Learning Code at 45, is it possible? - Developer Stories

[Music] what's going on YouTube so just cruising around today lip it on the board and I thought we'd you know it's golden hour but I missed it because I was too busy finding a place to shoot anyways today we'll do another developer series video we're interviewing Craig today and he's an admin on discord he's gonna reach out to him and he has his own YouTube channel he's like documenting his journey from learning code because he's 45 years old and it's only been three weeks and he already has a parody as a freelance contract lined up so I think that's pretty amazing so yeah that's who we're talking to his name is Craig is in the discord he has on YouTube channel be sure to follow him there he's got some good tips and stuff you know I don't think I've been reached out to a few times by few people that think that they can't do it because I don't know because of their age or something like that the truth is you can learn whatever but if you're you know 30 or 45 you're past the age when you typically start start learning code and make career changes and whatnot I can't go across those train tracks without messing up my motor so I have to walk that across you know so Craig is a he's a good dude anyways I I wanted to switch up the YouTube channel a little bit with this series of you know just interviewing people and their their styles and and everyone has a different story so I hope you enjoy it if you want to see more videos like this you know hit that little subscribe button and we have a discord link in the description about your cool dude link for that's in the description and then I'd like to say thank you the Patriot that we have Lazlo the Martin fee Daniel Craig who are interviewing today armand DJ richie appreciate all you guys couldn't do everything i do without you and let's jump his video all right so this is craig he's learning how to code craig tell us about yourself how's it going I'm 45 years old we turned 46 this month here in a few weeks and when I first started wanting to get into this I was I guess one of my biggest Hang Ups my biggest concern was that I was too old you know so that was kind of the first thing I started googling and searching for in YouTube was coding at 45 get my too old is it you know how old is too old to learn and all that kind of stuff and you don't find a lot of good advice like a lot of it's pretty typical just you're never too learned old to learn you know just go for it just go for but it never really said like where to start and what to do first and what not to do and things like that and I realized that not everybody's paths the same you know but I had I had surgery back in February I was off work for about five weeks and sitting at home and not being at work after a while you know boredom and stuff kicks in and I really felt like I wanted to do something different with my career with my life or whatever and I enrolled in online college because you know as they would do that all on my own time you know outside of work or whatever so I thought that's what I'm gonna do I got to jump in the pool headfirst and just do it and then just work it out later what was here what did you go to college for computer science I was going for a degree and going for a degree in computer science a bachelor's about a four-year program if I take two classes per term each terms two months so I did the whole you know student loan federal loan and all that kind of got the ball rolling I took the first course I took was like just kind of an intro to hey you're an online student this is how you do it the first term the second term I took a regular class which ended up being perspectives of liberal arts which I thought was kind of weird to be the first class and then after I knew I could handle that like as far as my free time outside of work then the next term I took to two classes kind of where I'm sitting now I just finished those and still haven't done any classes yet pertaining to actual computer science no programming classes yet I think the next one the the first one is coming up it's going to be actually Python which I thought was kind of an odd thing to be the first class to take why did you choose coding out of all the things that go back to school for change careers like why coding um I've always been interested in like computers and obviously the internet and in it at my age gotta figure if you you go back you know about 20 years ago kind of when the internet was first goin I know when when AOL and stuff first came out my my brother had a got a computer his wife had a computer in the head AOL and I remember going over his house and I would sit there on their computer for like hours just fascinated with going on the internet being on the Internet and it was always curious like how stuff worked like even my first computer I first time I had any problems with my first computer I took it apart myself and you know reloaded the operating system or replaced the hard drive we upgraded the RAM or upgraded graphics card I know that's hardware related but I've always been interested in technology and the internet and things like that and 20 years ago you couldn't do as much online as you can now there weren't all these free courses free tutorials you couldn't enroll for college online and do it all online there might have been some hybrid do so much in the in the lab at school and have so much homework and be able to do stuff on the computer but not like it is now where you can work full-time job and then come home and sit in front of your computer and do homework and actually you'd be able to go to school full-time you know online but I've always been interested in how this stuff works have any idea where that stuff comes from and how it works and how you interact with it I've always been curious about it but I've always used the excuse of I don't have time for that you know I already have a job and I don't want to screw up the job I have because that's your security and you know you go to work 4050 hours a week to get a paycheck to pay your bills just to make it to the next week and and slowly somehow you go from being 20 to be in 40 and you never made any changes to change your life you know you never you never made any improvements nobody's you're not gonna wake up Monday morning and all of a sudden the little luck fairy is gonna show up and change your whole life if you want to make improvements in your life you have to take the first steps and you got to figure out what you want to do and what it's going to take to get there that means you asking a million dumb questions or googling a million dumb topics you got to you got to figure something out if you if you want your life to change it's not gonna happen for you you know you gotta you gotta figure out how to make it happen so you're in college and you finish your first semester or I guess classes if they're doing a different system but then you put that on pause because now you're doing the self-taught route with all the online resources like how's that going right so what I what I had discovered was that I don't necessarily have to take a course every term I basically took a term off so it gives me two months because what I've been doing is when I wasn't doing the schoolwork I was going online and I was doing the searches and I was slowly finding like you know a team treehouse and coke atom II and free code camp stuff like that and then all these tutorials on YouTube guys like you you know when I ran across your channel and I'm sitting there thinking man this is like this is the stuff I was looking for six months ago I just didn't know where to look for it you know and just in the last couple weeks maybe say the last three weeks just more of the self taught self learning online courses and stuff I found I've learned more computer programming coding developing information in how to's kind of on my own that anything that anything that's that's I've been shown in school yet you know in college yet I mean I've already got to the point where like I made a I made a website my brother for his business you got your first freelance contract in like oh yes I know right so in in trying to work on my brother's site and then work on my own like portfolio site I got a lead for somebody on my facebook that's a photographer that you know basically is gonna pay me like five hundred bucks to you know make a page form a static page to not a big convoluted interactive page just pretty much like a like a brochure page form and I'm kind of excited about that I'm working on that right now cuz you know word of mouth you you say he keeps forgetting those kind of gigs you know 500 bucks you know he's been spending a day or so working on it making it nice and get paid and the more people that more people you do that for and word-of-mouth you know you get some more freelance work just for that and that's extra income you know that's that's one more step toward your your freedom yeah but you know you're doing it right though like not only you're you're building the portfolio from step one right made your brother's site making your own site making this new site for someone else now you've already put yourself out there saying yeah I'll do this and at first you weren't like I don't know if I can do this how much do I charge and now you're like I am doing this and now I want to do it again and so definitely on the right track well one thing I learned was after talking to you about it was I should have I should have told them more than 500 talks apparently barely $500 is a very very reasonable reasonable price for helping for doing so on the site for somebody but I figured hey for me it's it's it's good practice and hey if it's income and kind of get my foot in the door kind of thing but you know you you've been a good resource for me as far as asking questions and you've been very helpful and I appreciate that man just just in my little journey so far over the last honestly I'm not trying to like you know but err you got Mannion but I do appreciate you you've been very helpful and I and I recommend anybody that's looking for guidance or help or whatever especially if you're new definitely - you know reach out to reach out to you and ask us you know you see you had to start somewhere and and I'm grateful that that you share what you learn with whoever wants to watch it you know I mean if that's all I want you know there there's this is what kills me is there's there's all these jobs out there for for people in this in this business right and you could go on in deed or whatever site and you see all these positions and then you see all these courses out there and it'll say like you know 200,000 people enrolled for this particular course so there's all these people out there that are working on this stuff but how many of them are actually you know on YouTube trying to share what they're learning for to help other people it's almost like they're coveting all this information for themselves I'm 45 years old man you know I'm a long shot right no I'm just kidding but you know if you want a little Padawan you could have a little 20 year old Padawan to teach how to do stuff right my point being is there's if you look at the number of people that are willing to share what they know versus how many people out there really in the profession that don't do jack they don't they're not in discord they're not in the go into the blogs to answer questions for people you know you're you're good guy man I mean you do a lot for people selflessly and like I said again I appreciate it you know and I recommend anybody anybody needs that kind of help or that kind of a little helping hand that's kind of figure out what you're doing what you want to do I definitely recommend you know shoot Josh an email or go on his channel or well you're probably already on his channel you're watching this but subscribe you know I'm saying reach out to him and see what he can do to help you because I know he's helped me out a ton it's gonna sound like I paid you to sale that but I did not I didn't know he's known that I'm moving him to check he wrote me right here guys thanks Craig I've had several different jobs it's not like I was in a computer type related job and got to got into the program and go so to go back from high school I actually dropped out of high school so if anybody out there maybe didn't finish high school went back to get their GED I like I did if you didn't go back and get it trust me it's not as difficult as you think go get it I did try to attend a variety evening it was an accelerated program and I lasted about one semester I just I just couldn't do it man I hi there it's not enough hours in the day at the time well nowadays there's almost like there's not an excuse I mean you could be married you could have kids all this stuff if you take that extra time that you're doing for your fantasy football league or your bowling league or watching Netflix or you know sitting eating a bag of Doritos watching old Seinfeld reruns think about how much time you've got throughout the week and if you could even carve out just two or three hours to start out and get involved in this if it's interesting to you do it just do it man figure out a way to do it maybe when everybody else is asleep or get up early a little bit early an hour hour early a couple times a week and get on the computer and do it and if like I said contact Josh she'll tell you what to start with and what you know kind of fill out your situation and tell you you know maybe where the best place to start is but what about what if they want to reach out to you they can reach out to me I will I will be happy to share any resources that I have found if you have specific questions of what I'm working on and how I got that to that and what I'm using and because one thing you'll learn if you're if you're new to this is there are it's not just like one tool boss out there and everybody's give same tool box there the code editors the different the software and the programs and out that are out there there's some that you pay for some that are trial versions some that are free which ones am I using versus which ones to does Josh use or whoever you get your preferences on different stuff and what may work for one person may not be what's good for you and I'm more than happy to share with anybody that needs to help you know what I'm using and where I'm going and what courses I'm working on or what what projects I'm working on you know like even with this these web pages and stuff like what am I using to put them together and you want to see what I've done already and kind of see if that's something that fits what you're trying to do or you turn to do something completely different and who knows maybe if you come across something that I'm not working on maybe I we can work on it together you know maybe it's something that would benefit me too to work with with somebody else to figure it out do you think age is an actual factor though like do you think 20 years ago you would have learned you'd picked it up right away um actually you know to be completely honest I don't I think I think I have a better opportunity now to pick it up than I did 20 years ago because 20 years ago I was worried about going out every weekend with my friends and if a weekend went by and I didn't go out to the club or the bar or something with my buddies I felt like the whole weekend was wasted you know and if I did go out with them that I was wasted so no but my hippie dude at my age this is gonna sound horrible but you know I worked through the week and if I come home on a Saturday night get off work to come home and take my work boots off and wiggle my toes and have a nice warm meal and a cold drink and get on the computer and start getting into something to me that's that's my going out and having a good time I don't you know I'm beyond that point you know I still go out everyone small friends got a birthday or something I'm not like ant I go out and have a drink with your friends but if here's if you're if you can focus on it if you're younger the sooner you can get into it and the sooner you can start learning the more of a foundation you're going to have to go on and learn more if you're not younger if you're like me or you might be older than me that's fine find the time figure it out time management is a big part of it you got to figure out where that waste of time is because most people unless you're out there working for four jobs and you got 12 kids and there's always a kid hanging off of you you're crawling around on your something there's time in there trust me you can find it you got it you just got to decide if you want it bad enough and are you playing call of duty 10 hours a week and be honest with yourself this somebody said oh you probably play call of duty oh I'm playing the coop yeah you know think about it you play a couple hours at night how many nights did you stay up late playing playing overwatch or Call of Duty or battlefield or something leave fortnight for the 12 year olds you're a man or a woman you're an adult get off for tonight get on your computer go to a younameit course or I don't know sign up for team treehouse or something so tell us about your schedule you work 40 hours a week overtime so more than that most of the time how do you structure it how do you do it you gotta lassic setup that people are like how do you break out of this how do you do it well I work five days a week and I'm scheduled 8 to 4:30 but I work for the phone company and the phone company schedules you to 4:30 but then they they booked jobs that are four to six timeframes so it's almost like they Mazal just work as 10-hour days week and be done some days we get off on time we are able to knock the work out early or whatever so then I am racing to get home and both my parents live in this town they live separately and there's a few days a week I stopped by my dad's house he's had a stroke and stuff so I go by check on him see how he's doing and maybe have to run to the store different things for him and then I'll try to go by my brother's house when I can my mom lives there she's got she's 81 she's got dementia really bad and and she's not getting better so you know I try to try to get over there so those are kind of other things that can't be helped but I you know responsibilities then I have a dog and then my dogs been home all day so I'm at work then I go over there that I'm trying to race home to get to my dog to get him out and then when I finally get in here and I'm looking at the clock and it's you know six thirty seven thirty eight o'clock eight thirty it would be so easy to just be like and you know what tonight I'm just gonna eat something and sit and watch Netflix so I go to bed or something and you can't do it you can't do it maybe every once a while you know if you're sick or something or whatever you know but you got to carve out that time and I think we were talking the other night I was telling you man I just really would just like to go to bed right now but I think I'm gonna work on this for a little bit you know and it's like just that little bit of extra if you can just work on something just you know the whole ABC always be coding kind of kind of slogan people say just get on there everyday even if you're only on there for 20 minutes get on there signing in what have you been working on do a couple of things fix a couple things you've been working on do something because with me that's how I've been able to do it I just got to keep telling myself that the more I invest now the the sooner I'll have this new job or this new career and if I keep making excuses and come home and I'm too excuse me I'm too tired or whatever I'm just I'm just stalling that timeframe of when I'll be able to be free of my current career and be on you know doing what I want to be doing I mean I'm 45 years old if I can figure out how to start to do this you can do it you just got to want to do it and if you've been thinking about it and thinking about it just like me a few months ago I finally just had that one day that oh moment that epiphany of if I don't do it now if I don't start now I'm going to be sitting here in six months no further ahead than I am now so do it right now when you get done watching this go to one of these other sites udemy free code Academy free code can't go there right now like as soon as this videos done open your browser go to it check it out if you haven't done that yet do something pick a free one to pick a trowel version whatever you don't wanna spend money that's fine pick it and roll and start think that you're gonna go back to college the reason why I didn't okay the reason why I didn't just straight-up drop out of college was because I was scared I was I was afraid that I would the one foothold I have on the education in the future if I cut myself out of it then and I would have to start all over with trying to get enrolled and different stuff I think we're trying to get back and rolled so I feel like the amount of information that I have learned out of the college are not with the college at this point if over the next month and a half if that progresses and that continues the way it's been continuing I'm not going to go back um now not to say a couple years from now maybe I've ever got a job and I'm in working in the field if I wanted to go back and finish that degree I'm not saying don't finish degree I'm just convinced that I don't need a computer science degree to get a job doing this I mean I'm already I'm already making money doing this and and I'm I've never even worked for a company yet doing it you don't mean so I'm pretty confident that with this month that half is over I'm not gonna for me I feel like I make pretty good money with the job I have but I don't enjoy my job I don't like my job I don't have any control over what I do with my job you don't saying I go into work I work till they tell me we're done I get my vacation days I use it whatever and there is definitely no joy in the work I do I'll give you an example of how this makes me feel and I don't know if other people feel the same way if you've ever played video games or if you've ever been watching a TV show like binge watching you know Breaking Bad or something you know that little goofy feeling you get when you're on the way home from work you're thinking about what you're gonna do when you get home and you get that little butterfly like excited feeling that oh cool when I get home I'm gonna play Wow or I'm gonna play EverQuest or I'm gonna play overwatch or whatever that little that little tingly feeling inside because you know that's the stuff you like to do to makes you happy I get that feeling when I'm getting off work and I'm heading home and I know there was something I was working on last night that I just got so tired I just went to sleep I couldn't work anymore but I know I'm on the way home and I'm gonna get on my computer and I'm gonna go into that udemy course that I've been working on and go on to the next chapter or whatever and it sounds corny but if you can get that type of excitement over something like this you're doing something right you know I'm saying if it's a feeling of loathe and dread like oh man you know hang in there there might be some some stuff you're going through that maybe it's not as exciting to you but you might need that to work on the other stuff don't be afraid to learn learn learn learn Craig we're just gonna make you the dad of discord yeah the discord dad there's probably guys on there over them idiots don't admit it they just let me take the brunt of the whole guy thing you

Channel: Joshua Fluke

Views: 119,973

Keywords: joshua fluke, code bootcamp, javascript, how to code, learn to code, how to make a resume, resume tips, code interview, lambda school, team treehouse, how old can you lean code, learn code at 40, freelancing code

Id: jUofN4nWwZs

Length: 24min 50sec (1490 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 09 2018