Where to start in order to become an IT specialist if you are far from IT

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Decide on a specialization
First of all, you need to decide why you’re going into IT. Do you like making websites, creating software for operating systems, thinking about design, or testing? This decision will be the starting point for your studies.

Depending on your choices, you’ll be able to determine a curriculum for yourself, prepare a plan, and pick your first sources: books, websites, or online courses.

Learn to Google
This is the second most important skill, after knowing a foreign language, which is vital for learning. It is important to learn how to correctly form queries and filter out unnecessary information on the search results page.

Master the basic concepts.
For starters, learn the difference between a bit and a byte, learn basic terms and concepts of computer science, learn about conditions, loops and interrupts. How a processor works, what a web server is for, and what ascii are all things you need to know to start delving into the area you are interested in.

Data structures and algorithms
Data structures and algorithms are fundamental to development and IT concepts. You won’t learn about them properly in an applied programming course, so learn them yourself.

For starters, learn the terms stack, tree, queue, hash. You don’t need to learn about graph theory to understand algorithms, but at least understand quicksort should be your goal.

OOP
Familiarizing yourself with the concept of object-oriented programming will be useful no matter what language you choose or how you intend to use it. OOP is one of the most popular development styles, so you should not only know the definitions of the basic concepts (inheritance, encapsulation, polymorphism), but also understand how they work and be able to implement them in program code.

Databases
If you confidently master the syntax of the programming language you are interested in, it is worth learning how it works with different types of databases, and at the same time, learn about the types of databases and their differences.

Even if your language doesn’t usually interact with the database directly (like JavaScript), you need to know what happens in this area of development: you will better understand how the program as a whole works.

So how do you become an IT person?
You can always retrain and change careers at any age. It is important to remember that this is a very long and complicated process. And the later you take it, the harder it will be for you.

To become an IT specialist, you must set yourself up for a long process of learning the basics and continuous self-study throughout your career. Be patient, because it can take many months or even years between the start of training and your first job.