Thread: Is my plan realistic?

Hello, everybody! Let me, please, explain a little story and ask for your opinion.

I've got a long working story. I'm 41 and most of the time I've been working in Russian banking industry. I did a lot of installation work, performed a lot of support and sometimes been spending weeks or even months as a code writer. I studied C language, bash scripting, some PHP, a lot of SQL, Clipper and so on. I've got a several years been the CIO in a small bank. But the last time I worked as a pure programmer was many years ago.

But now I'm going to change my life and my career once more. And I want to return to the programming again for several years. As far as I understand Jawa is the most requested programming language now. I did some studying of it, writing small programs and doing it very similar to the C language that I'm familiar with. It's quite easy for me. So, I'm ready to go farther.

My goal is to obtain in 2 years the knowledge, skills and reputation enough to immigrate to the USA with H1B visa or to any other modern country.

Let's say that shouldn't be concerned about money these years. Money would be a good add value, but not the main goal.

I'm planning the following steps.

First, study Jawa and get any good electronic certificate of knowledge. Which one is the best, by the way?

Second, I take tasks online for low money to practice and obtain the portfolio. I also plan to write 2-3 Android applications for Google Play to prove my experience. Or even a web-based service and Android client for it. I can also participate in different open source projects. The main requirement is that I can demonstrate my results to my future employer.

So, what do you think, guys? Is it a realistic plan? And would you give me some advice?

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What you plan to accomplish in two years seems reasonable and having an online portfolio and/or blog or other activites to document your work and get your name out there are all great ideas. Beyond that, I'm not qualified to say how marketable that level of experience will be, whether it will support your plans to immigrate and/or find work in another country, and which certification you should get, if any.

Some places require a degree - maybe a technical degree - to get in the door, while others aren't so picky. Perhaps you have that in IT already, but it's not clear. If not, you might consider getting a 2-year degree or an accelerated 4-year equivalent degree, but if that's out of reach, do the best with what you have and can learn in 2 years.

Glad to meet you and best of luck!

Thank you very much, guys, fit your answers in deep. Yes, I've got a master's degree in computer science (engineer). But it was 20 years ago, so it's only a formal piece of paper I think. Thank you again for your support also. I need these encourage words as much as any advice! So, hope, you will hear from me on this forum soon.