I'm a professional PHP, Python and Javascript developer from the UK. I've worked with Django, Laravel, and React, among others. I also maintain a legacy Zend 1 application.
I was in a similar situation at around that age. I spent over a decade in a clerical job, the last four years of which I was trying to get out and into web dev.
I finally managed it at 32, but I could have done it faster if I'd focused more closely on being able to build a full-stack web application - instead I flitted about between learning several different languages. If I'd instead built something real and useful I'd have got it done much quicker, so my advice would be to build an application or two that would be useful to you - you'll learn more from that than going through endless tutorials.
Have you stuck around in the same company? If you've moved to another position or company, do you feel that once you got the foot in the door, in the industry rather than the company, it was easier to find the next position?
I'm a professional PHP, Python and Javascript developer from the UK. I've worked with Django, Laravel, and React, among others. I also maintain a legacy Zend 1 application.
I've worked for four different companies for any length of time, and it was definitely much easier afterwards.
In 2016 my then-employer went into liquidation, so I was made redundant and had to find a new position. At that point I was coming up to five years in the industry and I had never before had such a high proportion of offers to interviews. I had three offers and one that probably would have made an offer had I not made it clear I wasn't interested.
Self-teaching web developer. Attempting to learn Ruby on Rails. Desire to build products that make the world a better place (even if it's just in little ways).
That's encouraging to hear! I've got a small project I'm working on side by side with going through tutorials. I think it works well because it really forces an understanding of what you are trying to work on when you have to apply the ideas to a new situation. I find when just working through a tutorial that it can often go in one ear and out the other without ever really lodging in the brain.
They call it 'tutorial purgatory' when you get stuck in an endless search for tutorials. You go through them and create exactly what the tutorial tells you to and what you learn is to copy text. The solution is to do exactly what you are doing, constantly put what you learn to use in situations that differ from the tutorial.
Any and all coding you do is useful but always more so when you don't copy someone else's solution. When you are to create something it doesn't matter if it's your code or not, the result is what matters. When you learn, on the other hand, it matters a lot. You don't want to learn syntax or algorithms, at least not only that. What you want to learn is how to solve problems with code and to learn that you need to solve problems with code.
I hope you stick with it and get to work with things that are challenging and feels worthwhile. =)
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I was in a similar situation at around that age. I spent over a decade in a clerical job, the last four years of which I was trying to get out and into web dev.
I finally managed it at 32, but I could have done it faster if I'd focused more closely on being able to build a full-stack web application - instead I flitted about between learning several different languages. If I'd instead built something real and useful I'd have got it done much quicker, so my advice would be to build an application or two that would be useful to you - you'll learn more from that than going through endless tutorials.
Have you stuck around in the same company? If you've moved to another position or company, do you feel that once you got the foot in the door, in the industry rather than the company, it was easier to find the next position?
I've worked for four different companies for any length of time, and it was definitely much easier afterwards.
In 2016 my then-employer went into liquidation, so I was made redundant and had to find a new position. At that point I was coming up to five years in the industry and I had never before had such a high proportion of offers to interviews. I had three offers and one that probably would have made an offer had I not made it clear I wasn't interested.
That's encouraging to hear! I've got a small project I'm working on side by side with going through tutorials. I think it works well because it really forces an understanding of what you are trying to work on when you have to apply the ideas to a new situation. I find when just working through a tutorial that it can often go in one ear and out the other without ever really lodging in the brain.
They call it 'tutorial purgatory' when you get stuck in an endless search for tutorials. You go through them and create exactly what the tutorial tells you to and what you learn is to copy text. The solution is to do exactly what you are doing, constantly put what you learn to use in situations that differ from the tutorial.
Any and all coding you do is useful but always more so when you don't copy someone else's solution. When you are to create something it doesn't matter if it's your code or not, the result is what matters. When you learn, on the other hand, it matters a lot. You don't want to learn syntax or algorithms, at least not only that. What you want to learn is how to solve problems with code and to learn that you need to solve problems with code.
I hope you stick with it and get to work with things that are challenging and feels worthwhile. =)