Is it worth it to start learning programming at 26? How will this affect your career if you apply for the position of a junior at the age of 26?

Question

IT education

Here I am 26 years old, I have a specialized education, but in fact I was not involved in programming, sometimes I made up pages for the soul. University graduated in 2015. He worked mainly as a manager. And now I’m thinking about what I want to develop and work in it, but reading a lot of articles on Habré, I noticed that companies for the position of a junior need students whose graduates are 18-20 years old, and those who are already over 30-40 are either seniors or team leads. The question is that I can not understand this is a myth or not. How does it even work.

Answer 1

Is there a life of a novice programmer after 30?

Answer 2

In general, everything is so, but there are exceptions. I got a job as a junior at the age of 28, before that I also worked mainly as a manager or wherever I have to. In about a year, I pulled myself up from almost zero to June and was able to pass the interview. It seems to me that the main problem is not even age, but location - if you are from Moscow, St. Petersburg or at least a city of a million people, then you will have options where to go and find guys who do not look at age, but look at knowledge and performance. In smaller locations, this will be much more difficult to do. Well, they hired me for my first job with the condition that if I didn’t pull it off, then they would transfer me to project managers, because. I have a lot of managerial experience + some other coding experience, and this is also IT and here you can develop no worse than in programming itself. So keep it up and you'll be fine.

Answer 3

yes, it doesn’t matter how much a good programmer just needs to know how to work

Answer 4

It’s also worth it - even if you don’t become a programmer, then you can easily get a job as a system administrator, even in retirement, and programming skills for a system administrator, firstly, greatly facilitate the work, and secondly, they give an understanding of how the software with which he works is arranged

Answer 5

Here decides not age, but desire.
It's just that demand falls with age - fewer companies will be ready to make an offer.
But 30 is not the threshold, there will be problems if you start at 40-50, it will be much more difficult.
However, if you develop a portfolio, take courses, get certificates, in general, have something that can be presented as proof of your competencies, there will be no problems with employment.
The main difficulty for companies is not age, but risk: this intern will pull his duties, or hiring him is a loss of money and time.
Of course, if there is at least something other than words and promises, this is already a weighty argument.
I recommend starting as an intern, and not as a junior, because. June is more or less an independent programmer.
Let the first time be less money than you want, but you will immediately plunge into work, gain experience, fellow mentors, you will imagine what it is and where you need to develop. This is much more valuable than a year of home courses.
Plus, the company will pay for and provide you with training - in a couple of months, with the help of more experienced colleagues, you will go to the level of Jun, and then in a couple of years you will independently level up to the middle.
If you also get into an IT company, the salary will grow quickly, in accordance with the skills.
If the salary does not grow along with the skills, then programmers are not needed there, they are not valued, they are only listed, you won’t get any development there, you didn’t get there. This also happens - just try again, already for a junior, because there will be experience, and there will be no problems with confirming qualifications.