As a 30 year old career-changer, would you keep your current job and pursue an online CS degree (Oregon State) while learning to code on the side or go to one of the developer boot camps? (Or do neither and just build things for fun)
I'd say do both. If you can get a job with just the developer boot camp then that is probably worth while. I haven't done a boot camp so I don't know what they cover but there is quite a lot to computer science. Yes you may be able to program and do some software jobs but you would probably be constraining yourself to a small set of jobs.<p>Take a look at these for an idea of depth of software development:
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If you have a degree already, I would try the developer boot camp route. It's going to be cheaper, quicker, and get you into the real world of programming a lot faster.<p>If you decide you have a lot of potential and want to work at Google or Microsoft, you should then go back to school and get a degree in CS, but I think for the vast majority of developers, what you learn in school doesn't have a ton to do with what you are doing on the job on a day-to-day basis.<p>This is doubly true if your degree is in something non-fluff. If you have no degree at all, you need to get a degree because so many companies require one before they will even let you in the door these days.