At 46 Should I change my career to Web Developer or Adminstrator?

I am starving and making only $8/h in the hotel field as clerk and I hate the field anyway. I want to switch to the IT field. I know some HTML. What do you guys will recommend me? Web Development or Administrator? How much ytime will I need before applying? Thx.

At 46 Should I change my career to Web Developer or Adminstrator?
If you know linux, then go become an linux administrator. Web Developers need to be familiar with several web development languages as well as databases (HTML is very old and nowadays, less frequently used). And unless you plan on sticking with your current job, you would better take any hotel management skills you have and become an admin. People who work in the hospitality management field are suitable for administration roles. Just make sure you understand the 'division' of the administrative technology before you apply.
Reply:It all depends on how you want to spend your time.





If you want to be a developer, you will need to know more than just HTML to keep up with today's field. Server-side languages, such as PHP and Ruby, are good things to put on your resume as languages that you are fluent with. If you want to stick with the latest trend of Web 2.0, you'll definitely need to learn Javascript.





If you want to be an administrator, you're going to play a completely different role. You'll be asked to supervise the building of projects, rather than actually build the projects yourself. You'll surely be asked for help with server problems and run-time errors. Basic HTML knowledge is probably not sufficient enough for a position like this. You'll need to know universal languages like SQL, C, and C++, as well as proprietary languages like MSSQL, PHP, and Javascript.





If you want to spend your time building and learning, become a developer. If you want to spend your time helping and teaching, become an administrator. Or, be like me, and do both. It's really up to you.





Best of luck with your career change,


Alex
Reply:well both are good professions, however both have slow learning curves and upramp time. to get a job as a network admin, typically they like you to have previous experience same goes with a web developer position. keep in mind that in todays world html is almost a thing of the past and most web programmers these days are proficient in java, dhtml, php, visual basic etc... what i recommend is that you enroll into an it school that provides job placement upon completion of usually 12 or 24 month program. they will get your feet in the front door where you can get some real hands on experience, then when you've gotten a little experience under your belt you can venture out and find something that pays even better. hope that helps.
Reply:It totally depends on what you like and how much are you willing to learn. In order to be a Web Developer you need to learn a lot HTML is just a start. You need any Server Side Programming language like ASP, PHP, JSP, PERL, etc. etc. You need to learn JavaScript. XML is a must now a days.





I couldn't quite get what you meant by administrator??