Hey GAF, I'm looking for some advice and answers with a potential career change. I'm 32 and currently a graphic designer but unfortunately I'm not passionate about what I do. I I feel I don't really have a creative spark for visual mediums, even though I get by alright brute forcing it. Also, the pay stinks.
I've long considered software development, particularly games, but the industry is such a gigantic mess that it wouldn't be a prudent choice at this point in my life (family, mortgage). I'd also like to make this switch happen as soon as possible so it's looking like web development might be a good choice, and something that would simultaneously build a good foundation to transition to software development down the road.
I've been looking at bootcamps like App Academy and Dev Bootcamp as well as learning at home with assistance by way of Thinkful or Code Academy. The former seem like something that could be worthwhile once I have some coding experience so Thinkful and Code Academy are probably my first step once I'm sure web development is the right choice for me.
Some questions:
1) Is Web Development still as great of a career choice as it has been as far as average pay and job availability goes? BLS says the median pay in 2012 was $62,500. As a graphic designer I certainly can't complain about those numbers.
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/web-developers.htm
2) In order to be employable as quickly as possible, once I've got plenty of experience with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and jQuery, where should I go next? Ruby? Swift? Node.js?
3) Am I correct in thinking that learning web development would teach me skills and build a foundation that would be helpful if I want to learn c++ or Java down the road?
4) Should I expect web development to potentially be as thankless a job as graphic designing can be? I'm constantly feeling under appreciated as a designer. The non-designers I work with seem to always expect so much of the art team while also thinking that what we do could be done just as well themselves (and as quickly).