Is it possible to become an iron specialist if you are almost 30?

Question

Career in IT

About me: a 28-year-old woman, she has never been involved in IT in her life, although there has always been an interest in this area. If you do not go into details, then life has developed in such a way that I have no education at all, and absolutely no knowledge and skills. A few months ago I started to get interested in computer hardware as a hobby. Out of idle curiosity in the style of "I wonder how it works there?" So far, only a theory, I have not tried to assemble a computer yet. But I have mastered soldering and am already assembling a pulse power supply (not stupidly according to the scheme, but with an understanding of the principle of its operation and the ability to calculate the component values). I am slowly starting to get into the circuits of laptop motherboards, I want to study very deeply the principle of operation of each component on the board, the architecture of the microprocessor, then the programming of microcontrollers. Next - soldering bga. Interested to hear experiences and opinions does it have any prospect for the future. I don't have crazy dreams "to learn everything in a year and earn 100 thousand". It is primarily a hobby. But it would be nice if the hobby also brought income, which would at least be enough to survive. Thanks in advance for your replies.

Answer 1

All sorts of phones are repaired by people, often not burdened with education. But they mostly use the "google what to do for these symptoms" and "remember what helped in the past" method, mostly.
Learning to solder is not a problem at all. BGA in particular is just a hardware and mechanical skill.
But with circuitry everything will be much more complicated, especially without a basis, in the form of the same physics.
If we are talking about the repetition of finished structures, or repairs, it is not so difficult. If about development, it is very difficult.
Programming controllers, or plis, is a completely different specialty.
You can probably master the basics of all this as a hobby without even having basic knowledge. It makes no sense to seriously master everything - you need to specialize in something, well, these are years of study.

Answer 2

I recently answered almost the same question.

In short, not worth it.

Отрасль ремонта железа уходит из рентабельной зоны. И остаётся один вариант - открывать свой СЦ, закупать оборудование и материалы (сотни тысяч рублей, это только для начала!), и работать. И это будет относительно рентабельно только в более-менее крупных городах. В мелких - нет смысла, у людей нет денег. Открывать свою мастерскую можно, но если УЖЕ есть оборудование и материалы/запчасти в наличии (хоть минимум). Работать "на дядю" - это получать ДО 50% (а часто и 30 и ниже) от суммы за работу, озвученную клиенту. Допустим, ремонт цепей питания, в среднем 1500р озвучивают клиенту. Из них вычитаем около 300-500 на детали, и 1000-1200 остаётся, мастер получит с этого 500-600р. И при этом потратить можно на работу и целый день, а иногда и больше. И это один из благоприятных исходов. А вот, допустим, ноут утопленник. Заранее нельзя сказать сколько чего там неисправно. Может и мелочи, а может половина ноута. Иногда приходится УЖЕ починить на 80-90%, только чтобы сказать сумму. И выходит она немалой, а клиент отказывается.... Потрачено много времени (и материалы с деталями, зачастую тоже), а впустую...

But if there is already a source of income or other income, and the study of all this is only "for the soul" - then it is always not too late. True, the older the age, the more difficult new knowledge is given.
Learning new things at 20 and at 30 is already a noticeable difference. At 20 and 40, it can be compared to rolling a bicycle next to you or pushing a truck ... But for someone it may be different.
Electronics as a hobby has such a minus - it is exhausting, including the fact that it is already difficult to quit doing it. Over time, a lot of developments are accumulated, plans are in mind to make, develop, and maybe order for production ... But there are many of them, and every time new ideas, new developments emerge, something is abandoned ... And after all it takes a lot of time and effort.
The second disadvantage is health. Chemistry (fluxes, solders, etc.) affect health. A sedentary lifestyle too (it's hard to control yourself when you're doing something interesting). VISION! It has a noticeable effect, and the components are getting smaller and smaller.
If you make money with this, keep in mind what you will do when your health does not allow (vision will sit down, for example, or something else) to do such work.

Answer 3

well, who interferes
with such a bias a direct path to the service center

Answer 4

You can also teach a hare to play the drum.
Start from the needs of the market. You end up selling your labor power (according to Marx).
There is a demand (for specialists) - let's offer.
Mastering a specialty will require a lot of effort. And money. Someone should support you while you gnaw at the granite of science.

Answer 5

The elephant must be eaten in pieces.
And you are trying to shove it entirely :) If it's purely for yourself, then of course it's okay, you can at least do something. If you plan to look for work later, then you should keep in mind that an electronic engineer (a person who designs new circuits) and a software engineer (who writes programs, including for microcontrollers) are different specialties. Yes, there is a lot in common, it’s not bad for electronics to know how a microcontroller is programmed, and for a programmer how a processor works, but for work you will need a lot of special knowledge that simply won’t fit in one head :)

Answer 6

If you need to get income as soon as possible, then you can go to a service center to repair mobile phones or go as a tester of electrical components to a manufacturing company (which deals with electronics, for example, Itelma), but you also need to show what you can do - then you will have to learn how to make circuits on an arduino for half a year and then go on social security , while learning the necessary basis.
As a practice, you can start with arduino, and then stm32 and beyond, you will also need the C ++ language.
About the cons of the work voiced above - yes, they are (I soldered a lot for a long time, I collected circuits), it’s also manual work, you can say that it’s unlikely to automate it like in a pure program), but it’s like that. But there are also pluses - there are few standards for embedded specialists

Answer 7

woman 28 years old,

28 years old .... woman ..
maybe it's better to sign up for a gym if this form of escapism is chosen in life? this is not easy.

Answer 8

I was once engaged in minor repairs, but fortunately carried over to do soldering. This is the POOREST, and one of the most harmful IT sectors. If you want to have enough money to survive, you will have to switch to cheaper pasta. Of course, there is, for example, the data recovery sector, but it is very narrow. In general, if you are ready to die in poverty for your hobby - the flag in your hands. Of course, there may be exceptions, but I have not even heard of them, and I hardly imagine such a thing. Take care of yourself - you still have to live and live!
In general, in your question you listed 5 loosely related professions. Programming microcontrollers is the only area where you can earn something. But this is programming, not soldering, not assembling computers, and not the rest of the tin from the question.

female

It may even be a plus, depending on how you use it, and this is definitely not a minus.

28 years

No difference. I myself got a job as a junior at 28.

I have never been involved in IT in my life

It will be hard, very hard.

although there has always been interest in this area.

Interest is not enough - you need to love your work.

If you do not go into details, then life has developed in such a way that I have no education at all, and absolutely no knowledge and skills.

Cryopreservation? Have you been in a coma? Brain injury? Because otherwise you have something.