You should stick to your current job field until you have more knowledge and experience in IT, or programming, so you can afford to pay the bills while you are learning how to become a programmer. Don't make the mistake of trying to switch careers too early and put yourself in a financial bind that makes everything harder to accomplish.
I understand the education system in the UK is very different (and frankly so much better) than here in the USA, but for the most part, having a job that pays well is still important while you are preparing yourself for a career change.
Good Luck!
I definitely agree with this. Unfortunately it is a bit too late, as I've already made my move and am now newly unemployed. Still, my old job as a teacher made it near impossible to do ANYTHING outside of teachng for the majority of the year...so that would have made it difficult.
So now I'm looking for work where a) they pay me and train me (e.g. grad schemes). b) allied roles like support/networking which will allow me to get a job more quickly and study coding in my own time c) payi g for a SQL server course - expensive but lots of jobs. Then doing that whilst learning coding.
D) Getting a job in data science...but my shaky stats knowledge makes me worry here.
Perhaps the grad scheme is the best bet as I can get paid and learn the it industry and coding skills during ghe day, instead of what I can manage in the evenings.
If anyone can think of other options I haven't considered, I'd be very interested to read them!