I’m 34 and tired of participating in the 13-17/hr rat race.

I’m looking to go into coding but the legitimate programs are expensive.

Does anyone know of any jobs that pay well and don’t require a high skill level?

Or

Does anyone know of a coding program that will teach you coding and how to get hired that is not thousands of dollars?

Do not go into coding. It is a dead end. Consider jobs that take a year or less of schooling to get employed. Look at community colleges for cheaper programs that are designed for specific jobs (culinary, nursing, mechanical). This almost ensures you'll be hired after spending the 5-10K. And likely you can continue working at the same time. Win-win. Coding requires why too many technologies now to even be considered employable.

And no, I'm not preserving my job or eliminating competition, this field generally sucks and I am getting out.

I am teetering on retirement. I have worked developing software since 1989. The layoffs, difficult interviews, lack of job stability and after the age of 40 (too old), 100,000 new CS graduates or more per year, and now ChatGPT or AI is knocking on the door. I will steer my children into a trade or hands on field. I was really lucky to only be without work for just 2 months in my life. Good luck people! I mean that. I’m out

I'm a tradesman (HVAC in Texas) that is moving into tech and I can tell you the grass isn't greener over here. It's a tough job with long hours. I've done my fair share of 12-17hr days with management that treats you like you're disposable. In AC you have to know a good amount to make a good living. Although it might seem simple, it's definitely its own industry for a reason

I gave up on programming, as I couldn't keep up with the constant update and the competitive job market and the pay was not worth it. Plenty of graduates joining the marked every year, and automation, made this career choice a very hard one.
And you will have to code in your spare time too in order not to fall behind. Make sure you know what you are doing lol

Don't pay attention to the negative comments on a career in software development. You do have to know what you are doing. You can't take a few courses and walk in and get a job. It still takes a degree because the degree yields internships and cooperative education.

Now if you want to take online courses and build a portfolio quickly, any of the online web sites are great - codeacademy, udemy, etc. Some are free and I would suggest starting there before buying courses. Sometimes you can get courses on Udemy for $10 and they are quality courses too. I would start with the basics like Python. What I'm trying to say is give it a go and see if it's something you will be interested in. Don't just jump in with both feet because you might try Python and say nope not for me and you are out just the time and maybe a tiny bit of money. If Python works for you, then go with the next course in HTML 5/Javascript/CSS. The idea is to get some exposure to backend and front end so you can pick one that you really like. UI developers are in extremely high demand right now because so many developers hate front end development and stick with the back end.

As for AI, AI won't be replacing developers for quite some time. AI can only generate software at the very basic level. I sit down with the users and have them explain to me what they want and no AI is going to be able to deal with that now. What AI does do well is assist a developer with trivial things like code reviews, prototyping, maybe even generate documentation. The issue is AI can't sit there and listen to the users and then come up with something or ask questions to understand the subject matter.

People brought up Nursing. Nursing is a long and expensive venture. I have no idea where people are getting that Nursing is a cheap career. It absolutely requires going to school for 6 years, the stress potential nurses have to deal with trying to get accepted into Nursing school is crazy. I know, I have 8 family members who are Nurses or LPNs. It's very competitive too. Like 30 spots across the country with 20,000 applicants. My son's wife is trying to get into nursing schools anywhere in the US, she's finishing at Oregon, works for an Oncology practice and even UAB turned her down. She attends school/work almost 24/7 365 for the past 2 years. Another niece of my wife's just got back into working as a nurse after she burned out during Covid. She saw so many die in 2020-21, not many military will ever see that on the battlefield.

My recommendation is if software engineering doesn't pan out, look at a blue collar job. I'm not joking here. As a homeowner, for the past 5 years it has been almost impossible to find a good electrician, plumber, or even HVAC. The ones I do find are swamped and they earn 6 figures. It doesn't require extensive time, usually 2 to 4 years in a vocational school and jobs are plentiful.

The market is too saturated with experienced developer struggling to land a job. You can learn coding but not as a developer. You can add to your portfolio. You can try out Technical Support, PM, TAM, Support Engineer, etc.

I would say, even though I work in IT myself, if I were to start over, I would definitely do trades. The demand for the work is very high, the pay is much better ( I have friends who started out making $60k as electricians, plumbers, hvac, etc) and the work is always needed. The work is hard work but if you're good, you can have your own business and be lucrative.
I'm finding the technology field overly saturated

I'll echo the comments here (though I'm based in the UK, where the market is slightly better). And an obvious caveat is a site like Glassdoor is going to attract more negative experiences so may not be entirely representative.

Also, I've only been in software engineering for 3 years, so junior, though in my 40s and with extensive managerial background. I re-trained, via a reputable Bootcamp, in late life because I was in a career going nowhere. In hindsight I should have stayed where I was. I've been made redundant twice in the last 2 years, after an unbroken employment history, and the cumulative cost of twice being unemployed in a tough job market + BootCamp course fees and living costs has meant this career choice has been hugely detrimental.

Yes, there are a lot of work-from-home coding jobs. And yes, the work can be fun. This is definitely in its favour.

But it can also be brutal, the market likewise brutal. Views differ on what impact AI is having, but I think it is indisputable that AI is replacing the entry-level jobs (it can certainly do in seconds much of what you'll learn on a BootCamp).

I would advise, go for a trade. Something that isn't easily replaceable by AI, or at least doesn't give the impression it could be. Electrician, plumber, mechanic, builder.

I have a question; why coding? Do you genuinely enjoy coding, or are you aiming for it because it’s a high-paying field? If you’re interested in tech and software but don’t have coding experience, you might want to look into manual QA testing or black box testing.

These roles can pay close to entry-level coding jobs and require little to no experience.

The key skills are:
Knowing how to break software
Clearly documenting and articulating bugs
Following and eventually creating test plans in Excel based on design documents

While there’s automated testing, manual edge-case testing is always needed, since automation only handles expected actions. Manual testers think outside the box, which makes them incredibly valuable. The best testers find critical bugs that stop a project from shipping before they’re fixed.

There’s also room for career growth. My brother-in-law started as a $60K manual tester and worked his way up to a $350K automation test engineer at a major streaming company in about five years by learning to build automated testing programs while working.

If you're just looking for a higher-paying job, I’d encourage you to look at job market projections for the near future. If you look at today’s job market, you’ll see that computer science degrees (aka coding jobs) currently have the highest level of unemployment in the country, meaning the field is oversaturated.

If you want to break into tech without spending thousands on coding bootcamps, manual QA testing could be a great way to get your foot in the door and build connections in the industry.

This is a totally different direction, but I saw a recent ad that was saying they were needing over 300,000 plumbers and AI would not be replacing plumbers. Some other ideas are welders. Some companies have paid on the job training for getting a plumbers certificate. I've been laid off since March 2024, I'm 63 and finding it extremely hard. Even the contract jobs are for programmers in India.

Tech is not as stable as it's to be. A lot of companies are sending jobs offshore. With that said I would looking into getting certified in specific application i.e Salesforce, Bommi, MuleSoft. Frist go job posting and see which specific application skill is in high demand . You can get certified by taking Udemy courses then it's the
Cost of taking certificate which could be any were from 200 to 1000 dollars. Or I would go the bootcamp route. I spent a lot of money on BA in Software Engineering. Which now I learn I did not have too. OR If everyone has scare you on here go into Product / Project Management. You still get to work with IT folks but you want be just in IT. Plus less ageism in that role

Coding to be one of the first areas replaced by AI within 3 years.

Honestly, you might be going in the wrong direction. Have you thought about going to a vocational school to learn a trade? Plumbers, electricians, etc can make over $200k a year,

Booz Allen tech excellence program. It’s designed for career switch types.

The bigger problem is that you will be facing headwinds, driven by the commoditization of AI-driven code generation, against the hiring of junior-level software engineers in the United States. Industry-specific experience may be your best bet to something stable, though I would not expect bankers' hours; long days, even when working remote, are not going away.

Trade school please. IT is ever changing and uncertain so please don't take that risk.
Services industry is the best. Food industry..home improvement services etc. good luck

I took a 3 month, 10+ hour-a-day m-s bootcamp and it was 17 months til I got an interview, and it was because it was in-office and near me that I got the call.

Don't go into defense contracting because a) you can't get a clearance on your own and nobody will look at your resume if you don't have one and b) why use your skills to help make people dead when you can be using your skills to help people. Most of the jobs near me are defense contractors, never heard back from any of em INCLUDING BOOZE ALLEN, BOOZE ALLEN GUY.

But if you can find someone local you've got a better shot, you can also find local businesses that don't have a website and offer to build one for cheap using like a create-react-app tutorial, or Vite's "getting started" section. It's not a terribly hard into to full-stack development, you can deploy for free via Vercel, get a professional-looking domain name for dirt cheap with Porkbun, and you'll be able to answer the first question interviewers will ask, "Have you built any websites we can look at?"

OR you could get a trade license because anymore they're worth their weight in gold

Same with the oilfield. Aerospace Machinist and even Auto Mechanics are making up to $46/hr.
Tool & Die is another field which I should have stayed in as well.

I worked for electric utilities for 30 years. They have lots of different types of jobs not just electrical engineering jobs. I worked with people who just their foot in the door working in the mailroom. They would work hard but at the same time being going to school waiting for an opportunity to move to another job within the sam company. There are all kinds of jobs in these companies. This would probably be true for any type of utility company.

I recommend you reach out to your county workforce center. There are lots of programs where the clases can be free virtually or with vouchers. Also look into cybersecurity. A lot free resources are available. Hope that helps.