I'll echo what Jeanne said and add some more thoughts.
Wayne Woodrow wrote:and work remotely so I can move/live in different places (within the US).
I'd love that too. But as Jeanne said, remote jobs are not commonplace, and they're rarely going to be entry level. Finding an entry level position is already hard enough.
I'd love to be able to do this myself. But the problem is, no job lasts forever. Some people here have held their jobs long term, but it's also very common for a 3-year stint to be considered long-term.
To be honest, in my current position, I work mostly remotely and only go into the office for two meetings a week. But I could, as others do, just dial into the meetings remotely. But even though I have no intention of leaving this position, stuff happens. If I were to move someplace else, I need to make sure that there were plenty of non-remote jobs around in case the bottom falls out.
Contracting might be a better possibility for remote workers, but one needs to have an impressive background to make that work.
I am familiar with Javascript, HTML, CSS, SQL etc.. Most of my time in Java has been spent working with Servlets/JSP/JSTL but the problem is I'm not really practiced in the stuff
While having a full-stack skill set is definitely a plus (I know
), there are also plenty of jobs for front-end developers. Continue to bone up on server-side stuff, but it's possible to find jobs where it's not needed, or not the focus.
What is your advice and experience on leaving a job to study software development for 6-12 months to transition into software development?
Bad idea for all the reasons Jeanne stated.
How realistic is it to land a remote position early in my career or at all?
Difficult at any level, and even more so at the entry level.
Sorry to be a wet blanket, but if it were as easy as all that, I'd be living someplace much cheaper (but with good internet and grocery stores
) and working completely remotely.