After the latest layoff, a dear friend of mine who is a senior HR manager counseled me to go after receptionist jobs, because I’m competing against so many younger people for the available ‘better’ paying administrative jobs in this tough economy. The story of a transformed 55 Liz, Coding Wizard, who never saw an excuse in the mirror.



After 5 years in college, I realized that what I actually wanted to do was computer science, what now having graduated?

Oh no, it is late, so, I can’t cope up. Is that your story? Well, it sounds pretty nice because you are about to see a dangerous and challenging story that will push you to the pit unless you get up and start closing in on programming.

Need a reason to?

According to Careerexplorer when analyzing an average Computer Programmer Yearly Salary in the United States, Computer Programmers earn an average yearly salary of $72,414. Salaries typically start from $33,001 and go up to $115,753.



Liz Was Thankful, but Unsatisfied

When the times were a bit good, Liz was making $15 an hour as an analog draftsman and technical illustrator, which was 30 years ago.

Fast forward to last year, she was laid off. With no other option or means of survival, she had to fight the good fight of faith for $15 an hour administrative jobs.

She was unsatisfied, I mean, how do you live on that (on the long run?). So instead of letting the world pushed her into a tiny $15 box, she changed the game by reinventing herself.



The Struggles, Chuckles into becoming a Coding Wizard, Liz Beigle-Bryant’s Journey

At 55, Liz never had a college degree, a factor that seemed against. Meaning, she needed to work out ways to foil the resume algorithms that would automatically discard hers’.

Ordinarily, starting a coding program means you will have to pay for it. And of course, we are talking about $1,000 upwards based on your tutor/ IT center.

With no hope of getting the amount of money needed to get started – $3,000, she had to start from somewhere, which meant she did a bit of surfing the internet and luckily found Codeacademy. Good news. Codecademy was/is free to get started.

With that joy, Liz started taking SQL Server courses to complement her SharePoint work. Through those classes, she found out that she was actually pretty good at coding and found it really fun.


Cut the Crab, it’s all Story now

“There is a saying that when opportunity meets preparation, there is spark”.

So, Liz at 55 went in, summoning every gut to make sure she blew coding up. Would you be glad to know that Liz is now proficient in Key web coding skills such as JavaScript, jQuery, Ruby, HTML, CSS, and Python (PHP & MySQL too), something she has helped shoot her to the head of the queue?
Liz said,

“My daily hard work on Codecademy also gave me a feeling of competence, which helped me to be confident and knowledgeable in my interviews”.
Liz’s Advice for Job Seekers

#1. Stay motivated

I also got a lot of self-esteem and motivation through streaks, badges, and points. It helped me stay resilient during the days when I was facing disappointments and kept me focused on positive activities that added the bonus of being highly marketable.



#2. ‘Live’ time, don’t kill it

A key part of the job search is staying motivated and positive during what is a pretty soul-destroying process. I once described Codecademy as “M&Ms for the mind” — it sure beats playing Mahjong, Farmville or other ways of procrastinating. I like to think of myself ‘living’ time instead of ‘killing’ time by learning to code, Liz said.

If you've got the time, you can read me on Where Liz Beigle-Bryant’s started her Journey.

https://crackclap.com/coding-wizard/

What do you think? Motivated?