How long does it take to "Learn to Code"?

if you're learning to code you may have seen other people who have reported that it only took them like three months to actually learn to code from going like zero experience to actually getting that first job in less than three months and i think that these people's experiences beg the question of how long does it actually take to learn to code so to go from no programming experience to first job like what's the realistic expectations because a lot of you guys who are out there who are doing this need to know like should i buckle down for you know years and years to figure this out or is it only gonna take me three months so i'm going to address that from my experience of coaching and mentoring other people to give you better expectations so let's go ahead and dive right into it now in order to really lay out expectations properly here i think the most important thing to explain to a lot of you guys because you probably don't understand is what it even means to learn to code enough that you can get that first job so the most common misconception that i see a lot of you guys have is thinking that learning to code just means you'll memorize syntax once you memorize syntax you can maybe do a few data structures and algorithm problems or coding problems that like you're set to go that's not what being a programmer is all about anyone can memorize syntax anyone can memorize facts and figures what it means to be a programmer goes much beyond syntax you are basically a problem solver you're a technical problem solver meaning you take a programming language which is a tool and you solve problems with that you solve an array and all these different sorts of problems with it and nothing can make you a good problem solver but actually going in and solving problems with a programming language so what i say for you guys the way you're going to be experienced enough to actually get that first job is you have to just dig in you have to get your hands dirty day in and day out for a long period of time you have to get a lot of exposure and time to programming and programming languages and building projects and running into issues fixing issues debugging and that only comes from working on projects working on lead coding type problems like programming challenges and just doing that over and over rinse wash repeat and obviously learning the fundamentals is important but my point is that it's not just about memorizing syntax or something like that so with that in mind how do you get good enough to meet that what i call minimum threshold right that minimum amount of skill that most companies will hire you for because if you have that minimum amount of skill they can probably take you the rest of the way and help you to develop the skills that will help you to contribute to an employer at some point so you're good enough so that you can actually write code in a professional setting okay now from there what i can tell you guys is that a majority of you guys i don't know what the exact percentage is probably more than half maybe about 60 70 80 percent of you who are watching this are going to need about 12 months or more to actually learn this on your own enough to get that first job and the reason for this is pretty simple i find that most people really lack a clear structure of how to go about this so by structure i mean really knowing what you need to do every day really having a game plan meaning knowing what the big picture of what you're trying to do is from what projects you should be building what programming languages you should be learning and then just making sure you're consistent right most people lack that that's why people want to go to college they want to go to a boot camp that's why people join my mentorship program is because they can't really create that structure for themselves at least the structure that they can believe in and if you lack a clear structure that's where it takes a long time where i see this happen the most by the way or i should say the symptoms of this that are really clear to me and most common is that when people are doing this on their own they really struggle to get more than 10 or 15 hours of time in because they don't really have a sense of urgency and they don't really have a clear direction or plan but guess what if you are consistent meaning if you just spend time doing this you build a few projects even if you don't have the greatest structure in place the greatest plan in place you can make enough progress to get out there and give yourself an opportunity to land it for a shot because ultimately if you can show someone and demonstrate that you've been doing this for long enough you have a track record of building projects and maybe they don't have to be that advanced but again it just shows that you've been doing something and learning and doing this on your own that can impress a company especially smaller companies where they don't have that really rigid structure about who they have to hire do they have to have a degree in that sort of thing you can definitely have a chance now the more structure you have the better it's going to be the better position you'll be in but again most people fall in this category of 12 months or more simply because from what i've seen very very poor structure and then of course like many people just can't sustain focus for that long like just generally observing you guys most people can't uh really hyper focus for a long period of time that's where most people just fall in that category of doing it for 12 months or more a smaller percentage of people so i think i said maybe let's say about 70 to 80 percent or fall in that 12 months or more so i'd say about let's say 10 or yeah i'd say probably about 10 people will fall into the three month to 12 12 month category maybe 10 to even 15 and people who do this typically have some sort of structure some it doesn't have to be clear but they kind of know okay here's the path i'm going to go down i'm going to learn html css javascript i'm going to learn a framework then i'm going to build a full stack project maybe it's going to be a node or python i'm going to learn about apis they have done enough research from the beginning to know a basic plan and i see a lot of people who do this still not really feel comfortable or confident about their plan but they're gonna give it everything they've got for that three to twelve month period and they sort of give usually people aim for about six to eight nine months something like that but in reality they usually learn about six to nine months and then they apply for jobs that last three and that's where they can get hired so somebody like this is usually somebody who comes from a background where either they have some technical skills so technical skills maybe maybe they have worked in no i wouldn't say an i.t field but maybe in something similar to that where they are familiar with technical terms they're familiar with logic problem solving and they just see that and they usually typically understand that a path and a plan is very very important and whenever i see that i can usually predict that this person is probably going to have some success now it's really important to say here that even within the 3 to 12 month range it's very important to have a little bit of luck on your side like i got my job within a year of learning to code but it definitely took the right opportunity meaning luck where preparation meets luck um but i think that this is where a lot of people can fall if they just have some pretty clear structure they are consistent and i'd say most important a lot of people who fall in this category as well have usually had some experience in their life where they have followed through on something that took months to do so like you know lost a significant amount of weight quit cigarettes or something like that maybe built a high level skill in some other field so those people are usually the ones who fall in that three to 12 months now the last category which everybody wants to get into is the one that's the most small and i'd say you know all my percentages added up here probably don't add up to 100 but the people who can do this within less than three months probably is less than one percent right it's probably less than one percent you'd rarely hear this but the people who do fall in this category if you are dead set on being a person who falls into the three month or less category you have to basically get everything right the first thing you have to get right is luck so you have to be lucky for sure now i'm a huge believer that luck is where i should say i don't even remember what the quote is right it's like opportunity meets uh preparation that's luck or you know whatever whatever you want to say luck meets preparation so basically somebody who's gonna do this within three months they have to get everything right they have to find you know they just happen to apply to the right job they like that person they've prepared for the job interview meaning they've done all the right steps but not only that that person usually comes from some sort of technical background also that person usually has to take time off from work so either they are studying part-time or full-time meaning they work part-time and they spend the rest of it studying or they quit their job entirely and are working on this full-time meaning they are studying 30 to 40 hours per week and the most important part is if you're gonna do this within three months you better have a really really strict and rigid structure that you have meaning you have a clear idea of what you're doing every single day you should know what that week is all about you should know what you're doing in the next month and how that's all leading you to getting hired and it's crazy i think that doing this within three months is really really difficult i think aiming for it is counterproductive in many ways because look you can do this in six months or a year like i said you can fall in that category even having not the best structure in the world so why aim for three months but again i've seen it happen i know people who have done it but usually those people fall in that category of they have a lot of time on their hands because they quit their job or they're going part time they have a really good structure maybe they're at a boot camp maybe they're going to school and then of course they have to get lucky meaning that when they actually apply for a job there's a company that's willing to hire them right out the gate after doing this for three months so those are pretty much the expectations that i can give you guys from my experience again my percentages didn't really even add up to 100 so take that with a grain of salt but honestly like you can fall anywhere in those categories you can maybe it's going to be 12 months for you or more maybe it's going to be three months maybe you'll be that lucky person but this gives you an idea of sort of like where you can fall based on all those different factors so if you enjoyed the video i do kindly ask that you go down below make sure to smash the like button and it really helps me out a lot also if you're not subscribed to my channel subscribe as well by the way i also have a free pdf that you can download it's called a self-taught programmer study manual it's really has a lot of information about how to be a better self-taught programmer all the study tips that i've condensed over the years so if you want that i will leave a link in the description below of how you can do that but yeah that's pretty much all i have for today so thank you so much for watching and as always guys peace out cheers

Channel: Andy Sterkowitz

Views: 19,923

Rating: 4.9586205 out of 5

Keywords: self-taught programmer, self-taught software developer, programming, learn software development, learn programming, programming learning tips, software development learning, how to learn programming, how to learn software development, how to learn software engineering, computer programming

Id: nUqwvfXMs0U

Length: 9min 57sec (597 seconds)

Published: Mon May 24 2021