Quick backstory… I’ve built a successful career as an audio engineer specializing in “live” touring concert production. I was at the peak of my career when covid hit last year, and we all had to pack everything up in March to sit and wait. Lots of very sad stories from other people in my industry. I had a bit of a unique situation, with my wife being pregnant and giving birth to our first child in September '20… big silver lining has been being able to spend time at home with her during her pregnancy and the spend time with our newborn, which im quickly realizing is an important thing in my life. I was expected to be traveling most of the year.
I’ve become serious during this time about doing a career pivot and have taken a lot of interest in coding. My initial spark was created a couple months ago from learning that the gaming industry is pretty big here in San Diego where we recently relocated to from Los Angeles. I love gaming and started poking around to see what sort of chances I could have at landing a job at Sony Interactive, or any other gaming studio in the area doing gaming audio related work. I have a friend that works at a smaller studio in LA, who highly recommended I start building my chops with Python as well as some middleware apps such as Fmod or Wwise to get my foot in the door. I started cracking down on this right away, and after a few weeks of more research and digging, I learned that the skills I already have from my “music” career wouldn’t hold up as much as I initially thought in the gaming world. Seems to be more programmers who dabble in audio vs. the latter. I’ve also learned that salaries in gaming world are decent, but a step down from what I’ve been able to earn in my current industry (less than $100k/year). After realizing these things, I’m starting to think that spending at least a couple years of climbing back up a tall ladder only to land with less income than I’m currently making maybe isnt the right choice. During this time, I’ve come to a realization of the VAST expanse of the world of coding and how many different avenues and opportunities are out there.
During my short journey so far, I’ve realized that I really enjoy coding. Initially started with Python because of gaming, but am learning that Python is simply a great language to start on in general, and am thinking that I should go another direction with it. So now I’m back to scratching my head on what direction I should go towards with learning Python, and am hoping to learn more on the opportunities that are available. I’ve been doing codeacademy which has been great as well as udemy and a few other inexpensive online based courses. I’ve started to look into bootcamps and was recommended coding Dojo, which seems like a decent program.
TLDR; Im simply looking for advice from experienced programmers/coders on what to do, based on my story. Whether it be continue to do the slow grind of teaching myself using online resources, or spend the money on doing a bootcamp. Also any advice on great Python resources or stories of other peoples journey and where Python has led you. My goal right now, is to be able to have a career with some stability and earn $80-100k to live comfortably and get to spend time at home with my growing family and find my inner happiness again!