Are you too old to learn code?

what's up everybody sean here and today i want to talk to you bout a question i get every once in a while and that is am I too old to start learning how to code you know I know a lot of people are trying to change careers or they're learning on the side where they have families they might think they're too old they might think it's a it's a young person's game and this is passed them by I didn't write my first line of code till I was 33 years old 36 now so I'm gonna say no it's never too late to get to get started but we're gonna dive into that more in a bit so this idea kind of spawned from a comment conversation I had with a subscriber of mine named Liam shoutout to Liam he I believe he was 28 and he was feeling too old to get started and I was like man I wish I would've started at 28 and then you know I kind of told him my story about how it was almost kind of an advantage being a little older in certain circumstances so that's what this video is gonna be about I'm gonna kind of tell that story so because that really helped him and that like really motivated him to keep going so I figure more people might be feeling that way so that's what we're going to talk about so for those that don't know my story I'm gonna give a quick you know 30 seconds to a minute context on where I came from and how I decided to learn how to code so basically I went into the military right out of high school was in the Navy on submarines after that I would into the family business and Allstate insurance agent for about six or seven years and then right around 29 I decided to go back to school using my GI Bill from the military so I did that for three years and then moved out to San Francisco slash Silicon Valley right after school but I didn't move out to San Francisco to be a developer like I I wanted to get involved in the angel investing venture capital finance world like right like I'm at the school with degrees in finance and economics like I wanted to go that route when I moved to San Francisco the idea that I would be a software engineer was not even a thought in my mind like I had the perception that I think many people may have was that like oh that's too difficult like I can't do that you have to be like a math wizard you know all that stuff I think a lot of people can relate to that feeling and I had that same feeling it wasn't until I got out to San Francisco and started working at a small start-up I made friends with our developers started kind of talking to them about what they do and shout-out to them they were like super encouraging when I said yeah I think I'm gonna start trying to do that on the side a little bit and they were super encouraging they were like yes you of course you can do it it's not hard you can do it you know just takes a lot of hard work and stuff so that kind of alleviated the myth I had in my head that you know programming was this unattainable skill that like I could never get so once I got past that started learning on the side and again with encouraging developers every day helping me out and then I decided to go full-time did a boot camp got my first job at a startup as a developer did that for a year and a half and then for about the past year or so I've been full-time independent contracting and building this YouTube channel so that's just some context of where I'm coming from again I made that change at 33 years old wrote my first line at 33 I feel like I've said that a hundred times in this video but this is the truth so now Here I am three years later well on my way into my career it's probably the best decision I've ever made to be honest with you because now I have a career that's fulfilling first of all let me put that out there you have to love this coding thing right like I'm not saying if you're switching careers and trying to be a developer just because of the pay raise or the money is good it's not gonna work like if but if you try coding and you just like I mean I love this stuff I love building stuff it's like magic you know I have an idea type some code it pops up on the screen it's like magic if you love that then yes this is gonna be the profession for you and I would recommend going all-in on the change because like I said it's it's the best decision I've ever made in Crete not that I was like unhappy before but like when you when you love what you do every day going to work and that's like genuine life's just a lot better than when you go to work everyday like not enjoying what you do in an interesting story about how I felt like my age was an advantage in the job hunt was actually to get my first job at a start-up as a developer because it was right out of a boot camp you know and I've said this a bunch out of a boot camp you don't really know much they're kind of taking a chance on you so they took a chance on me because a they liked my attitude my work ethic but they liked the fact that I was older and more mature and I chose this profession now what I mean by that is I guess maybe they had bad experiences before so maybe I kind of got lucky in the sense but they specifically said you know we like the fact that you know you didn't just go into this at 18 not really knowing anything go through college and now here you are like I guess I'm supposed to get a job in this you know because it's very hard at 18 to know what you want to do for the rest of your life some people get lucky and pick right but I think a lot of people don't pick the right profession at 18 and that's not knock on them like you're 18 years old what do you know so they liked the fact that I had gone through life tried other professions and that I found this profession that I was like super passionate about and decided to go all-in like I made the career change they liked the fact that I made the gutsy move to quit my career and pursue this so that is where I think the age and career change was definitely an advantage in what led me to get hired at my first job which again was just the launching pad for the rest of my career because those of you that are looking to make the career change you just need to get that first job right and then then you're on your way so again that was just one quick story about how I felt my age of being older and like I said I call it choosing this profession you know at a more advanced age was definitely an advantage in getting my first job and the last thing I want to touch on is ageism in Silicon Valley like is there age discrimination here in Silicon Valley or just the developer world does it exist have I experienced it have I ever felt like I didn't get something because I was an older developer I I have not experienced that now again I'll give you the context I've only been doing this for two and a half three years and I'm not going to be naive and say that doesn't exist and that's not the case everywhere but I also believe it is it can be overcome with like your if you're just a great attitude great work ethic you're actually a strong developer like I believe talent in the soft skills will trump ageism like everyday you know if you're just an awesome developer an awesome person to work with like you're not going to experience any age discrimination or anything like that so that's kind of the route I'm taking I'm just trying to be like the best I can possibly be and I figure I won't have to worry about that but again I want to be upfront and say I'm not gonna say it doesn't exist I just haven't experienced it and I think one way that if you are experiencing it or if you are nervous about that again just work on being the best I know that's kind of cheesy and easy to say but yeah I think that's going to if you're just an awesome developer awesome person to work with you're not going to experience that discrimination in my opinion but that being said you have to go in with the right attitude because yes if you are 35 40 50 whatever the ages you are going to be working with 24 25 26 year old developers I mean how your manager might even be 28 29 years old you know when you're 40 but I think that's a two-way street right like if if you don't make it an issue it's not gonna be an issue in my opinion don't get me wrong now I'm speaking in general I'm sure if there are you know mean managers out there that it is going to be an issue for and hopefully you don't get unlucky with that but I think in general for the most part if you don't make your agent issue it's not gonna be an issue but again I think this can spark a really good discussion because I have a small sample right - and a fear of Silicon Valley I would love to hear from somebody that maybe has been working here for 10 15 years not even here in Silicon Valley but anywhere in development I would love to hear any ageism age you know discrimination type stories to see if maybe it's more prevalent than I I've seen maybe I'm just lucky and the path I've taken just haven't run into it so I would love to hear that in the comments but the main point of this video is no you're not too old again for the thousandth time first line of code at 33 and here I am loving my profession loving my career I feel like I'm thriving so yes no it's not possible especially do you Liam you're 28 and that's still super young you know anytime you're older than somebody you can say oh you're just a kid but now I'm an like for sure you're not too old it just takes a lot of work it's a long path it's a long journey but it's definitely one of the most rewarding things I've ever done the Sun is killing me I think we'll just end on that note you're not too old go do it

Channel: Sean Allen

Views: 28,573

Rating: 4.9645319 out of 5

Keywords: Swift, Learn Swift, iOS Developer, iOS Development, iOS Developer Story, iOS Developer Vlog, iOS Dev, iOS App Development, Swift Tutorials, Am I too old to code, Am I too old to learn to code, Are you too old to learn to code, too old to code, too old to learn code, Lean to code, Lean app development, How to beome an iOS developer, How to learn to code

Id: WFSqVKozC88

Length: 8min 4sec (484 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 27 2017