Coding career path for school leaver

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bigalcupachinozal

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#318837 25-Feb-2025 14:24

Son is 18 years old and finished school last year, got restricted and ready to work. But recession means school-leaver entry-level jobs now require 3 to 5 years experience. So further education seems to be the path. But the choices are vast and confusing.

He enjoyed AS Computer Studies and specifically coding.
He has been doing Python via www.coursera.org which he is enjoying while looking for work. More for personal enjoyment.
He really likes the Full Stack Developer course offered by The Learning People (https://www.learningpeople.com/au/career-paths/full-stack-software-developer/) but bad reviews have me concerned.
He seems keen for online learning meaning he can go hard while not working but still find work.
He is visiting Whitecliffe tomorrow which is on campus but likely has to wait for next year to start their 2 year Software Developer Stream.

Seeking any advise on good training providers, internships (unpaid or paid), courses suited to real world job market demand and related to coding.

I am encouraging him to do a doctorate in "how to turn off the overlord AI" but he says that is a bit more than he wants to tackle right now.

I would love to have got someone at the likes of Datacom on the phone to explore what folk such as them want and value in entry level candidates.

Any insight or advice appreciated.

PS South Auckland based

pih

649 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#3346655 25-Feb-2025 14:56

I know it's not going to help him earn immediately, but if he's sitting around with time on his hands, get him to start working on something - anything - in the area he wants to work in. More study is good, but arguably real world experience is better.

Be it minor submissions to open source projects, building his own website, designing a basic game or web/mobile application, or anything else he can showcase to a prospective employer, he'll quickly rise several (dozen) places higher in the stack of CVs. If he can show that (a) he's got the stickability to sit down and finish something, and (b) that he has at least a useful grasp of basic coding (albeit likely AI-assisted), he'll be much more likely to get a job.

Reanalyse

381 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3346658 25-Feb-2025 15:06

Look at him getting some certifications in AWS or Azure, online study for these on Udemy (buy when they offer on sale at around US$12.00) I would recommend the Joseph Phillips courses.

I found them much more cost effective that an instructor led course.

Then pay for a proctored exam to get the certification.

This is a marvelous way of upskilling towards a career with very low initial costs. Start with the Fundementals/Practitioner courses then go from there.

dman

953 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3369643 1-May-2025 23:35

Go to university to get a degree in Computer Science, any other proposal (especially so in the current economic environment) is a truly bad idea for him if what he wants is a coding career.

However, I do respect that doing a degree is a big commitment.

Thus I suggest that he first does both of these from start to finish:

cs50.harvard.edu/x/2025/

https://programming-25.mooc.fi/

Stay focused on the above, don't be sidetracked (it's the worst thing to be jumping about from one thing to another, never completing even one single thing).

Then after all of this (presuming he's still enjoying it! And it's going well) I would recommend that what he does next is a CS degree, now that he's got confirmed this is the direction he's going in for his career / life, and can feel very confident going into the CS degree.

(would also recommend doing these afterwards while waiting until the semester starts for the new CS degree: Python on Exercism Then: https://www.theodinproject.com/ )

Also check this out as a big picture look at everything of all the basics that you need to in the long run nail and learn:

https://github.com/ossu/computer-science

This is also worth a watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzJ46YA_RaA&ab_channel=DomainofScience`

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmJ-4B-mS-Y&ab_channel=DomainofScience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQgxiQAMTTo&ab_channel=DomainofScience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZihywtixUYo&ab_channel=DomainofScience

Gives you a super super big picture perspective to put everything into context, as to how wide and broad the field of CS is, plus how CS interacts with other fields as well such as math/physics/engineering.

https://www.youtube.com/c/SoundSpeeding

dman

953 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3369645 1-May-2025 23:48

bigalcupachinozal:

Son is 18 years old and finished school last year, got restricted and ready to work. But recession means school-leaver entry-level jobs now require 3 to 5 years experience. So further education seems to be the path. But the choices are vast and confusing.

He enjoyed AS Computer Studies and specifically coding.
He has been doing Python via www.coursera.org which he is enjoying while looking for work. More for personal enjoyment.

Fantastic! Coursera Plus is a great value subscription to invest in, I do lots of courses as well via Coursera myself for fun.

"He really likes the Full Stack Developer course offered by The Learning People (https://www.learningpeople.com/au/career-paths/full-stack-software-developer/) but bad reviews have me concerned. "

Yes, I agree, enrolling with them would be even worse than going to a polytechnic, it's basically bootcamp level trash.

"He is visiting Whitecliffe tomorrow which is on campus but likely has to wait for next year to start their 2 year Software Developer Stream. "

No, don't go to Whitecliffe for CS. And don't do a two year diploma, as only one year more and you can get yourself a degree instead! Far more valuable.

Your son's priority should be to go to UoA for Computer Science:

https://www.calendar.auckland.ac.nz/en/courses/faculty-of-science/computer-science.html

https://www.calendar.auckland.ac.nz/en/progreg/regulations-science/bsc.html

https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/study/study-options/find-a-study-option/bachelor-of-science-bsc.html

https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/study/study-options/find-a-study-option/computer-science.html

Next best option would be CS at AUT, but I don't really see the point, when AUT is only very slightly cheaper and slightly easier to get in. Why settle for distant second best when you could go to the best instead?

Next next best would be to go to MIT (as I noted you live in South Auckland), it truly is a very distant third place behind UoA (and MIT is even far behind 2nd place AUT).

https://www.manukau.ac.nz/programme/bachelor-of-digital-technologies-level-7-with-majors-in-networking-or-software-and-web-development/

But it is very convenient for you vs going into the CBD each day for UoA.

A little distance behind 3rd place, would be 4th placed Open Polytechnic:

https://www.openpolytechnic.ac.nz/qualifications-and-courses/op7091-bachelor-of-information-technology/

That then is the complete list of your Top 4 options to consider. (I guess I could throw in Unitec is #5, but why go all the way across town to Unitec when UoA/AUT/MIT are more convenient??)

https://www.youtube.com/c/SoundSpeeding

bigalcupachinozal

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3369656 2-May-2025 06:04

Massive thanks for all the input. He has ended up doing an NZQA full stack developer course with local provider and is enjoying it a lot. The back end coding is where his heart skips a beat for sure. It may well lead to university next year but has been the hard yakka, structured skill learning, he needed to open the doors of possibilities.

maffey

40 posts

Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#3371938 10-May-2025 09:51

+1 for the self starter option.

As an employer, I am way more interested in what a developer has done off their own bat, rather than their education.

Find a pet project, or a friend/relative who wants some coded up. Or find an existing piece of software and replicate it.

All the education and tutorials you need are online. And the AI plugged into your IDE can guide you a lot of the way (just make sure you understand what the AI has produced, don't just take AI code as a black box).

TwoSeven

1615 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#3371955 10-May-2025 10:48

only my off the cuff thoughts as I am probably quite out of date with what it is like being a young person breaking into a new industry.

For me, the question I sometimes still ask myself is ‘am I looking for a job, or a career’ (or both)

A computer science degree for me is a good building-block if that opportunity is available, I think its purpose is in teaching someone how to learn and provide core knowledge in a self structured environment. From there one can pick other learning opportunities, such as Canterbury Universities HIT Lab (I mention this as it showcases non line of business IT).

To me, coding, business analysis, business management, project management, testing, DevOps, all the architectures (enterprise, solution and application) as well as all of the process and quality standards are just skills that I consider are that a Software Developer will have (often picked up through career progression or training) although individually they can lead to their own professions.

it might sound like a daunting list, but I think most training providers cover them in some shape or form. Although, I can understand things from the perspective of trying spending an hour or so trying to fix a compilation error in a coding language one is in the process of learning.

I think as mentioned, self initiative, own projects, good communication and confidence are a good starting point.

I would mention that after nearly 40 years, I still spend sometimes up to 20% of my own time each week at home learning, doing little projects (prototyping technologies), reading others research papers, online learning, talking with industry peers or just catching up on the global IT news.

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