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At this point, I am beginning to narrow down what I would like my focus to be in. I am interested in cloud computing and cyber security at the moment, but am still open to other facets that may be easier to break into.

I am enrolled in the Harvard CS50 course right now, and am looking for other good platforms to learn on. I have found a couple of youtubers where I am learning python at the moment, and Java to start. If you think I should be learning any other languages at first, let me know.

If you are self taught, let me know how you became employed in tech, if not, tell me what I should be doing/looking for/working on to make a break into tech.

I have read many stories of self taught devs getting jobs in the industry, all across the board, so I know it's not impossible, I would just like some tips and pointers to help me on my journey.

I am not that smart yet, so go easy on me, but I will be listening to all advice. This is something that I feel called to do, because I am interested in it, and can see it as something that will support me and my family long term, and something that I can do from the comfort of my own home.

All advice appreciated and accepted.

Thanks.

At this point, I am beginning to narrow down what I would like my focus to be in. I am interested in cloud computing and cyber security at the moment, but am still open to other facets that may be easier to break into. I am enrolled in the Harvard CS50 course right now, and am looking for other good platforms to learn on. I have found a couple of youtubers where I am learning python at the moment, and Java to start. If you think I should be learning any other languages at first, let me know. If you are self taught, let me know how you became employed in tech, if not, tell me what I should be doing/looking for/working on to make a break into tech. I have read many stories of self taught devs getting jobs in the industry, all across the board, so I know it's not impossible, I would just like some tips and pointers to help me on my journey. I am not that smart yet, so go easy on me, but I will be listening to all advice. This is something that I feel called to do, because I am interested in it, and can see it as something that will support me and my family long term, and something that I can do from the comfort of my own home. All advice appreciated and accepted. Thanks.

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[–] • 1 pt

I do cloud computing for a living. Built AMEXs private cloud from vmware to openstack, rolled out several clouds on contract for some other companies, now i move legacy apps into the cloud @ my current gig.

Self taught also.

You want to do cloud computing? The single best answer i can provide is to go participate in an open source project for cloud... Openstack is a great basket of projects that gets huge amounts of recognition.

Start fixing the bugs, doing the doco, however you can to get your name as a contributor to the distro.

Use these points in the interviews you manage to get, you will get better quality interviews after working with those guys on those teams fixing those small things.

Dont be afraid to work a help desk for a short time, L1 support jobs are easy to get, and while they dont directly lead into these things, they will teach you some good and bad things. Specifically how damn dumb the average computer user is...

Once you've managed to get your first commits to the projects, your world will start to open up for you.

Also, its VMWARE.. but look for your local VMUG, and linux / cloud (we have openstack meetups in my area, hosted at netapp facilities) meetups, those are good places to network and find better quality interviews than you will get from recruiters.

Recruiters --- On average, they are fucking useless.

[–] • 0 pt

Yeah VUMG is great, and their Christmas parties are usually pretty good too. At least for the chapters I've been to.