How long to become a software developer?

hey everybody what's going on on Andy I'm a self-taught software developer in this video I'm going to answer the question how long does it take become a software developer from start to finish right how long is they actually gonna take for you because maybe you just started last week to learn this on your own self teach or maybe you started for the last few months you started a few months ago and you're really looking to become a software developer and you're trying to figure out is this gonna take me years it's gonna take me months weeks do I have to quit my job right now so I can do it in the short term or do I have to really dig in for the long haul so I'm gonna answer that question based on my experience of mentoring dozens of people at this point to become software developers and really trying to figure out what are the different factors that play that makes someone learn it in less time more time and just give you a general idea of what I've seen so if you're new here by the way I'm Andy and I'm a mentor to everyday people who are looking to come software developers people who are looking to teach themselves the skills and learn a system for landing the first shop so I highly recommend subscribing below make sure to hit the bell icon as well so you can get notifications anytime I put out a new video so before we dive into exact timeframes that I've seen people laying their first job let's talk about the everything all this is predicated on so what I mean by that is for you to call yourself a software developer the way I look at it is you just gotta have to have a job right you have to have somebody who's willing to hire you right so somebody at who there owns their own company or somebody who has the hiring decision making at a company they just need to say hey you you we're gonna hire you for whatever reason right so you could be the most unqualified person in the world but if somebody were to say like look I just really like you I think that you have potential or something like that and you can get hired and call yourself a software developer it really doesn't matter how much you know so there's no rule about how long it's gonna take or what you have to know or how much time it's gonna take or anything like that if that's silly what it is is you just have to put yourself in a position where you're actually able to be hired so with that in mind really what I've seen is that on the low end of things usually the lowest of the low I've seen is it really takes someone about three months at the very low end so in other words if somebody just has all of the right advantages and good luck of course but most people take longer than that and the longest I've seen again the very far end of the spectrum is about two years so three months to about two years there are a couple different factors that really contribute to this that really contribute to you being a lower end or the higher end the big one is previous exposure to computers or previous exposure to programming languages a previous exposure to different technologies so it sounds crazy but there are some people out there who are looking to become software developers and you may be one of them watching that don't have much experience with just computers in general like email is still a little bit foreign to you like going through two websites and that sort of thing and so you're still you're determined to get into this and that's awesome but let's be real like that's just learning about computers understanding some of the basics how to work with operating systems that's going to be a lot of what the work you're gonna have to do is overcoming some of those basic ideas that most people already get now if you are already a an avid computer user if you feel comfortable around the computer now the next thing that's really going to give you advantage is previous exposure to programming languages or maybe you've have done something with networking before or maybe you have built your own website or blog by scratch the obviously the more exposure the better but even a little bit of exposure it can be helpful and just reducing the amount of time I've worked with people who as a kid work with programming languages and then as they got older they went away from that and they had their you know the normal job or whatever so when I find that people had experiences when they were younger breaking down computers or again working with some old programming language that doesn't even around anymore that can give them an advantage because as a kid they were it's almost like learning a different language as a kid as you get older it gets easier to learn different spoken languages when you have a foundation of learning a couple different languages so it will definitely give you an advantage it's not going to be the thing it's not going to give you like this crazy advantage where you don't have to work for it you just show up and you become a software developer like it doesn't work like that it's just again like these are tiny advantages that can shorten your learning curve potentially now the next thing that I see is a little bit weird but it's something I've just noticed and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna lie I'm not a psychologist so I don't know how to really explain this but it's really about how you think and there's really two types of people that I see in terms of how we'll think either you are more engineering mindset inclined or you are not right like I see people I've worked with people now who either come from an engineering background or they are just more predisposed or more inclined to think like an engineer or maybe they just have that sort of maybe they went to school for something like that but either way P some people are just they think in terms of systems they are more logical thinkers they can break down problems and they can problem solve a little bit better and that's the type of person who has a really big advantage in this they're just going to sort of walk into software development and really start understanding things more easily right and what I mean by like thinking in systems is a weird one like that's it's hard to describe and it's hard to you know it's hard to say like ok somebody thinks and systems or somebody doesn't think in systems but the way that software development works is you're not just writing lines of code that go on forever like lines of code are part of modules that are part of subsystems that are part of bigger systems which may be part of subsystems of bigger systems and so understanding how different systems interact to make a big overall working piece is like what engineers do that's a big part of what they do so I was an engineering inclined or at least my thinking wasn't well before I got into software development but now I feel very strongly oh I totally get it I totally see how that works and how can that can be so beneficial so if you are not in engineering thinker that's again not a very technical term here but if you're not inclined to think like an engineer it's ok it's not going to take you 10 years it's just it's just like another thing that will be helpful for you to shorten your learning curve so if you are more engineering inclined that's a good advantage make sure to use it now the next thing that I see is really important as well is just having determination and grit I don't care how talented you come into this but if you don't have the determination and grit to get through those hard times it's going to cost you in terms of making this process longer because again there are just frustrating things that come along in this path there are just times that are going to make you question your sanity make you question your intelligence make you really wonder if you can actually do this and so the person to me who has cultivated grit and determination previously - this is going to be the type person who really excels like the type person who's gonna walk through a wall or you know crawl through the mud like that's the person who can overcome those tough times and just keep showing up every single day I cannot tell you how many people have spoken with like sadly it's sad to hear this but a lot of people have spoken with who just have these periods where they got very frustrated with things and they ended up taking months off and so now they're at the point where they've spent three or four years trying to figure this out they've been doing this since 2014 2015 you know 2016 and you still haven't figured out because they just get so frustrated times that they need months off or they've taken a year off from this because they just don't have that they haven't really cold to be that grit and determination to persevere to the hard times so having this and cultivating it in previous experiences in your life is going to really transition well into this now the last thing that plays a big role as well is your game plan or your road map right so when you first start learning to code when you first find out that you can be a programmer it's an exciting period of your life because you you go in Amazon you order a bunch of books you go on udemy you buy a bunch of courses and you just you start watching it you learn it's just like it's so beautiful it's so much fun and I remember that I remember that it was using the head first javascript book to start but once you turn the last page in the last book or you get finished with your last course what you do from there is really important super important so what you do to put yourself in the best position for a hiring manager for a job hiring professional to give you the thumbs up - you can give you an opportunity to fight for that job that is really important because if you don't have a road map you're in trouble like this is gonna you have really risk bouncing around even if you do have a road map that so the next really good step but that road map needs to make sure that it's as straight aligned to what you are going towards as possible right so you want to make sure that there aren't tangents there or you're not learning things that aren't going to directly contribute to you getting that first job so if you don't have a road map create one if you do have a road map ask people for feedback try to get a mentor in this field if you don't know anyone who's a mentor do as much research as you can but you want to find a road map that's gonna put you on the right direction and you don't want to stray too far that you don't want to be distracted by all the ten out there for this programming language in that programming language you want to make sure that your roadmap basically will get you to your your destination as soon as possible and you don't get go off in little side Tangis that's what I would say is a big factor in you getting to your first job in a short period of time as possible all right so I hope this is very helpful and giving you a better sense of you know how long this is gonna take for you maybe you're on the low end of three months because you have grit and determination you have some previous exposure you are you have a good road map that sort of thing but maybe you're on the farther end of the spectrum because you don't have a lot of grit and determination you don't have a lot of evidence that you can stick through this maybe you don't have a lot of experience with computers or you just don't even know what a road map is you still have to create that so that's fine but at least it gives you a better sense of like where you're at in between the three months and the two years you can give you an idea of how long this could actually take assuming again assuming that you're studying consistently you're studying those 15 to 30 hours per week that you are you know constantly researching that you're putting in the time and effort and you are earnestly looking to do this that's where I see a lot of people land so I hope this video was helpful by the way if you are just getting into this if you are new to programming and you are still confused about what's the best programming language you learn well I've created a free pdf report of the top five programming languages to learn in 2019 specifically aimed at beginners so I just wanted to give you an overview of the top five things that I think you should learn you know as you progress into this field so I highly recommend downloading that I'll put the link in the description below or you can go to Andy circle it's calm forward slash report other than that thank you so much for watching I really appreciate it have a great rest of your weekend day or whatever you're currently experiencing I guess all right peace out [Music]

Channel: Andy Sterkowitz

Views: 91,941

Rating: 4.9336734 out of 5

Keywords: how long to become a software developer, software developer, software engineer, learn to code, how to become a programmer, software development, software engineering, learn software development, how to become a developer, self-taught software developer, how to become a software developer, self-taught programmer, how to teach yourself programming, computer programming, andy sterkowitz, andrew sterkowitz

Id: Fy8STRx8oxk

Length: 10min 52sec (652 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 08 2019