Self Taught Programmers... Listen Up.

[Music] so people often ask me for my advice when it comes to pursuing the self-taught route as a programmer and i myself am a self-taught programmer i've been in the industry for five years so today i've come up with the top five pieces of advice that i want to give for those considering this route but before we dive into the video first i want to give a quick shout out to today's video sponsor nordvpn working from coffee shops is something i really enjoy doing from time to time however in the past i failed to protect my data and privacy whenever browsing over public networks but with things opening up again i'll be making sure i'm secure no matter what network i'm on and this is where nordvpn comes into play using nordvpn will give you the peace of mind that your data is encrypted through a secure vpn tunnel all while hiding your location and ip address with nordvpn you can connect up to six devices to ensure that you have full privacy and protection at all times personally i have my laptop my phone and my desktop all using nordvpn also i know that my viewers are from all over the world so if there's ever some geoblocked content in your area you can choose from one of nord's 5000 plus servers in over 50 countries so you can get access to that spicy content if you're unsatisfied with nordvpn there's a 30-day money-back guarantee if this sounds interesting to you make sure you check out the link in the description for discount off the two-year plan or visit nordvpn.com gunderman thank you so much to nordvpn for sponsoring this video alright so for my first piece of advice you need to understand that being self-taught isn't the easier route by any means i think a lot of people realize this but when you choose to become a self-taught dev you're still going to have to put in a lot of work comparable to the amount of work if you were at a coding bootcamp or if you were in college the difference between college and being self-taught is you can dedicate all your time to learning code and coding principles as a self-taught programmer it's going to be your responsibility to pretty much figure out everything for yourself and this can be a challenge for a lot of people people often ask me can i learn to code and get my first programming job in six months or they throw some arbitrary number out there and i don't think the answer is as straightforward as some people hope it is the thing is it's going to completely depend on the amount of effort that you're willing to put in and how fast you pick up on concepts if you put in the work i think six months is definitely possible for some people but don't get too caught up on the timeline the best way to figure out how long it's going to take you is just by starting by taking action which leads me into my next point stop overthinking things in college or coding bootcamp you pretty much have it all laid out for you i mean you're told what language you're gonna be learning what tech stacks you're gonna be using and what projects you're gonna be making as a self-taught programmer you don't have the luxury of being told exactly where to start so you have to figure it out for yourself and this can be really stressful a lot of the time you don't really know what language to start with what tech stack to teach yourself with you're kind of overloaded with all this different information from all these different resources from various individuals online but let me let you in on a little secret it doesn't matter where you start learning it doesn't matter what your first language is it doesn't matter what your first tech stack is seriously when you're season dev you should be able to hop from one language or one tech stack to another without much of an issue sure there's gonna be an initial learning curve but it's not like you're starting from square one all over again you still have those concepts and all those principles behind coding and software development that you learned and those transfer across most programming languages and most tech stacks i feel like i've demonstrated the ability to jump from one tech stack to another with some of my most recent videos such as how i learned flutter in seven days sure i didn't become an expert on flutter in seven days but i was able to quickly pick up on flutter because of my knowledge with native android development the tech stack and the language is just a tool to get you from point a to point b i've had to learn languages for previous jobs in the past such as php that i literally don't have any use for today was it a waste of time that i picked up on php absolutely not because it only sharpened my skills as a programmer some people like to say you should start with c or c plus plus or one of those lower level languages so you understand memory and pointers a little bit better and i'd say that's generally pretty good advice those are great languages to start with but it's not like if you start with python you can't ever go back to learn those lower level languages for example i started with java and then i learned a c plus so there's no right or wrong answer here and it doesn't really matter where you start that's the whole point i'm trying to get at my next piece of advice and i think this is probably the most important at least in terms of finding new opportunities or new jobs is to network so i do consider myself self-taught but i did start in college when i graduated high school and while i was in college i attended a coding club and i also attended every networking or career fair that my college offered that i was aware of anyways getting your first programming job is definitely the hardest especially if you're self-taught and the only reason i got my first internship is because i networked with individuals had i not networked and just straight up applied for jobs it probably would have taken me way longer to get my first coding job or to get my foot in the door somewhere so try to go out of your way and connect with people try to find people locally find people online join discord communities make a linkedin reach out to recruiters on linkedin and attend tech events and tech conferences and i get with the current state of the world that it is hard to meet up with people or attend conferences but in the meantime try to build up your online presence and again try to do some networking virtually somehow and make a plan for when things do open up so you can attend conferences and tech events in the future so the job that i'm currently at i actually met a recruiter at this company at a tech conference that i went to a couple years ago and when i applied for this job the recruiter actually reached out to me and they're like hey i remember you and having that connection definitely helped get my resume pushed through and helped me actually land an in-person interview if you actually have a reference on your application the chances of you actually getting an interview are so much higher so don't be afraid to put yourself out there which leads me to my next point don't be afraid to dive into the deep end if you wait for the right moment to apply for that job to work on that side project to attend that tech conference that moment will never come every time i've had a big change in my life i've never felt like i was 100 ready when i had my first full-time programming job interview i felt extremely unqualified and i actually went into that interview with the expectation that i probably wasn't going to get the job but i did it anyways i dove into the deep end so to speak and it turned out way better than i played it out to be in my head same with networking with individuals i know firsthand how hard it can be to put yourself out there and spark up that conversation but again you just got to take that leap and put yourself in that situation and it gets so much easier the more times you do it and also never turns out the way you make it out to be in your head as programmers we tend to think of all the outcomes in a very logical pattern and this can be pretty detrimental in social circumstances so don't think about things too deep and those social situations and just go for it and for my final piece of advice gotta keep it real with yourself self-taught may not be for you if you're dead set on programming as a career but you keep failing time and time again to sit down and teach yourself or stick to that curriculum you made for yourself or you just really struggle with doing this alone at some point you have to see yourself down and ask yourself the question can i do this on my own and if the answer is no that's totally okay for a lot of individuals going to college or going to a coding bootcamp is the best way to learn having that formal structure having those teachers those like-minded peers that curriculum already laid out for you all those things are great and at some level if you're self-taught you need to kind of emulate these things yourself for people transitioning out of high school if you know right away that you want to become a software developer i would recommend just going to college and getting that computer science degree but for individuals who let's say already have a degree maybe it's not a computer science degree and they want to make a career change or just a career change in general i would really recommend trying to sit down and teaching yourself on your own and if you really struggle with that again there's no shame into going back to college or even enrolling into a coding bootcamp to learn code if you feel like you're too old that's a very valid feeling i actually have a video where i interviewed my dad who transitioned into the programming field and landed his first programming job at the age of 45. he's now 57 years old and he's still writing code so if you want to hear about how he did it how he managed to raise a family and go back to college and transition into the programming a world later on in his life you go check out that video i'll put it up in a card somewhere up here anyways that is my advice for those who are thinking about becoming a self-taught programmer being self-taught can be a lonely road but it doesn't have to be make sure you go out of your way to network with individuals don't overthink things and most importantly just take action you're gonna get a lot of things wrong at first that's totally okay i mean it's part of the process of being a death i hope you enjoyed the video if you did make sure you like and subscribe and i'll see you guys in the next one peace [Music]

Channel: Kenny Gunderman

Views: 653,812

Rating: 4.9375968 out of 5

Keywords: learn to code, coding, software engineer, self taught programmer, self taught, programmer, coder, software developer, javascript, web developer, mobile developer, how to code, kenny gunderman

Id: FrFY6Y1MJBQ

Length: 9min 59sec (599 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 25 2021