Why, hello there fellow reader! It's great for you to drop by the blog again! Today's subject is something that almost EVERY coding YouTube Channel covers: Should you be self-taught, go to college, or a coding bootcamp? Well, from me, you may be getting some biased and/or unbaised opinions on what YOU personally should do. However, in the end, it is ultimately your decision to make that one big decision when it comes to your education and what route you want to go through.
I would like to start off with the self-taught route on learning how to code. It is an EXTREMELY difficult path to undergo, especially if you are not disciplined well enough to just say, "You know what? I am skipping video games today and study code!" I have this issue honestly, especially since I speedrun video games on the side as a hobby. The other major issue is trying to find a quiet environment to study code. If you have a loud house hold, I would recommend going to a public library or school library to study. I will discuss about the school library section in the next portion of this blog. But it can also be fun because you get to look through resources where you can learn, like Team Treehouse and Free Code Camp! Books are also a great way for self-teaching because not all the books you read DON'T particularly have to be coding books. They can get soft skills books like "The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide" by John Somnez. But when it comes for application time, you ABSOLUTELY NEED to stand out from the crowd! Have a side project, like a blog that I am doing for example, or a YouTube Channel where you talk about code.
The second thing that I want to talk about is college. Even though a certain percentage of tech companies don't require degrees, it is a nice thing to have on your resume so you can breach that "HR Firewall" so it will be a bit easier for you to land your first developer role. There are a couple of things with college that you guys should know about college if you are a younger reader, like middle to high school younger. When you are going through a Computer Science Degree or certification program, understand that a LOT of your programming classes will be more theoretical than you actually writing code. So at the end of the day, it is still your job to work on your coding assignments. However, there is a good side to this. I heard about people going in for a CS Degree or certification program buying their books EARLY, reading them, and eventually becoming a Teacher's Assistant because you voluntarily help other students who haven't gotten far into the book. It shows initiative, and not only that, it could be possible that your professor could give you a letter of recommendation when you start your job hunt! You can also connect with other CS Degree students and start working on projects together to spruce up both yours and your peers' skills!
The last and final thing I want to talk about are coding bootcamps. I would be EXTREMELY careful when it comes to coding bootcamps, since a lot of them guarantee you landing your first entry-level developer job, which is not ALWAYS the case. If you come from a higher-income background and decide to use your money to spend $9,000 to $25,000 on a coding bootcamp, It's your call. The major gripe that I have about coding bootcamps is how they can be structured. You would have to pretty much drop your WHOLE life for 3 months to code every single day for about 8 hours. So if you have to quit a job while living on your own, you're kinda shit outta luck there until you miraculously land a job. You would also more and likely have to take a loan out from the bank to attend this bootcamp, depending on your credit score, etc. That's the scary thing about coding bootcamps. Just being expected to drop your whole life just to code for three months and not being guaranteed a job at the end of the curriculum. There IS however, a positive side to the coding bootcamp route. You will be connected with a bunch of aspiring web developers such as yourself and work on projects together. Also, during final projects, there may be a good chance that some recruiters from tech companies will be watching your final presentations and may want to connect with you. If you however, land a job right after bootcamp, great! But you will still have to put in the hard work and apply for jobs, because jobs won't be handed out to you like candy.
Well, this concludes what I have to say about the three routes of learning how to code and getting your first developer job. What is my ultimate opinion on what route you should take? Well, if you are looking to save money, I would say take the self-taught route because it's the least expensive route. However, everyone is different. I am a self-taught person with no developer job, however, I do plan on going back to college because I do feel like I need a more structured environment like college. But ultimately in the end, as I have said, it is up to you to make your own decision on what you should do. I do, however, strongly recommend that you go to meetups whenever you can! You will learn a LOT from meetups, meet other developers and recruiters, and pass out your resume. If you enjoyed reading this blog, be sure to comment and share the blog with people who think that may need to see this. Have a wonderful day.
Friday, September 28, 2018
Sunday, September 23, 2018
So You Want to Become a Web Developer/Programmer...
Hi there! If you are looking to become a Web Developer like I am, great! Fantastic! Let's take this journey together! Before we begin on that, allow me to give a bit of background on myself.
I am 28 years of age, living in Southern California and working two jobs. I used to go to college but I am not attending anymore at the moment for specific reasons, but I am highly interested in going back. I have some knowledge of HTML/CSS and learning JavaScript right now with interests of working the front end.
Well, now that I have told you about myself, fellow reader, let's get down to business and talk about what it takes to become a Web Developer, whether it be front end, back end, or full stack! I'm pretty sure that you have read or watched videos on what I am about to tell you HUNDREDS of times, but it is rather important that you take the time to make these efforts always. I am going to be breaking down these down with what the top 5 important items that I believe that you should work on when it comes to becoming a Web Developer. So without further ado, let's break this list down:
1.) Figure out what you want to do when it comes to Web Development or any other sort of programming. It's imperative that you figure out what it is that you want to do and like when it comes to any kind of programming or development. Let's say that you are interested in Data Science. You would have to figure out what languages are used for Data Science. Python sounds like a good place to start, right? Well, you have to see how Python is structured, play around with code, work on a project. If you like it, great! Keep at it! If not, there's always plenty of other options for you out there.
2.) How are you going to learn these programming languages? This is very important to understand when it comes to learning how to program. Consider the costs of courses and the time that it will take for you to understand the language that you're programming in so that you don't need to look at resources too often. You can always take a course at a community college, purchase a course on Udemy, learn for free on YouTube, etc. I will be covering the pros and cons of all of these subjects in another blog post.
3.) Find meetups! Finding meetups can be pretty tough sometimes. However, a quick Google search can be your best tool! You can also use meetup.com or the meetup app to find a coding meetup near your area. Meetups sometimes provide some free food and drink, but please be considerate with those. The best part of meetups is meeting other developers, aspiring developers like yourself, and potentially recruiters that you can keep in contact with.
4.) CODE EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! It is preferred by a YouTuber that I follow, Dylan Isreal, big shout out to you if you read this blog, that you should code for 4 hours a day. However, we do have other obligations such as family, jobs, and other things that can happen. I try to code for at least an hour to an hour and a half a day at the moment. But once I start getting more free time, I will be coding so much more often!
5.) Have fun! That is the biggest thing that I think people fail to understand. Yes, it is important to take your self-studies or structured studies seriously, but please do remember that you will be running into bumps during your programming learning and you will make mistakes. Just take a deep breath, move away from your keyboard for a minute, reflect what you may have done wrong, then once you figure out what's going on, laugh it off and go back to coding. It isn't the end of the world if your code isn't working proper when you run a test. You can also talk to your fellow peers about your problem and see if they can help you out with it!
Well, that is all that I have for this blog today. If you want to follow, please go ahead and do so. I do intend to post more blogs for my journey as a Web Developer to come. have a wonderful day!
I am 28 years of age, living in Southern California and working two jobs. I used to go to college but I am not attending anymore at the moment for specific reasons, but I am highly interested in going back. I have some knowledge of HTML/CSS and learning JavaScript right now with interests of working the front end.
Well, now that I have told you about myself, fellow reader, let's get down to business and talk about what it takes to become a Web Developer, whether it be front end, back end, or full stack! I'm pretty sure that you have read or watched videos on what I am about to tell you HUNDREDS of times, but it is rather important that you take the time to make these efforts always. I am going to be breaking down these down with what the top 5 important items that I believe that you should work on when it comes to becoming a Web Developer. So without further ado, let's break this list down:
1.) Figure out what you want to do when it comes to Web Development or any other sort of programming. It's imperative that you figure out what it is that you want to do and like when it comes to any kind of programming or development. Let's say that you are interested in Data Science. You would have to figure out what languages are used for Data Science. Python sounds like a good place to start, right? Well, you have to see how Python is structured, play around with code, work on a project. If you like it, great! Keep at it! If not, there's always plenty of other options for you out there.
2.) How are you going to learn these programming languages? This is very important to understand when it comes to learning how to program. Consider the costs of courses and the time that it will take for you to understand the language that you're programming in so that you don't need to look at resources too often. You can always take a course at a community college, purchase a course on Udemy, learn for free on YouTube, etc. I will be covering the pros and cons of all of these subjects in another blog post.
3.) Find meetups! Finding meetups can be pretty tough sometimes. However, a quick Google search can be your best tool! You can also use meetup.com or the meetup app to find a coding meetup near your area. Meetups sometimes provide some free food and drink, but please be considerate with those. The best part of meetups is meeting other developers, aspiring developers like yourself, and potentially recruiters that you can keep in contact with.
4.) CODE EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! It is preferred by a YouTuber that I follow, Dylan Isreal, big shout out to you if you read this blog, that you should code for 4 hours a day. However, we do have other obligations such as family, jobs, and other things that can happen. I try to code for at least an hour to an hour and a half a day at the moment. But once I start getting more free time, I will be coding so much more often!
5.) Have fun! That is the biggest thing that I think people fail to understand. Yes, it is important to take your self-studies or structured studies seriously, but please do remember that you will be running into bumps during your programming learning and you will make mistakes. Just take a deep breath, move away from your keyboard for a minute, reflect what you may have done wrong, then once you figure out what's going on, laugh it off and go back to coding. It isn't the end of the world if your code isn't working proper when you run a test. You can also talk to your fellow peers about your problem and see if they can help you out with it!
Well, that is all that I have for this blog today. If you want to follow, please go ahead and do so. I do intend to post more blogs for my journey as a Web Developer to come. have a wonderful day!
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