Can I Teach Myself Programming And Get A Job?

Software Development is a trendy field. How do you even start? I have come across many people who want to learn programming but they are worried that you need to spend thousands of dollars to go back to school and get a degree in computer science. Can I teach myself programming and get a job? The answer is not clear cut. I’ve heard of a lot of stories online where people are self-taught, but I want to warn you that this is a lot harder than going to a Boot Camp or getting a degree.

If you want to break into the field, there are a lot of free and paid resources online for you to use. However, learning from free resources is more complicated than getting a subscription on the learning platform, but it’s still doable. If you don’t mind spending money, check out a few Udemy courses or other learning platforms. If you want to teach yourself to code, you can take the FREE route or the learning platform route. Anyone who wants to learn programming needs to have certain attitudes.

What Kind of Attitudes Do You Need?

Before we explore the different routes to teaching yourself programming, it is essential to have specific attitudes that will benefit your coding journey and your professional career.

• Attention to Detail – I spent many hours on a project only to find that I needed a semicolon or a typo and the whole project failed to run. It would be best if you had good eyes to spot typos and errors that you write in your code. Don’t worry, though. Even seasoned developers need help, but you should strive to improve.
• A Growth Mindset – It is important to have curiosity about learning new technologies. You often get into a job and need to know a new technology you have not heard of before.
• Adaptability – Being adaptable will help your professional career and coding journey. Things change all the time in a job. In the professional environment, requirements can change in a project, and you need to adapt. This may look like refactoring a project you have done because you have found a better implementation. I will talk more about projects in a few paragraphs.

FREE Route

People instinctively jump at the word FREE; it is easily attainable, but is it beneficial? Depending on the person, learning on your own is valuable. I have come across many people who try to learn something independently and burn out. Those people need more structure and prefer a more traditional style of learning, which is beneficial for them.

Learning on your own requires a lot of dedication and determination. Some may have those traits, and some may not. It is way more challenging to find FREE stuff on the internet than to find a platform that organizes topics and concepts around a curriculum.

If you want to learn for FREE, though, here is how. Pick a programming language you are interested in and look up the documentation in google. You must type in the name of the technology you want to learn, followed by ‘docs.’ This is a great way to get up to speed on the programming language of your choice.

It takes a lot of dedication and a brilliant mind to become great at programming just by reading the docs. For that, I applaud you.

After that, you can go to YouTube to find FREE videos. Many of them have projects you can do to showcase on your portfolio.

You have a lot to choose from, and there are even many more than that, but my screen capture tool couldn’t take a snapshot of all of them. Building projects is one of the best ways to utilize and showcase what you learn in job interviews.

Don’t limit yourself to these projects. Use your creativity, and come up with project ideas that you have. Better yet, come up with an idea for a product that solves a real-life business need. Here are some examples.

• Bug Reporting Software or App
• Employee Clock In System
• eCommerce Web Site
• Data Scraping

One More Learning Trick

I have one more learning trick I have used in the past: navigate to GitHub to see how other people organize their code. You may need to learn what GitHub is, and let me explain. GitHub is an online repository that offers code storage and collaboration.

When you look at other developers’ code, don’t copy it. Check to see how their code is organized. You can learn a lot from their ideas and even get project ideas.

Learning Platform Route

Everyone love FREE and no one likes to spend money. Everyone likes to make money, but no one likes to spend it. However, learning on your own is hard because you have no guidance.

Do you like more structure in your learning but still want to learn in your free time? There are a lot of learning platforms that organize a curriculum to teach you how to code. To name a few off the top of my head, there are:

• Treehouse
• Codecademy
• Pluralsight
• FreeCodeCamp – Yes, I said free
• and many more

These learning platforms have projects you can build in any technology you want to focus on. After creating these projects, it is crucial to add them to a portfolio website. FreeCodeCamp has a project geared toward making a portfolio website.

How to Get a Job?

You would like to get a fantastic job now that you have exceptional projects. I would say try to shoot for at least five projects to include. I have published an outstanding article about getting a job that you will find highly helpful.

Recommendation

Do what is best for you. You can save some money if you learn best by utilizing the docs and YouTube. However, learning platforms do cost a little, so you might not be able to get that daily Starbucks coffee for a while. The good news, though, is some platforms come with a FREE trial. If that sparks your interest, scroll back up and hit the button to read more. If it doesn’t, that is fine too. Just know that it may be easier to learn with guidance.

I know a guy that is now a senior developer, and he was able to teach himself some programming, although he did supplement with Udemy courses. If you want a career in programming, you don’t have to break the bank to afford that college degree. All you may need is a little push to get started. I hope I have given you that push.

However, if you are looking for an official recognized curriculum and college, learning platforms, and learning on you own isn’t ideal, I would suggest trying nucamp.

Nucamp is not your traditional bootcamp. It guides you through a structured curriculum and has stellar career services, all for under 3,000 dollars, but they offer many scholarships and payment options.

Conclusion

Coding is challenging, requires a lot of time, and is not an overnight adventure to fame and fortune. There are many paths to our coding journeys, and there is no right path. It depends on the individual and how they learn best.

However, many people find the coding journey fun. I love learning, and that makes me a nerd. I find coding fun and value web development and product creation.

I invite you to be a nerd with me and learn some coding so that you can take over the world before bedtime. 🤪

Thank you for reading my post. Leave your comments below to participate in this engaging community. Be sure to sign up to receive updates of more incredible articles.

Share my article on social media and follow me on Twitter for extra content.