Career change. Advice hugely appreciated!

[JABedford]

Hello all,

Brief background about me.. I am a 26 year old male from Berkshire UK.. Currently work as an Operations Manager in the construction industry.

I have been making and selling websites since I was a 13 year old, and my passion has always been everything to do with computers. I left college after getting a A-Level in computer science, as well as English and History, and have found myself unfortunately drift away over the years from doing what I enjoy!

I have a plan to, over the next three years, work on becoming a Python developer and start doing a job I love and enjoy. I first discovered Python earlier this year, and have enjoyed the learning process. It's been a struggle being so out of practice, but I have hugely enjoyed using my brain again, so to speak!

As much experience as I can gain over these three years is obviously a bonus.

Two questions really..
1) Is freelancing in my spare time a viable option? How is it best to get started in this?
2) Are there any industry recognized qualifications that would actually be worth getting? I have seen the "nanodegree" in full stack development, but is this something actually worth doing or does experience generally speak louder than qualifications?

Many thanks in advance,
James.

[nilamo]

What sort of freelancing?  It sounds like you've already been doing some, so... continue doing that, except in python?

As for certifications, CompTIA is widely regarded as actually meaningful (most... are not).  https://certification.comptia.org/certifications
However, not many of those are actually useful or related to web development, so again, it depends on what you want to do.

*edit* I got my A+ cert just three months after they changed from lasting indefinitely to needing to be re-certified.  So my cert is now expired (as of March 2015), so I don't have any active certs.  I guess I should get on that sooner or later...

[JABedford]

Just some bits and bobs on upwork at the minute. I will continue to do this for now, but I was thinking more in the future maybe some bigger freelance projects for bigger companies. I guess it just comes with more experience and getting yourself out there.

I will look at compTIA, thanks for the link. I have heard it mentioned a few times, but certs are something I have only just started to look at.

[wavic]

You are young so whatever path/way? you choose, just fallow it.

[Larz60+]

I did a lot of freelance programming during my career.
Almost 100% of it was because of a following.
It's getting the first one that's difficult, and when you do, you have to deliver on time,
and excel l.
Once you have done that, you will get offers, may even have to turn some down,
through referrals.

[JABedford]

Cheers guys.

The plan is to at some point look for full time work or longer contracts, so freelancing over the next few years I thought would be the best way to get the experience. Earning a bit more cash is a bonus as well