well, this is a subjective question, its same like asking, is driving uber/lyft a career job,
most people will say no, even though a full time dedicated driver easily makes 5000+/month taking away all expenses provided u have a right vehicle, but as u all driver know its not a career, sooner or later you will end up.
same is with this qa/ba thing, its a good start but its a dead end, soon u have to merge left in order to get going. gap period btn one project to another is frustrating, manual QA job has almost dried up, u will get very few qa job if u dnt know automation tool. ba has bigger market but its hard to sell yourself if u dont have at least basic programming concept because most companies seek a programing friendly analyst who can work with developers .
how difficult is to learn coding for non IT professional?
for a nepali guy its like learning chinese or french at the beginning, u will get lost in very first day, u get bored or u bang ur head, most of us will think its not our cup of cake by the end of the week n we will change our track n back to qa/ba or gas station. this is where the problem is. it took me 3 years to write simple codes in java which anyone could have easily written in 3 days in learning because i was never consistent and motivated to learn for the second day.
i had a good excuse for not to start for second day, after all i was never an IT graduate, how can expect my mind to compete with all these engineers and IT graduates.. till 2015 the only java i knew was the HIMALAYAN JAVA in thamel. i never took a class for java there after. my first project was a manual testing super easy, the second was system analyst, this is where the real challenge started consultancy added 7 years working experience for my seven month manual testing work knowledge. had to play with data, no data knowledge no sql no nothing, rat bhari nindra nalagne, bholi office janu cha bahne ajo rato 10 baje dekhi tauko dukhna thalne, like most of the projects we had privilege to use google but afu lai kehi naaune, decided to quit after 9 days, talked to indian who was the lead that time, since i did not have visa h1b sponsorship obligation from consultancy so decided to quit without their authorization, the lead was a bit friendly so i told him my 70% of real story, that i was having difficulty catching the pace and all my previous experiences was solely business analyst nt system analyst. that guy was kinda chill, he told me most of us are in same boat, he gave me some links in youtube that were very helpful for that particular project and asked me to practice those videos and talk to him after a week.
now i had no choice but to learn first few days were bit challenging then i started getting some momentum , after few days i started to know what the project was n what i have to learn, my experience is when ur in pressure u learn things, when u have option to back up u hardly learn anything. That indian felloW changed my life, i was almost set go back to work in gas station but he encouraged n gave me a second change . like all us nepali who hate dhoti most, that one gy make me feel like good people come in all forms regardless of their origin and and nationality, so come bad people.
how to learn coding n which is best for beginners ?
its not difficult like learning chinese but its its as easy as learning bicycle. as u dnt learn bicycle watching youtube but have to practice, no matter what if u practice ur mind has been developed in such a way that u can copy everything after few attempts. i can guarantee that u will learn enough to sell urself in market any code you want staying home dedicating 1-2 hrs a day, your mind automatically learns the things you repeat, but for first 2 weeks ur mind will
constantly repeal it, u will not understand the syntax, all code err but consistency is what it takes, ur mind is forced to learn things after 2 weeks of torture. database programming is a good to learn because its easier than core programming n it has a great future. don't rely on consultancy to learn coding. they will teach u just core principle that's not enough learn at home its super easy.
so far i haven't seen a single consultancy that teaches u good and do a good marketing, most of coding is tought online but they charge u couple hundred dollars bad part about them is they have no or worst marketing, those who give u free accomodation and marketing, they have good marketing but they teach nothing good than to lie cheat and fake, best is take a hybrid class. take a online course make is as cheap as possible they do as low as 150 n grab another consultancy who do free marketing. either way u have to learn yourself. these online classes are really helpful if u really want to learn.
i dnt know what im writing but i keep on going, im actually at work so im using free time.
the bottom line is if u r a student u have not much choice (unless u have a green card) u have to grab any job that comes on ur way but if u have a green card somewhat educated but still working a manual job n thinking to do something in IT, u can do much for yourself other than working in a store, sweating ur ass for nothing, but just dont jump into QA/BA the waiting lag is long for these jobs n often u get frustrated.. stik in which job u r in, pay lil money take online course and dedicate 2 hrs every day for 2 months. miracle will happen, its guaranteed, having a green card is a miracle use it to get another miracle in life, dnt just waste ur life in store, restaurant or as a uber driver.
( i respect every job n i have 2.5 months experience working as a labour in store, u have choice to stay in ur comfort zone n regret every single day u wake up n u also have choice to face challenge n move ahead do something in life, this is so easy country, opportunity everywhere )