Need help learning coding for career switch
Posted by minikaur@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 7 comments
Hi guys, I'm 26 F, been working in customer service for last 9 years and want to switch to tech(specifically AI) badly. I have a friend who works as Manager Tech Consulting in EY and has shown me the path. I have taken a career break and have covered machine learning fundamentals along with RAG basics too. I have studied python begginer level and practiced very very basic level coding exercises on Jupyter notebook. Now if anyone would be kind enough to help me learn proper Python /coding in order to make a small chatbot myself.
P. S. I'm from Arts background and have no prior knowledge of Tech. Have gone though statquest videos on YouTube for ML basics. Need help, have only end of this year to make the career switch completely. Also, I wanna get into AI/Tech Consulting(just for reference).
Thanks!
ImNotaProgrammer0662@reddit
My first question is, why are you interested in programming? What made you want to switch careers?
Humble_Warthog9711@reddit
Why do people always put their age
MissPandaSloth@reddit
Because age matters in hiring, no matter what some toxic positive people say.
Being junion in your late 20s is different than in your 40s. In fact I would say certain career switches are close to impossible at some age, unless you have some other related degree that compliments your skills.
If she was 47 and thinking about becoming developer, I would say think twice.
MissPandaSloth@reddit
A lot of depends on where you are based at.
I feel like US is hardest, because everyone wants to make US bucks.
I personally have arts degree (it's more like vfx, illustration etc.) and I had worked in marketing, motion graphics and then switched to developer role, also self taught.
Now I am working another dev-mixed role. But I am getting plenty of developer offers by just having some dev experience.
No one ever asked for any degree or anything.
However, keep in mind that these offers are from France, Netherlands, Israel, etc. And I am from Eastern Europe-ish and the stuff I am doing isn't crazy. I do playable ads. I would assume if you wanna work in AI (as in AI development) you need to be pretty good at math and idk if people just gonna trust you on that.
If I wanted a salary that would meet US standards, it would be waaaaay harder to get a job.
I recently spoke with more tech people locally, about AI and layoffs and as I am saying, it seems outside of US people are way more positive and chill. But the downside, as I said, lower salaries. But I know plenty of people who are self taught. Hell, met a guy today on a train that switched from law to full stack few years back.
dyslechtchitect@reddit
I made that switch myself, coming from an architecture background, so first you should know that it is absolutely doable. I have also met many people who successfully made a similar transition.
Bottom line: if you are smart, disciplined, and genuinely motivated and willing to put in the work you can get there.
That said, I think the way you described your current efforts is pointing you in the wrong direction. For someone without a strong programming foundation, studying topics like RAG or machine learning too early can create the illusion of understanding without giving you the practical ability to work competitively in the field. It is not entirely your fault, because a lot of courses are marketed in a way that makes advanced AI topics feel accessible long before someone has built the technical depth they actually require, often because selling the course matters more than explaining the real path.
In practice, most serious AI engineering work still depends heavily on strong software engineering skills. The people who contribute meaningfully are usually first expert programmers and only then specialists in the higher level concepts or actual math / AI PHDs who do the advanced research in very particular companies.
So I would focus in one of two directions:
Either commit fully to learning how to code properly and build real technical depth. That means choosing a stack, writing projects, understanding systems, debugging, databases, APIs, deployment, and becoming extremely comfortable building things end to end. This is the route I personally took, and it required going very hard at it for a sustained period.
Or take a strategic entry path into tech through a role like customer success, product, UX (you mentioned arts background so you would have a leg up there) or something adjacent inside a strong tech company, ideally one already working in areas that interest you. Once you prove yourself internally, internal mobility becomes very realistic, and many people move closer to technical or AI related roles that way.
The important thing is not to sit in the middle consuming advanced concepts without building either technical execution or real industry positioning.
If you choose coding, go all in and become unusually good. If you choose the company route, choose the company very carefully and get close to the product and technical teams.
Both paths work, but both require focus and honestly years of effort maybe even doing a "not your dream job" just to get to the next step.
Sweet_Witch@reddit
Do you have chance in your country with arts background to get a junior developer position? I am asking as in many countries there has been lay offs and you will be competing with people with some experience, internships, and with people with relevant background. If situation in your country is like this will you be able to stand out in this crowd?
j6onreddit@reddit
Hi, consultant myself and have been mentoring people for the past five years. I’m using a hand-crafted Python curriculum and have a few spots open. Get in touch if interested and we can discuss.