I often recommend front-end dev work for people without a college degree or people who got a degree in underwater basket weaving and just woke up. 65k coding certainly beats retail, diner serving, or being a journalist as a career path. But I wouldn't take a pay cut from a respected job to do it. The pay scale does go up, of course, with years of experience. But life experience isn't going to transfer over that much, I'm sorry to say.

If you want to make a bigger salary and really need to code then it would make more sense to get a Computer Science degree. Since you have a Bachelor's already (I assume since you're a teacher) then I guess you would go for a Master's in CS degree.

They can make big bucks. With a Master's in CS degree + some internships, you can easily get 125k. (Not my field, I just know the salaries, kinda wish I had done more CS in school!)

Were you genuinely interested in coding/CS before you got started on this path or was it more pragmatism that took you this direction? For me it'd be more pragmatism. I feel like I could do it, it's just not a passion of mine.

I got a general business degree and I’m not even working in my chosen field. Considering a masters too but idk if I wanna spend way more money

Instead*

@Mick is that a question for me or NuclearReactionary?

@VinceChaos A Master's in what?

CS

@VinceChaos The opportunities with a Master's in CS are unparalleled. If you really like computers

That’s what I understand. You’ll get an offer months ahead of time in anticipation of graduation

It’s just the price

Yeah pretty much. Ideally you have time for a (paid) internship between your first and second year.

Nice. Yeah I’m using free products as of now. We’ll see what’s next

@ThisIsChris for you, but I'd love to hear what you have to say @NuclearReactionary

I heard of this great apprenticeship program from LinkedIn called Reach for programmers from non traditional backgrounds

@Mick yes I was very interested in coding. It really helps because even when you start working you learn a lot on the job but it helps a lot to learn outside of work too.

Recommending the podcast “learn to code with me” if you drive a lot like I do and feel guilty if you can’t seem to find the time to code

@ThisIsChris I've only taken a couple of introductory courses when I was younger. So I only have a very basic understanding of what goes into coding. Just made a basic website once really. It was actually kind of fun. I've the means to go back to school, eventually, it's just a matter of when at this point really. And for what.

@Mick I'll DM you

Sorry, lotta questions to answer. In order:
1. "Here" is San Jose.
2. I fell into teaching and I'm not crazy about it. Also, I'm at a private school, which doesn't necessarily mean high salary (you'd assume that, but it's not always the case). Most importantly: no pension.
3. Yes, I'm interested in CS now. Hindsight being 20-20, I definitely got the wrong degree: Music Business/Technology. I just was never exposed to CS or didn't think I could do it.
4. A Masters in CS isn't really an option; schools won't consider a BA good enough.

indeed.com

paysa.com

@Mick

@VinceChaos I've always been a little put-off by that learntocodewith.me site. That's the podcast you're referring to, right?

But I've never listened to her podcast. It's good, you say?

I got valuable info the first episode I listened to

About that reach program

Never visited the site

@NuclearReactionary San Jose is basically same as SF, in which case any salary I quoted for NY you can tack on 10-15% on. But I'm skepical of those payscale estimates for front end devs unless you qualified them as people with a Bachelor's in CS, or who have many years of experience.

Ok @ThisIsChris . Hmm. Well, we'll see what happens. I teach web dev anyway, so this program isn't terribly expensive as a form of professional development.

Another thing to consider: In my current position my salary isn't likely to grow much, if at all. Meanwhile, the salaries as a web dev _start_ maybe a bit below what I make now and grow far above whatever I'll ever make in my current employment.

@NuclearReactionary yes, also with respect to you pointing out you teach at a private school, I see what you mean. Private school teaching, afaik from my dad, doesn't compensate nearly as much.

$142,000 avg salary in San Jose, CA
$143,000 avg annual rent for 1br apartment in San Jose, CA

😛

@Tanner - SC The Bay is bananas!

BS! A 12k/month apartment?! That’s not an avg apartment!

Last time I was out there, a small 2 bedroom ranch outside the city was ~$800k

@micbwilli what do you think of "the singularity" and brain emulation? I was talking to a friend about it earlier today.

I listened to Kaczynski manifesto on the progress of man and industrialization. I got 2 big take aways from it.

You can't end the progress due to an inability to make a simultaneous revolutionary impact.

Who controls and builds the last machine brain build by a man will ever build might decide if human existence continues.

@micbwilli 😢 scary stuff