Retraining in Python - Software Dev or Data analyst

[moustachebandit]

As I have an abundance of free time at the moment and I am going through a mid life crisis with regards to my career, I have signed up to a Python bootcamp which my local college is running.

I have little experience of programming, but feel I need to make the shift to a different profession for better career prospects. I have worked in a few companies that have used Python devs and they never seemed to struggle for roles or salary expectations.

The course I will be taking will allow me to focus on either Dev or Data. I am just interested to know what others in the field / with experience might feel is the better course path to take for career development & subsequent opportunities.

Thanks

[Otispunkmeyer]

Python is definitely useful.

I work with a developer chap who has to be in his 60's now and he is always on at me to learn Java and Angular. He pointed me toward UDEMY where you can do courses for relatively little money (all do it yourself in your own time mind). I think the ones he linked me to are by a guy called Maximilian Schwarzmuller. By all accounts they seem to be legit courses! I just don't have the time!

[Mr Penguin]

moustachebandit said:

The course I will be taking will allow me to focus on either Dev or Data. I am just interested to know what others in the field / with experience might feel is the better course path to take for career development & subsequent opportunities.

I would say there are three types of job, each of which offer good progression and salary if you are good at what you do, and unfortunately quite a few jobs for people who don't know what they are doing.

• Data science / statistics - predicting what will happen or explaining why it does etc etc (what I do). You'd need to understand stats as well as know how to use python, but the best statisticians tend to have a background in their field before moving over.
• Data engineering - moving data around (its harder than it sounds, especially if you have PII data or other security requirements).
• Software development - making tools and websites (someone will probably break this up into more groups, to me its all the same but I'm an outsider).

I only interview for the first two, but I think the best way to get into any of those is a project I can see on GitHub or a relevant degree (and still put stuff on GitHub because its nice to see things and have candidates talk about them before I do the stuff recruitment want me to do).

[Mammasaid]

Don't forget to add Software Testing to the list (Python is useful in this field also).

Testers are still in demand.

[SS9]

What sort of background do you have? It’d be worth considering whether you can leverage this with your new venture. Software/Data engineering/science is a massive field and the danger is you’re almost spoilt for choice which makes it difficult to know how to optimise. In interviews, being able to reference related experience beyond writing code will definitely help.

[D1on]

[OutInTheShed]

SS9 said:

What sort of background do you have? It’d be worth considering whether you can leverage this with your new venture. Software/Data engineering/science is a massive field and the danger is you’re almost spoilt for choice which makes it difficult to know how to optimise. In interviews, being able to reference related experience beyond writing code will definitely help.

The people I know who are working with python are mostly using it in the context of their previous work.
E.g. a mate of mine is an audio test technician, he writes python to automate tests.
People want him mostly because he knows lots about audio and testing and standards etc.
Python is sort of an enabling thing to make your knowledge more adaptable. At least for a lot of jobs.

Have a look job specs and see where you might fit in?

[jet_noise]

Learning to program and learning a programming language are two different things IMHO.
I'd be a mite careful what the course is there to teach. At what experience level is it aimed, is it matched to yours?

If you haven't done it before I'd be tempted to look at the software design process as well as a language

[spikeyhead]

jet_noise said:

Learning to program and learning a programming language are two different things IMHO.
I'd be a mite careful what the course is there to teach. At what experience level is it aimed, is it matched to yours?

If you haven't done it before I'd be tempted to look at the software design process as well as a language

As someone who learnt Python during lockdown, the first programming I've done since 1987 then I wished I'd put some effort into understanding the software design process.

I've created some wonderful tools that I still use to automate design activities, but adding features to them is a nightmare.