Ari wrotehello all, i am seriously in need of an expert advice. i started my university life late, and will be graduating at the age of 30 doing ITM as my major
Good! Nice to hear that.
Good luck, whatever path you choose.
Ari wrotei OWN two private businesses but i am sick of it and i want a stable job from 9 to 5 to see my wife and kids on the weekends at least, don't worry i am working
OK, I will give you my opinion related to my experience.
The world is becoming more competitive. If you want a good 9 to 5 or to be employed outside the country (immigration, etc), a scenario for which you sound like a good candidate, qualifications are becoming more and more important.
10 years ago, you could have a look at development job postings and all they would ask for is someone who knows PHP and MySQL.
Nowadays I see a lot of requirements such as, for example:
- Commercial experience in React or other modern framewrok
- Degree in IT or related
- 3 years experience in development
Note the "degree in IT". Traditionally, IT and programming was a field where people could come from different backgrounds, the degree was a bit of an optional things for many jobs. However nowadays I feel like it is being required more and more, and not only that, but specifically a related degree, not any degre.
It is safe to say, that there is a trend towards specialization and normalization in this field.
Now it is also my experience that, to get a degree, you must be somehow well motivated in what you are studying, which is another thing to consider.
A degree is not the only way. You can also build experience. It must be targeted experience, for example to specialize in X or Y framework (which is in demand and expected to remain so in the foreseeable future).
I tried to give you information which will increase your chance to land good jobs.
Because if you already have a business (and a family) you would not want to leave it for any job, nor should you - nothing worse than a crap job.
Freelancing counts as experience, but you will have to show some of your work, and will have to list some of your customers to prove that freelance is not just a cover up for "mostly did nothing".
However I suggest you be careful about freelancing until you reach later stages of your career and want to maximize your income and know what you want.
If you freelance in earlier stages, you run the risk to "drift away" from mainstream trends, and you will become less employable, because employers usually do not want to hire someone who "does their own thing" but more someone who "ticks all the boxes" and these boxes are often different than the boxes that the freelancer customer would want.
Good luck!