Baby Steps Towards Programming
The worldly situation of Tech
The world is changing and its moving more and more towards digitization. That means the tech industry is slowly taking over almost everything. A huge number of opportunities are opening everyday in this field. As such, it is seen that many people are slowly moving towards tech. There are people who have studied CS and now they are in tech. On the contrary, there are people with no CS degree but are doing great in the tech field.
As more and more people are stepping towards tech, there are even more who are wondering about trying to get on board. So there are some burning questions like,
How do I start programming?
How do I get into tech?
How do I break into tech?
I want to learn programming but I don’t know where to start, so what can I do?
All these questions lead to only one answer. But I must tell you, this is not just any answer that you get asking a random question. Rather it is simply going to change your life if you follow the things properly and proceed step by step. There is one thing that you need to remember is that, once you are in the learning path, you will always be involved with the steps until the day you retire from all activities. So without further ado, let’s get started.
Why should you learn programming?
Before you start, you need to figure out why you want to learn programming. Apparently this will help you to find out which path you'll choose and with that you'll be able to know which programming languages you have to learn.
So, let's look into some benefits of learning programming,
Programming helps to build professional skills: Knowledge of computer programming is a valuable employment asset. As the world is moving more towards tech, the need to know programming is becoming more and more necessary. If you want to move to a more technical role from where you are at the moment or you want to make a career switch to tech, knowledge of at least one programming language is a must. Even if you’re not pursuing a strictly technical role, programming experience is an asset. It shows technical know-how, the ability to grasp abstract concepts, and that you can solve complex problems. Programming knowledge enables you to take freelance work as a full time career.
Programming can help you earn more: As said in the title, programming skills do let you earn more. The roles where you will be at as a programmer or a guy with necessary programming skills, will pay you almost twice the payment than somebody with the similar years of experience in a non-programming role.
Programming lets you create things: With programming skills, you can create whatever you want. Maybe you can create a mobile app or a web app, is upto you. Ultimately you can present this to the world. You can publish your project somewhere and monetize it. You can also let recruiters see what you are capable of with the projects that you have done and are letting the world see.
Programming skills can help you be self-employed: If you know programming, you can get freelance works and make your own money. Maybe you can get more and more projects and build yourself a freelance work agency. Even if you have a good idea, you can program a prototype and then make that a base to create your own startup. Showcasing that prototype to investors, you can get the necessary funding to run your startup. Again, with the knowledge you have or gain, you can coach newbies or sell programming ebooks that you have written based on your experience with the help of social media.
Willingness to break into tech and mistakes to avoid
Majority of the people have 9-5 day jobs. At the end of the week, they tire themselves out and search for a time and place to relax. But even amongst these people, some people emerge out successful. Who are these people? Those who are living the life they have during the weekdays and building the life they want during the weekends. Many people are coming towards tech just because it’s easy to spend some time, learn trending technologies and then land first jobs/clients. After sometime, they have their empire built.
There are many many people without CS degree but are doing outstanding in tech, even in companies like FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google). How did they start? They took the initial step by printing a “Hello World”! Non tech people, when they start thinking of coming to tech, get all lost and confused seeing the huge numbers and codes that other people are doing. To avoid this mistake, instead of peeking at where the successful people are, peek at where they started.
How to start programming?
First and the foremost thing is, you need to look into various fields or paths which you want to take. That means you need to select a sector based on which you will look for roadmaps. So, go to google and search for "Careers in tech with Programming knowledge". There you will find different professions like Software Developer, Mobile App Developer, Data Scientist, Database Administrator, Machine Learning Engineer, IT Administrator and many more. You need to look into these sectors and find out what interests you the most. Take a note of the sectors that you are interested in.
Now, as you know what you want to be, you need to find out proper roadmaps from the scratch level to not only get you started, but also get you going along more advanced levels. So, you need to check out some websites like roadmap.sh or neuton.app. In such websites, you're going to find everything you need to get started and get going. All you need to do is go to these websites and then keep a track of where you are at and what you are learning from time to time. Just get along with the path that is being shown.
Once you know which programming languages you need to learn, go through the official documentation of each technology (google them and you’ll find them) for example for python, the official docs is found in the website python.org. In this way, consult the official docs first. Then, go to websites like w3schools.com or freecodecamp.org. In these websites you will find the programming tutorials from scratch and step by step. All you need to do is follow the steps and learn. The good thing is these are interactive tutorials, as such you will get a hands on experience with these langauges. Besides, there are several YouTube channels which will help you learn the programming languages you need from the very basic level. Visit YouTube channels like Programming With Mosh, Freecodecamp, CS Dojo, etc and many more. Other than that, if you want a structured learning path, you can always go to Coursera, EdX, Codecademy and many other websites and enrol in programming courses.
As you go on learning, the most important thing is to write code or should I say implement what you have learnt. The best way to do those is building projects. It does not have to be a big enterprise level project, rather it can only be a code of 5 lines, it doesn't matter. As long as you are building projects with what you have learnt, you are running on the right track.
It’s normal for everyone to get stuck with code. So never worry and always search for solutions in google. Some of the websites where you can find probable solutions are, Stackoverflow, Stackexchange, etc and many more.
Sometimes, you might have the need for constant monitoring. Look for mentors who offers coachings. You can find these programmers / developers in instagram who offer coaching services. Reach them out. If necessary, look for them in LinkedIn and try to reach them out as well. Maybe with the right mentor, your programming lessons will have a boost. But that still depends on how much concentration you are giving to learn.
The best way to learn if you are learning with other people. That means if you can be a part of a community. So, all you need to do is join some dev community which you might find in the form of a Discord server or Facebook Group or even an online forum. Join the community and learn together. See what problems people are facing and what solutions other people are advicing. When you have questions, ask in those forums. You will definitely get help from the dev community.
To keep yourself up-to-date with the modern tech world, you can look into dev articles. Search for these articles in google and maybe sign up so that you get a daily newsletter of the trending topics. One of the best websites is dev.to. Check it out.
One optional thing that I found rather very useful is document what you have learnt everyday. The best way to do that is maybe open up a new instagram account where you post daily about your progress and what you will learn next. With that, you will have the urge to learn faster and you will have a strong hold of the programming knowledges you are learning. And the best part, writing about your daily progress will attract more and more audience who will learn from you and at one point, your account will grow so big that you can monetise the account and make money with your programming knowledge. This is a totally different topic so I am not going into details.
Some projects to enhance your programming skills
This is the part which you will follow once you have a good hold of programming skills and you are capable of building small websites or apps. So then, you can work on these projects.
Construct a Responsive Multi-Page Website - Creating this application helps to better understand sizes of different devices so that the web pages do not break and they look clean at any dimension at any device.
Upgrade a Website Template that Already Exists - Building a website from the ground up may look to be intimidating at first. As you get started, you might want to consider using a site format with predetermined plan components, allowing you to apply a responsive design to an existing layout without starting from scratch.
Construct a Simple JavaScript Game - There is no existing system to work with when creating a game from the ground up. As you work through the hurdles, you become familiar with an incredible sum, which helps you become a better engineer. When you're finished, you'll have a fun game to show off in your portfolio!
Create a basic application - Your initial application does not have to be complicated; it might be as simple as a number cruncher or a daily schedule. New elements are inconsistent enhancements for current applications, so this is your chance to experiment with multiple approaches.
Python for Web Scraping - Web scraping entails getting organised material from the internet, selecting certain information, and transforming it into something new, such as investigating, storytelling resources, and so on. When you come across material on the internet that you can't download right away, try using your Python skills to extract the information into a format that can be imported.
Tips to follow to have a well decorated career
Here are some tips that you should follow as a beginner so that you have a well decorated tech career!
Learn, Adapt, Repeat — Everything you learn from scratch is new to you. So once you learn something, try to get the best hold of it by understanding the concepts about how things are happening and why they are happening. Repeat the same thing for every new thing you learn.
Network with other devs — It’s very important that you try to connect to other devs in different social and professional platforms. So when you need help, someone might assist you to your needs.
Have a side project — When you’ve learnt something, it’s very nice to create a pet project or multiple projects for yourself. And having a side project for yourself can be beneficial. Maybe you can turn it to something big slowly by dint of time.
Keep practicing problems — There are many websites where you can find programming problems or challenges which you can code and solve. One noteworthy website is Exercisim. There are problems to solve for 60 programming languages. This will keep up your practice and you’ll be a better programmer.
Build a portfolio website — This is the most important thing to do. Once you have some projects to showcase, build a website where you can portray yourself, your journey as a dev and the works you have done. This will be handy so that recruiters can better understand what you’re capable of, maybe you can show this to get freelance work and also other devs can get to know you well.
So, if you guys can maintain this properly, I am sure that you’ll be a better dev in no time, you’ll land your jobs earlier that others (hopefully) and you’ll succeed faster than other devs.
Word of advice for newbies
Please don’t wait for people to spoon-feed you with every single resource and teachings because you’re on your own in your learning path. So be wise and learn yourself.
Check out my book
I have curated a step by step guideline not just for beginners but also for someone who wants to come back and rebrush the skills. You will get to know from installing necessary tools, writing your first line of code, building your first website, deploy it online and more advanced concepts. Not only that, I also provided many online resources which are seriously spot on to master your way through. Grab your copy now from here. Or you can get it from this link below.
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About Me
I am Ishraq Haider Chowdhury from Bangladesh, currently living in Bamberg, Germany. I am a fullstack developer mainly focusing on MERN Stack applications with JavaScript and TypeScript. I have been in this industry for about 11 years and still counting. If you want to find me, here are some of my social links....
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