1. “Where The Hell Do I Start?”

2. My Background  Richard Renshaw  Social Worker For 10 Years.  At age 29 I decided on a career change.  Keen gamer.  Photoshop, Html, Css, Javascript & Java in my spare time before this.  Decided that I wanted to make my hobby my job – the dream was to work in games.  Reason I wanted to change?

4. Practicalities To Consider First  Finances: How To Fund The Transition?  Wage Expectations? Graduate (£23,000+)  How Fast Do You Want To Make The Change? (Months/Years).  The Role You Desire: Marketing, Design, Coding, Business Management (More on these in detail later). Business Analyst  Developer (UX/Front End, Middleware, DBA)  Infrastructure (Server management, Pipelines, Tech support)  Tester (Manual or Technical)  Outside Commitments & Distractions: Time to do what your committing too.

5. Personal Attributes  Ability To Learn: Digital moves so fast that every few years you will need to skill up again.  Business Analysts – New Philosophies, ways of working. (Agile & Lean: Good Examples)  Developers: New Coding Languages & Techniques.  Infrastructure: Servers, Maintenance, DevOps.  Testers: New Frameworks, Tools & efficient test strategies.  Continuous motivation to look at what is new and interesting.

6. Where To Start? Options Available  Undergraduate degree (Expensive – Full-time/Part-time up to 4 years)  If you have a degree already there are 1 year masters courses in Computing Available – MSC Computing MMU/Manchester. (£3600)  Code Boot Camps: Short Intense Schools that allow people to learn & get into a career fast. Generally between 3 & 6 months (£6000+) Example Locally: North Coders – Speak with Claire.  Certifications & Training: 10 Day courses which give an overview then a certification. (£3000+)

7. Where To Start? Options Available (continued)  Distance Learning Companies: Computeach – Subscription Model Where you do it in your own time. (£100-£200 a month, or module cost basis)  Apprenticeships: Watch this space as there is currently more in the pipeline for Mature apprentices from the government (Get paid as you train).  Teach Yourself: Richness of online resources free/paid such as Code academy, Pluralsight, Digital Tutors, Code school. Apply For a role after this or apply to companies in the north west asking for training on the job (lower wages but gets you in the door and earns money).

8. Funding Available  Career Development Loans. Offered by the Co-op Bank & Barclays. Borrow up to £10000 then start to pay it back after 1 year (9.9% APR typical).  Government Grants via skills companies: City & Guilds, ILM. Various Agencies, make money from you and may have to pay back. https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/courses/funding/Pag es/default.aspx actually quite good. https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/courses/funding/Pag es/default.aspx  No funding: Pay your own way, pay for yourself.  NOTE: More available each and every day so use the internet and research as there is a shortage of digital skills.  I took a mix, 1 Year Masters, Some money saved up and took a career development loan.

9. Landing Your First Role: What To Expect From Interviews  Differ from company to company (Sorry this will be focused more on development here).  Telephone Interview: Where your at, projects you worked on, experience (Some technical questions).  Technical Test At Home: Coding, exercise.  Face To Face Interview around you as a person (not just you technical ability).  A lot of the time the technical test & the face to face are done as part of an assessment day.  Some places also do aptitude tests (general IQ based testing).

10. Tips For Interviews  Be Yourself  If you don’t know a technical answer admit you don’t know. In technology winging it can cause issues (Integrity to say you don’t know is actually valued).  Research the company.  Have some questions for the interviewer.

11. Resources To Teach Yourself  https://www.pluralsight.com/ : Lots of video courses available (£20 per month for videos, £30 per month with resource files). Digital Tutors is part of this too. https://www.pluralsight.com/  https://www.codecademy.com/ : Some free courses on lots of languages. https://www.codecademy.com/  https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/subscriptions/aa336858.aspx : MSDN subscription for learning the Microsoft stack. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/subscriptions/aa336858.aspx

12. Key Texts On Industry Techniques.  TDD By Example: Kent Beck: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Test- Driven-Development-Addison-Wesley-Signature- Series/dp/0321146530http://www.amazon.co.uk/Test- Driven-Development-Addison-Wesley-Signature- Series/dp/0321146530  Growing Object Oriented Design Guided By Tests: Freeman & Pryce http://www.amazon.co.uk/Growing-Object-Oriented- Software-Guided- Signature/dp/0321503627/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=145 7946402&sr=1-1&keywords=growing+object- oriented+software+guided+by+testshttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Growing-Object-Oriented- Software-Guided- Signature/dp/0321503627/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=145 7946402&sr=1-1&keywords=growing+object- oriented+software+guided+by+tests  Refactoring: Martin Fowler http://www.amazon.co.uk/Refactoring-Improving-Design- Existing- Technology/dp/0201485672/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qi d=1457946430&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=refectoring http://www.amazon.co.uk/Refactoring-Improving-Design- Existing- Technology/dp/0201485672/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qi d=1457946430&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=refectoring

13. Key Texts On Industry Techniques.  Clean Code: Robert C Martin http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clean- Code-Handbook-Software- Craftsmanship/dp/0132350882/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qi d=1457946488&sr=1-1&keywords=clean+codehttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Clean- Code-Handbook-Software- Craftsmanship/dp/0132350882/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qi d=1457946488&sr=1-1&keywords=clean+code  The Lean Start-up: Eric Ries http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lean- Startup-Innovation-Successful- Businesses/dp/0670921602/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1 457946565&sr=1-1&keywords=the+lean+startuphttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Lean- Startup-Innovation-Successful- Businesses/dp/0670921602/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1 457946565&sr=1-1&keywords=the+lean+startup  Domain Driven Design: Eric Evans http://www.amazon.co.uk/Domain-driven-Design-Tackling- Complexity- Software/dp/0321125215/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=145 7946586&sr=1-1&keywords=domain+driven+design http://www.amazon.co.uk/Domain-driven-Design-Tackling- Complexity- Software/dp/0321125215/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=145 7946586&sr=1-1&keywords=domain+driven+design

14. QUESTIONS