What does it make sense to master if there is a desire to go to "IT specialists"?

Question

Distant work

Engaged in development on the SM-4. The last time I programmed full-time was in the 80s, in FORTRAN. Then he mastered Pascal and C (even before the pluses). Then he abandoned this business, completely, worked in different industries (advertising, marketing, production), sporadically wrote something applied for himself - like macros in MSOffice, finalizing output forms in 1C, etc. For the last 15 years I have been generally engaged in administrative work - I was the director of a confectionery factory, the director of a construction company, now I work as a deputy director in a company engaged in the implementation of VFD. We work with large clients (Gazprom, MIPC, Mosvodokanal).
But lately, this constant "drive" from communicating with people, solving problems and pulling projects out of life has begun to tire me a lot. I'm thinking of radically changing the type of activity. At the same time, I don’t want to go into janitors or taxi drivers, the other proposed options do not suit me in terms of salary. As far as I can see, programmers-developers can expect ~100+ crub, so I would be grateful if you would give me ideas on how to return to the IT field.
PS: I do photography as a hobby, but there is also no stable income there, and the area in which I am strong (aviation photography) generally generates less income.

Answer 1

Salaries in IT are confidently striving for the "median values ​​for the region" (I am attaching a screenshot of the headhunter's statistics for 2017). At the same time, competition according to the “hh index” (the ratio of the number of resumes to the number of vacancies, in IT = 2.4) is equivalent to the values ​​in such areas as auto business (2.7), sales (2.9), marketing (2.8), banks (2.4), servicing (2.9), working (2.0) personnel.
By the way, 35,000 rubles / month. - this is not for some kind of WordPress, and not even for js, but for Java - the most demanded language in vacancies.
This is despite the fact that IT is not the area where he got a crust, got a job, served his time from 9 to 18 in classmates / VK and went home to relax and enjoy personal time. This is an area where constant focus on complex intellectual tasks is required (and this is the most difficult in comparison with other types of mechanical / speaking activities), constant learning and the race for regularly changing technological trends (naturally, outside of working hours - in the evenings / nights / weekends. ..such a run to stay in place).
And in the above industries there is an opportunity for additional. income during working hours (kolyam, kickbacks / cuts, tips, etc., which is what most people live on). In IT, in 95% of cases, only a salary, and all freelance part-time jobs, again, in the evening / night / on weekends in a wildly dumped market for residents of third world countries.
And in the above industries, applicants are not required to have "personal projects", free open-source developments without fail, knowledge of dozens of unrelated technologies (plus a portfolio and at least 3 years of experience for each), "burning eyes", some special mindset, etc.
And there is also an opinion that IT has almost the highest demand for personnel, almost the most dynamically developing industry against the background of other stagnant ones. We open the same statistics on the increase in vacancies for 2017 (compared to the previous year): IT + 3%, banks + 15%, auto business + 73%, mining + 92%, entertainment + 37%, medicine + 79%, sales +7 %, production + 76%, construction + 53%, service staff + 20%, lawyers + 30%, fitness + 18%, workers + 35%, "dying" accounting + 34%, etc.
Why am I doing this:
1. Going to IT for money today is a stupid idea. There will be money, but at the level of the "average salary in the region", like that of factory workers and salespeople, and after 3 years (when you go through the stages of training, internship and junior). Going to IT is only for those who cannot live without programming and cannot imagine their life (days, nights, weekends) without code in their native IDE. Let's be honest - this is unlikely to apply to you.
2. All the stories about "IT has the highest salaries, the highest demand, the lowest competition" are a myth. In the capital, of course, it is easier (with the number and variety of vacancies), but still. And this myth is cultivated by those whose task is to equalize the IT industry in terms of salaries / conditions with other areas (as we see, it turns out).
3. About your age.
If there are objections like "Moscow is not Saratov" ... the average salary in Moscow for 2017 (again, according to HH statistics) is 61,566 rubles. The average salary in IT in Moscow for the same period is 55,968 rubles. In Saratov, the salary of IT specialists exceeds the average for the region by 13%, while in Moscow it is lower than the average by 10%. But there are more vacancies ... (and the competition from "hungry young men with burning eyes" is exactly 3 times higher).
If you wanted specifics - keep it :)
As for freelancing and other web-self-employment, read here . I'm sure you can draw your own conclusions.
PS Personally, I join those who advise you to either have a good rest, or change the project in management.

Answer 2

As far as I can see, programmers-developers can count on ~100+ krub, so I would be grateful if you would give me ideas on how to return to the IT field.

in your case, it's too late. No offense. Your age is no longer childish, and programming is the lot of very young people. You will never
make it to 100 krubs . Here people who, with years of experience, have much lower. Don't just believe in fairy tales. 100+ get units compared to the total number of people who can program. There are many factors - and brains should be better, and the office is good, and talent / skill, as well as fate to get to the right place. You don't need it, trust me. Many would give a lot to get out of IT, as the industry is running very fast forward, it becomes difficult to keep up. You can't even imagine what *opu you want to get into without Vaseline.

Answer 3

a salary of 100 is given for a reason, 80% of progers up to 60 drag, among them, again, 80% in general up to 30
, although everything is very individual ... apparently everything will be fine with you
, don’t go on the web, there are a lot of fuss and millions of libraries and frameworks, although they do the same thing, go to adult languages ​​​​(the same C or Java / Kotlin)

Answer 4

That programmers get 100k. - firstly, this is not such a big salary, despite the fact that the activity is quite laborious, it is not suitable for everyone, and it takes a long time to reach this figure. Secondly, in many professions, specialists receive the same amount and more, so this is not an indicator at all. In short, for money - if in IT, then not in programmers.

Answer 5

The topic is very broad indeed. It makes sense to start programming in some language (I have Java) for a start, and then gradually look at other languages ​​and decide on the direction, form a "stack". After freelancing for experience, and then a radical change of profession, if money is not priority No. 1, and there is an opportunity to “maneuver” (lack of a mortgage, a big hungry family, etc.) I myself am not a programmer, but I would like to become one. 
Regarding the comments of the guys about the hellish work of programmers, I agree, but still I will insert my “five cents”.
I work in the HR department in one very good company (Moscow) and sometimes I see how people are selected by zodiac sign or from a series of likes and dislikes, and this is not for fun, the fact is that there are a lot of applicants with not very bad “skills” and the choice is very large (+ the crisis (real) that takes place) and so on in almost every direction. And my personal motivation is that if something happens, I won’t be able to find a normal job, since all the “warm places” are occupied and it’s not so easy to find something, especially if there is no free English (my case).
Therefore, programming is a kind of investment in oneself, which does not guarantee anything, but gives a ghostly chance to simply earn a living, although I honestly don’t know how things will be in programming in 5-7 years, i.e. what kind of competition will there be, because now many people study programming (seriously) from school.
Regarding sales, only a few earn a lot (in my understanding, a lot, this is from 300K per month), the rest are at best 80K - 100K, and you need to understand that they can plow like horses from morning to night, and at 35 years old they may not be able to not to take it, I’m already silent about the bestial attitude that happens there, they didn’t fulfill the plan (which is usually overpriced;) ), they get fired, etc. without even working with the manager on the topic of its development.
My opinion, everywhere is good where we are not;). You need to be honest with yourself and perhaps strive to do what you like, or something that does not make you sick :) (my case).
The main thing is to try!

Answer 6

> how things will be in programming in 5-7 years, i.e. what kind of competition will there be, because now many people study programming (seriously) from school.
I think the same way as with drivers and translators. About 20 years ago, it was believed that these skills would always help to earn a living. And now this is the last step before starting to rummage through the garbage in search of food :)

Answer 7

Colleagues, here we were talking about "a year, two, three" ... Personally, my subjective opinion:
1. A year of full-time work in IT (programming) - gives (but does not guarantee) a good opportunity to get a job in some office, saw on Wordpress.
2. Years 2-3 - makes it possible to get a job in a more serious office and possibly already in the position of "middle", but only if in all these 2-3 years either someone or you yourself have been extremely busy with your training. Usually it should be either a good mentor or good psychostimulants to drive such an amount of information into your head in 2-3 years.
If those who are going to become a programmer could realize how much information they will have to absorb in the end and how fast they will have to do it in the "non-stop" mode, from "on the way to work" to "sitting on the push" "... 80% of them would not want to do this even before they tried to try ...
A year or two or three is a great way to get a salary of 15-40 thousand. in rare cases, a little more, within $ 1000 usually, in the "normal" scenario.
In order not to be unfoundedly "accused" of involvement in the "clan of schoolchildren", a few words about myself. I have been in IT for almost 20 years, I decided to go into IT probably 30 years ago :)) I work as the head of the development department, and I also have experience in international companies (not freelancing).
PS If you want me to dissuade you from this little promising idea, just chat (with me or a group of beginners and not so beginners of the network / web direction), or talk about something else ... - in my contacts there is link to the group, from there acc. You can also write to me (personally), if you wish.
In our city, the number of open resumes (according to our profile), according to various estimates, varies from 300 to 800 (according to various estimates). And there is no one to hire, although almost half of them say that the work experience is 5+ years ... It seems to me that many have a real work experience of 5+ days, judging by the amount of knowledge with which they come to work to get a job. ..

Answer 8

Learn scrum, agile, JIRA and go to IT project managers.

Answer 9

A salary of 100K, if it shines, then only after 3-4 years, and you need to work day and night. If you take most professions and invest in them as you need to invest in programming, then you can earn more from them. I have a friend who is in sales (he works as a manager, sells cables, readings and other garbage), after 1 year he began to earn more than some PHP seniors will ever earn, believe me, that programmers earn a lot (which is also debatable) - not just like that ... By the way, by the way, this friend (who works as a manager), when he comes home from work plays tanks and watches stupid serials, ask any prog what they do after work. I'm sure most of them will say that they read the docs and code. Then think for yourself...

Answer 10

If you're looking to make a quick buck, this is definitely not the place for you. 100+ pay people with above average skills. And this is at least 5 years of commercial development experience, and more than 10 years of experience in general. This is the absolute minimum. And with zero experience now there is serious competition.
According to my feeling, the balance of salary / demand is approximately the following:
Junior and RFP 30k+ - 10-20 people apply for a place.
Middle and RFP 100k+ - 2 seats per person
Senior and RFP 200k+ - 10 seats per person

Answer 11

I'm 24 and on the contrary I'm moving away from coding, this is not the future, pay is constantly falling due to competition, there are more interesting and profitable things in IT

Answer 12

I didn't really understand from your question who you want to position yourself as - a developer or a manager.
In fact, you can be a manager without being a developer, difficult, but possible. I’m not sure that it’s so easy to find such a job, I think you must have connections in order to change jobs so drastically. Everything here is very individual.
If a developer, then I would recommend, based on my (not mine, but your) experience, try to give birth to an idea, translate it into code. Then start distributing it either for money, if the idea is good, or as open source. In any case, you have something to show your potential employer, and you will gain experience. Otherwise, I'm afraid it will be very difficult for you to find a job at your age. Employers do not like older programmers, for a number of reasons (Why? This is a topic for another conversation).

Answer 13

Yes, and you can find it remotely if you try, I’m telling you this here not from the past, but because my friends and acquaintances encountered this. So everything is in your hands, the main thing is your head on your shoulders, don’t focus so much on Russia, believe the standards of a specialist and in the West they will accept both in America and in the Emirates.

Answer 14

Having rich experience in subject areas - you can look towards expertise in the development of application software for these subjects.
And programmers-developers for 100k are not juniors at all - that is, good experience is required ... and you will have to start with much smaller numbers ...

Answer 15

In any case, no one will pay 100+ from the start, so think about whether you are ready, for example, to survive for a year with a significantly lower payment

Answer 16

Do not do this. Fatigue is not a reason to fall. Earn with what you can, 100-200-300k, arrange a vacation for yourself for six months or until you get bored.

Answer 17

Don't count on the salary right away. I worked almost for nothing at my first job for the sake of experience, and the manager saw and used it

Answer 18

If you don’t want to see anyone, but you want to work quietly, shutting yourself off from the whole world and enjoying the results of your work, then you need to go to template exchanges, like https://themeforest.net
It’s difficult, it takes a long time, you need talent, taste and understanding of trends. You need perseverance, you need to learn all the related technologies to do everything yourself, you need to understand the design.
But if you manage to fit in, then income is not limited in essence.

Answer 19

I returned to programming after a 12 year break. I can't say that I didn't do anything for 10 years, I programmed for myself 2 of my projects in PERL, which (alas) never developed, but in fact I had to learn everything anew. so I can say on a personal example:
1) the question of age - programming offices do not always take "age"
2) the question of the background - "I was the director of a confectionery factory" - with such a background, the performers will not take
a real prospect - this is one form or another " self-employment". here, of course, we are not talking about "serious" programming - basically it will be websites. maybe 1C. customers for "standalone windows application" - I don't remember such requests.
I personally chose "mainstream" for myself - this is PHP/Wordpress/Laravel/Yii/Bitrix . when I have time, I try to do something in Java (with an eye on Android development).
The most important question is how much are you able to learn?