Greetings fellow Lemmings,
I know this is a community that has a strong backbone in the Software and Technology space. I am a returning student in my mid-30's that is returning to college as a way to pursue a career change. I am looking to crowdsource opinions from experienced tech professionals so I can make good quality, informed decisions about how I move forward with my educational and career goals.
With that being said my question is how would you proceed between the programs I have linked below? I am starting at a STEM focused community college (Bellevue College) in the Pacific Northwest. My long term goal is to either transfer to another four year institution (like UW Bothell) grade permitting, or perhaps finish a four year degree from this institution. This is where your advice comes in, and where I believe I need better outside perspective to make a good decision.
Option #1 (Software Development - Application Development Track) This is where I have been leaning because it seems to afford me the largest number of future options with the direction I take my education. Most importantly I think it sets me up in the best position to make the potential transition to the University of Washington Bothell's Computer Science & Software Engineering program. The Application Development track has a stronger focus on C# & .NET framework programming languages, which seems to provide a better foundation for more potential job opportunities at the moment.
Option #2 (Software Development - Artificial Intelligence Track) Artificial Intelligence is obviously the buzzword of the moment. However, I am wondering if I am robbing myself of options by over-specializing this early in the process, and I also have concerns about focusing my learning process so heavily on Python when that seems to be something that is not used as a standard backbone language for more enterprise level businesses. I also don't have any interest in the robotics area of this degree, as I don't see that as being something I would look to pursue in my career. I do want to be conscientious about learning whatever is going to provide me the most future utility, therefore, I am wondering if this is the way to go for that reason.
Ultimately, I am open to any and all advice, recommendations, and wisdom that my fellow Lemmings have to provide. My previous background was in a completely unrelated field, but I have always had a passion for technology and I am a quick learner with a lean lifestyle and no external distractions. Completing this process and securing employment will be my focus 100% for the next 3-4 years. With that in mind, tell me what you think.
- Where should I go with my education?
- What pitfalls should I avoid?
- When should I specialize?
- Am I crazy for doing this later in life?
Hit me with anything you've got Lemmy, it is all appreciated!
Edit: I'm watching the NFC Championship Game, but I will respond to all of you as soon as it is over. Really appreciate all the responses so far!
I'm gonna go ahead and agree with the other comments.
I'm gonna ignore any future projections on where both fields are headed, but basically if you would apply for them rn, software development leaves the nature of your future job out in the open and basically opens you up with a huge number of opportunities.
The AI one sounds cool too, but as someone who works in a company focused on research in CS-related fields, I can tell you the skillset you are required to have in order to implement AIs in any way is vastly different from software development. You lean even more into math, things stay more theoretical and academic a lot of the time and AI also forces you to think more unconventional and counter-intuitively. Now this is not in itself a bad thing, but it does narrow you down to that very specific field and it does not sound like you wanna dig yourself down another rabbit hole of a profession.
Only do AI if you are really keen to do it and you are happy even if you might be stuck in that specific field later on.
TL;DR go software development. AI doesn't sound like a fit for you from what I could gather.
P.s. you can always fuck with AIs in your free time if you want. That's more fun anyway.