question for a noob

[jamer]

hi all.

I have a couple of questions, and I figured this would be a great place to get some honest answers.

I'm 29 years old, and am currently looking at changing my career path. In high school i was pretty decent at math and sciences, and did well in what limited computer sciences classes we had (small town).

Needless to say i never pursued it after school, be it laziness or whatever.

So to cut to the chase, i am here to ask for any advise you could send my way. I know i need to take some refresher courses and upgrade my math and physics at a local college before applying for university. I'm in Victoria, BC so I will be applying to UVic.

So yeah i guess i'm curious if this is a crazy idea and maybe i'm too old, or if i should just go for it. I know the decision is up to me ultimately, but any advise from people currently in the field or working towards it would help me make some decisions.

I think in the end i'd like to work towards programming for games development, but i am open to whatever as it'll be like 5 years until i'm done all the schooling.

Thanks for any input.

James.

[Tony]

- do you already have any other post-secondary education?
- have you done any programming lately, on your own?

[jamer]

what kind of post secondary education? related to this field no. I've been to film school, and have worked as a cook for like the last 15 years.
programming on my own, not recently. i should though i guess. any suggestions.

like i said, this is a recent possible change. nothing is set in stone, i'm just weighing my options etc.

[tedbean]

@jamer, it is a really good idea to be a computer specialist. I am sure you can do it!

It is never too old to learn or start a new career. The trend in the 21st century is most people will end up doing several different jobs in their lifetime.

You need some advanced maths skills to do CS degrees. In the first two years the maths is a required subject for the CS degree, you have to pass it to pass the degree. I suggest you revise your school maths (the engineering maths type) before applying for university. Once in the uni, you will find many young students in CS are gifted in maths and did really well in their school exams (this applies to most engineering degrees also). I am going to have the same challenge in maths this year when I start my CS degree. I always find maths a HEAVY subject! Also keep in mind the programming is HARD!

I hope you find computing fun. Whether it is fun or not, I cannot tell you right now, I have to find out (at the moment, it is not fun for me based on my current understanding of programming and it is incomprehensible!!! ).

If you just want to change your career and have a more professional and well-paid job, think about the medical field, these jobs are absolutely secure because we cannot offshore say surgeons and vets...

Btw, many unis offer bridging courses in maths and sciences, that would be very helpful.

[Tony]

The thing is that simply graduating with a "CS degree" does not guarantee a high paying job, nor is there any guarantee that you'd be able to write any working code (after all, a Computer Science program typically includes little to no programming classes).

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/02/why-cant-programmers-program.html

Quote:

A surprisingly large fraction of applicants, even those with masters' degrees and PhDs in computer science, fail during interviews when asked to carry out basic programming tasks.

Computer Science sort of just sets a context in which you pick up on programming languages on your own. If your motivation is to "get a job", you'd be left way behind the kids who solve all the same problems just for the fun of it.

CS might be a thing for you. It might not. UWaterloo's numbers are something like "40% stop pursuing CS in the first 2 years" (I imagine that the bulk of that number simply changes majors, instead of dropping out completely). It would suck to find yourself in the wrong major, 2 years in. Pick up some programming on your own before committing -- you'd have to learn all of that on your own anyway.