Murti had dinner today with an interesting guy. His story is thought-provoking. This guy was 1-year out of college with a finance degree, couldn’t find a job in this economy. The market, especially for finance, is tough. Investment banks are laying off people by the thousands. He decided to take some initiative and try something different. He took a 2-month bootcamp on learning how to code and become a web developer from scratch. Keep in mind he knew nothing about computers before except email and facebook-ing. What happened next?

Now he’s in San Francisco with a nice $90k job.

If this had been a one-off, I may have dismissed it. But here’s the thing – this is somethingMurti has been doing for the past 3 months too. He’s been taking online courses and making websites. He’s teaching himself how to do CSS, HTML and Javascript. From scratch. With no prior training. In a month, he was able to re-create simple websites like Craigslist. Now, he’s setting up databases, writing JS, doing complex stuff. In another 2 months, I think he’ll be better than some of the web developers I see during interviews that have formal training.

In an age when MIT and Harvard have put their entire courses online for free, where Stanford is considering abandoning lectures in favor of do-it-yourself learning, and where Khan Academy can teach you any school or college subject in a tenth of the time online, you have to ask: why are people still unemployed? Lynda and Codeacademy teach you specific languages and technologies. Why are more people not talking about re-training for professions such as coding and web development and getting hired? Why are more people not doing this? You don’t need a formal degree for most things.

Maybe it’ll take you 6 months instead of 2. But the point is, if you’re willing, you can teach yourself these skills using abundant online resources.

Either people don’t know about it, or they are too lazy or depressed to take the initiative. Or they are too stuck to an old profession and afraid to move on.

That no longer flies with me. After coming across these recent success stories first-hand, I believe anyone can re-train and become a developer, web designer or system administrator. Companies in Silicon Valley are paying aying through the nose for skilled / experienced pros in these areas. And there is a huge shortage for these skills.

If you’re unemployed, or looking for a better job, think about it. Pass this to your friends. With the tools and resources online, there is no reason why you can’t have a job you deserve. The only thing holding you back…is you.