It seems frustrating because I work so much with a job that barely pays me to survive. I like programming mostly web development and want to find ways to get into this field.<p>I live in Seattle and I'm an African student. Things just seem hard right now because I don't know where to begin this journey and how much time it'll take.
> I don't know where to begin this journey<p>Do you have any college under your belt? I went back to school when I decided to switch careers (I was a banquet manager at the time).<p>> how much time it'll take<p>I already had a few years of undergrad (completely unrelated to tech...I was a Political Science major "the first time around") so I pretty much didn't need to take any classes outside of my major and it took two years to complete (that was with working full time). Started my first job as a developer just a couple months before I graduated.
Programming is utilitarian - how do you think being African matters?<p>People will respect you for putting that aside and focusing on the task at hand. Marshall McKusick is gay, his husband, author of sendmail, is gay. We know them for their achievements.<p>People draw types unconsciously. Make sure people associate you with being an engineer and your accomplishments.<p>Find an environment that blocks out distractions. A library. A place with free wifi and headphones. Get over ear headphones to block out the outside.<p>Pick up a web framework like Rails, Laravel or Django. Then go to elance and work your way up. Checkout craiglist and look for for junior level positions.<p>Keep practicing. Install Linux (Ubuntu, Mint or Debian is fine.)<p>Short on cash? Get a used Thinkpad.<p>Are you eligible for FAFSA? You can use that to spend on a laptop.<p>Use permissively licensed software wherever possible. It's commercial-friendly and doesn't reinvent the wheel. Reinventing the wheel is your worst enemy.<p>Later on, depending on when you want to. Learn C, and learn it well. We are breeding a generation of programmers that only understand higher level programming languages and won't understand the internals of how programming and deep systems work.<p>5 years from now, it's the systems programmers who will be in power - since we'll be saturated golang / rust / python / node programmers. Bubbles will bust; expect it.<p>In any event, as you specialize yourself - carve out a profitable niche that people actually need. These often may not be popular or cool, but those things can be more lucrative than you think.