In this article let’s take a look whether is it too late to become a software engineer in detail.
You should read this article if you are confused and do not know whether you should start learning code and choose software engineering as your career option or not at the age of 25, 30, 35, 40 as all the points I explained in the article are backed by statistics and data.
So without further ado let’s get started.
Table of Contents
Is 25, 30’s age period too late to become a software engineer?
In my opinion, It is never too late to become a software engineer and age is just a number and you can learn coding and become a software engineer at whatever age you want As long as you have the passion and dedication towards coding and software development but of course there are a few external factors which will definitely impact your career as a software engineer.
If you are in the age of 25 to 30 period, it is definitely not too late to become a software engineer but as you grow older beyond 30 years of age I think it is probably too late to become a software engineer at this point.
Why 25, 27, 30s age period is not too late to become a software engineer?
But 25, 26, 27, 30’s age period is not too late to become a software engineer because At this period of time you will have some amount of money with yourself so that you can purchase some online courses and boot camps to learn coding as fast as possible and
you will also have all the soft skills required to become a software engineer like logical thinking creativity analytical thinking and teamwork and you also have a lot of experience of working for many companies earlier before becoming a software engineer which can help you in your career but there are some disadvantages too like having additional responsibilities and your age can also affect your career.
But overall 30s age group is not very late to become a software engineer and start learning coding.
let’s take a look at the pros and cons of learning coding and becoming a software engineer at 30s age.
- You will have soft skills required- one of the main advantages is that you will have important soft skills like communication skills, teamwork leadership and negotiation skills, critical, logical and analytical thinking and creativity when you are learning programming and all these soft skills will help you a lot when you become a software engineer and start applying for jobs
- You can become a software engineer faster than any other career option-another advantage is that you can learn coding and become a software engineer and start applying for jobs in less than 2 years if you put all the hard work and dedication, As you can learn coding and programming languages through reading articles and watching videos online and taking many courses online without going to college or school but It is not so easy to make a career shift into doctor or architect as you will have to spend at least 3-4 years of formal education and get a degree certificate before you can apply for the job, so programming is not only in demand but also very easy to make a career shift for many people.
- You will face enough problems & have good experiences-another advantage is You will already face enough problems in your life and career, experience of working at any company and startup before, experience of handling people and projects which can really help you during your programming days as you can start solving problems that you have experienced earlier in your life using your coding knowledge and take up new projects, for example if you were in real estate business earlier then after learning programming you can create any tech product by solving any problem in real estate industry since you have worked in that industry for a long time before becoming a software engineer, You can create something new which will add up in your portfolio and help you stand out from the rest in the competition when applying for a job
There are some disadvantages too, if you want to become a software engineer at the age of 30s period like
- You can have responsibilities-one of the main disadvantages is that you can have a lot of responsibilities on yourself when you try to become a software engineer at the age of 30 as most people at this age will get married or will have some responsibility of family or parents to look after so you’ll need to work harder to dedicate time and space to learning to code and many people in this age cannot take many financial risks and it is also important to know that coding requires a lot of concentration and dedication and practise to become better at it and having additional responsibilities can distract you so you will have to put more effort as compared to individual at the age of 20s period to learn coding but all you need to do is to manage your time properly and dedicate at least a few hours everyday practising coding
- You will be working under people younger than you-another disadvantage is you will be working under people younger than you if you want to become a software engineer at the age of 30s, You should keep your ego and pride aside, You should also be open to many interviews and discussions and also a lot of criticism along the way
- Your age can definitely impact your career-another disadvantage of becoming a software engineer at the age of 30 is that your age can definitely impact your career as there are many companies who only try to recruit people of younger age like 25s group of people because people of these age are energetic, healthy, etc
These are all the advantages and disadvantages of trying to become software engineer at the 30s period of age.
How long does it take to learn coding and become software engineer?
For majority of the people on average it can take about 3 to 6 months to learn the basics of coding and at least 2 years of time to become good at coding and become a software engineer and according to survey more than 60% of the people learn coding through online resources like articles and videos so it usually takes a lot of time to learn the basics of coding.
It does not matter whether you learn coding through online courses or by watching videos and reading articles, You cannot learn coding within a few weeks because coding requires a lot of practise and solving problems and taking up projects,
if you take coding boot camp or online course you will be having some guidance while learning coding as compared to learning coding through videos and online articles and forums which can help you learn coding a little bit faster but It can easily take around 1 year to learn the basics and become good at coding for most people but of course there are a few exceptions to that rule like some people will naturally be good at coding and they would not need much time to learn coding.
Does age factor affect software engineering & What age is too late to become a software engineer?
Yes age does affect software engineering profession Just like any other profession because there are many studies which clearly show that as people become older,
- Their concentration & focus levels gets affected & reduced but software engineering and coding requires a lot of concentration and focus if not you will have a lot of bugs and problems while writing the code and executing it
- Mental and physical health will also get bad as you grow older and when it comes to coding you will have to sit at a place for longer period of time
- And software engineering as a career option is always evolving with new languages coming in and new technology but as you grow older your ability to recall information and concentrate will decrease so it can be hard for you to update yourself with new skills
- You are sleeping pattern also get affected due to getting older and this can highly impact your performance in working as a software engineer for any company
For example if you start learning coding and programming at the age of 35, It will be more difficult for you to become good at programming and coding because first of all you are much more older and you will have lesser attention and concentration power as compared to a person of 25 years of age so it can take you at least 2 years to learn coding and
become good at it and you should also need to have some work experience of at least a bunch of years and you should be working on some projects to get hired in any top tech company and it can easily take around 40 years age (if you start at 35 age) before you will become a good software engineer but according to a survey, 48% of professional developers are 25-34 years old and most software engineers retire at the age of 45 to 55 years so in my opinion 35, or 40s age period is definitely too late to become a software engineer of course there are a few exceptions.
This is one side of the coin, on the other side, there are very few companies which would like to hire software engineers of over 35 years old or 40 years because as you grow older your energy levels will also get reduced, It becomes hard for you to work long hours in front of computer as you will have many health problems to deal with and many tech companies want their employees to be fast and quick with regards to the work and complete the projects as soon as possible before the deadline to stay ahead in the industry so they would like to hire younger people to work for their company because younger people have higher power, good health, etc.
What happens to old software engineers?
According to a survey, more than 50% of professional developers are between the age of 25 to 34 and Developers in more senior roles have the most years of coding professionally. Data scientists and machine learning specialists, meanwhile, have the least experience, with fewer years than academic researchers.
Software engineers who joined the companies as developers over the period of time will get promoted and get into higher levels like senior executive, engineering manager, product manager, database administrator, system administrator, marketing and sales professional, etc and most developers In this space have more than 10 years of experience in programming so even though if you start as a developer or data scientist in a company but as you grow older with more promotions you can get into senior levels of the company.
And there are other people who get old will either retire from the company or they will start working on their own startup after getting the experience that they want while working in the company
With that said let’s end the article.
Conclusion
These are all the things you need to know regarding whether it is too late to become a software engineer.
Do let me know what are your thoughts about these in the comment section below.
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