New Career Soon

[MooPi]

I'll be 50 something when I decide to retire from my current job and I'm considering college again for a computer science field. Any older folks out there that have suggestions or guidance for a fellow old fart. Using my brain as the sole means of employment seems daunting but I'm in need of a challenge. I'm looking for info on schools and the best avenue to a late career. Would a small technical school be just as good as a four year institution ?
It may end up I conclude school only to give my new skills away for free or for very little. I already have my retirement established and would just want to stay active and helpful.

[pwnst*r]

If you don't plan on going the corporate route, a technical school would be totally fine - which I would do in your situation. Good for you for not sitting still and rotting in your "twilight" years.

[tmette]

Glad to hear you want to get out and learn new things. I wish you the best of luck!

[RiceMonster]

I'm 20 myself but I turn 21 next month. However, I have classes in College with a guy who is in his mid 40s, and he's doing just fine. In fact, I think he's got far more potential than most people my age.

Going to school at an older age is fine, but it's probably difficult for most people to go back. I guess you just have to be okay with the fact that you're going to be in school with people at a younger age. Don't let it worry you though. They're easy to compete with because in almost all situations the older ones tend to work harder.

[Sef]

I'm looking for info on schools and the best avenue to a late career. Would a small technical school be just as good as a four year institution ?
It may end up I conclude school only to give my new skills away for free or for very little. I already have my retirement established and would just want to stay active and helpful.

I would focus on what do you want to do after you finish school? If you are not interested in a career move, then ask yourself these questions:

1) Would you like to work for a nonprofit (a small one) as a computer volunteer to help keep up their systems?

2) Would you rather just help people with their computer problems?

3) Other idea what you want to do.

As for the degree itself:

4) How much do you really want a bachelor's vs an aa? Both are fine as long as you go after what makes you happy?

[MooPi]

Thanks for the encouragement. What feels scary right now is picking up math skills long forgotten. I tried to help a friends nephew a while back with some calculus and failed to remember the simplest of equations. Talk about cobwebs.

[Paqman]

Going to school at an older age is fine

Most mature students are a lot more motivated, and tend to do well. They've generally had to make a lot more changes in their life to go back to school, so have a lot invested in succeeding.

[Paqman]

What feels scary right now is picking up math skills long forgotten.

I did a university maths course last year. I actually really enjoyed it, and I was never that keen on maths at school. As long as the course material is designed to help you brush up where you need to you'll be fine.

[samalex]

I think computer science is a great career path for anyone, no matter what age :) But your plan really depends on how quickly you want to turn it into a full fledged career. Also was your former (or current) career tech oriented? If so that could help get you in the door with experience once you get some technical training.

Also something that's often overlooked when people start looking at getting into the tech field is becoming a DBA as opposed to an application developer. There's a high demand for DBA's, and if you learn the nuts-and-bolts of setting-up a data warehouse companies will pay big money for someone to create and maintain such a system.

I've worked as both a DBA and App Developer, and personally I like working with databases more because it's more of a logical puzzle. You have to find the best mix to make the database run efficiently. Too often developers throw together a database to contain their application data, but if it's not setup and indexed properly the database could be the biggest bottleneck of the project.

Anyway, just something else to throw out there. I'd suggest picking-up one of Ralph Kimball's books on Data Warehousing or some of the Wrox books on databases. You can also focus on FOSS databases like MySQL, but honestly learning Oracle and/or MS SQL is the real meal ticket.

Take care --

Sam

[McRat]

I'm 50, and pretty much have the retirement thingy in the bag, but I too want to go back to school.

For me, it would be to get my teaching credential. Teaching seems like it would be a great occupation for someone done with the rat race. I never intend to "retire", I just intend to stop fighting people over a dollar.

Here's the problem with college and the technical trades: College curriculum is often not tied into useful business skills. WTF is it with PASCAL???? I was forced to take PASCAL and not ONCE has it ever been asked for. And no, it's no more useful for teaching data structures than any other language. And here's a news flash - NOBODY MEASURES ANYTHING IN RADIANS!!! There I said it. Live with it. Calculus is a very handy tool as long as you are self-taught. The stuff taught in schools seldom helps with real problems.

I'd say go for it, and do it today. It's not the mistakes in life we regret later as much as the things we didn't even try. I've got to wait a bit more until the kids are older (I'm on my third litter of younguns), but I'll get back to class.

[Frogs Hair]

While the majority of students are young at my collage , we have many displaced workers of all ages that are now attending . Manufacturing jobs are drying up so many are looking for skilled jobs hence the need for further education. Many also come to maintain certifications for their current jobs, so there is a mixed bag of people. Have Fun

[LowSky]

Here's the problem with college and the technical trades: College curriculum is often not tied into useful business skills. WTF is it with PASCAL???? I was forced to take PASCAL and not ONCE has it ever been asked for. And no, it's no more useful for teaching data structures than any other language. And here's a news flash - NOBODY MEASURES ANYTHING IN RADIANS!!! There I said it. Live with it. Calculus is a very handy tool as long as you are self-taught. The stuff taught in schools seldom helps with real problems.


That's the problem with the way school is taught in general. Kids should learn from the older generations on what to expect, not theories from some guy/girl who only job experience was a few years waiting tables during college.


MooPi you have a few options. Many schools offer night courses which help people who work. Some offer online courses, but those can actually be tougher than the in-class versions. Some might have programs for older students that give credit for lifetime experience, and some have programs that can earn your degree in 24-36 months by going to school year round instead of 4 years.

[MooPi]

Yesterday I called the local community college and inquired about re enrolling into school. The first thing they said was placement testing. Ugh. Okay I'm at least a year away from my decision and will explore other ideas, schools and ways to stay busy after retirement. I also looked at the Linux certification process( Ubuntu ). No home study bummer. Maybe I'll just put out my shingle and repair computers and hang out at the library and give away Linux to the kids. Linux pushers give their copies away for free :)