Stories about self-taught devs or bootcamp devs that get into web development or mobile development are very common these days. While they may eventually coast well in those areas, they may probably find themselves unable to cut it anywhere else.<p>Someone can say self-taught people can break into the software industry with ease but I haven't heard of cases where they shift focus to less common but still respected roles, for example, network programming, HFT, systems engineering or embedded programming. Is there a big skill barrier here? How hard would it be for a self-taught person to break that skill barrier and transition outside of web or mobile apps?
I wouldn't use the term "skill barrier." Any skilled job requires specific skills and experience, obviously. You can acquire some skills, or at least get started, in school, classes, bootcamps, and self-study. If you want to advance or branch our you have to continue to acquire skills and experience, through practice and study.<p>Every programmer started out with no skills and no experience, and most of them advanced on their own, through practice, usually subsidized by a series of employers.<p>Skill implies knowledge, ability, and practice. It doesn't mean casual familiarity, reading about something in a book, or taking a class; those can start someone on the path but aren't usually sufficient. A bootcamp graduate with no prior programming experience doesn't possess actual skills. They have motivation, potential, and just enough knowledge to persuade an employer to take a chance on them, in hopes that the cost of imparting skills and experience will be offset by profits derived from labor. Employees who cost more than they contribute wash out.<p>Programmers who already have multiple skills and years of experience can pick up new things quickly from books, web sites, classes because they have a mental framework of related concepts to hang new things on. New programmers don't have that, everything looks fragmented and challenging.