Can old people learn programming?

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Hi guys, I have a slightly complicated question to ask. I'll try to be as brief as possible.

Background: Due to having no clue about neurodiversity, I made some really poor choices about what degree to pursue. I've spent a lot of time trying to learn maths and physics, and although I scrape by in calculus and statistics, I remember practically nothing of what I've spent years learning, and I've flunked physics more times than I'm happy to admit.

Fast forward to me being almost forty, unemployed and with unstable health. My biggest issues are executive functioning, office politics and sensitive eyes. Fortunately I've escaped sound sensitivity, which makes work easier.

In the past I've done very well in some nice, smallish workplaces. I found out I have an ability to edit text unusually quickly, due to very good reading ability and an eye for detail.

Now I am starting to see that having a degree would help me a lot in reentering work life. I have two options:

1) Spending a year and a half on completing a master's degree in a related subject to the one I was studying. This would give me a degree in a field where I don't want to work, but I figure just having a master's degree would be good. It would require spending a lot of time in an open plan office, though, which seriously impairs my ability to work.

2) Start something entirely new where there are better chances of actually being offered a position, even though it takes more time.

In the event of choosing option 2), I was thinking of learning programming or something IT-related. During my studies, I've been learning a lot of complex software, so I'm reasonably good with computers. At one point I actually took a basic IT subject that included some HTML and JavaScript (way back when). I gave up on IT at the time because I couldn't find a way to learn the basic stuff. So many of my fellow students had been into computers since they were teenagers, and the groaning from the back bench whenever I asked a question was pretty discouraging.

Nowadays, there are plenty of courses available online, and I can learn at my own pace before entering university. I've just started looking at Python, and I find it interesting, which is encouraging. Also, I learn most things quickly.

So I have three questions:

1) Is it possible to learn IT stuff even if I'm rubbish at maths and fairly old?

2) Are there any particular fields in IT where getting a job is easy, due to people finding them boring for example? I can do boring. I just don't want to be involved in huge development programs that eat my life, due to having limited energy and wonky executive functioning.

3) Is there any IT field that can be done part time?

Sorry for the long post, but if I didn't provide background, the questions wouldn't make sense.

Have a nice day, guys!

I can't help you with the IT questions, but I can address the age issues.

I learned how to garden and grow roses at age 40. At age 50 I learned how to cook.

Haha, thanks I am trying to learn how to garden too. I don't question my ability to learn something new - I just wonder whether I'll be able to do it well enough to get a job doing it. But your comment helped me clarify

Edited for spelling error.

Last edited by underwater on 18 Oct 2016, 9:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

I know you're asking about IT, but if I can just pick up on what is in other threads currently -

There's a tendency for some people on the spectrum to be highly qualified but unemployable. It seems to do with being able to get academic qualifications but not actual working experience.

I would recommend you seek a course (academically, or just course-of-action) that includes a placement in a workplace so that you will be able to get a job.

I've been a professional programmer since my early twenties. I'm now 56. Your profile lists you as being 39. At that age I was still receptive to new software techniques and languages (both programming and human) but as I got closer to 50 I've noticed a definite decrease in my ability and patience to learn highly technical things. I'm now 56 and find programming a bit too taxing mentally; certainly to tackle any large complex projects. It depends on what you want to do with your brain really. However, I have taken up a new hobby recently, I'm learning to fly. While there is still a lot to learn (aviation law etc) it isn't nearly as complex as programming. So don't give up on learning, you may just need to change your focus as you get older.

I'm not unemployable. I have the opposite problem; I had trouble finishing my degree, but I'm ok with smaller, day-to-day tasks. I have trouble with large projects, but am a lot more patient than most people when it comes to repetitive tasks.

I know a guy who does IT support for smaller businesses, for example. He is employed by a larger IT company that farms him out to work part time on maintenance. He visits the clients every second week on site, and when he is not there a lot of other problems are handled by the mother company over the phone. So the guy has a loose connection with the people he's actually helping, doesn't hang out at headquarters a lot, and has really good pay/insurance/pension. What's not to like?

The flying sounds so cool! I would love to do that!

This is the sort of feedback I'm really interested in. Part of the reason I started with Python is that I don't want my brain to rot. I'm not hugely ambitious - I'm happy to do maintenance, anything, really.

Our company trains gals and guys like that, as we don't pay a lot. Then they move on to higher paying jobs like you describe.

Aha. So your company just does training? Or the jobs are typical starting out jobs?

There's only one way to find out. I'm trying to learn to program for real, too. I'm only a few years younger than you and my background is rather sh***y compared with yours; I am actually unemployable. You should have an easy time beating me.

We hire smart people right out of school who think they can do the job. Its another department so I don't know how much actual training they get. In a number of jobs, like mine, you are expected to be an expert who trains yourself.

I don't want to beat you. In fact I would like to figure out how people like you and me can beat the rest of the world. If I come up with any epiphanies I'd like to share them. I doubt I am that clever, though, which is why learning from others is so crucial. I am finally understanding why the way I learn is different to most people; there seems to be loadsa ROM and little RAM, which is why I thought of programming; why not specialize in languages, which I do well, and which most people find boring and frustrating.

The question is really: Are programming languages really languages? Can they fit in the same spaces in my brain that now fit natural languages? Because I've been trying to fit maths there, and it's not working.

Math is like arguing with people, minus the fallacies and the bullying. That's enough to make it spoilingly nice to me.

Hmmmm. I've tried a lot of the "training yourself" strategy. It works well if what you are learning can be read about. If not.....if not it can be an incredible waste of energy. I try to learn from others where I can; it saves time, which I don't have in copious amounts. I've been thinking a lot about tradition; although there are good and bad traditions, traditions of knowledge, ways of doing things, are extremely valuable. It allows people to stand on other people's shoulders. It's plugging yourself into the stream. Isolated people miss out on a lot of learning, which is why I am considering going back to school. It's a formal way of connecting with other people's knowledge, and it's extremely efficient. I remember things I heard in class 30 years ago; it might work again.

Btw, have you read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson? That book is one of the things that started me thinking about this, years ago.

From your first post, I understand you yourself do not work in the IT section; I won't bother you to say what.

I could not imagine a life without learning something new, but learning it well enough to get paid for it, that's another matter.

Haha! I must say, I've never thought of it like that before. I admit that pure maths have a certain beauty about them, but then they start asking questions along the lines of "If Alice's got ten apples, what time is it in Tokyo, and I'm lost. I've spent years trying to understand it; it's time to stop beating a dead horse.

RE learning new things, IT changes so rapidly that you're constantly learning new things. It's not like riding a bike where once you've learned it you know it. If you're not the type that is academic and good at learning new things then IT isn't for you. RE the maths, there are many many forms of programming that don't need any maths ability. There are fields where it is needed heavily but they are in the minority...your google search algorithms, database indexing algorithms, generating security encryption methods and so on.



Entry level jobs are the easiest to get and more often than not they will be "support" jobs, which is basically fixing bugs in existing software while more senior developers are busy writing new bugs into new software. It's a good way to learn the ropes and it's also a job that senior people tend to not want to do because it's boring. Alas it's a discipline that won't teach you the more advanced skills needed to write software from scratch. Think of a senior developer being like an architect, and someone on support being a handyman. The handyman can plug holes in walls, fix leaky taps and replace bulbs, but he isn't learning how to build a house from scratch.


If you go freelance you have a better chance of doing things part-time (you also get to work from home usually where you can control your own environment)

As for the degree at your age, if you rocked up to a developer job with an unrelated degree at 39...mmm... In terms of employing people companies want, in order of preference;

1 - Lots of experience
2 - Experience
3 - A computer science related degree

If you can demonstrate one of those employers don't care about the tiers below. If you can show up with 20 years of programming experience and a good CV\resume they won't even ask you if you have a degree. If you have no experience then the related degree at least shows you have an aptitude for the work. If you have a non-related degree it shows nothing and you might as well be someone who randomly walked in off the street.

These are just my opinions and from the viewpoint of programming, the world of sys admin\network admin\hardware support etc might work differently.