Ask HN: I want to get into tech, but I don't know how

I suppose you should explore some near-biology fields because there are some insights that there is going to be a new set of industries such as programming some bio-mechanic inspired machines, making molecular-size things, messing with genome etc. You can keep progressing in code but everything you are going to achieve with coding might be achieved by someone half your age, what about Biology this is a very different story because there are no much experts on this field anywhere on the internets. Use what you have got as much as possible.

The field is heavily oversaturated and unless you're top X% at what you do or unexpectedly find a still unexplored niche, it's not looking great. I'd rather look into working with physical things these days, because nature ensures that stuff breaks regularly. Preferably something that can't be outsourced or automated easily.

For a start - what does the tech look like at your retail/warehouse job?

I know a guy who went from retail work at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meijer to being the IT Director at a major regional warehousing firm over the course of ~25 years. It wasn't a direct path, and in a week he may be doing everything from code crunch (there's a lot of custom DB code, tracking all the stuff that clients are storing in the warehouses) to fixing networking equipment atop a scissors lift (in one of the warehouses) to high-pressure meetings with Big 3 (auto manufacturer) clients - who demand accurate "when can you have this working?" answers for some convoluted new way that they want to track & control the movement of (say) their exhaust system parts in the warehouses.

+1 for https://roadmap.sh/

Start working your way through this: https://teachyourselfcs.com/

OP, it saddens me to say this, but I think you're trying to enter the field at a really bad time – at least the worst I'd seen it in 20ish years of doing this. There's not much work out there, especially for juniors/newbies. Companies are laying off left and right, both because of COVID overhiring and because they're preparing for the AI crunch and unsure if they can successfully transition or will just die. Even big industry standards like Google and Intel are struggling, employees are unhappy, remote work is ending, etc.

> And it seems basic coding jobs are not in demand / are oversaturated now? What about something like UX research/design? I find the topic really interesting but I dont know what the actual job entails.

IMHO: Frankly, I think you might've missed the boat on that :( Ten years ago those would've been valuable skills; 5 years ago they would've made you hirable; nowadays, they are not really worth much. You're no longer competing with a bunch of fresh boot camp grads in an economy with free money and loads of startups; now you're competing with experienced mid-to-senior ex-FAANGerss who are all desperate to keep some semblance of their previous lifestyle, in a vast race to the bottom, among a shrinking pool of employers. AI is all anyone is interested in right now, and your basic coding/UX skills are in the process of getting automated away, not suddenly made more valuable.

Many of us are trying to get out of the field now (just scroll through the last few months of Ask HNs). Maybe that means in a couple years there'll be room for more juniors again as us old jaded types wash out, but for now, there's still a glut of us and not enough jobs to go around...

Sorry to be so negative on this outlook; I just wanted to be realistic about how it feels from inside the sector right now. Not a good time to join.

-------------

But, you know, on the other hand... tech traditionally has a pretty low barrier to entry. There's plenty you can learn on your own to some basic degree of competence, just by watching videos or tutorials online (personally, I like LinkedIn Learning for everything from coding to design to UX; others have suggested frontendmasters.com for frontend dev, but there are many such sites out there).

You can always just learn a bit on the side while keeping your current day job, while keeping an eye out on local companies hiring basic IT positions. By that I mean unglamorous but useful work at your local schools, universities, city governments, libraries, small businesses, etc. Once you start coding anywhere, it's a lot easier to continue that elsewhere.

With your bio background, if you can get IT work at a pharma or genetics or medical equipment etc company, maybe that'd be a mix of both sides? I'm sure there's AI companies working in bio these days too, if you prefer a startup. Myself, I had an environmental science degree and often found work in renewables companies and/or natural resource conservation (like making websites for museums and nonprofits), combining both my education and my self-taught dev skills. But I also started decades ago, when the market was still young and healthy. It's very different these days.

If I were you, I'd also look at non-tech alternatives (maybe the trades, or some other white-collar profession) if you haven't already, and consider tech a last resort. It's very high risk and limited rewards right now, the opposite of how it was just a few years ago.

Good luck to you... sorry it's such a hard time to break in :( Hopefully if you can get some skills built up in the interim and get your foot in the door somewhere, it'll have recovered enough for you to make a career out of in the coming years. Fingers crossed for ya.