I have been lurking in HN for some time now and I respect the insight people share here. Would you spare a bit of advice that can help me make a few important decisions in my life at this time?
A bit about myself: I am European but will be moving to US in a few months, in the NYC area. I am young and with a fresh degree in Physics but I've always felt my call is for hacking in the space of computers. So I recently decided to become a coder instead.
My practical and current goal is to be "employable" ASAP, ideally in much less than one year.
I already covered some basics in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery and Python but my options are still pretty much wide open, frontend, backend.
Due to the limited time I really need to optimize this process and get the minimum set of skills in the shortest time that will make me employable.
So I ask you, if you would be me:
- what stacks/technologies would you learn? Starting from the what is currently mostly in demand?
- how would you go about doing this learning as effective as possible? Best methods and resources.
This is ground breaking for me and all your insights will be gratefully appreciated.
If you prefer to write me directly - vasylmeister@gmail.com
I'm going to suggest a third option. If you have the money, you should attend a high profile coding bootcamp. There's no doubt in my mind that it's the fastest way to go from "intelligent non-programmer" to "salaried programmer."
Graduates from bootcamps have statistically excellent outcomes - the majority of top bootcamps have 6 figure average starting salaries. Assuming you could teach yourself everything in a hyper-accelerated fashion, your first job would still likely not net you that much because the employer is taking a large risk on you. A bootcamp serves as both a school and a vetting agency - I'm willing to bet that attending a bootcamp will allow you to command 20-30k more than the amount you would have earned teaching yourself.
In addition, after landing your job you'll still have time to do side projects and continue learning whatever you'd like - it's not an either-or proposition. The difference here is that you'll be making enough money to support yourself and potentially save for further education.
I have multiple friends who have gone through coding bootcamps and it's been an utterly lifechanging experience in every case. If you're smart and driven, it almost seems like a no brainer.