So after the last melt down and subsequent chats with wonderful members of the community, I'm looking at learning a new skill or two in the tech field and wondered where to begin. I realise this is a veritable minefield of a post in regards to where to start but if I list a few things that might recommend a direction, it would be very much appreciated. I'm 47 - mainly life skills and a BTec in visual comms plus the standard bunch of GCSEs. I went into sales and got distracted by pounds so didn't continue. I doodle now and then and painting is rarer still so I don't think that is where I want to go although, from a design background, I know what I like. I designed this site through Wix for my wife's employer before handing it back to her work daughter to maintain - Couture Atelier | Anna Valentine - what I'm saying is I'm not beyond learning new things so that's not an issue. I have three kids - 23 (left home), 13 next week and 10. As the significant other has worked for the same company for 22 years give or take, I tend to do the school runs and get the dinner on. Money is tight at the moment so any free courses would be a bonus. I'm writing a couple of sitcom scripts with a couple of others so that's always ticking along in the background. I've given up on subscription gaming like ESO and WoW so I don't have those distracting me any more. I DO play games but it's rare at the moment - with my current PC spec, I wished I had lost the bug a year earlier so I could have bought something a little less OTT but still. 11/ 12 years of not having an up to date CV or interviews is a bit daunting. Oh - dinner is on the table so I'll update this a little later... Ian
Something that's useful and often overlooked is a non-technical/semi-technical UX review of software/websites. Having a partially technical and design background would definitely benefit you there. The idea is that you are a fresh set of eyes and point out issues with the way something works, which can save loads of money compared to fixing them later on. Developers tend to overlook obvious things or have no design skills, and having a UX/design person is a premium that a lot of smaller places can't afford. Hiring someone to do a review before launch is a reasonable compromise. You'd need to have a few examples initially. Either do a review of some random apps on the app store and build some case studies of what you would have told them, or offer your services cheap to some people on a gig site. Sales experience would really help, and if you have any marketing experience then you can use that to get yourself out there. It's a crowded space, but there's a lot of work to have. Plus you can do it in your own time and from home as long as you meet the deadline. Presentation is everything, so having a good template to present your findings back to clients really makes or breaks the job. Key skills there would be: - a grasp of design and UX (loads of free courses) - good at communicating and methodically describing issues and steps to reproduce them - awareness of the limitations the client has in budget, time and skill to fix things - self promotion - designing and following methodical and logical processes I'm happy to go into more detail if you'd like. It's not my job, but I do development and really appreciate people who do this kind of thing for me.
Interesting - and twenty five years of sales from PCs, Pest Control and Banking must put me in good stead. I'll take a look!
This just popped up from Humble - not sure if you're still looking, but it reminded me of this thread.
No worries! Not sure if you know, but if you haven't pulled the trigger just yet, you can upgrade your offering in increments ie. you can order the lowest tier for 70p, see if any good (more often than not it's very basic) then increase your donation by a tier at a time until you end up with what you need. I tend to find the price difference between mid- and upper-tiers can be negligible though, for obvious marketing reasons!
The most accessible book I read to get into the mindset was "The Design of Everyday Things" by Don Norman. It's not a UX book, but it's human factors/industrial design, which overlaps a lot. It points out the good and bad features of things you use all the time, and I guarantee it'll change how you view the world.
Have a look at the MIT open courseware lectures - university lectures on a huge variety of topics (not just science/technical) published on Youtube with notes, powerpoints etc to help you get along. Not a formal qualification but it could spark an interest, and it's free.
Free learning resources I've bookmarked over the years, I've never looked into them, but hopefully you'll find it useful: MIT open courses: https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm Mind Tools career advancement reading: https://www.mindtools.com/ Khan academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/ Free online textbooks https://www.ck12.org/student/
@IamJudd - not sure how you got on with the above, but Humble have another batch of e-books for a limited time if you're still progressing down this route.
Thanks Mod - I’ve kinda gone the other way now. Woodwork and recycling gets me in the feels and I’ve not been this excited in a job in years! I’ve just got to make it pay now! in the mean time, I’ve applied for RM as a seasonal sorter. Am at the third stage so pretty confident I’ll have some cash over Christmas!
