Making a living as a Programmer? Freelance?
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Hi everyone! I'm new here and to programming/coding in general. I'm currently an IT systems/network admin and I'm growing a bit tired of the work. I still want to work with computers, but am not sure which way to go. I've been going through all kinds of beginner books....html, some resources on Mac and Windows programming. Just trying to get my bearings and figure out which way to do with it, but the honest question is: Can I make a decent living being a programmer/developer/coder? Will I have job security? Is being a freelance programmer a good idea or even feasible? I've heard plenty of horror stories of development being outsourced, etc. Can anyone out there speak of their experiences as a programmer, either at a 9-5 kind of job or as a freelancer? I appreciate any insight and guidance.
Hmmm... Let me put my mentoring hat on. Are you bored because you are not stepping up and taking more responsibility? Or because you are overqualified or under worked? There could be a LOT of reasons to be bored. Being Bored is usually a good sign for programmers. Most of the good ones get bored with repetitive tasks (like I imagine network administration to be). Since you are NEW to what you are doing, I would advise caution first. If you are bored at your job, and it pays well. GOOD for you. It is a nice problem to have, take up a hobby and have a great life. If the pay is lacking, then one approach is to get an education on the side, with regards to programming. Go learn stuff. See if you like doing it for 2-4hrs at the end of your work day. Also, this might allow you to pickup some work on the side, and augment your salary. While learning important skills. Risk and Reward should always be considered together. I love consulting nowadays. In the past, I hated the weeks that I had of down-time with no clients calling, now I network during those times, and forcibly during my busy times (1 meet a week, in general). Unfortunately, being new means having no REAL experience. You have to start at the bottom a bit. Finally, not knowing if you are going to like programming is another challenge. Here is a programming test for you. If you enjoy solving it in 2 or more ways, then you might be a programmer: Take a single text file of words (dict.txt), as input. The output will be (to the screen), ALL of the words on ONE LINE that cane be made by with the SAME letters (no more, or less). Goal is to use the ENTIRE English dictionary to test for efficiency. Example input: bat bit cat hims shim tab Example output: bat tab bit cat hims shim Words should not be output twice. Your goal should be efficiency. For the entire English(language) dictionary it should NOT take hours. DO NOT Google the answer. Spend the time solving the problem. Then write the code and test it (small dictionary first, then a huge one). If you ENJOYED solving the problem. And Liked testing the implementation, and even had to figure out how to do the timing/debugging if it was slow. Then you might just have what it takes. Because programming is FIRST and FOREMOST about Analyzing and Solving problems! HTH
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Hi everyone! I'm new here and to programming/coding in general. I'm currently an IT systems/network admin and I'm growing a bit tired of the work. I still want to work with computers, but am not sure which way to go. I've been going through all kinds of beginner books....html, some resources on Mac and Windows programming. Just trying to get my bearings and figure out which way to do with it, but the honest question is: Can I make a decent living being a programmer/developer/coder? Will I have job security? Is being a freelance programmer a good idea or even feasible? I've heard plenty of horror stories of development being outsourced, etc. Can anyone out there speak of their experiences as a programmer, either at a 9-5 kind of job or as a freelancer? I appreciate any insight and guidance.
Being a solo freelance web developer and making a living is extremely difficult. I’ve been down that road. You need to be current on everything from coding HTML, JavaScript, ajax, CSS stylesheets, input validation and security, a back-end language like C#, SQL and so on, know everything about hosting services, domain registrations and so on, be a page designer, expertise on photo and graphic tools, know how everything works on every browser and how they respond on everything from mobile devices to desktop, interacting with social media, and customers may want to be able to update the website themselves and then a secure admin back-end becomes a whole separate project itself, the technical requirements are endless if you expect to market yourself and get good paying work. You don’t have time to learn or spend time with trial and error you need to know immediately that you can fill their requirements. And that’s the fun part, then you need to find customers, market yourself and be able to spend lots of time writing and developing proposals and mock-ups that may just end-up in your archives. You need to negotiate their expected deliverables so they can see your progress (and a way for them to see your progress), and you need to negotiate your payment(s). Note: Smaller web customers are now using canned do-it yourself drag-and-drop web products and even if you get work with a smaller customer they won’t pay a lot and once the site is done you’re back looking for more work. Freelance web development is tough.
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Hi everyone! I'm new here and to programming/coding in general. I'm currently an IT systems/network admin and I'm growing a bit tired of the work. I still want to work with computers, but am not sure which way to go. I've been going through all kinds of beginner books....html, some resources on Mac and Windows programming. Just trying to get my bearings and figure out which way to do with it, but the honest question is: Can I make a decent living being a programmer/developer/coder? Will I have job security? Is being a freelance programmer a good idea or even feasible? I've heard plenty of horror stories of development being outsourced, etc. Can anyone out there speak of their experiences as a programmer, either at a 9-5 kind of job or as a freelancer? I appreciate any insight and guidance.
Never fear. I'm been doing programming/coding for living for more than 26+ years, and demand are kept growing. Developers are in short supply at the moment and by 2020 it is estimate to be 400,000 developers shortage. How much you make depends on how ambitious you are staying up-to-date on emerging technologies. Constant learning and probably not that much different from being IT admin. However, developers generally are paid a bit more than IT admin once you are a bit seasoned. The environment is changing and telecommute, contract and freelance works are becoming more available globally. I working day job, but considering going contract or at least telecommute going forward. Cheer.
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Hi everyone! I'm new here and to programming/coding in general. I'm currently an IT systems/network admin and I'm growing a bit tired of the work. I still want to work with computers, but am not sure which way to go. I've been going through all kinds of beginner books....html, some resources on Mac and Windows programming. Just trying to get my bearings and figure out which way to do with it, but the honest question is: Can I make a decent living being a programmer/developer/coder? Will I have job security? Is being a freelance programmer a good idea or even feasible? I've heard plenty of horror stories of development being outsourced, etc. Can anyone out there speak of their experiences as a programmer, either at a 9-5 kind of job or as a freelancer? I appreciate any insight and guidance.
I have made all my income from software development since 1982. The last 10 years has been as a Freelancer. A couple points not made yet: - Programming is an inherently frustrating job. If you can't deal with constant frustration, stay away. - My advice is always: If you are over 30, you are too old to start out in programming. Not because 30+ people can't learn, but because you need to be interested in programming to make it work for you. This planet is awash with computers, compilers and IDE's. If you have been swimming in this sea of opportunity for 3 decades and haven't yet learn't to program, well you just aren't interested. This advice would go double for a systems/network dude. - No one here, AFAIK, has given you an honest, direct, answer to your question "Can I make a decent living". The short answer is "no". The long answer is: "Compared with what you can earn now as a systems/network dude - no. At least not for a number of years.".