Is Becoming Employable Plausible With 5-10 Hours a Week
Posted by kurvivol@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 11 comments
I keep seeing people say it takes around 1,000–1,500 hours of practice/learning, on average, to become employable. I know that varies a lot by field, person, and market, but that seems to be the rough number I see most often in self-taught success stories online.
I only have about 5–10 hours a week to study, practice, and work on projects. If that 1,000–1,500 hour estimate is anywhere close to true, then mathematically speaking it follows that it would take me roughly 3–4 years to reach an employable level on such schedule
My concern is that such a slow pace might lead to a lot of forgetting, projects taking forever, and feeling overwhelmed, which could push the real total much higher and becoming employable would take unreasonably long time
So my question is: is becoming employable on this schedule actually realistic? And if anyone has done it or knows someone who has, how long did it take?
aqua_regis@reddit
One of the bigger problems with that time frame is retention.
If you can pack 1-2 hour daily, you will have a far better outcome than if you only pack the 5-10 hours in 2 days with a 5 day break you'll make barely any progress as you will need too much time to refresh what you have learnt in the previous week.
Yet, I agree with /u/PoMoAnachro that the estimate is way too low. 4000-6000 hours is far more realistic.
New_Exchange1158@reddit
Been driving for DoorDash couple years now and trying to learn programming in free time, so I totally get this struggle. The retention thing is real - I tried doing like 6 hours on Saturday and Sunday only, and by next weekend I was basically starting over each time.
What worked better for me was doing 45 minutes every morning before starting my delivery shift, even if it meant getting up earlier. Way more effective than cramming everything in weekends. Also found that building small projects helped with retention more than just tutorials - even simple stuff like calculator or to-do list that I could actually use.
The 4000-6000 hour estimate seems more realistic from what I've seen in Discord communities. But don't let that discourage you - progress is progress, and at least with programming you're building something valuable for future. Better than being stuck in same job forever, you know?
Aromatic_File_5256@reddit
Damn, I'm cooked
Fajan_@reddit
Yeah it is realistic, it is just slow.
Consistency beats time spent. It can be 5–10 hours a week even, because you’re building stuff and not watching videos.
The danger is forgetting, so do little side projects while you’re learning.
It will probably take 2–4 years, but that’s still progress.
Keep producing, not working fast 👍
darknecessitities@reddit
Who knows if that is enough time or not. Some people can become employable in 6 months. Some people 4-5 years. The best advice is to be consistent. Practice every day for 2 hours at the same time, like from 6-8AM. Try pomodoro technique if you have trouble focusing that long. Good luck!
dashkb@reddit
If your attitude is to become employable as quickly as possible, you won’t.
Dry-Hamster-5358@reddit
Yeah, it’s realistic, just slower, and you need to be consistent
The bigger risk isn’t time, it’s losing continuity between sessions if you spend half your time just remembering what you did last time, progress feels very slow
What helps is keeping things small and focused, like one project or one concept at a time, instead of jumping around
Also, writing notes or keeping a simple log of what you did each session helps a lot so you don’t restart mentally every week
It might take longer than full time learning, but it’s definitely doable
rabplaysguitar@reddit
I guess it depends on the end goal and the expectation you’re putting on yourself. Obviously if you’re expecting to be employable in a short time period (<2 years), then I can only assume that more time will need to be invested. Perhaps finding some novel ways to fit in some extra practice would be advantageous. I personally find that I learn more in the mornings than the evenings. If you’re early in your journey I would 100% recommend major concepts and ideas that are language-agnostic. I hope you find something that works for you, and more importantly, that you’re enjoying the process of learning.
CultivatorX@reddit
Time does not equal quality or focus. You could probably get into a pretty competent knowledge space devoting 1000 hours to a specific slice of development. If you're trying to learn full web development, 1000 hours is probably not sufficient.
VariousAssistance116@reddit
No. Things are moving way to fast
PoMoAnachro@reddit
I think 1000-1500 is on the light side. For college students, that's probably the amount of in-class time they'll spend on CS through a degree, but they'll be expected to spend 2-3 hours outside class studying and doing homework and practicing for every 1 hour in class. I think, realistically, 4000 hours is a better minimum.
Used to be different when they were hiring everyone with a pulse - you could get the rest of your hours learning on the job, but expectations are higher for new hires now