How long does it take on average to learn programming from scratch and earn money?

Question

Programming

I am 20, a student, and I seriously, and for quite a long time, thought about connecting my life with programming. I like mathematics, but did not study due to uselessness. So that's the question, really. I have about 10 hours of free time a day (I’m ready to devote most of it to learning programming) and I’m wondering: after how much can I earn? And how much can I earn? And what area of ​​programming is better to 'poke your head into': web, applied, or% forgot the name%? And will I be able to do this all my life, from the series: I chose and develop myself for pleasure?
I studied a huge number of articles, opinions, questions on this topic, but I am interested in the opinion of the 'local' residents, I consider it more authoritative. I thought about my business, about making money on websites and networks of narrowly thematic blogs, but honestly, my head swells from thinking about the choice. I want to choose my 'niche' and develop in a direction, not to worry about it anymore. So I'm doing a kind of 'profitability assessment', or something. I would like to know for sure.
UPDATE: for the signatories and for myself, I will sum up the brief conclusions.
1 - The main question is how much time passes between starting in programming and earning money - from 2 weeks to 3 months. Depends on the chosen direction, language /etc. The amount of money to be made depends on the complexity of the specialization and the time spent.
2 - The upper average threshold of earnings in Russia is 150,000 rubles.
3 - How it works: You learn a simple language, mastering programming as such (in PHP, or js), after which there are 2 options: continue learning as an "apprentice", or on your own, while working as a freelancer on the acquired skills.
4 - Thinking about programming just for money? You're on the other side, friend.
5 - Read this thing
It seems like all the important conclusions =)

Answer 1

You can become a good programmer only if you like this occupation. At least in the early years, this activity should bring pleasure in itself. It must be aspiration, passion, talent. If you had it, you would not ask questions here, but simply program. No matter what.
What you seem to want is a quick buck. To do this, you need to study the demand, and compare it with your capabilities. It has already been written here that a good source of demand statistics is freelance exchanges. See orders, look for the most popular topics. All sorts of Wordpress and django with RoR for the web, or maybe something for mobile development, but this is already more complicated. See what it is (there are a lot of materials on pop topics), study (pop topics are pop because they are easy to learn) and practice.
With access to freelancing, it is better to wait a little. Without experience, you can immediately ruin your reputation, and it's hard to fix it. Better go to someone's apprentice. Do you have small web studios in the area? Here to them. They always have more work than performers. And don't star immediately. Apprentices earn little. A little experience on real projects - and you are ready to compete with the Indians on freelance exchanges...

Answer 2

After breaking away from habr, the toaster turned into a collection of questions and the category "Hi, passans! Are you all cool progers here? What book should I read for 15 minutes, so that tomorrow I could earn cartoons?"
The answer should be: Karl Marx's "Capital", Dan Ariely's "Predictable Irrationality", Steve Blank's "Four Steps to Insight" and thousands of other books on economics. Choose the wrong area.

Answer 3

In fact, the number of such questions really goes off scale, because it worries many, but everyone believes that they will be answered in some unique way. Unfortunately no, they will not answer, there are no universal recipes. I myself at one time, took on one, took on another, caught fire and burned out again. Then comes the understanding that you are marking time in one place, even making "hyper jumps" in the shortest possible time, such switches with a new "hyper jump" throw you back a lot. It's like a vector that abruptly changes direction. The sum of such vectors may not please exactly :)
It seems to have chosen, it seems to have decided, it began to go deeper, but you look around and doubts begin, whether you have chosen, and how relevant it will be, and how much it will be interesting further, and so on. For example, I like development for mobile platforms, but there is no work in the local market. A reasonable doubt arises, to choose what is needed here and now, but not particularly promising, either ... or ... and many more different either.
What is the way out of this vicious circle. Probably make a Roadmap, where you will have to test your willpower. Map plans for the year. Analyze questions such as:
1. What is interesting
2. What is easiest
3. What is in demand in the local market
4. Is relocation considered
5. What is in demand on freelance exchanges and what is the level of competition in this segment
? Throwing is your brake. Youthful maximalism, when you want everything at once, is not an assistant in this regard. You need to have a certain focus, then there will be a result. Well, at least it's best to start working with at least something.
Now the answer to your question: the time of mastering programming from scratch and the possibility of earning money are not directly related to each other. That is, no one can give a specific answer.
You can program all your life, but not make money on it. You might be lucky to get a job with zero experience and you earn almost immediately. It's like asking how many nails you need to hammer in to start making money from it. Am I exaggerating? - Yes. But you can also beat your fingers with a hammer, but earn some pennies, or you can drive a nail professionally at home with your eyes closed with one blow, but not have a single ruble from it.
Sometimes a person has been programming for 10 years, but the quality of the code remains at the level of a junior and he will not be able to solve problems in writing serious applications on freelance. It turns out in a local matter, for a particular company, this person can sell his work and receive money for it, on a larger scale - it will be difficult for him to sell himself and, accordingly, the chances of earning are not so great. This also explains the fact that not always smart people succeed in companies. A person may not be the most useful, not the most effective, but competent "self-marketing, networking aka useful connections" can work wonders.
The only thing that I can definitely recommend even for a programmer is the so-called soft skills. Skills of communication, communication, understanding of business ideas and so on. It is not directly related to programming, but the questions are so universal that they will be useful in any job.

Answer 4

I advise you to master the layout (html + css) in a couple of weeks, then start learning JS - at first you can do various simple effects. Do it with jQuery, then do the same with pure JS. Then - write some plugin for jQuery. Then master Backbone. Understand how closures and prototyping work. Start learning Node.js. Write a simple web server with routing (without using frameworks like express). Connect some database to this server (Mongo, Couchbase, Redis). Then, I think, you yourself will understand where to develop.
You can earn money starting after 2-3 weeks of mastering the layout - either freelancing or getting a job in a small firm that rivets websites. Freelancing is better - you can choose the technologies yourself and optimize the work in time.

Answer 5

Somehow, in a month of sticking every day, I mastered tolerably c #, even wrote a couple of application programs.
In general, quite a few courses last up to 3 months, I think 3 months is the most optimal period for deep understanding.

Answer 6

It must be aspiration, passion, talent. If you had it, you would not ask questions here, but simply program.

A beautiful, common and probably erroneous myth. Reality is not as unambiguous as sometimes idealistic natures would like in a particular field of activity. I know cases when the study of programming was forced, so there were circumstances, then the study grew into a permanent job and decent programmers turned out from people. Making money is also a good motive, but not everyone has enough of this motivation to scrupulously spend 2-3 years to achieve results.

Answer 7

When I was a student, I just took what I knew (then it was C ++ Builder) and began to climb into projects that I could potentially implement. A couple of orders took and completed. In the process of doing one, I had to fully learn FORTRAN. It was true about 5-7 years ago, now the competition on freelance exchanges is tougher, but if you dump (and you have to do this without having a portfolio and a rating), then you can take a couple of projects

Answer 8

The syntax of the PL itself is not complicated, but it takes years to experience reading, understanding and applying the code already written (by someone). Modern PL is a "programming environment"

Answer 9

Hello, you can still browse freelance sites, look for tasks that you think you could do and do for yourself, or at least plan your actions and solve this problem.
It seems to me that what would join the stream is server and front-end programming. There are a lot of vacancies/orders for js frameworks, etc.
ps I'm also 20, I earn some money making software to order..

Answer 10

If in our time a person thinks about what to do only at the age of 20, then he is already 20 years late. At one time I began to study programming languages ​​according to two principles: 1) they teach on the course, 2) I managed to get a book on programming on ... (in my time there was a terrible shortage - 800-1000% markup on the price printed on the book was in the order of things) And if you want to "choose your niche" (as indicated in the question), then who here or somewhere else will help? Who, if not the chooser himself, can understand who has what "his own niche"? Start simple - with mathematics, you will definitely need it before you do at least something worthwhile.