I’m currently 28 and have been working as a content writer for about 7 years now. Recently I started creating blog posts on WordPress and noticed that our company has specialized developers who handle the coding and technical publishing tasks. This got me curious about the development side of things.
I have some background with HTML and picked up Python a few years ago, though I’m not super advanced. Given my experience with content and basic coding knowledge, do you think it makes sense for someone like me to pursue WordPress development? I’m wondering if there are good career opportunities in this field and whether it’s worth investing the time to learn properly.
Any advice or personal experiences would be really helpful since I’m feeling pretty uncertain about this potential career shift.
I started learning WordPress development at 30 after 8 years in marketing, so age isn’t a barrier at all. Your content background is actually a huge advantage - most developers don’t understand how websites should work from a user’s perspective or how to talk to clients about what they need. Since you know HTML, you’ll pick up PHP way faster than you think. WordPress has great documentation too. The market’s still strong - WordPress runs about 40% of all websites. Start with theme customization, then move into custom plugins. Your writing skills will be a game-changer for code documentation and client communication. Most developers suck at both, but they’re incredibly valuable.
28? you’re practically a baby in tech years! I made the jump to wordpress dev at 35 from graphic design and haven’t looked back. Your content background is actually huge - you get what users want from websites, which most developers completely miss. If you’ve got python basics down, php won’t trip you up. wordpress freelance work is everywhere too - small businesses always need sites built.
Perfect timing for this switch. Your content creation background is actually a huge advantage - most developers don’t understand what makes websites work for real users. I made the jump from technical writing to WordPress dev at 32 and discovered that knowing content flow and user expectations made me way more valuable than code-only developers. Since you’ve got HTML down and Python experience, you already think like a programmer. Learning PHP won’t be too rough. WordPress dev pays well, especially when you can bridge technical stuff with content strategy. Companies pay premium for developers who speak both languages. Build some personal projects first - mess around with themes and custom fields. Then start taking small client jobs to build your portfolio.