So a friend of mine is currently working an English teaching job that’s extremely toxic which leaves her no time to study coding. She’s thinking of quitting her job and focusing on coding and doing baito on the side until she can get a full-time coding job. She recently got a 1 year visa but I recently read that there’s a 3 month limit of unemployment so there’s a chance immigration might send her back before the end of her visa.
Can you guys tell me what you think about this?
Edit: Thanks for the replies guys I showed this to her and we think the goal will be to get a better English job first and then try coding on the side.
12 comments
If you’re really looking for a job, you can take more than 3 months to find one. But she would be studying and not actively looking for a job so that would not be kosher.
And unless the baito is English teaching, that would be considered illegal work outside of her visa allowed activities.
She’s making a mistake here…While there certainly is a pathway to getting a coding job, quitting the job and losing the means to supporting herself is not the way to go. For sure immigration will kick her out if she does not have the means to supporting her stay, and rightly so…
I would recommend sticking it out a bit longer at the current job but make a solid plan of how you will transition. OR apply to other jobs. I know for sure if she worked for an English conversation school like Peppy Kids Club, she would have tons of time on her hands to practice coding, build a few projects, set up portfolio and eventually make that transition.
“Quit job to focus on learning coding” is a surprisingly common career choice people want to do, and equally as common is the fact they don’t actually understand what that means.
There’s far too many people who “learned coding” on the market, and most of them are not hireable precisely because they “learned coding”.
For this to be a viable career consideration, the person thinking of it needs to research the market, find a niche they want to specialize in, and focus a large amount of effort becoming even worthy of consideration among the thousands of others competing for their desired spot.
To work in “coding” what’s required is not only to know a programming language.
In order to get through the door as a career change, what’s needed is to have in depth knowledge of a specific language, for a specific reason, for a specific use, to be well acquainted with its best practices and correct form (you can write ten different codes to do the same thing, but only one would be usable in a professional setting), and to be versed in all the surrounding practices as well – version control, agile development (or whatever other methodology the employer in question prefers), and any relevant technologies like the relevant microservices or whatever.
And lastly, learning is not enough. Making demonstrable projects is also necessary in most cases to even be considered for a position.
Even students make student projects for this purpose.
So I would encourage to first get a definition on what “learning to code” would actually specifically mean and lead to, then to plan out the journey to get there, before even considering quitting the current job.
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If your friend is currently at zero, this is a very bad idea.
First of all she does not know if she really likes “coding” as a job. She should at least have an idea what to go for. Try out different areas to know what to focus her studies on. If she is really close to zero it will take her at least 6-12 month to get somewhat ready and build some portfolio pieces. Depending on the person probably even longer.
It is possible to teach it to yourself and there are many opportunities, but doesn’t mean it’s easy.
So does everyone and their dog these days. It’s really not so simple as everyone seems to think it is. An online course that you can complete in a couple of months is not going to give you any marketable coding skills.
I would ask your friend to complete a prep course for a coding boot camp. If she succeeds at that And still wants to learn coding after that, get into a coding boot camp. They will teach coding in a real life setting and help her find a job.
I laugh my ass off anytime I see this. Everyone and their grandma is doing this and dont realize its not that easy.
As a developer I’m offended
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Further to others’ already superb responses:
Does this friend own a computer?
She can get cracking learning right now:
1. Buy a book like “Learn Python in 21 Seconds, or less!”
1. Work through it.
1. When at the end, devise some original programs that solve some problems.
If she can do that, then she may be suitable to press on.
Do not waste money on expensive courses before learning the basics on one’s own time.
I would suggest not quitting yet, no matter how hard. It may take a long time to snag a coding gig, but it’s safer.