Self Taught Programmers: Advice, Challenges, and Why We Need Them

Any advice for folks teaching themselves how to code? Thread below!

Hey, I'm Yuusuf and 20 years old. I’m interested in becoming a self-taught web developer, and I would like to meet serious people who want to connect so we could make a study group and make a plan together. If you are interested, let me know.

What I have started doing as a self taught developer is basically go into boot-camp courses and look through the structure of their curriculum and from there create my own. This makes planning so much easier because you get to see how the workflow of different courses are executed and get a feel as to how you should approach your coding itinerary.

@hellomayuko Thank you for the video it is truly inspiring

Awesome video! Super inspiring and welcoming! I am on the path to self teaching as well and can’t wait to make it!

I wonder if her statements stands up still today

Ngl I'm here for the vibes

My personal experience is self-taught guys are smart, but they lack here and there in terms of software engineering
And a lot of them are working on front end

It's so nice listening to what the people you interviewed have to say in regards of being self taught, their experiences, what you would have to go through, etc. I'm also in the path of trying to get a job in tech 2023 and so far, no luck. But this video is giving me much needed motivation and inspiration. Thank you for this video! 🤧

Thank you for this!

This is wonderful. Exactly what I needed to see/hear today. Thank you!

Question: Are you going to try and get to a Natalia Lafourcade show this year?

or a med student lol hahahaha

So true, the self-taught route is the cheapest but the hardest! How'd you structure the curriculum for yourself when you're new to the industry and can't even see the bigger picture of it? Even if you follow a uni curriculum, most people don't have the motivation to sit down and code every night after long work days.

By watching this, what I understand is coders are real entertainers.

Great video! I’m going through this route right now for front end. I’m a Airforce vet coming from a help desk background.

Yeah need to go to school even Bill gates and Steve Jobs goes to university, no self taught goes rocket science

What is really fantastic about the tech/programming industry is you don't need any qualifications at all, just a good portfolio of projects. I'm in the UK and haven't a degree. I left school at 16. but now at the ripe old age of 54 I hold a Senior Principle Scientific Data Analyst role at a global Pharma. I spend most of my day coding in R which I taught myself before R was a thing but realised it had potential. All you need is curiosity and grift, and even if you only have a high school diploma you can make it in programming.

you're too good looking to be convincing 🙄

I am almost completely self taught, but i learned programming over the course of 15 years. I normaly will learn what I need when I needed it. I cant say that I am very good at any off them, but I am very good at troubleshooting. I just started as a PLC programmer programing chemical blending systems, and Im killing it. It is SO much fun. I just get to solve problems all day :D

Finding a mentor scares the hell out of me.. omg TTT

Great video!!

I know some refugees who were in Australian detention who learned to speak English by watching TV shows. They had few other resources.

You just made me smile again Mayuko! Thank you, I've been struggling with my self confidence in becoming a software engineering, still looking to land that first job! I took about two years off, and regret it, but watching your video just gave me hope again! <3

How to actually connect with the community? I feel people in meetups aren't really interested in connecting, they come and chat, connect on linkedin, but don't really respond much afterwards

i just started learning 11 days ago and im in love with this comunnity

As a non-programmer, I thought the computer field would be the last place for 'imposter syndrome'.

I got the impression that technology is moving so fast, the traditional classes would be outdated and that most of the information you need is online.

Hi, how to actually find a community.
I am looking to find python community

Don't sugarcoat it. Getting a degree is the fastest way to become a developer. Trust me, I have tried both

haha. Mayuko just saved me $30k by talking me out of going back to school for a software engineering degree.

Love the Chillhop loop, i listen to chillhop while studying or gaming. By the way, i shared this video to my 2 nieces who are interested in coding

any advice for a 40 year old teacher who is thinking about changing careers?

i am self taught, and struggled to be taken seriously in my first 2 software positions, where i mostly was a keyboard monkey / production support. i was passed up for creative development work by good people with decent degrees, even though in conversating with them, i could tell they were still learning things i knew years ago from learning the hard way. oh well

perseverance

Thank you for putting this together!

Daniel 12:4
King James Version
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

tip for learning to code: make programs to solve your own problems. or make programs to solve friends'/family's problems. e.g. a thing that batch renames files, or a gui for a set of excel data.

i did some research on bootcamps and they not so good. look em up. lots of people unhappy. i would just get a udemy course (or something cheap) to get the basics. then do some projects on your own.

i'm a self taught software developer. thanks you for complementing me :D

I love the way you have articulated your thoughts, "I really think you learn what you need to learn at the time that you learn it". Thanks for the positivity into the community!

Beginners need to fall in love with stackoverflow, shamelessly so ❤️

Whenever people say that you don't need a Computer Science degree, it just sounds like they undermine people with Computer Science degree

Experience is the most important thing in tech. So self-taught is actually a huge plus. Mainly because you are gaining experience for your resume that looks better then a degree in the tech field. I am self-taught. I also went to Stanford for a semester and dropped out (Don't drop out. This is the absolute best place to get connections.) But that is irrelevant to my knowledge in computer science. I have always had a huge passion for computers so it was easy for me to get in the field without college. If you do decide to go the self-taught path please finish the projects you start. Their are plenty of resources that will give you starter project ideas. I would suggest getting good at about 4 languages and sufficient with web dev(html,css). My suggested languages would be c++(A tour of C++ is a great book), java(google this probably the most sources),or c#(I learned this why working with unity), python(Plenty of great sources like java) or javascript(huge amount of sources), php(again huge amount of sources). You should also learn some dbms (Database management systems). A good fun source for a lot of these languages is codecombat. It is fun and will get you in the habit of coding. You should always start with fun as your main goal. If your not having fun you will lose interest and fail. Don't fail have fun. Sorry for ranting I got carried away.

Watched the entire vid. I really needed to see this today.. thank you so much

Am I the only on who thinks every programmer is self-taught ? I don't think any of the college courses teach you any programming languages.

What I did years ago (to change career):
1. Learn dbs and OOP; few community college courses on dbs and programming (Project-based learning)
2. Get a contract job & keep learning.
3. After 1-2 years of experiences, you can easily get well-paying SD job
4. Keep learning.

In the self-taught path, getting a related job as quickly as possible is important in my opinion. If you attempt to do a lot of learning in one breath before getting a job, you are likely to give up.

I was a skater when i was in elementary school
and i learn to ride a skate in just about a week, then do ollie and kickflip 2 weeks
but i do believe that, in order to become as good as any other pro skater
i takes years of practice.
i think its the same thing as coding, but more like in how to build program structure in you head before start typing.

This video was really helpful. Thanks!

I will work hard to be like Mayuko

yea, I think you are wrong. There are a whole lot of people out there giving perspective to others. Maybe you didn't have this from your experience..