I'm 19 and live in Morocco, but I feel completely uncertain about my future. I originally wanted to study programming, but I was rejected from the program I applied to and later rejected from several general university programs too. My uncle recently suggested programming to my father, who found a private programming school costing around 1,500–2,000 MAD per month, which is a significant expense for my family. Registration has already started, so I feel pressured to decide quickly. The problem is that I'm no longer sure I even want to become a programmer. I know the field can be difficult, the entry-level job market is competitive, and I'm worried about spending years and a lot of money only to discover that I'm not capable of finding work. I'm also considering vocational training in bakery or pastry, but I don't feel strongly passionate about that either. For people currently working in software development: Would you choose programming today if you were 19 with no experience? How hard is it to get a first job, and how important is a university degree? Is a private programming school worth paying for, or would free self-study be enough? Can someone build a decent career without strong passion for programming, or is genuine interest essential? I'm looking for practical, honest advice rather than generic encouragement.
5 Answers
Be skeptical of any private school that mainly sells a certificate. Everything they teach may be available online, but a school can still be useful if it provides serious structure, experienced instructors, recognized training, and real employer connections. Ask for specific graduate employment numbers, the curriculum length, examples of student projects, and whether the qualification is an officially recognized vocational diploma or merely an attendance certificate. If they cannot answer clearly, keeping your money and studying independently is probably wiser.
There is no requirement to discover one perfect passion before choosing a path. Compare the options practically: cost, length of training, likelihood of employment, working conditions, and whether you can handle the daily tasks. Try small experiments in both programming and baking before making an expensive commitment. A career can be a reasonable way to earn a living, but don’t mistake a school’s certificate for a job offer.
Don’t commit to a costly school before finding out whether you can tolerate programming. Try free resources such as CS50, freeCodeCamp, or The Odin Project for several weeks and make a couple of small projects. You don’t need intense passion, but you do need patience with debugging, repetition, and problems that can take hours to solve. If you have almost no time before registration, ask the school whether they offer a trial period, refund policy, or introductory classes before paying a large amount.
That seems like the safest approach. I’d still consider programming at 19, but I’d expect the first job search to be difficult. It took me roughly eight months and hundreds of applications, and the market has not become easier. A degree can open more doors, but it is not a guarantee; projects, practical ability, and persistence matter too.
Before choosing a career, try to understand why you were rejected from university. If grades were the issue, retaking exams or improving your results could expand your options. If the problem was an interview or unclear motivation, work on that as well. A university degree is not absolutely required in software, but without one your first job can be harder to obtain, especially when competing with many graduates. Strong personal projects, a portfolio, and a good grasp of fundamentals become much more important.
The job market is competitive, partly because there are many inexperienced applicants and employers expect people to demonstrate more than basic tutorials. AI tools have also changed the work, so you would need to understand fundamentals and know when generated code is unreliable rather than simply copying it. I wouldn’t tell an interested young person to avoid programming, but I also wouldn’t choose it only because someone else recommended it. You can work in the field without loving it, as long as you are capable of doing the work consistently, but genuine interest usually makes the long learning process easier.
A certificate may carry more weight locally than it does abroad, so its value depends on who recognizes it and what type of credential it actually is. A short private course is unlikely to replace a formal diploma everywhere.