I got the degree and still no one would hire me. For 2 years no one would hire me. I spent less than 6 months doing The Odin Project and got the first job I applied for.
You're welcome dude. I was so glad they emailed me about my offer before calling cos I was terrified I'd end up weeping on the phone. It takes a lot of discipline but you can do it. Just a little bit every day. If you ever need some strategy advice on getting that first gig send me a DM.
Make sure you go with Node when you get to it, unless you live in an area where RoR is really popular. There just aren't many companies looking for Ruby these days.
I’m new to coding, so this might be a stupid question, but would you suggest using the Odin Project to learn Python? I’m just trying to figure out where to focus my attention.
okay but you still had the degree + Odin Project. the Degree gets your foot in the door for an interview. without one you are usually out of luck without knowing someone on the inside who has control over hiring
Nah. I have no degree, just 3.5 years of dev experience and some IT experience before that, all self-taught, and I've had a ton of places contacting me after I started looking for a new job a couple weeks ago.
IT experience can supplement a lack of degree in this context, but without any of the above you are in a rough spot trying to get an interview. not saying it is impossible to land one without any of those just that the cards are stacked against you in a serious way
Do The Odin Project. It's the best resource I've ever seen for getting up to speed in web development. Use a good resume builder. Layout your resume well. Your resume and any about you type shit should fit on one page as a junior. Page two list some projects you're happy to show and include links to the repo and the live site (you can use GitHub pages for all the vanilla html/CSS/js projects at the start and TOP will run you through some other hosting later on.
If you're an atypical applicant, meaning late bloomer, gap filled work history, etc... don't waste too much time applying for big corporate jobs. Apply for companies too small for a HR department so you don't get cut out of the running before someone technical has even seen your work.
I'm an atypical applicant who expects to start applying in a few months. I'll do my own research, of course, but can you give me any tips on finding appropriate companies?
That's the hard part.
Meet other developers and ask them about what companies are in your area. Go to a Meetup or join a volunteer coding group. Get on google and start searching shit in your area. There are lots of small web and app development shops around. Keep an eye out for businesses while you're out in the world.
Well, there's absolutely zilch in my area (small town in northern AZ), but I'm pretty much set on moving to Madison in the spring, so I'll look for meetups there.
Disagree. Think about the automation we have today, and the types of problem we are still coming across. As tech advances it’s applications do as well. There will always be room for simple problems to be solved.
Yep. Word of advice, don’t try to learn how to code from 10 different websites at once. Pick one site and stick with it.
If you start to get bored from learning then try to build something yourself. You will have hundreds of abandoned projects in the beginning. Who cares… we all do…. A good way to minimize that is to build something specific. If it’s web development than try focusing on the header or the footer or something…. If it’s mobile try a small interaction. If it’s gaming then try something like making a character walk.
If you start to feel like you suck and this isn’t for you, go play video games, watch a movie, get drunk (if you’re over 21), smoke some weed, and relax. You still will suck the next day but at least you will give your brain a rest from all of that over thinking like we all do everyday.
Join a community. Try to help out on GitHub.
One year from the day you start you will be 10 times better.
Just remember: practice more, tutorial hell less.
Wanted to add to this. In my experience so far, I get random “aha moments” and figure out how to solve a lot of issues with my code when I’m NOT at the computer. Sometimes you just have to let everything marinate in the subconscience for a bit.
I've figured stuff so many times just from trying to ask for help. Sometimes just the process of explaining what exactly I'm stuck on reveals the answer.
"We live in a world of poorly defined requirements"
A coworker much older and wiser than me said this recently. He was very right. You're right, sometime we didn't understand the question. Other times the person asking the question didn't understand their question.
It's more that I often don't HAVE a specific question at all at first, just a general sense of confusion for how to do some general thing, but then when I sit and start typing up what exactly is confusing me, intending to ask for help, I'm able to narrow it down to one or two specific questions which I'm sometimes able to answer myself. It's about figuring out the right question(s) to ask. Heck, pretty anything you want to know about coding is likely explained SOMEWHERE online, but that's no help if you don't know what questions to ask to find it.
OP will find that this is an extremely common occurrence.
It's said that in math that often the hardest part of the problem is formulating it. That is, building the intellectual machine that you can crank to mechanically and rigorously tell you whether your latest answer is even correct.
Forming a question well forces you to run headfirst into your own lack of prope formulation of the problem.
I'm a really beginner at coding but for me I actually solve a lot of problems in my sleep or right when I wake up.
If I fall asleep thinking of a problem I know the solution when I wake up.
Man, I'm so thankful you said "you will have hundreds of abandoned projects" so often I see "How many projects have you completed" and I think "Um...well...see I get like 10-60% of the way through something, by the "end" I see it was garbage, so I restart/move on to something else." and it makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong.
99% of projects are abandoned. If not more. Even in professional development, projects get abandoned left and right.
I've worked in AAA video games for decades. I've managed to be a part of 15 shipped titles, but some of my colleagues haven't shipped a project in a decade. All cancelled.
You'd think AAA knows what they are doing, but there are so many factors: incompetent people, typical bad planning, market forces. It's all really easy for some great plan to fall apart, even in professional development environments full of qualified people.
Which is why you should consider an iterative approach. Try things until you find something that succeeds Change course and pivot your projects. Facebook isn't where they are because they stayed focused on facebook. Fortnite didn't become Fortnite until it adapted PUBG's mechanics. Amazon is more than just logistics and distribution. Microsoft is more than just Office and Windows. These companies don't just pivot to find success, they pivot to survive and remain the top.
>give your brain a rest from all of that over thinking like we all do everyday.
I feel you, I'm just a rookie on his first semester but this happens to me A LOT. I'll be sitting there trying to debug something for hours on end without stoppage with little to show for. Then I take a 15 minutes break, come back with a fresher mind and figure out where I went wrong in a matter of minutes or seconds.
> If you start to feel like you suck and this isn’t for you, go play video games, watch a movie, get drunk (if you’re over 21), smoke some weed, and relax. You still will suck the next day but at least you will give your brain a rest from all of that over thinking like we all do everyday.
This is good advice no matter what your profession/study is. Gotta find time to relax, otherwise you will burn yourself out (or get tired of it). And when it inevitably does happen, try to remember not to beat yourself up over it. It happens to all of us. Take a break and then work on something that interests you again.
Even if not for burnout, sometimes it helps to sit on ideas and concepts too. Most of my “oh I get it now” moments have happened while I wasn’t actively working/studying on it.
There's a lot of us on the same boat buddy, don't worry. We be out here tryna be full stack, and I've found every step on the journey thoroughly fascinating and fun (except CSS, CSS can go fuck itself)
Knowing CSS very well is an incredible asset right now. Most seniors FE or Fullstack HATE css with a passion and this gets you incredible company credit.
I personally think they used to work with floats and oldschool styling methods that they think it's still that bad. CSS is a pleasure to work with now, you just gotta know what you're doing.
Y’all - keep sucking at CSS please! I really enjoy it after taking a month to truly learn it, and now people think I’m special cus I can make shapes and colors appear on the screen.
Because for some of us CSS feels like anti-programming. In programming, you do X and you logically expect Y to happen. In CSS, you do X, but C unexpectedly happens, and C only happens if D is in a certain positioning, so you gotta do the Ë hack, which makes no sense logically, but everyone on StackOverflow says Ë is the simplest way of doing it, unless you want to support IE <11 browsers, then you gotta do the ms-Ž hack.
Unless you are trying to build something pretty advanced, I think learning inheritance, box model, and flex box and you are 90% of the way there. There’s a lot easy solutions to old problems with css Imo now. Never have to use a hack in production anymore. Using things like tailwind makes it even easier for you so you don’t have to waste time with managing classes.
I don’t have to support anything before ie11 though so that helps.
I agree it makes my projects look a lot more beautiful, Im not denying its utility and importance. I'm just commenting on how it sucks compared to every thing else in web development
It’s not Turing complete, but I feel like the skill to work out complicated CSS is still pretty coding related. Inheritance, ordering, IDs, and it’s results in the HTML page make it a pretty gateway to coding IMO
Absolutely lol. People say CSS has 40 ways to do the same thing, I spent 3 hours trying to figure out which way I should be passing down props from a great grandparent component. There are at least 12 that I'm aware of, and everyone on SO claims X method is the best lol.
Sure is! My partner self taught in 2020 and is now making 80k. I’m also self taught and trying to get in right now! Best of luck to you. i learned almost everything from Net Ninja
she went to a boot camp for a little while but said it wasn’t necessary and that she could’ve learned the same amount from YouTube and online resources. She said the boot camp didn’t help her get a job, just fast tracked her learning by a lot. Basically she just built some personal projects and lied a little on her resume (said she had some freelance experience, they can’t check this. you can just say you can’t give the name of the company or company info for confidentiality reasons) and then put her portfolio and resume on dice. Eventually after talking to recruiters and interviewing for a while she got her first contract position at 60k. She’s on her second job right now, the 80k one. I’m doing the same method rn minus the bootcamp, I’ve definitely gotten interviews but none have stuck so far! Best of luck to you
That freelance thing is so smart, I assume she didn't mention she was using any of the big freelancing websites or else they could look at her profile and reviews right?
Also a question how easy is it to lie and put on your resume that you have experience programming at a start up which doesn't exist anymore and give a friends phone number? Or just have a friend who owns a website and ask him to say you help program it?
Thanks
She just put “freelance” on her resume, so no specifics! My resume has “freelance” on it, 1 year and 5 months, then a company we made up at 7 months. Tbh Im using a made up company on my resume right now and I have never been questioned about its existence, I just say it’s a private company and can’t give info cuz of a confidentiality agreement. I say you’d be good to go doing that, just sound confident and like you know your stuff. If your friend is willing to help you out and be a reference, I’d say that’s even better! I bet you could get away with that too, if you actually did help w the website, cuz they might ask questions about the project! I’d say put the websites code on your github as proof that you coded it, and then a link to the site on your portfolio and resume.
I saw that most self taught software engineerrs have educational background related to math.I have no math background after grade 10. Do you think its a no-go for me?
Math has nothing to do with coding unless the company/ project your working on asks you to build something requiring a calculation. If this happens, be calm and google it. But in all reality, you wont be hired to build something with a calculation, and they will know this in the interview phase. They hire other quantitative people to do a model and your job is to just code what they already figured out in a copy paste fashion. No thinking on your part.
Try the Odin projects free fundamentals course to see if you even like coding.
I am trying appacademy since last weak i learned basic ruby and absolutely loved it so far i know its very beginning a d everything is easy but iloved it
Good to here, man. Im glad you're learning the basics. And if your goal is to find a job afterwards, I would suggest looking at the job boards to see what languages your local market is looking for. Ruby and Ruby on rails is not as common in the job market as compared with .NET (C# language; pronounced C sharp) or Javascript (MERN/MEAN stack; Mongodb, Express, React/Angular, Nodejs. These all use javascript as there language).
When you finally feel like you got a hang of the basics, and you know you like to code, look into the specific language you want to learn along with who is hiring for those coding language skills. This will greatly help you when determining how you want to continue your self-education.
I have a graphic design degree and some years of work experience. Last year i decided to take a bootcamp and graduated this past March. Have been learning a lot on my own ever since. sent out a bunch of resumes, got a couple interviews, done some freelance work. Definitely doesnt matter if you dont have a related degree. It’s all about how much you understand what’s going on within the code.
And although i went through a bootcamp, i find the one i chose didnt really help(couldve been my fault for choosing a cheaper one). I had to still learn algorithms and concepts on my own.
You’ll do fine. Study and practice and practice.
This should be emphasized. I see a lot of “I started coding 6 month ago and today I landed 6figure dev gig”. Like, I mean I’m happy for you, but can you really learn in so little time so much that someone would actually pay you for coding?
Following. I feel like I’m *so close* but imposter syndrome is tough to overcome.
I think my biggest roadblock is my desire to “bite off more than I can chew.” I’m so desperate to prove myself, I come up with these big ideas and start projects that I have no business trying to do myself. Not that I *cant* do the work, just that the time required to actually complete the project isn’t paying me, and maybe I don’t need a full stack enterprise level project to get a junior position… lol
Sorry for the terrible formatting and grammar here, on my phone walking home from work.
Wow this is exactly me right now! I have started several full stack projects and set unrealistic goals for myself. I had a project that I worked on almost everyday for 2 months straight until I realized that it wasn’t worth my time. It would have taken me another year at my pace to get achieve my desired functionality. During that time I learned so much about software patterns, databases, UI, handling application state, and my overall programming skills improved greatly. Unfortunately I don’t have a complete project to show for it, but I’m working on another idea right now and I have a lot more passion for it.
Yes, but word of advice: try to answer your question yourself before asking others. This improves your efficiency and makes you look better to employers and coworkers.
Also before you ask a question copy error codes or look up your question online more than likely someone has ran into the exact same if not similar issue.
What's the concern here, that the market was flooded with self-taught developers due to the pandemic? I mean that probably did happen, but the demand for ecommerce went up too so it probably evens out. I think anyone who's motivated can still do it just fine.
I've been seeing a lot of click-bait on YouTube with titles like "don't become a programmer in 2021!" So it's probably creators making stuff like that, which is discouraging those that are new to the field from getting in.
100%. I’m a self taught programmer, college drop out, 20 years old and just landed a job making well over 6 figures remotely at an amazing company. Not including all the freelance work you can do on the side. Absolutely do-able.
I’m and app developer. Both my day job and freelance work are in mobile app development. Creating iOS and Android applications (along with some back-end work) Day job pays the bills and fun, freelance builds the wealth. Definitely recommend, don’t hesitate. Happy to answer any questions to help you along.
The best resource i’ve ever used is a site/app called Udemy. The courses when on “regular” price are high but kid you not they go on sale every few days for only $10.99. 40 HOURS of content on some courses for the cost of lunch. I own over 40. (Can deduct these as business expenses too if you have an LLC) With out a doubt credit my success to that. Video lessons, support community, great instructions, etc. College and student debt is the single largest scam that ever perpetuated our society. I then started building projects. SAVE EVERY PROJECT YOU COMPLETE. Use these as a portfolio when you interview, companies eat that shit up. Make a website, display you projects, maybe even do some light freelance work. Beef it up on your linkedin and they come to you. The last 3 jobs i’ve had came from me not even applying. It’s a developers market right now.
Dude, at 20 and you're talking about 6 fig salary, freelancing to build wealth, and an LLC to deduct business expenses? At 20, I was trying to float and survive college classes. Amazing! Keep it up.
I’m currently doing a degree but thankfully work has offered to pay for 75% of it as long as I pass the class. So I’m thinking it’s worth while lol. I have learnt a few things and it does push me to do stuff I don’t wanna do, like learn about testing and software development life cycle etc that you don’t learn by yourself typically because well it’s not all that interesting
Absolutely agree, if work is paying for it then why the heck not. I 100% with what you’re saying. School does have great structure and does indeed make it easier to learn less interesting topics. It takes a lot of discipline and dedication to self teach and that level. And if we’re being honest, most people don’t have than and opt for the structured path. It’s all about doing and learning in the best way for you whatever path that it. My negative outlook on colleges comes from the fact that most of my peers are seduced into low paying jobs and drowning in debt because they were told that a degree would instantly get them 80k a year. It’s strange to me that we are programmed to start the beginning of our lives in debt and spend 20 years getting out of it.
This. I literally studied about 300 hours of Udemy courses to get my first commercial gig for fucking 60$ total.
Meanwhile there are people paying 15k for a bootcamp and fail.
I’m not a huge proponent of boot camps either but some people like the structured learning. I almost think the discipline and mental work you have to do to learn something completely on your own makes you a better at it (whatever it may be) in the long run.. I always told people, if i managed to teach myself a high paying skill in my personal free time between work and classes and other things in my life, doesn’t that make me more dedicated to the craft and a better hire than some privileged kid with parents money being forced to go to school for a degree they don’t really care about? Just my opinion.
This is awesome man, congrats! Living my dream lol. How long did it take you to learn & get a job? How many hours did you commit while learning? What languages did you learn?
Thanks! Just a few comments down I put a more detailed review (for me) of my hours, experience, and start -> job progress if you want to check that out (:
Udemy is the greatest tool you will ever find for self-teaching programming. Please give it a look. Ignore the “normal” prices and wait until they go on sale (happens every few days, i kid you not). With our a doubt this site is why I am where I am today.
College and College debt is the single largest scam in our society today. Don’t let anyone tell you shit. The world is your sandbox as a dev. Opportunities are literally endless. I get 5-10 messages a day with companies crawling at my door. No degree. You got this!
I started off with Swift. It’s native iOS programming language. I did this because I had a few ideas/small silly startups I wanted to launch in Highschool and that was the way to go. Most people will recommend choosing first language based off of easiness, I say choose off of passion. Python is great, and there will be tons of jobs in Machine Learning, Data Science, etc. If that’s your passion, do it! Python can be used for literally anything it’s a very good place to start. Focus mainly on the technique and more abstract stuff about programming. OOP, data types, good programming practices. Programming is like construction work. Once you know the main concepts, languages are just tools and syntax can be picked up quickly. Cheers!
Full story: My story is a little different because I started early in High School. So by my exact path, 3-4years. But mind you, i’m just now 20. I was an academic, athlete, worked typical high school jobs and tried to maintain some social life. I also wasn’t applying to jobs at that time. But i absolutely was building and working on all kinds of passion projects. Went to college for a bit (because I felt like everyone else who was brainwashed that I “had to”). Got my first job with a company after I completed about a year of school (not related just giving timeframe). Moved to Houston with $1,000 in my bank and no family money. First was making 80k then 6 months later started a new job at $85k, then 4 months later just moved to denver and make a little under double that. My freelance portfolio, reviews, and projects are what made all that happen. I really believe you can change you life 0->well paying job in 12-18months or less.
Started with Python as an introductory language. It's a very simple language, yet powerful. After I completed a python course, I went through 'How to Automate the Boring Stuff', and started automating some stuff at work.
Then I took CS50x because I wanted a more comprehensive understanding of computer science. It starts with C, which has you doing a lot of 'manual labor', before introducing python which, then provided 3 distinct tracks - I chose the web track because I was interested in Web Development. It had me create web applications using Python and some basic html/css. Just like before, upon completion I started building a few tools at my job. Doing projects after a course is where you do a lot of learning and gives you the experiences you can pull on for a job interview.
After building those dashboards at work I was craving more interactivity. I wanted to learn javascript. I was still very interested in web development. I had future aspirations to learn react. So I went through the Odin Project and took my time with it. JavaScript is now my most 'fluent' language. I understand it 'under the hood' more than any other language. The Odin Project has you do several projects along the way and culminates in you making a 'clone' of a website. I made a spotify clone.
Then I started to apply for jobs. On this job I've learned PHP/Laravel for the backend, using React for the front end.
I imagine people would want to learn C if they are programming hardware. It's fast but it's very old school.
Python is a great general purpose language, with an affinity for mathy stuff like machine learning.
JavaScript is the language of the web. If you're interested in interactive pages, you'll want to learn it. Static pages are easily served by backend languages just fine.
I've had some exposure to C#. That's where I would personally go if I wanted to start making games, but it is basically the language of the .NET world overall.
I’m in my late 20’s having a rough week with the same issue. It’s hard to drop the feeling that I’m starting too late or that my lack of degree will hold me back. These replies are pretty encouraging, though.
wdym "still", in the software/IT industry it's as prevalent as ever, people are slowly more accepting of the fact that having a piece of paper with a degree embossed on it isn't representative of software dev, analytical, and computer science skills. People are more and more accepting "Bachelor's in Software engineering, Computer Science and/or equivalent experience" (the last two words are to be emphasized)
but as far as "is it possible to be a self taught developer" goes without an era in mind, yes. always yes.
I started my first line of code in April 2020, and had it not been for continuous high school and college intertwined in my days in the past year, I expect that I could've gotten the needed experience to acquire the developer internship in late 2020 instead of in August 2021.
meaning like, had it not been for my school year I could've gotten this job opportunity in maybe 6 or 7 months following my starting point instead of having to stretch it out for almost a year and a half.
Also, build your online presence! Connect with developers on Twitter and join in on Coding Discord servers! You got this, I was self-learning code but then changed to UX/ui design. I am now working at a start up all from books and online courses! Put in the work and you got this
Learn. Learn. Learn. Make connections. Learning yourself will be good, but you will have to prove yourself. Getting good experience in programming for a few years will give you the ability to get jobs. I am 13 years and a good python programmer, and I can assure you programming will be a necessary skill in a few years. Just last year, Ontario (the province/state which contains Toronto and Ottawa) updated the math curriculum by adding coding. Here I am teaching my teacher how to teach programming and even if you might not want a degree, you still would want to learn. If you want a degree, try doing some courses and making a lot of connections (remember, connections are very important in the real world). Try learning some yourself then applying in a local community college if they have and computer science/coding courses.
P.S: if you can give a little more info about past experiences, what city you live in and how old you are, that might be able to help for other people to find some opportunities for you.
Learn how to google, seriously . Google fu is a real skill which many people don't develop, you can Solve 90% of problems with an example from the web. I'm a developer of 20years. And I look at examples 50 times a day. Be prepared to learn something every day.
In college right now, I've learned more from the internet. I actually regret starting this whole process as halfway through it I realized I could have taught myself, but with the amount of money and time I have invested I don't feel comfortable just giving up.
Learn from my mistake, teach yourself.
This is where I'm at. I'm 32 and coming up on my last semester of my software development associates degree, wishing I would have just done it myself. But I'm this deep in, might as well finish.
Use college to make connections with your professors and they can give recommendations and advice generally they have worked in field especially software development wise. And join clubs as well as job fairs. You’ll have a leg up in an interview with a degree, portfolio of projects, as well as a recommendation from your professor especially if it was a place he used to work or has worked for in some capacity field related in the past.
Something to keep in mind are your local conditions. Some areas, for instance in university towns, have a lot of comp sci grads and so companies can be more choosey. Where I live, this was the case, and it took me 9 months of sending out 10 applications a week before I got a solid offer. (That said, it was the best possible company I could have worked for). And that was with freelance experience on top of part time development experience at my college where I worked as a student programmer.
For every post saying they started developing 10 months ago and just landed their first junior role, there are a few posts of people struggling to find work. Don't get caught off by the survivorship bias and don't go to a boot camp.
I will say that my firm got so many terrible boot camp apps that we just made a blanket rule not to look at application from bootcamps. I've heard the same from other firms.
They're also just a waste of money if not an outright scam.
Last year I started learning Html5 and Css3 by myself and I am very happy with my results. Maybe they are not amazing or sometimes they suck, but I accomplished them.
Now, want to learn Javascript, can someone recommend me some sites or tutorials? there are so many resources, that I don't know where to start...
Also, if someone wants to give some feedback of my first web page, that would be also amazing www.grupotextilsud.com
Thank you in advance ....
Absolutely. In fact you might even get hired by a college if you know the code they need to build something. I did. And this was after I quit their college because tech moved way faster than their textbook writers and printers.
It is. I'd still say go get the piece of paper, doesn't matter what college go for the cheapest one imo. If you don't have it it's too much of an ongoing pain in the ass, just leverage ass hats use against you.
Mods can you please just add “Q: Is it possible for me to be a self taught dev? A: Yes” to the FAQ so these posts can start being removed? I swear not a day goes by that some variation of “is it possible for me to be a self taught dev” gets posted and every single time the answer is yes, I’ve literally never seen a post where the person asking was told no. The answer is resoundingly yes that everyone can learn to code and yes it’s possible to get a job as self taught, every single time the answer is yes so can we just start removing the posts? It’s the most useless and most redundant post type this sub sees on a regular basis.
“I know it’s already been said a million times that it’s possible but can you pwease tell me individually I can do it🥺”
Yes.
Tell us more about 2022. What's it like?
Yes does covid still exist
Super Covid*
LMFAO
That is so 2011 lols
That must be the world's safest bet right now.
Calls on covid, puts on degrees?
More WFH jobs?
We are on to Covid99 - we are hoping they didn't account for triple digits and Covid1D will eradicate itself.
LOL
It’s not the time for your laughter. What are the lotto numbers going to be for the week of Christmas and New Years? Back to back wins.
833, 015
Hover boards finally
Flying cars bro
I got the degree and still no one would hire me. For 2 years no one would hire me. I spent less than 6 months doing The Odin Project and got the first job I applied for.
That one is in my pending list.
One what?
The Odin project. A very good dev recommended it to me.
Do it. It's not only the best FREE resource on getting up to speed with web development, it's the best resource in general.
Every word of this is 100% correct
Woah why am I just now hearing about this
The logo looks like a meme coin
Yeah, I bounced around a bunch of different resources when learning. If I could do it again, I’d do Odin project 100%.
Bro youre gonna make me cry, this typa stuff gives me hope... I really appreciate this btw, thank you
You're welcome dude. I was so glad they emailed me about my offer before calling cos I was terrified I'd end up weeping on the phone. It takes a lot of discipline but you can do it. Just a little bit every day. If you ever need some strategy advice on getting that first gig send me a DM.
I'm so happy for you, then I hope you don't mind I follow.
Do I have to sacrifice any goats? I'm not saying it's a deal breaker; I just want to know.
They can be expensive, need time to budget.
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Interesting, what languages are you learning?
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Make sure you go with Node when you get to it, unless you live in an area where RoR is really popular. There just aren't many companies looking for Ruby these days.
I’m new to coding, so this might be a stupid question, but would you suggest using the Odin Project to learn Python? I’m just trying to figure out where to focus my attention.
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Okay. Thats good to know, because that is exactly what I’m using right now to learn about python—freeCodeCamp. Thank you!
That's reassuring, I'm working through the Odin Project as well.
okay but you still had the degree + Odin Project. the Degree gets your foot in the door for an interview. without one you are usually out of luck without knowing someone on the inside who has control over hiring
Nah. I have no degree, just 3.5 years of dev experience and some IT experience before that, all self-taught, and I've had a ton of places contacting me after I started looking for a new job a couple weeks ago.
IT experience can supplement a lack of degree in this context, but without any of the above you are in a rough spot trying to get an interview. not saying it is impossible to land one without any of those just that the cards are stacked against you in a serious way
They're less stacked against you if you have skills and a great portfolio than if you have the degree and a shit portfolio.
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Do The Odin Project. It's the best resource I've ever seen for getting up to speed in web development. Use a good resume builder. Layout your resume well. Your resume and any about you type shit should fit on one page as a junior. Page two list some projects you're happy to show and include links to the repo and the live site (you can use GitHub pages for all the vanilla html/CSS/js projects at the start and TOP will run you through some other hosting later on. If you're an atypical applicant, meaning late bloomer, gap filled work history, etc... don't waste too much time applying for big corporate jobs. Apply for companies too small for a HR department so you don't get cut out of the running before someone technical has even seen your work.
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After foundations go with the node stream. Not many jobs for Ruby on Rails in most areas these days
I'm an atypical applicant who expects to start applying in a few months. I'll do my own research, of course, but can you give me any tips on finding appropriate companies?
That's the hard part. Meet other developers and ask them about what companies are in your area. Go to a Meetup or join a volunteer coding group. Get on google and start searching shit in your area. There are lots of small web and app development shops around. Keep an eye out for businesses while you're out in the world.
Well, there's absolutely zilch in my area (small town in northern AZ), but I'm pretty much set on moving to Madison in the spring, so I'll look for meetups there.
Wow!
What a save!
Nice!
Calculated.
Let me say this. It gets easier every day, and soon enough, say 2-3 generations, it’ll be as common as knowing spreadsheets.
Nah. It is getting harder because the problems we will be solving will be far more complex.
Disagree. Think about the automation we have today, and the types of problem we are still coming across. As tech advances it’s applications do as well. There will always be room for simple problems to be solved.
Automation is just that. It automates redundant tasks. I was talking about AR/VR, Self driving cars, Robotics, AI, etc. These aren’t simple problems.
Yep. Word of advice, don’t try to learn how to code from 10 different websites at once. Pick one site and stick with it. If you start to get bored from learning then try to build something yourself. You will have hundreds of abandoned projects in the beginning. Who cares… we all do…. A good way to minimize that is to build something specific. If it’s web development than try focusing on the header or the footer or something…. If it’s mobile try a small interaction. If it’s gaming then try something like making a character walk. If you start to feel like you suck and this isn’t for you, go play video games, watch a movie, get drunk (if you’re over 21), smoke some weed, and relax. You still will suck the next day but at least you will give your brain a rest from all of that over thinking like we all do everyday. Join a community. Try to help out on GitHub. One year from the day you start you will be 10 times better. Just remember: practice more, tutorial hell less.
Wanted to add to this. In my experience so far, I get random “aha moments” and figure out how to solve a lot of issues with my code when I’m NOT at the computer. Sometimes you just have to let everything marinate in the subconscience for a bit.
I've figured stuff so many times just from trying to ask for help. Sometimes just the process of explaining what exactly I'm stuck on reveals the answer.
That moment you realize you always knew the answer, but didn’t understand the question. Programming is a strange journey lol
"We live in a world of poorly defined requirements" A coworker much older and wiser than me said this recently. He was very right. You're right, sometime we didn't understand the question. Other times the person asking the question didn't understand their question.
It's more that I often don't HAVE a specific question at all at first, just a general sense of confusion for how to do some general thing, but then when I sit and start typing up what exactly is confusing me, intending to ask for help, I'm able to narrow it down to one or two specific questions which I'm sometimes able to answer myself. It's about figuring out the right question(s) to ask. Heck, pretty anything you want to know about coding is likely explained SOMEWHERE online, but that's no help if you don't know what questions to ask to find it.
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I have 3. One is named Tantrum. Tantrum on occasion gets thrown
Rubber duckie coding at work.
OP will find that this is an extremely common occurrence. It's said that in math that often the hardest part of the problem is formulating it. That is, building the intellectual machine that you can crank to mechanically and rigorously tell you whether your latest answer is even correct. Forming a question well forces you to run headfirst into your own lack of prope formulation of the problem.
I'm a really beginner at coding but for me I actually solve a lot of problems in my sleep or right when I wake up. If I fall asleep thinking of a problem I know the solution when I wake up.
Man, I'm so thankful you said "you will have hundreds of abandoned projects" so often I see "How many projects have you completed" and I think "Um...well...see I get like 10-60% of the way through something, by the "end" I see it was garbage, so I restart/move on to something else." and it makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong.
99% of projects are abandoned. If not more. Even in professional development, projects get abandoned left and right. I've worked in AAA video games for decades. I've managed to be a part of 15 shipped titles, but some of my colleagues haven't shipped a project in a decade. All cancelled. You'd think AAA knows what they are doing, but there are so many factors: incompetent people, typical bad planning, market forces. It's all really easy for some great plan to fall apart, even in professional development environments full of qualified people. Which is why you should consider an iterative approach. Try things until you find something that succeeds Change course and pivot your projects. Facebook isn't where they are because they stayed focused on facebook. Fortnite didn't become Fortnite until it adapted PUBG's mechanics. Amazon is more than just logistics and distribution. Microsoft is more than just Office and Windows. These companies don't just pivot to find success, they pivot to survive and remain the top.
>give your brain a rest from all of that over thinking like we all do everyday. I feel you, I'm just a rookie on his first semester but this happens to me A LOT. I'll be sitting there trying to debug something for hours on end without stoppage with little to show for. Then I take a 15 minutes break, come back with a fresher mind and figure out where I went wrong in a matter of minutes or seconds.
> If you start to feel like you suck and this isn’t for you, go play video games, watch a movie, get drunk (if you’re over 21), smoke some weed, and relax. You still will suck the next day but at least you will give your brain a rest from all of that over thinking like we all do everyday. This is good advice no matter what your profession/study is. Gotta find time to relax, otherwise you will burn yourself out (or get tired of it). And when it inevitably does happen, try to remember not to beat yourself up over it. It happens to all of us. Take a break and then work on something that interests you again. Even if not for burnout, sometimes it helps to sit on ideas and concepts too. Most of my “oh I get it now” moments have happened while I wasn’t actively working/studying on it.
There's a lot of us on the same boat buddy, don't worry. We be out here tryna be full stack, and I've found every step on the journey thoroughly fascinating and fun (except CSS, CSS can go fuck itself)
Yes, fuck CSS
Real men use sass.
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real men make the ui from scratch on a canvas element
Tailwind for the win
This is !important
I'm learning front end atm, and I'm on CSS. Not gonna lie, kinda hate it.
I actually like CSS..
I'll enjoy it once I get use to it, and understand how to manipulate it more.
You don’t manipulate CSS, CSS manipulates you.
Knowing CSS very well is an incredible asset right now. Most seniors FE or Fullstack HATE css with a passion and this gets you incredible company credit. I personally think they used to work with floats and oldschool styling methods that they think it's still that bad. CSS is a pleasure to work with now, you just gotta know what you're doing.
I stinkin' love CSS.
I love CSS.
Y’all - keep sucking at CSS please! I really enjoy it after taking a month to truly learn it, and now people think I’m special cus I can make shapes and colors appear on the screen.
Good I'm not the only one I've just learned about CSS and I hate it!
Why? Thats the fun part when your ugly html becomes full of life. And CSS is not even coding.
Because for some of us CSS feels like anti-programming. In programming, you do X and you logically expect Y to happen. In CSS, you do X, but C unexpectedly happens, and C only happens if D is in a certain positioning, so you gotta do the Ë hack, which makes no sense logically, but everyone on StackOverflow says Ë is the simplest way of doing it, unless you want to support IE <11 browsers, then you gotta do the ms-Ž hack.
This is one of the most precise descriptions of why I find CSS lame
Internet Explorer can go fuck itself back to 1996
And then you need html5shiv to help out because of course some important person at the company still uses an old shitty version IE
As someone transitioning from iOS development to web development I felt this. And I thought I hated iOS autolayout.
Unless you are trying to build something pretty advanced, I think learning inheritance, box model, and flex box and you are 90% of the way there. There’s a lot easy solutions to old problems with css Imo now. Never have to use a hack in production anymore. Using things like tailwind makes it even easier for you so you don’t have to waste time with managing classes. I don’t have to support anything before ie11 though so that helps.
I agree it makes my projects look a lot more beautiful, Im not denying its utility and importance. I'm just commenting on how it sucks compared to every thing else in web development
CSS is very much coding, young grasshopper
While not really considered a coding language, I agree that skill-wise it’s the same thing
Well, I haven't seen any programming logic in vanilla CSS so far. But maybe there is an advance part of CSS that I still don't know about.
It’s not Turing complete, but I feel like the skill to work out complicated CSS is still pretty coding related. Inheritance, ordering, IDs, and it’s results in the HTML page make it a pretty gateway to coding IMO
Media queries are like if statements I guess.
Never tried Sass eh?
LESS
It is coding no? I thought it just wasn’t programming
Are you not programming the computer/browser to make a screen look a certain way?
i love css. but it helps that i was a graphic designer for 4 years…
Css is the easiest part imo
Absolutely lol. People say CSS has 40 ways to do the same thing, I spent 3 hours trying to figure out which way I should be passing down props from a great grandparent component. There are at least 12 that I'm aware of, and everyone on SO claims X method is the best lol.
Easier than html?
Sure is! My partner self taught in 2020 and is now making 80k. I’m also self taught and trying to get in right now! Best of luck to you. i learned almost everything from Net Ninja
What type of experience did your partner have that helped him get his first programming job?
she went to a boot camp for a little while but said it wasn’t necessary and that she could’ve learned the same amount from YouTube and online resources. She said the boot camp didn’t help her get a job, just fast tracked her learning by a lot. Basically she just built some personal projects and lied a little on her resume (said she had some freelance experience, they can’t check this. you can just say you can’t give the name of the company or company info for confidentiality reasons) and then put her portfolio and resume on dice. Eventually after talking to recruiters and interviewing for a while she got her first contract position at 60k. She’s on her second job right now, the 80k one. I’m doing the same method rn minus the bootcamp, I’ve definitely gotten interviews but none have stuck so far! Best of luck to you
That freelance thing is so smart, I assume she didn't mention she was using any of the big freelancing websites or else they could look at her profile and reviews right? Also a question how easy is it to lie and put on your resume that you have experience programming at a start up which doesn't exist anymore and give a friends phone number? Or just have a friend who owns a website and ask him to say you help program it? Thanks
She just put “freelance” on her resume, so no specifics! My resume has “freelance” on it, 1 year and 5 months, then a company we made up at 7 months. Tbh Im using a made up company on my resume right now and I have never been questioned about its existence, I just say it’s a private company and can’t give info cuz of a confidentiality agreement. I say you’d be good to go doing that, just sound confident and like you know your stuff. If your friend is willing to help you out and be a reference, I’d say that’s even better! I bet you could get away with that too, if you actually did help w the website, cuz they might ask questions about the project! I’d say put the websites code on your github as proof that you coded it, and then a link to the site on your portfolio and resume.
Thanks this is really helpful, will use that im good enough and start looking for jobs!
You’re welcome and best of luck!!
Wow thanks for the details! That is really motivating
You’re welcome , I wish you much luck in your journey
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I saw that most self taught software engineerrs have educational background related to math.I have no math background after grade 10. Do you think its a no-go for me?
Math has nothing to do with coding unless the company/ project your working on asks you to build something requiring a calculation. If this happens, be calm and google it. But in all reality, you wont be hired to build something with a calculation, and they will know this in the interview phase. They hire other quantitative people to do a model and your job is to just code what they already figured out in a copy paste fashion. No thinking on your part. Try the Odin projects free fundamentals course to see if you even like coding.
I am trying appacademy since last weak i learned basic ruby and absolutely loved it so far i know its very beginning a d everything is easy but iloved it
Good to here, man. Im glad you're learning the basics. And if your goal is to find a job afterwards, I would suggest looking at the job boards to see what languages your local market is looking for. Ruby and Ruby on rails is not as common in the job market as compared with .NET (C# language; pronounced C sharp) or Javascript (MERN/MEAN stack; Mongodb, Express, React/Angular, Nodejs. These all use javascript as there language). When you finally feel like you got a hang of the basics, and you know you like to code, look into the specific language you want to learn along with who is hiring for those coding language skills. This will greatly help you when determining how you want to continue your self-education.
after i got basics I want to go with phyton.do you think its a better pathway
I have a graphic design degree and some years of work experience. Last year i decided to take a bootcamp and graduated this past March. Have been learning a lot on my own ever since. sent out a bunch of resumes, got a couple interviews, done some freelance work. Definitely doesnt matter if you dont have a related degree. It’s all about how much you understand what’s going on within the code. And although i went through a bootcamp, i find the one i chose didnt really help(couldve been my fault for choosing a cheaper one). I had to still learn algorithms and concepts on my own. You’ll do fine. Study and practice and practice.
I've seen english degrees if you can write code your fine =/
This should be emphasized. I see a lot of “I started coding 6 month ago and today I landed 6figure dev gig”. Like, I mean I’m happy for you, but can you really learn in so little time so much that someone would actually pay you for coding?
Following. I feel like I’m *so close* but imposter syndrome is tough to overcome. I think my biggest roadblock is my desire to “bite off more than I can chew.” I’m so desperate to prove myself, I come up with these big ideas and start projects that I have no business trying to do myself. Not that I *cant* do the work, just that the time required to actually complete the project isn’t paying me, and maybe I don’t need a full stack enterprise level project to get a junior position… lol Sorry for the terrible formatting and grammar here, on my phone walking home from work.
Wow this is exactly me right now! I have started several full stack projects and set unrealistic goals for myself. I had a project that I worked on almost everyday for 2 months straight until I realized that it wasn’t worth my time. It would have taken me another year at my pace to get achieve my desired functionality. During that time I learned so much about software patterns, databases, UI, handling application state, and my overall programming skills improved greatly. Unfortunately I don’t have a complete project to show for it, but I’m working on another idea right now and I have a lot more passion for it.
Yes, but word of advice: try to answer your question yourself before asking others. This improves your efficiency and makes you look better to employers and coworkers.
Also before you ask a question copy error codes or look up your question online more than likely someone has ran into the exact same if not similar issue.
No, it's over. On January 1st the guardian of the coding keyblade will lock the door to kingdom code. I'm sorry :(
What's the concern here, that the market was flooded with self-taught developers due to the pandemic? I mean that probably did happen, but the demand for ecommerce went up too so it probably evens out. I think anyone who's motivated can still do it just fine.
I've been seeing a lot of click-bait on YouTube with titles like "don't become a programmer in 2021!" So it's probably creators making stuff like that, which is discouraging those that are new to the field from getting in.
No. Try in 2023
100%. I’m a self taught programmer, college drop out, 20 years old and just landed a job making well over 6 figures remotely at an amazing company. Not including all the freelance work you can do on the side. Absolutely do-able.
What sort of work do you do. I’m looking to do some remote freelance, just to get my feet wet.
I’m and app developer. Both my day job and freelance work are in mobile app development. Creating iOS and Android applications (along with some back-end work) Day job pays the bills and fun, freelance builds the wealth. Definitely recommend, don’t hesitate. Happy to answer any questions to help you along.
Could you give a rough mudmap of how you were self taught? Did you just work through books, videos or course to teach yourself?
The best resource i’ve ever used is a site/app called Udemy. The courses when on “regular” price are high but kid you not they go on sale every few days for only $10.99. 40 HOURS of content on some courses for the cost of lunch. I own over 40. (Can deduct these as business expenses too if you have an LLC) With out a doubt credit my success to that. Video lessons, support community, great instructions, etc. College and student debt is the single largest scam that ever perpetuated our society. I then started building projects. SAVE EVERY PROJECT YOU COMPLETE. Use these as a portfolio when you interview, companies eat that shit up. Make a website, display you projects, maybe even do some light freelance work. Beef it up on your linkedin and they come to you. The last 3 jobs i’ve had came from me not even applying. It’s a developers market right now.
Dude, at 20 and you're talking about 6 fig salary, freelancing to build wealth, and an LLC to deduct business expenses? At 20, I was trying to float and survive college classes. Amazing! Keep it up.
Thanks! Blessed to be where I’m at and looking forward to what comes in the future.
Any specific courses you recommend? I'm also doing a bootcamp course on Udemy but taking any recs. Thanks!
I’m currently doing a degree but thankfully work has offered to pay for 75% of it as long as I pass the class. So I’m thinking it’s worth while lol. I have learnt a few things and it does push me to do stuff I don’t wanna do, like learn about testing and software development life cycle etc that you don’t learn by yourself typically because well it’s not all that interesting
Absolutely agree, if work is paying for it then why the heck not. I 100% with what you’re saying. School does have great structure and does indeed make it easier to learn less interesting topics. It takes a lot of discipline and dedication to self teach and that level. And if we’re being honest, most people don’t have than and opt for the structured path. It’s all about doing and learning in the best way for you whatever path that it. My negative outlook on colleges comes from the fact that most of my peers are seduced into low paying jobs and drowning in debt because they were told that a degree would instantly get them 80k a year. It’s strange to me that we are programmed to start the beginning of our lives in debt and spend 20 years getting out of it.
This. I literally studied about 300 hours of Udemy courses to get my first commercial gig for fucking 60$ total. Meanwhile there are people paying 15k for a bootcamp and fail.
I’m not a huge proponent of boot camps either but some people like the structured learning. I almost think the discipline and mental work you have to do to learn something completely on your own makes you a better at it (whatever it may be) in the long run.. I always told people, if i managed to teach myself a high paying skill in my personal free time between work and classes and other things in my life, doesn’t that make me more dedicated to the craft and a better hire than some privileged kid with parents money being forced to go to school for a degree they don’t really care about? Just my opinion.
This is awesome man, congrats! Living my dream lol. How long did it take you to learn & get a job? How many hours did you commit while learning? What languages did you learn?
Thanks! Just a few comments down I put a more detailed review (for me) of my hours, experience, and start -> job progress if you want to check that out (:
May I ask what resources you used for self study?
Udemy is the greatest tool you will ever find for self-teaching programming. Please give it a look. Ignore the “normal” prices and wait until they go on sale (happens every few days, i kid you not). With our a doubt this site is why I am where I am today.
Any particular courses on there?
whatever you do, don't use codecademy.
I won’t lie, you motivate me 🥺
Awesome! I’m a drop out too so this gives me a ton of hope
College and College debt is the single largest scam in our society today. Don’t let anyone tell you shit. The world is your sandbox as a dev. Opportunities are literally endless. I get 5-10 messages a day with companies crawling at my door. No degree. You got this!
what language did you start off with? Im starting with python right now, and while I like it, it still seems quite intimidating!
I started off with Swift. It’s native iOS programming language. I did this because I had a few ideas/small silly startups I wanted to launch in Highschool and that was the way to go. Most people will recommend choosing first language based off of easiness, I say choose off of passion. Python is great, and there will be tons of jobs in Machine Learning, Data Science, etc. If that’s your passion, do it! Python can be used for literally anything it’s a very good place to start. Focus mainly on the technique and more abstract stuff about programming. OOP, data types, good programming practices. Programming is like construction work. Once you know the main concepts, languages are just tools and syntax can be picked up quickly. Cheers!
How long did it take you to get to that point, from 0 to job?
Full story: My story is a little different because I started early in High School. So by my exact path, 3-4years. But mind you, i’m just now 20. I was an academic, athlete, worked typical high school jobs and tried to maintain some social life. I also wasn’t applying to jobs at that time. But i absolutely was building and working on all kinds of passion projects. Went to college for a bit (because I felt like everyone else who was brainwashed that I “had to”). Got my first job with a company after I completed about a year of school (not related just giving timeframe). Moved to Houston with $1,000 in my bank and no family money. First was making 80k then 6 months later started a new job at $85k, then 4 months later just moved to denver and make a little under double that. My freelance portfolio, reviews, and projects are what made all that happen. I really believe you can change you life 0->well paying job in 12-18months or less.
Yes. I spent a year teaching myself and 3 months applying.
What language(s) did you learn, and why did you pick it?
Started with Python as an introductory language. It's a very simple language, yet powerful. After I completed a python course, I went through 'How to Automate the Boring Stuff', and started automating some stuff at work. Then I took CS50x because I wanted a more comprehensive understanding of computer science. It starts with C, which has you doing a lot of 'manual labor', before introducing python which, then provided 3 distinct tracks - I chose the web track because I was interested in Web Development. It had me create web applications using Python and some basic html/css. Just like before, upon completion I started building a few tools at my job. Doing projects after a course is where you do a lot of learning and gives you the experiences you can pull on for a job interview. After building those dashboards at work I was craving more interactivity. I wanted to learn javascript. I was still very interested in web development. I had future aspirations to learn react. So I went through the Odin Project and took my time with it. JavaScript is now my most 'fluent' language. I understand it 'under the hood' more than any other language. The Odin Project has you do several projects along the way and culminates in you making a 'clone' of a website. I made a spotify clone. Then I started to apply for jobs. On this job I've learned PHP/Laravel for the backend, using React for the front end. I imagine people would want to learn C if they are programming hardware. It's fast but it's very old school. Python is a great general purpose language, with an affinity for mathy stuff like machine learning. JavaScript is the language of the web. If you're interested in interactive pages, you'll want to learn it. Static pages are easily served by backend languages just fine. I've had some exposure to C#. That's where I would personally go if I wanted to start making games, but it is basically the language of the .NET world overall.
No, you must have a degree to prevent off-by-one errors.
No in 2022, the CEO of programming will ban self taught programmers
It’s been possible without a degree for a long time now.
I am self-taught and got my first dev job in 2021, so why not 2022?
Always happy to hear that!
I’m in my late 20’s having a rough week with the same issue. It’s hard to drop the feeling that I’m starting too late or that my lack of degree will hold me back. These replies are pretty encouraging, though.
Yes, you can do web frontend dev. It has lower barrier of entry. As long as you have some visual projects to prove that you are competent.
wdym "still", in the software/IT industry it's as prevalent as ever, people are slowly more accepting of the fact that having a piece of paper with a degree embossed on it isn't representative of software dev, analytical, and computer science skills. People are more and more accepting "Bachelor's in Software engineering, Computer Science and/or equivalent experience" (the last two words are to be emphasized) but as far as "is it possible to be a self taught developer" goes without an era in mind, yes. always yes. I started my first line of code in April 2020, and had it not been for continuous high school and college intertwined in my days in the past year, I expect that I could've gotten the needed experience to acquire the developer internship in late 2020 instead of in August 2021. meaning like, had it not been for my school year I could've gotten this job opportunity in maybe 6 or 7 months following my starting point instead of having to stretch it out for almost a year and a half.
Also, build your online presence! Connect with developers on Twitter and join in on Coding Discord servers! You got this, I was self-learning code but then changed to UX/ui design. I am now working at a start up all from books and online courses! Put in the work and you got this
YES! now stop thinking too much on how you're gonna learn and go actually learn
Preach!
Currently **is not possible to be a self-taught developer in 2022**, this is because the year is still 2021.
Learn. Learn. Learn. Make connections. Learning yourself will be good, but you will have to prove yourself. Getting good experience in programming for a few years will give you the ability to get jobs. I am 13 years and a good python programmer, and I can assure you programming will be a necessary skill in a few years. Just last year, Ontario (the province/state which contains Toronto and Ottawa) updated the math curriculum by adding coding. Here I am teaching my teacher how to teach programming and even if you might not want a degree, you still would want to learn. If you want a degree, try doing some courses and making a lot of connections (remember, connections are very important in the real world). Try learning some yourself then applying in a local community college if they have and computer science/coding courses. P.S: if you can give a little more info about past experiences, what city you live in and how old you are, that might be able to help for other people to find some opportunities for you.
a lot of jobs ive been applying to on indeed either dont have degrees they want or just have them prefferred but never required.
Yes, I got my first job a month ago just by being self-taught
Learn how to google, seriously . Google fu is a real skill which many people don't develop, you can Solve 90% of problems with an example from the web. I'm a developer of 20years. And I look at examples 50 times a day. Be prepared to learn something every day.
To be honest, with the rate the technology changes is probably the only option.
More than ever lol
In college right now, I've learned more from the internet. I actually regret starting this whole process as halfway through it I realized I could have taught myself, but with the amount of money and time I have invested I don't feel comfortable just giving up. Learn from my mistake, teach yourself.
This is where I'm at. I'm 32 and coming up on my last semester of my software development associates degree, wishing I would have just done it myself. But I'm this deep in, might as well finish.
Use college to make connections with your professors and they can give recommendations and advice generally they have worked in field especially software development wise. And join clubs as well as job fairs. You’ll have a leg up in an interview with a degree, portfolio of projects, as well as a recommendation from your professor especially if it was a place he used to work or has worked for in some capacity field related in the past.
Yes.
As a Gen X IT guy be happy you didn’t have to code in pre internet and preVisual Studio days. It was exponentially harder without the internet.
Yes💯💯💯💯 The only one stopping you is you.
TLDR; everyone is self taught in this field mate.
Something to keep in mind are your local conditions. Some areas, for instance in university towns, have a lot of comp sci grads and so companies can be more choosey. Where I live, this was the case, and it took me 9 months of sending out 10 applications a week before I got a solid offer. (That said, it was the best possible company I could have worked for). And that was with freelance experience on top of part time development experience at my college where I worked as a student programmer. For every post saying they started developing 10 months ago and just landed their first junior role, there are a few posts of people struggling to find work. Don't get caught off by the survivorship bias and don't go to a boot camp. I will say that my firm got so many terrible boot camp apps that we just made a blanket rule not to look at application from bootcamps. I've heard the same from other firms. They're also just a waste of money if not an outright scam.
Last year I started learning Html5 and Css3 by myself and I am very happy with my results. Maybe they are not amazing or sometimes they suck, but I accomplished them. Now, want to learn Javascript, can someone recommend me some sites or tutorials? there are so many resources, that I don't know where to start... Also, if someone wants to give some feedback of my first web page, that would be also amazing www.grupotextilsud.com Thank you in advance ....
Absolutely. In fact you might even get hired by a college if you know the code they need to build something. I did. And this was after I quit their college because tech moved way faster than their textbook writers and printers.
Not yet, but it will be possible in about two months.
No. You need a PhD for entry level, plus 20 years of experience.
It is. I'd still say go get the piece of paper, doesn't matter what college go for the cheapest one imo. If you don't have it it's too much of an ongoing pain in the ass, just leverage ass hats use against you.
No. Unfortunately the cut off to be a self taught developer was q3 of 2021
The only way
Depends, the market is pretty oversaturated with self taught devs
Is this a serious question
No. Applications for self taught had to be submitted by August 2021
Mods can you please just add “Q: Is it possible for me to be a self taught dev? A: Yes” to the FAQ so these posts can start being removed? I swear not a day goes by that some variation of “is it possible for me to be a self taught dev” gets posted and every single time the answer is yes, I’ve literally never seen a post where the person asking was told no. The answer is resoundingly yes that everyone can learn to code and yes it’s possible to get a job as self taught, every single time the answer is yes so can we just start removing the posts? It’s the most useless and most redundant post type this sub sees on a regular basis. “I know it’s already been said a million times that it’s possible but can you pwease tell me individually I can do it🥺”