What to do if you are moving to Europe soon?

Question

Programming

Good day!
Firstly, I ask for advice from people who have real experience, obtained by blood and sweat)
The life situation is such that in 2.5-3 years it is planned to move to Europe, as they say, for family reasons.
Now here, in my native land, I am engaged in marketing. However, all my experience, say, in Austria, is not even a samovar, but a teapot in Tula. I don’t really want to look for a traditional job for an emigrant, and there are enough of their own difficulties. It is known that developers are people without borders, however, there are always nuances.
So, which language to choose, if the conditions are as follows:
1) It is possible to spend an average of 4 hours a day on learning a language.
2) Achieve the title of a confident specialist and get into the salary range of 100-120k. per month, after 1.5-2 years from the start of the study.
3) Do not lose relevance when moving to Austria.

Answer 1

It looks like many commentators are trying to deprive you of confidence :) The rule of 10 thousand hours, mentioned earlier, is not entirely out of place, in my opinion. Indeed, according to Malcolm Gladwell, author of Geniuses and Outsiders, to become an extra-class master in any field, you need about 10 thousand hours. And not just 10,000 hours (otherwise all drivers would be "Schumachers"), but 10,000 hours of thoughtful, deliberate practice with a constant complication of tasks. But you don't set yourself the goal of becoming the best programmer in the world, so things get a little easier.
***
I would decide what is interesting. If you want to write programs for the iPhone, then you will have to learn the Objective-C language and Apple frameworks. There are many suitable books. iTunes U has a free Stanford University coding course for iPhone and iPad. Work through a couple of books on Objective-C (for example, " Objective-C. Programming for iOS and MacOS "
by Aron Heilgess, " Programming for iOS. For Professionals "
by J. Conway, A. Hillegass), then start this course. Do you want to write applications for Java? There are even more courses, guides and just lessons on the Web.
Do you want to create web applications? Start simple - learn HTML markup language and CSS styles. Move on to the Javascript programming language, learn how to use the jQuery library. Further, if you do not lose interest, you can proceed to the "server" part. Here the choice is huge, wide space for holivar :) But I'm sure if you know Python, Ruby or PHP, you won't be left without work. After Python, Ruby or PHP, you will need to learn how to work with databases (also a holivar topic).
***
As you probably already understood, it will not work to limit yourself to learning only one language. It is more important to learn to think like a programmer. When such skills appear, learning a new language is a matter of time, sometimes a couple of weeks.
***
Harvard University's free online course CS50 starts January 1st . It is interesting for several reasons at once:
1. does not impose any requirements on students, except for the ability to turn on a computer
2. is based on a real Harvard course
3. Teaches the basics of C, PHP, JavaScript, SQL and HTML with CSS.
4. Very cool professor :)
Sign up, try it. At the end of 13 weeks, you will have a minimum set of necessary knowledge. And then you can pass Harvard CS75 (Building Dynamic Websites - PHP, Ajax, high loads + security) and Harvard CS76 (creating mobile applications).
***
@kazmiruk is right. Do not expect that after a year and a half of studyyou are guaranteed to fall into the range of 100-120K per month. This is the salary of experienced developers with a good diploma.

Answer 2

Do you know the 10,000 hour rule? You get a maximum of 3000. Not the most accurate indicator, but there are no others.
This is me to the fact that the task of becoming a good specialist is impossible, not to the fact that everything is lost, you should not try.
As for the choice of technologies, it’s hard to say, study the trends yourself, otherwise everyone will push you with their own holivar opinion. In my opinion, the trend is for mobile applications and saas now, which means web + java / obj-c. But this is only one option.

Answer 3

1) the language is German. Seriously, you need to know the local language not just well, but perfectly, so that there is not the slightest barrier in communication;
2) forget about salaries and aim at your own business. Not "startup - investments - rounds", but a business that works. You don't have to be a developer or know how to code to run a successful business. Perhaps your forte is organizing, planning, and communicating.
3) build bridges with Austria now: contacts, organizations, joint projects. Maybe a summer school, accelerator or other program.

Answer 4

1. The easiest way is to become a QA. The entry threshold is sometimes simply zero. Enough to be appropriate. As a minus lower salary at first. Definitely not 120. Rather, 80 thousand in 3 years.
2 Java. At the moment, it is used very widely, including in banks, which promises a carefree life. The barrier to entry is very high. At 120k you have to be able to do a lot of things. It won't work in 3 years.
3. python, ruby, etc.

Answer 5

The first and second paragraphs contradict each other. Not until you throw one of them away.
Maybe it's better to trade vacuum cleaners?

Answer 6

Everything would be fine, but 1-2 years is extremely unlikely to achieve your goal. Consider that I myself am achieving the same: I want to go to New Zealand and be a sought-after specialist there, that is, to be a cool senior developer. It has been 3.5 years since I first embarked on this path, starting with a part-time job. Perhaps only now I can say that I have reached a competitive level.
And in 1-2 years, only middle shines for you in this situation, and therefore competition with all sorts of low-skilled Indians, who, it seems to me, are everywhere now in bulk.

Answer 7

@opium @kazmiruk @yashnikov @sergiks
Thank you all so much! The choice was made in favor of java, in connection with which the question is: can you advise literature and resources where the community is warmer (and preferably Russian-speaking).