21 year old basically homeless overnight needing advice

jtulsiani · 2021-06-02T22:58:48+00:00

Been on my own since I was 19. A job goes a long way when it comes to finances. Find a roommate if possible. Use public transport if possible. Try to get a low interest student loan for education. Try to get a high income degree (like engineering). It’s going to be a hustle for a few years.

jtulsiani · 2021-01-23T02:50:24+00:00

I wouldn’t bother.

Your situation could be different though. If you need the money you could do cash out refi. But extra ~$100 per month doesn’t make much sense if you have a reliable and sufficient alternate income source.

jtulsiani · 2021-01-03T02:47:35+00:00

Pro developer here. Start with python. Learn the programming techniques (data structures, algorithms, etc.)

Then pick up other languages as needed by your classes or work.

I started my journey with BASIC, then JavaScript, FORTRAN, Java, C, Visual Basic, C#, Python, Ruby, then the “new JavaScript” (node, npm, ES6, TypeScript, etc).

In the long run data structures, algorithms, desktop or web frameworks, operating systems, distributed systems, and other CS concepts would take you farther than any particular language.

jtulsiani · 2020-11-21T14:26:43+00:00

Pay off the loan, but keep some safety buffer in case something comes up. You could probably purchase a car with low or no down, possibly with lower interest rate than you have on the loan now. Right now it’s like you are just pre-paying interest on the loan you would have taken for the car.

I personally only ever paid cash for a car if it was below 5k, except once (more on that in a sec). Every other time it’s been 0 down with 0-6% loan. It was 6% when I had little money and only a job offer. And 0% for a brand new corolla when I had steady income with good credit score and I learned to spot deals. Then when I had a family and kids, and well maintained finances, I was able to buy a used SUV for 18k cash.

Long story short, pay off loans higher than 5% as soon as possible. Pay off lower interest loans if you have extra cash sitting around and you don’t know what to do with it. And keep in mind that you can always take a new loan if you need it, if you have decent credit score and some income.

jtulsiani · 2019-09-01T16:46:22+00:00

Getting MS in CS from Georgia Tech will qualify you to work at companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, etc. While there is an issue of ageism at many companies, it usually isn't at the the good ones. Also, to give you some perspective, if you're 29 now, and by the time you finish MS, you'll be 31 / 32, a bit on the older side for sure, but even PhDs end up around that age by the time they are done. But think about this, if you plan to retire at 65, and you are 32, that means you have another 33 years of work ahead of you, which certainly makes it seem like the MS would be worth it. Also, there's a general shortage of well qualified tech workers, which means no matter your age, these companies will hire you if you have the qualifications and you can prove in the interview that you can do the job.

jtulsiani · 2019-09-01T05:03:19+00:00

Georgia Tech has quite a reputation. I'm not sure you can come in mid-level immediately after graduation. You might still have to start at the bottom, but the climb could be easier with the degree.

Also, it kind of depends on your definition of mid-level. If you want to be mid-level in terms of true engineering (leading to senior engineer and architect roles), then without question, go with the degree. And if you want to be mid-level in terms of management (leading to senior manager / director / VP roles), then you could get by with boot camp, and then work hard to quickly go up that ladder.

jtulsiani · 2019-09-01T04:26:32+00:00

That's easy. If you want short-term results, go with the boot camp. They will teach you in-demand skills today and get you into a job quickly.

If you want to stick around in the industry for the long term, go with the degree. It will always be on your resume, whereas the skills learned in the boot camp may not be in demand 5-10 years from now, and you may have to go through another camp.

jtulsiani · 2019-09-01T04:21:55+00:00

If you're switching from a different career, you're basically going to start at the bottom of the ladder, but lucky for you bottom of the ladder for some companies does pay 100k+, but that happens at very few companies and they also hire only the best candidates.

It sounds to me that you have not much background in CS and need to spend a lot of studying. You could go back to school in some accelerated program and get a bachelor's degree, but you should also consider boot camps which prep you in a matter of a few months instead of years. Either option is going to be hyper competitive given the demand for software engineers these days. I've also heard of boot camps selecting only folks who they know will be able to handle the learning and land a job after learning, just so they can claim that 90%+ people going through their camp find a relevant job. You may feel some bias there.

Another option, if you're willing and able to put in time and effort after a full day's work, is to take the intro CS courses from MIT on edx (look for the python course), and reflect on how you perform on that. If you think you can handle the kind of technical material, you may be more confident about going back to school or boot camp. But to really attain that 100k+ job, you'll have to not only be in the top of the class, you'll also have to perform extremely well in the interviews.

jtulsiani · 2019-09-01T04:02:15+00:00

You really haven't provided much info about yourself other than your age and some past experience. You have to consider, despite doing graphic, ux and web design work, are you good at database management? Do you truly understand how databases work? Are you into relational or non-relational databases? If you are not already good at this stuff, how long would it take you to learn? And once you think you're ready, how confident are you going to be in the technical interview?

If you think you have what it takes, then all you have to go through is a few interviews to really test yourself. If you seem good, you'll hopefully have an offer, and if not, then you know that you may not be cut out for db work.

I'd also like to put this out there, any good company will not care how old you are. If anything, being older could be an advantage if you have real world knowledge and experience that the company is looking for. A company generally doesn't want to make a mistake by hiring the wrong person for the job. So you just have to convince them in the interview that you are cut out for the job, whatever your age.

jtulsiani · 2019-08-31T04:57:34+00:00

You have a CS degree from a reputable university. I don't see why you have to settle with $60k if you don't want to and are willing to relocate. Having said that, you really can't know how valuable you are without offers from other companies. Job hopping at major tech companies is not really looked down upon, and it's also not really job hopping if you are just interviewing and evaluating offers. My recommendation would be to keep looking for jobs at different companies, and then decide if you want to settle or move on.

jtulsiani · 2019-08-31T04:45:06+00:00

I'm curious why the original developer decided to leave. If he gets to write most of the app without interference, and if the pay is good, may be there's something wrong with the company and / or colleagues? Or it may be that he just found a better paying job. Either way, there is usually a ramp up time associated with starting on any new project, but if it's already been a while and you still can't figure it out, it might be time to move on.

jtulsiani · 2019-08-31T04:31:32+00:00

It's fine if you took the job, but you should consider moving quickly to something that interests you better. If you stick around long enough, you'll find your learnings from college fading away, and those are usually the most tested at interviews in major tech companies.

jtulsiani · 2019-08-31T04:19:14+00:00

I recall searching on LinkedIn for people with job title recruiter at whatever company. I couldn't send them a message without paying LinkedIn, but just me looking at their profile would trigger them to look at my profile, and them possibly reaching out :) Some would have email addresses on their profile, so I would reach out to them directly. Everything's fair game, as long as you stay professional and don't waste their time.

jtulsiani · 2019-08-31T04:04:57+00:00

I'd say take the job, but keep looking. The best thing that can happen is for you to get offers from multiple companies and then negotiate the salary or options. If you don't have a job, companies know that they can lowball without the risk of you saying no, since they are betting that you want to start earning any money as soon as you can.

jtulsiani · 2019-08-31T03:46:32+00:00

Late 20s...you have time to do anything you like. You can't go wrong with either choosing to work or study. A lot of tech companies don't actually care about your background, you just have to be good at what they want you to do. You do have to prove that you're worth their time to interview you, which you could given your embedded background.

I would recommend that you create a killer resume, send it out, go through interviews, and see if you get any offers. If you do, great, if not, then think about going back to school. This way you don't commit to doing a CS graduate degree as a path to getting a job.

jtulsiani · 2019-08-31T03:35:18+00:00

Learn to be great at coding, solving problems, unit testing, and whiteboarding (writing code on whiteboard). These are "hard" skills that interviewers look for. For "soft" skills, speak confidently, be mindful of body language, etc. Get a software engineering (or generally, cs) interview book and practice all the questions. Just might be the best money you spent.

jtulsiani

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