursing to get more cloud certs after my cloud foundational one but realised there as no entry level cloud jobs now. I am thinking of moving into dev once again and try out. Anyways I am already in PIP, will probably get terminated soon, but I have to do what I can. We all have our own jouneys and our very own share of life. My current job's interview was onsite I didnot get any reservation as all the seats were booked and I don't need to tell anyone how crowede trains in India are. I literally slept on shoes in chilling winters on the floor. I feel proud of these harships you should too. I wish you all the very best please update here when you have conquered your peak. TC

[@mauriziostrazzullo1419]

Do you think it is still worth becoming a dev? Artificial intelligence is making many of us redundant and I don't think so after all. If we are replaced and eventually only a small part of us is left, what's the point of changing careers if you go back to doing what you were doing before or maybe worse?

[@claudiamanta1943]

😂 They will be needed more than ever.

[@mauriziostrazzullo1419]

@@claudiamanta1943 I disagree, look at Devin AI for example, now he has "low" accuracy and hallucinations are many, but in 2/3 years? And you want to tell me that big companies if they have a chance to replace half of their staff with a software for which they spend maybe the same amount of money but without having problems with sick leave, holidays, paternity/maternity leave no breaks and no fatigue and 1000 times more productive, they don't make a voluntary redundancy plan?

[@Dernsonable]

Great guide, but bad timing to switch into coding. Coding for yourself is absolutely fine. If you try to find a job into it, as a beginner, its a really bad time. Job market for programmers is saturated. It is better to go into trades right now.

[@plaidchuck]

You go into the trades

[@Scarrs9064]

I done working construction i want to make some animation and for the people that are going to tell me coding is not what i have to learn well i want to learn coding to program and to make my own website also so that i can make games

[@preston176]

Ok someone was saying that it will be a shame to say youve been to the gym for 10 years but we dont see any muscle... does this relate to coding? like telling people you've been coding for like a decade but all you can do is ...hello world... ?

[@anthonyrodz7189]

I find chatgpt useful but not for ask, copy and paste, but I like to ask it about concepts I prefer copilot for this as it gives a references then I explain it back in my words and ask if it’s correct, I like to use it as well for typos, or understand things in documentations, in general is a very good guide but yeah if you just ask to do a complex task you are going to be asking and asking again and learn nothing at the end but to ask better 😅

[@shadowshatto]

If you can sit through 3 hours of this, you have what it takes to learn coding. I do not.

[@marcolima89]

"I was 38 or 39 at the time..." I would never give him that age now Completely off topic I know, but that really surprised me

[@tanmoybiswas8882]

Please update the video. Last few seconds or minutes in the "WHICH LANGUAGE FRAMEWORKS" were not there after timestamp 02:03:015. Please update.

[@ShravanKumar-wg9pv]

Can you tell me the order to learn programming languages??

[@marouanelhaddad8632]

Just a heads up warning for everyone considering this: it's tough and hard to get a job! You have to struggle extremely hard learning a lot, and even then you can barely get an unpaid internship let alone a job. Have a backup plan if you consider this field!

[@raunomajor4631]

Stop saying these words, they are not encouraging and will push newbies away. While it may be true, it's still very personal experience and everyone should have their own experience on this journey. Life is hard! But we have more resources available for free than ever! Just keep showing up, progressive overload.

[@marouanelhaddad8632]

@@raunomajor4631 I'm just saying they should have a backup plan if they consider this field 😊

[@vishnu2407]

​@@raunomajor4631I think the people who say things like the original commenter are people who either want to discourage others or haven't been doing things well enough

[@Dipj01]

​@@raunomajor4631stop trying to hide the truth. The people who are going to make a career switch should be made aware of the reality before they make such a big decision.

[@plaidchuck]

There is no backup plan, desperation is the best motivator

[@LiaSueKim]

On the other side of KZbin people are sharing " coding is dead" videos.

[@susannaminasyan2355]

dear Beau, you look younger and younger :-)

[@workhardselfmotivation]

Great video 👍

[@AskarTelpekbayev]

1:45:00

[@AskarTelpekbayev]

2:03:00

[@AskarTelpekbayev]

2:36:00

[@AskarTelpekbayev]

3:00:00

[@jawbone1218]

This code camp toughens the competition. Stop them!

[@raghavishnu2899]

Bro I literally just thought that 😂

[@ThisIsntmyrealnameGoogle]

This field is already over saturated, the smart move is to just make code camps and sell people on it instead of competing yourself. Even if they stopped there will be 10 others to take their place.

[@jawbone1218]

@@ThisIsntmyrealnameGoogle did gpt give you this idea. Dark.

[@t.a-8469]

Software has gotten so glitchy maybe new people are needed to improve user experience. I believe most programmers took their jobs for granted thinking they were irreplaceable. 🤷🏻

[@selfworthy]

maybe in india. change your perspective.

[@coolwithyou8557]

Tell me what should I learn django or spring boot

[@itzhexen0]

Python and AI and then use it to take the other programmers jobs.

[@jeremyh9841]

learn a real job like plumber, there are not enough dev jobs anymore

[@vectoralphaSec]

Either is fine. They are both good backend frameworks. If you know or like Python more then learn Django or if you know or like Java more then learn Spring instead.

[@justinalvarado7351]

I am trying to become a software test engineer DevOPS can we get a video on that path

[@AasmaniKhazana]

Thanks

[@MatDGVLL]

on point

[@NasserWaleed-gi1lv]

Vuetify 3 course please

[@codesleep]

so bootcamps are no good then?

[@pedroluzio]

Next video "Career Change from Code - The Express Guide"

[@kafaili3842]

Isn’t the field over saturated? 230k layoffs in the last year and the number keeps rising, I even see CS students from good university becoming a janitor…..

[@CT-yc4gd]

I expected money and then I just got laid off instead.

[@sabamjavanadze]

nice

[@Proxy1Nick]

I watched these arguments in Russian for 10 minutes, faster and clearer. You're doing a good job of telling me in detail, but 3 hours is too much, it seems to me. Someone might give up the idea because of this video. Я на русском эти аргументы за 10 минут смотрел, быстрее и понятнее. Хорошее дело делаете, что подробно рассказываете, но 3 часа это перебор, как мне кажется. Кто-то может из-за этого видео отказаться от затеи.

[@dongivafoc4493]

This is a very bad topic. A lot of people will leave their lives behind and go for this. Millions of videos like this have saturated the market with the low effort topics. Sure it generates clicks but is it really worth it to get clicks while potentially destroying people's lives ? But i guess even people complaining here is still helping the algorithm

[@rejuzaman6365]

im 18 yo tryng to learning code to have some skills

[@rexoverwatch]

cool

[@MoeLester4444]

Dont waste your time learn something else 😄 there is no jobs.

[@adamromero]

8 years of experience working as a dev, been struggling to get a job for almost a year. Be a plumber instead.

[@BeepBoop2221]

You don't want to do that and it's just as hard to get work.

[@anthonyrodz7189]

Is this a south park reference ?

[@josuerafaelpinafermin2639]

Primero

[@itzhexen0]

Enjoy your new minimum wage job.

[@Mafalda-yz9xr]

1

[@freetellurian]

🖖✍👽👍

[@e.b.7485]

Just don't. Do or learn something usefull instead. Coding is just a tool helping (in most cases it doesn't) people with real usefull knowledge. If you really want to code, learn it in your free time so your actual usefull work can benefit from it.

[@OverallGamer03]

What do you consider as "something usefull"?

[@Dipj01]

Please don't. The field is super saturated, and its almost impossible for freshers (no experience people) to get a job these days. Those who say otherwise are either lying to make themselves feel better (because they're freshers themselves), or they're selling shovels (like fcc) for the Software goldrush which is already over.

[@Dipj01]

​@@sadephillips9645your "projected growth" doesn't mean jacks**t. Ask any fresher how their experience is trying to land a job in 2024, and they'll tell you. I'm really getting tired of these fake optimistic content that mislead outsiders into thinking they can get a software job in 2024 by just watching a bunch of youtube videos. I'm not going to argue with you. You can choose to beleive whatever you want and see whatever projections you want to make yourself feel secure. But reality will hit you when you will try to land a job as an inexperienced developer. If you already have experience, that's a different story, although that's getting a bit difficult too nowadays. And don't tout exceptions like "oh, my friend X got a job as an inexperienced developer". Exceptions are exceptions, not the rule. For every single fresher placed, you can see thousands of unplaced freshers. Good bye, and good luck, you'll really need it if you're going in as a fresher.

[@cristianozacchino6800]

Boring...

[@hardeepkanaujia]

First comment

[@benjamindison9224]

1st view

[@itzhexen0]

Do it and learn Python and AI and then use it to take the other programmers jobs. Then they can go clean toilets.

[@PhilopateerAvalon-zt8vi]

Bro please dont you guys already saturated the market with mediocre talent

[@meme_Overflow]

where should good college graduates go then? bootcamp taught people must be boycotted by companies I dont know who is gonna listen but this is exactly what graduates in CS are thinking rn

[@ThisIsntmyrealnameGoogle]

Companies dont care about you. They will pick the people who are okay with being paid the least. Bootcamp people generally are okay with getting lower paid jobs so companies wont boycott them.

[@vishnu2407]

If you're good at what you do, why should you worry about bootcamp grads?

[@vishnu2407]

​@@ThisIsntmyrealnameGooglebruh even cs grads take jobs at Accenture 😂 it's not just bootcampers

[@Dipj01]

​​@@vishnu2407because companies are picking bootcampers up because they're cheaper. It oversaturates the market, floods it with low skilled people all lying on the resume, making it difficult for actual devs to stand out, and it drives down wages. Software, just like every other field, should be reserved for those who have a degree in computing.

[@darkhanses5949]

First comment