Self Taught Programmers... Listen Up.

[@lifeofcode]

I am self taught. Started building websites back in the early days of dial up internet. Now I'm 34 and been working professionally as a developer for over 16 years. Now I'm a lead software engineer, that works on machine learning and full stack web. Sometimes I don't know how I did it, but I'm thankful.

[@theophilus494]

thankful to God.. and your decisions too

[@jd2161]

​@@theophilus494 his decisions. Period

[@dntwantgglplus]

@@theophilus494 fortunately, god does not exist.

[@hawks3109]

@@jd2161 let others believe what they want. Why do you have to be an ass about religion.

[@Luan-RT]

​@@jd2161Exactly.

[@JustinWellsDev]

No college, no Bootcamp here. I started learning iOS development in September through the 100 days of swiftUI course and finished in December. I started working on my own app, and applying for jobs the day I finished. After 180 applications and 100% of them replying with “We went with another candidate” automated response, I finally got a singular call back/interview. Got the second interview, and offered a position for $55/hour as an iOS developer at a large pharmaceutical company. This is in Pittsburgh, PA so cost of living is actually fairly low as well. Absolutely love that I made the steps to change my life! It was absolutely difficult though, mostly due to my schedule. I’m a single dad and found it difficult to fit learning into my daily schedule, so I started going to bed at 8:30pm since mentally I’m shot at night, waking up at 4:30 and coding prior to work. Stopping at 7:30 to take my kid to preschool, making it to work by 8:30, getting off work at 4:30 to make it to the preschool by 5:30, take the kid to the gym for an hour and be home by 7 to make dinner, eat, and sleep by 8:30 to repeat. That was what I did until I got the job offer in February

[@jorgeenriqueecheverria5165]

I loved your story Justin, you really got what you deserved! I am studying programming on my own (JavaScript, React), just migrated to Australia and looking for a job but it is quite disheartening sometimes for all the rejection you comment. I am a little bit confused atm, I dont know if I should keep on following the React path (study testing, TypeScript, Next.js) or go more for alghorithms and more CS theory. Could you give me some tips on what you studied and what you think helped you land your first job? Thank you very much!

[@JustinWellsDev]

@@jorgeenriqueecheverria5165 Absolutely! For my interviews I got lucky and didn’t have any algorithms questions. I was, however, reading a book called “A common sense guide to data structures and algorithms” just in case. Make sure you’re working on making and finishing projects in the stack you wish to get a job in. If it’s a mobile app, take each idea that gets you even a little excited to the App Store. If it’s a website, work on it until it’s done. Move onto the next, and repeat. The longer you do this the more qualified you’ll be for a job, meaning every day your chance for the first call back will grow. Every single application prior to my first call back was basically an automated response saying “We decided to with another candidate”, don’t let this stop you. Sometimes it’s simply just not a good fit, either they didn’t see your potential or your level of perceived experience didn’t align with how much wiggle room for learning they have. Just focus on your personal projects, maybe read a book on data structures, and apply every day. You’ll continue to approve, and your perceived experience will eventually line up with one of the jobs you’ll apply to.

[@MickJohnathan]

Thank you for sharing your story! It inspires and makes me feel like I'm doing everything right.

[@jorgeenriqueecheverria5165]

@@JustinWellsDev Thank you very much Justin!

[@Nabee_H]

You're doing your kid good by getting everything together before they're older, You're Inspiring Justin!

[@jdt231]

I am self taught. What Kenny said about how often it's "not what you know, its WHO you know" is incredibly true. I wanted to make games and had an opportunity to stop working for a while to teach myself to code and pursue that when I was 30 (I was an accountant beforehand). A friend of mine who was working as a software developer was interested in game dev as well and so was interested in what I was doing. His boss one day says he wants to hire a "junior" developer, my friend puts my name forward and boom. Now I'm 32 and have been a software developer for 9 months whilst pursuing game dev on the side. Make those connections people, you never know when it'll pay off

[@RyanWilson-sq8ke]

nice pfp. kotor fan?

[@jdt231]

@@RyanWilson-sq8ke Ha yeah man, big time

[@TrulySlobz]

About that, I’m 17 right now and have been learning to code, what can I do to start making those connections with people? I’m sorry if that’s a dumb question.

[@nw42]

This is great advice, and I’ll add an important caveat: _connections are a two-way street._ If you only reach out to people when you need something, they’ll start to notice that and will become a lot less interested in helping you. Don’t be afraid to take a few minutes of your time to help others where you can, and try to maintain connections for their own sake. This can be more challenging than it sounds-it’s easy to get caught up in the immediate demands of your career and personal life-but it’s incredibly important.

[@nw42]

@@TrulySlobz That’s not a dumb question at all. That’s a very important question. The answer depends on your specific interests, but online communities are a good start. There are all sorts of online forums, probably the best of these is StackOverflow, but there are also good discussions on Quora and I’m sure a bunch of other sites. Spend a little time lurking, and practice searching for answers to questions you might have which have already been asked. When you have a question which you don’t think has been asked, go ahead and ask it. If you think you have an answer to someone else’s question, go ahead and offer it. These interactions aren’t likely to translate into real-world connections (although they can!) but are still a good way to get a handle on the etiquette and to gain comfort in technical discussions. Also, this sort of thing is part of a lot of the modern programming profession. Don’t be rude or argumentative, don’t ask other people to do your homework for you, don’t beat yourself up for saying dumb things-everyone says dumb things sometimes-and you’ll be fine. (There are definitely some jerks, but try not to become one, and try not to let them get to you. Such folks are just a fact of life, and their combative attitude ultimately holds them back.) Look for clubs at your school/library/etc. Look for nearby users groups: Linux, JavaScript, Unity, whatever technologies you’re interested in. Keep an eye open for local events in your area. In particular, hackathons/codeathons can be a great way to meet people and work on a variety of fun little projects. If there are any large companies nearby, especially tech companies (every company is _sort of_ a tech company these days) see if they have any clubs/programs. It’s not super common, but you never know. If you’re lucky, there may be a maker space nearby that you can visit-these encompass a lot more than just programming, but you can meet some neat people. Don’t be afraid to get involved in open source software projects… but be smart about how you do it. If you use/like a particular piece of open source software, follow them on GitHub (or wherever). Sign up for whatever mailing list they have. Keep an eye on their bug tracker, and see how they discuss bugs and fixes. Just lurk at first, until you get a sense of the etiquette. And of course, learn how to build and run the software from scratch. Then, see if you can contribute in a small, bite-sized way. It might be a good idea to directly ask how you can help-and be very clear that you’re still very much learning. Don’t be too proud for seemingly “menial” tasks. Offering to help fix a bit of documentation is often very welcome (documentation is often the most neglected part of open source), and a good place to start. Then, maybe offer to help with tests of the software, or other things like that. Remember that open source maintainers are usually doing a lot of work for free, and have often dealt with a lot of flaky or demanding people who’ve wasted their time, so be patient and be humble, it will likely take time for them to build confidence in you. Don’t take it personally. And some open source projects may not need or want your help-that’s okay, there are plenty of others. A few things to keep in mind: - Don’t be selfish or transactional. Don’t seek some kind of payoff. Instead, build connections for the sake of being more connected with the communities of people who share your interests. Have fun with it. Everything else flows from that. - Try not to take things personally. Frankly, a lot of programmers have _terrible_ interpersonal skills, and even the most well-adjusted may be replying when they’re tired, hungry, stressed, frustrated, or otherwise not their best selves. It can be easy for an experienced programmer to forget that something which seems obvious to them now was actually really hard for them when they learned it 20 years ago. - Be humble. You’re starting at the bottom, that’s just a fact. But also, don’t sell yourself short. You’re interested in some pretty cool stuff, and the _fact_ that you’re interested in it is also pretty cool. - Try not to reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to, but don’t be afraid to DIY, and don’t sell yourself short. For example, if you’d like to have a programming club but can’t find one, see if you can start one. Maybe your school will let you borrow an empty classroom for 45 minutes a day and let you put up a few fliers. Maybe you only get two other people to join. If so, that’s great! You created something out of nothing. Learn all the lessons from it that you can. Dissatisfaction is just design feedback for your next project. - Be excellent to one another. Hope some of this helps. Good luck!

[@blockblockgoose]

I'm learning C++ and Python self taught and I can say the hardest part about learning programming is actually getting everything setup for you to learn.

[@charlotte80389]

man compiling c++ is a pain

[@defenestrated23]

Chatgpt has been really helpful for me in setting up toolchains. CMake is also invaluable for compiling c++ (it's still useful but less essential for C)

[@mira8950]

bro. same, why the setup is talking so long and some of them have glitch

[@jashwanthem8978]

can you recommend any resources for learning c++ please?

[@TheRealTedNeal]

Check out the Murach C++ Programming books. They are good for entry level

[@MePeterNicholls]

One of the downsides of self learning, is finding out about the stuff you don’t know you don’t know. Then there’s rabbit holes and dead ends. But it’s also being able to look at something and go “oh yes that would work well with ….. pattern, design etc” we’re jumping in and getting very wet for sure, but sometimes forgetting to build up the foundational stuff

[@passionatebeast24]

you can always consult academic teachers for that . Just ready to pay for their time or free advice.

[@Idrisadan]

well said

[@shinan1329]

But I think by the entry of chatgpt, those dead end or knowing deeply about something problem can be solved to a certain extent and it won't become a problem at all in the future as well.

[@SplendidKunoichi]

@@passionatebeast24 they actually encourage if not outright beg you to consult them, after a couple years of not really understanding why i finally heard one get asked if a lecture was mandatory and say "bro i get paid whether anyone shows up or not"

[@GemTappX]

There's this new thing called chat gpt that solves this problem.

[@FableCountry]

I graduated from a coding bootcamp. It took 28 weeks and approx $26k in tuition (+ $2k/month on rent and living expenses). Expensive but i was employed one month after graduating (lucky they saw potential in me). majority of my classmates took 3 months. One took 8 months. The rest gave up(4 out of 20). 5 years later, im still employed and now im halfway through my master's in computer science. Work is not super challenging but i like it enough. I do feel secure for now. To get in, it takes some consistency and drive. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD so going to coding bootcamp was right move for me because of the accountability and structured, cumulative learning. Traditional would have been too slow for me, especially later in life. And good thing i switched before the pandemic hit. Again, I feel Ive been lucky. I worked hard too but i know people who tried harder for less.

[@valenciawalker6498]

Thank you , I’m in coding temple now for full stack engineering. Half of the course quit maybe about 11 or 12 left . My masters will be in psychology currently doing both.

[@Star0]

by any chance, could you share this bootcamp with me?

[@FableCountry]

@@Star0 super expensive so i don't recommend mine. But it's called Code Fellows. Instead, I've been recommending flatiron school instead because of their ISA (income shared agreement) program instead. Seeing similar results, imo

[@valenciawalker6498]

@@Star0 Coding Temple software engineering I attend full-time .

[@Star0]

@@FableCountry thank you so much

[@mont4261]

I am a self taught. I actually started programming when I was 9 years old. I was passionate about computer games, but none of them seemed to bring me joy for more then 2 days. So I decided to make my own game. First, I downloaded RPG Maker, which is a drag n drop software where you can create games. For a 9 years old, it looked very limited to me. Once I was done creating the game (basically dragging and dropping things into the map) I thought my character was a bit too weak, and I couldn't find a single place to change his stats. That's when I decided to go over the game files and found the character file, with it's class in it. Obviously I was already pretty conformable with computers, and that's why I decided to mess with the files. When I found it, I just opened and manually changed the stats of my character. When I clicked on play - BOOM, it worked! But every time I got to level 2, I would lose my stats and get them back to "normal". That's where I had my first challenge. Reading that file and trying to understand how to change the stats for each level. I gotta admit I didn't solve this, but I was pretty happy about the first part haha. After that, I decided to create a KZbin Channel teaching how to create games like that with just a little bit of programming (just like changing the attributes and w/e), but I ended up deleting it after getting bullied at school lol. When I was 13, I decided to enroll in a Web Development and Game Development course. There was when I got in contact with HTML, CSS and Java (we also learned stuff like Blender/Adobe Flash and w/e, but wasn't relevant to coding at all). Yeah, I didn't learn Javascript there, but we did learn some Java to code the games. After that course, I kinda stopped for 1 year, and when I became 15 I decided to start studying Python (my current strongest programming language -> @ 21 y.o). I started learning Python and Java, but I hated Java and decided to just keep up with Python. I learned "a lot" by myself watching KZbin Courses for 2 years. When I became 16 (almost 17) I got my first job. Honestly, it was the best opportunity of my life. He wouldn't pay me salary. Instead, he would pay me memberships on Pluralsight so I could study the whole day. And that's what I did. Even in school I would go to the back rows in the classroom, put my headphones on and listen to programming lessons all day. With this opportunity, I started learning Kotlin and C#. After the company went "broke", unfortunately, I decided to stop working there and getting back to my own studies. This was in the same time where we would have to take our "SATs" in Brazil (Enem/Vestibulares). I decided to abandon some of the application processes I was doing to focus on my programming lessons. However, my parents put a huge pressure on me to get into College, so I actually started Mathematics. I lasted 3 months there. Couldn't stand staying in that classroom learning anything that wasn't programming. So I decided to drop-off. At that time, I already had a job as a programmer and was making some money (very little), so that was another reason. I quit that job to start in a new one, and that's where I went back to python in a very strong way. My first project there was a Tkinter Timer that would track the time people would spend to do their activities in the company, and to integrate that with a SQL DB so we could use the hourly rate of everyone to know how much money was being "spent" for each project accurately. Everyone was aware of this, nothing was illegal, don't worry lol. Then I had an opportunity to work as a Python Automation Engineer in a Law Firm. That opportunity made my Selenium Skills explode. I even created a Neural Network to solve some captchas there so we could download Law Suits automatically using Selenium. That was a really nice and complicated project. After that I decided to open my own Company in Brazil, which offers Power BI + Financial Consulting services. I also got a job in Canada and am working as an Automation Engineer. So I'd say self-taught is not always problematic if you follow a good path. I will say tho that the fact I was self-taught didn't give me enough experience to learn good practices of coding. That came exclusively with sitting next to Senior Devs and watching them work. So if you're thinking about learning by yourself, make sure to study project architectures, good coding practices and whatever. This is a big deal.

[@tezwoacz]

Wow, you’r a genius! Very few people if any can achieve that.

[@aerithnight4444]

What a journey!!! The most interesting I've read. I think it's great that you dared to go beyond the limits of the game, at such a young age! Clearly, anything is possible if you really want it. Congrats!!!!🎉

[@nodak81]

That sounds amazing! I have no idea how some people have so much motivation in life. I'm highly intelligent but I get bored so easily that I can't ever make myself stick with anything for very long before I completely lose interest. I enjoy coding, although my abilities are very very limited. No idea how to actually MAKE anything. I went to tech school and they had us taking classes in a half dozen languages but nothing that brought them all together. I still have no idea how to actually produce a functioning program of any practical use.

[@noturgokuxd]

bro wrote a whole essay

[@onlydubstep1019]

@@noturgokuxdyeah and a great one at that 👍

[@LoganCody-l6x]

The stories here are inspiring me to stay consistent. I'm 31 years old and I'm unemployed. I kind of just stumbled onto the coding scene and I find it very interesting! I'm thankful that I did, and I'm hoping to advance my knowledge and find a great career that gives me sense of purpose in life. Everyone has a story and one day I hope to be employable at a company that gives me the sense of self that everyone seems to have in this industry. I also liked this KZbin video.

[@MrE-y7v]

not to let you down, but it is a very tough and competitive field to try and enter.

[@SipDeathTheKid]

Good luck man keep it up.

[@jonmoody2858]

Right there with you 🙌

[@borisjanev944]

I try do as much work aside from my bartending and soon ill have enough cash to stop and focus

[@greenjupiter]

​@@MrE-y7vbased on what factors do you think it's very tough and competitive, can you please share. Thanks a newbie here

[@camilohernandez4671]

I turned 33 this year and i’m a clinical psychologist. But last year I started to look for a different path and career, so I started doing some stuff on FreeCodeCamp and then CS50. I did a full stop on my patients and now got a trainee position on a really big company. I think one of the hardest parts for me is dealing with impostor sindrome, since I’m the only self taught among all the trainees I work with. But it is definitely possible and you just gotta learn every single day and it will really pay off.

[@xanprimo8511]

Thank you for sharing. I'm planning to learn too from free code camp.

[@Hinterfrage]

Studying computer science involves a lot of mathematics, it's not something you just teach yourself ... and without this foundation, what you can do later as a programmer remains limited in certain areas

[@viniciuskf]

Nice to see anothey paychologist! Im also planing on changing carreer, but I live in Brazil.

[@Wahhhhhhhh-hhh]

Wow I really have fucked up in life

[@princedesigner7673]

How so?

[@taylorswe]

Let's be honest, in the end we all end up getting saved by the indian guy on youtube.

[@wakingbadtarot]

who is this indian ma, you speak of, I think I have seen him?n Im a coding virgin with some linux backround

[@RaaghavKulshreshtha]

@@wakingbadtarot dr abdul bari

[@chotobiral]

Code with Harry!

[@H3_remix]

@@wakingbadtarotthe joke is that for a long time the only good informative coding videos were all of various Indian men flying through what they were doing with wildly detailed explanations. Its a memory most self taught people have lol

[@GhidBase]

​@sloppyglizzy8313 that's how I learned to implement Google Authentication in Unity lol

[@darealmexury]

I'm a self taught developer, mainly web development, but I can write other languages as well like Python, C# and Java to name a few. I started by watching tutorials on youtube when I was 10 years old, using Notepad++ for 90% of my journey, I'm turning 20 this year and I've only started using VS Code 2 years ago. I still wouldn't say I'm anywhere near perfect when it comes to programming, but I'd say with enough time, motivation and effort, self teaching is definitely worth it. And even if you are following a course, getting a degree. If you have the time, it's valuable to learn besides school if you're passionate about programming.

[@ribby9687]

from a cs degree taught developer: it's not valuable to learn besides school it's critical. It's a hard requisite. When I was in college, it was my personal projects that got me internships and contracts. When I graduated, it was my previous internships and contracts that got me jobs. Never, at any point in my career, was it my cs degree alone that got me anything. If I could go back I'd have taught myself instead of college. You just really gotta hustle for connections a lot harder.

[@krox477]

Bruh 10yo

[@1234dreamer]

Hi I want going to learn Web development without any prior experience , even not belong any tech clg it's possible for me to learn Web development through KZbin pls answer me mam ⁉️❓❓

[@TypeAlpha55]

Why is it every dude that starts at 10-13 💀

[@uwotm8634]

The hardest part for a selt taught route is just getting your foot in the door, with college you have more opportunities to network, attend career fairs, and look for internships, that makes getting a job much easier. And of course the more prestigious your college is the more of these opportunities you have, but the downside is the tuition.

[@Dom-zy1qy]

That's the thing that made me so hesitant. "Am I really going to spend years and an insane sum of money just to get a foot in the door?" Im just going force the door open by myself, if that doesn't work out I'm content continuing simple retail jobs until it does. All I know for sure is that self-taught is far faster at teaching practical application of skills. I know people in their junior year still making hello world equivalents in other areas of studies for their finals. But genuine CS majors definitely have a greater grasp of ultra low level concepts relative to self taught programmers which will eventually can lead to a greater understanding of computing as a whole. None are bad, just different routes.

[@yawsanevruh1116]

I’m a freshman who recently aced my Data Structures 1 class, and I still remember on the first day of class, there were literally sophomores and juniors STRUGGLING to write a simple method to traverse an array in Java.

[@hawks3109]

that's somewhat true. I've worked in industry for 10 years now. There is a clear difference in skill between self taught and school routed engineers. Self taught are usually great at churning code, but can't do much else. They can't analyze systems and find bottlenecks. They can't solve problems and design systems, they can just code. This is obviously a generalization and based on what I've seen, but there is a trend in skill difference. It's like the college students can see the big picture and can think outside the technology, while self taught are obsessed over the language and stuff.

[@Michael-zh3op]

My tuition is free in Wisconsin

[@edwinontiveros8701]

Not anymore. Courses, cerificates AND portrolio have the same, if not more, weight than a degree nowadays.

[@shawn_bullock]

I'm self taught in the 80's during a time when there was no internet or real mentorship opportunities. We just had magazines and books that the computer makers provided. I managed to find first and second employment as a software developer during a period of time when the degree was a way larger barrier to entry than it is now,. I have tried college twice and dropped out both times. Over my 25 year professional career I've been a software engineer, FS, FE, BE, senior software architect, and scalability architect at a credit bureaux designing and partially coding systems that scaled to almost a billion transactions per day at the time I left, coding bootcapm instructor, algorithms mentor, Head of Product, and currently a CTO. The only real barrier behind not having a degree is once you decide to go into leadership, they definitely value degrees and master's degrees. Pretty much what I learned in my first few years (I'm constantly pushing myself even these days) isn't very different than it is today. The marketing and packaging is different but the ideas are basically the same. There were no tutorials, we just had an idea and ran with it.

[@sharifalhumaid8537]

Individual preferences play a significant role in determining the better option. Learning is universally advantageous, but genuine passion for the chosen field increases chances of success. In programming, late starters can still achieve proficiency, I’ve seen examples in my career.

[@SemiMono]

Self-teaching can be hard if it also requires self-motivation. When picking a project, I recommend picking something you're excited about. That extra boost to motivation could be what makes you stick with it long enough to really learn.

[@DodgaOfficial]

Part of the reason I recommend game development if you want to spark your motivation. Requires tons of programming and there's constant learning and opportunity to implement new design patterns.

[@saice605]

hi

[@BadRPGPlayer]

I dropped out of Uni and while I wish that I hadn't at time, I found that the regret of doing so helped me learn enough C# to make a text=based game using OOP. I took a while off due to mental health reasons but now I'm back on the grind of teaching myself it again. My end goal isn't to become a paid developer, but to make cool stuff that my kids will be proud of me for and that's my motivation to keep going. Find your goal, find your drive and let that push you.

[@_A.n.o.n.y.m.o.u.s_0]

Im proud of you

[@neutrinos9251]

Im proud of you too, Same scenario, Im a graduating IT student this October 2023 and during the pandemic and living in a 3rd world country my learning situation became survival mode (just passing outputs for grades) and my mental health collapsed until now I am recovering and I hope I am fully healed so that I can study and build useful things for people to use and to improve our daily lives.

[@skysky4198]

@@neutrinos9251 did you get a job??

[@skysky4198]

@@BadRPGPlayer how is everything going??

[@tubadurantdoda]

Thank you this video came at a perfect time! I've been learning Python for months now and just recently I started doing projects with it. it can be hard but when you actually make it work there is great satisfaction in it!

[@natasdabsi1138]

im on the same path, maybe we could make a group

[@amarinofranca6181]

At the end portion of the video, Kenny is so right when he says you won't understand anything that's happening but eventually, once you do a certain function or anything tbh everything just starts to click. As a designer by trade, I started to learn Javascript in depth almost two years ago and in the beginning I only knew some basic stuff and didn't actually understand what was going on. Now I build all of my web project ideas from start to finish! This is actually one of the best pieces of advice I've seen around.

[@dagikiri]

Is java good or should i start with python? Can't seem to choose from those two

[@pedroborda7227]

I'm learning by myself on youtube for now, in fact, just started yesterday. I come from a background of startup and corporate strategy, finance, and business law. The next logical step, as I can see, is learning programming to further my skillset. I'm really excited, but have a long way to go, and it's videos like yours which clear the path ahead and give me a better notion of what to expect. Thank you Nick, definetely going to go through your library in my journey. Great video!

[@DolphinWantsPeace]

Are you still at it?

[@andrewcabiso4088]

How about you brooo @@DolphinWantsPeace

[@Zen2k4r-]

Probably not​@@DolphinWantsPeace

[@skysky4198]

??😊

[@skysky4198]

Did you get a job??

[@bradentoone895]

I have been in the incredibly fortunate scenario of being **both** self taught and classic school education. I am currently working on my undergraduate of Information Systems, but have been working at a medical clinic essentially doing just that. I initially got the job of assistant to the owner, but then transitioned and leveraged my way onto projects that interest me. I've got two pieces of advice: one for getting a job, and one for learning the skills. I absolutely did not get the job that I have now out of the qualifications and value I would bring. It was 100% who I knew, and using the opportunities I was given to .insert() my limited coding skills wherever possible. That same mindset also led to me learning my coding skills as I went. I would think of a project or program that would be beneficial, and then, mentally, increase the difficulty as much as I could. Then, when I had the loftiest goals possible, it was much easier for me to have the motivation and vision behind creating simple to not-so-simple functions, classes, routines, etc.

[@joshman1019]

You went the same route as me. I think what allowed me to learn the skill so well was the knowledge that I was secure in my employment, and had the time necessary to learn, design, debug, and perfect every aspect of my various projects. That way, when I was hired into a development position, I felt super comfortable with my knowledge of what "Enterprise Grade Software" actually meant to an employer. It's that corporate (or government, in my case) experience that makes you the most valuable. I feel like we are quite lucky to have been given the opportunity to learn this way.

[@handymannie]

Can i just say 3 mins in this was engaging and not boring. No bs intro you went straight into it. Im so glad i found this channel. I cant tell you how refreshing it is to find a creator for software development that doesnt do the same cut and paste stuff like others.

[@ZeeVevo]

Killjoy 👍

[@nightfox6738]

I self taught from around 13 but then went to college for computer science. I already had a proficient understanding of programming which immediately put me at the top of my cs classes but the classes certainly solidified stuff and introduced me to some of the more advanced concepts I hadn't encountered before. I was in classes with people who weren't as comfortable with the stuff and had built a reputation among my peers of really knowing what I was doing and oftem helped out other students with concepts they were struggling with which had the benefit of solidifying it even further for me (explaining something to someone else is a really effective learning tool). Honestly I'm glad I had both experiences as they helped me to really develop the skills and get comfortable with programming in general. Not to mention I got the piece of paper that makes it a lot easier to get a job :P.

[@akk-lp221]

Can you give tips on getting started??

[@nightfox6738]

@@akk-lp221 start with puzzles/games etc. Make it fun. Don't get too hung up on languages because so much transfers between languages and you can always google syntax. Maybe you can try a game called Turing Complete. Its really fun (imo) and you learn the core concepts and get a really good foundation for what the cpu is doing underneath everything before it all gets abstracted away in higher level languages. Trust me in those languages even though you don't have to worry about the lower level stuff it really helps to know. Then I'd say go with a language like c or c++ to start. If you find it difficult you can try c# or java as well to get the fundamentals of the mid-level languages down.

[@pipoledo]

thanks I just downloaded turing complete and I don't know what is going on hahaha it feels like playing with atoms@@nightfox6738

[@skysky4198]

I have done bs physics and now i am 25 and jobless.shoul i go for anothed bachelors?? That is bscs?? And i would be 29 at that time??

[@NickWhite]

Get 10% OFF any Zero To Mastery membership, only for the next week: academy.zerotomastery.io/a/aff_fvgz1fnn/external?affcode=441520_y959sxxj Code FRIENDS10 They rarely do this type of a sale so I'd highly recommend jumping on it now!

[@mr.erikchun5863]

is that where you live? that virgin room makes me rethink wanting to get into tech

[@ColeHastings]

@@mr.erikchun5863 😂

[@ameet6384]

Andrei Neagoie is good at teaching Software Engineering skills. I have personally completed some of his courses on Udemy in the past. Highly recommended!!!

[@masternobody1896]

i fail in college and now i became homeless what should i do

[@rnytpl]

Don't waste your money on this expensive course, they use buzz words like "Become a top 10% nodejs developer", "Jr. to Sr. Course" in 48h course really? 50% of the content is just gibberehish and extensive explanation of theoretical knowledge etc. I don't recommend at all, find the topics that they're teaching in their courses and find other tutorials online which covers the topics in more depth and shorter amount of time. Plus, courses (at least the ones that I took, Nodejs and Jr. to Sr. Web developer) are not so uptodate contrary to what they claim like 'The most up to date courses ever' w/e.

[@cellospot]

I have a new job working as an accountant in a hospital, and it's alright, but I'm having difficulties with two women that i work with, plus no one else knows what i do, which makes it really hard when i don't know what I'm supposed to do either (my trainer retired, and I'm learning she didn't teach me everything...). Anyway, the other day i was wondering what I'd do if i got fired and hadn't said anything to anyone about my situation or thoughts when out of the blue a friend of mine asked me if I'd ever thought of learning to code (since i like learning languages). He encouraged me to look into it, so here i am starting my research into it. So far, I'm really intrigued. I built a website once and enjoyed the process, so here goes! Thanks for the video!

[@JoeBrinkman66]

I was self taught in my teens, but then went to college and got a degree in CS. The degree helps fill in many of the holes in your skill set and exposes you to a broad range of languages. While I haven’t written a compiler or OS since my college days, understanding the foundations of how they work, has helped tremendously throughout my career.

[@CallousCoder]

I find it a lack of commitment Joe, that you do not write a new operating system in your free weekend or write a new compiler for your language to help you build that OS more efficiently ;) I have a vague recollection about yacc making a simple language yeah. And I loved Operating System design and implementation although we didn't dig to deep into it because I studied Electrical Engineering and back in 1990 the microcontrollers had so little memory that when you just had a bootstrap to a nice state engine or almost a forth implementation that was enough. But like you said, it's this knowledge that really helps us today to see problems where kids who came after us who didn't learn that get stuck. In my opinion there's not enough low-level IT in today's CS courses. Probably also the reason why so much stuff is done in Python and JS *uughggh*

[@FranksCreativeCorner]

Very valuable video! Thank you guys for making it! I started my computer science carreer at college 2 years ago, and it's been a mind blowing journey. I like to learn, and when we're talking about programming, there's SO MUCH TO LEARN! Fortunately, I'm in a good environment in college, good professors, good knowledge, face to face classes help to learn and to keep me accountable, many decent peers. Obviously I'm not learning everything from college, so when I'm not studying for college, I'm learning new languages or topics of my interest, taking on projects and getting on extra courses. To me, like Nick said, it's not about going to college vs. learning on your own... Keep your mind open! If you wanna be a successful, professional programmer, you gotta use all the resources and mediums available for you! Everything has their pros and cons, you just gotta get the best of every one of them. That being said, although my experience comes from both learning traditionally and learning on my own, I do have to say that the latter is pretty much a skill on itself. I mean, you gotta learn how to teach yourself to teach yourself efficiently and effectively, you know? But as Kenny said, and as with every skill that you hone, you gotta keep practicing! Keep coding, keep googling, etc. At the end, I think the most important thing isn't any of what I've mentioned so far. At the end, it doesn't really matter how or where did you learned what you learned, but if you met your goals, and most importantly, wether you enjoyed it or not, cause if you didn't enjoy learning it, you're most likely not wanting to do it anymore. Finally, learning can be painful or stressing sometimes, but if overall you're engaged and you enjoy the proccess, you'll be rewarded at the end. That's my take on the topic.

[@FranksCreativeCorner]

Also, this is valid for any method of learning you choose: the more you understand a concept, the better. I have a teacher that always says "learn the concepts, not the language!" Computer science theory and informatic concepts sure can be boring or daunting, but I promise, the better you grasp them, the better of a programmer you are. It is also really good to learn fundamental concepts. Even if you think it's useless, like learning Assembly, maybe you won't actually use it, but once you begin learning it you'll understand why things work the way they work. Remember, new knowledge is based on previous knowledge, so the better you understand the basics, the better you'll understand the whole.

[@luishenriqueandradepellizz680]

It was very hard for me to keep up self learning because of the routine, but I always preferes this way. I got into college now it does helps me a lot because it keeps me on time-schedule. My course is 80 per cent assignments, so the instructors give us the requirements for the application and then we need to go and find resources to build it. So this hybrid is works for me.

[@ego-lay_atman-bay]

I am self taught. I started out by following a book for scratch, but only made 1 game from it. I later created a simple game in scratch for the boy scout game design merit badge. I later started to work on that game for a while, as well as playing and reading code from a ton of other projects, so I started to get better at it. Fast forward a year or two, I had been coding for a while, then I found a mario maker clone that I enjoyed so much. The best part was, it was unfinished and the creator stopped working on it. I decided to pick it up, and work on it. It was the only thing I was doing for about a year. The reason why I bring it up, is because it's what really got me into programming. I read the code, and learned from it, as well as expanding it. I started out by adding simple blocks, then more complicated blocks, then I started making new entities. In fact, I even started rewriting parts of the code to make them better, and I also improved the level code reader. Since the project was actually too big to save on the scratch wensite, I had ro host the project file on some other website. I wanted to make it better to download the project, so I had to learn how to make a website. I use github pages and markdown for the wrbsite. It was also around this time when I discovered a program inspired by scratch, Snap!, which is like scratch, but brings a whole lot more into it. It makes lists an actual data type, custom blocks (functions) are a lot more customizable (technically snap inspired scratch to add them (they have a good relationship)), and the ability to run javascript functions. I joined the forum, and learned a lot more programming concepts. I also started to learn a bit of javascript, which I then incorporated into my website for the mario maker project. I actually didn't learn css until I started creating a node editor in scratch. My node editor is very different from a lot of scratch projects, because it's done entirely with turtle graphics (pen), and only uses 1 sprite. I also decided to create a website for it, even though I didn't have to. This website would become one of my favorites that I've ever created. The reason being, I decided to learn css, and style it to look like my node editor. I also decided to redo my website for my mario maker game, and make it not use markdown. I never actually finished my node editor (or the mario maker game), because that's when I started to get into python. I admit it, I did start a course for python, I got a raspberry pi and created circuits that interacted with my raspberry pi, using python. I never finished it, but I think that was for the best. I decided to create a python program to be able to generate a speedrun leaderboard for a scratch game, and this leaderboard would be in a forum post. After that, I made a python program to convert a video into a scratch project (yup, that's real). That's also around the time I started to get interested in modding the mobile game, where's my water. I learned how to decompile the apk edit some files and repack it, and resign it (oh, and I went the complicated way, I didn't even know about some andoid apps which make the process faster). I learned how to mod levels (I mean, they're just in xml format), so I tryed looking for a level editor. To my surprise, there was only one partially working level editor that I could find, so I wanted to create my own. I started to make it in clickteam fusion 2.5 (oh yeah, I took a game development course with that program), but it was getting too difficult to read the xml files in it, so I gave up. I went back to snap, and just made projects in it for about a year (oh wait, I think I started modding wmw before learning python... right, the speedrun game came out last year, and I started modding wmw 2 years ago). After I learned python, I then went back to the level editor for wmw. It was a whole lot easier to make, since I was using actual code, and I could understand what was going on. It was also my first python gui app. Oh, and I decided to name it Where's My Editor? (xlever, I know). After a while, I decided to look for a wmw midding community, and I couldn't really find one, so I created a discord server and github organization (to host all my wmw modding programs). I managed to get people to jiin, because the only other wmw community I could find, was the wmw wiki community. I advertised my new modding community there, and I actually found a few other modders. The wmw modding community may be small, but it is pretty active. We've been discovering new stuff, and even found a Chinese wmw modding community (modding wmw was very active there). We've been searching for all the lost levels. Oh right, this was about my programming story, well let's continue. There was a big problem with where's my editor, it didn't have the best code to read the data for wmw, so I decided to create a whole python library for dealing with wmw, reading all the data within the game (wmw is mostly data drivin, that's why I can do so much). It took me many months, amd during that time, I also started doing other projects. I started making a sprite sheet maker (which will have the ability to make a grid from a list of images that are different dimensions), a program to extract the audio from mario kart tour (which technically just uses another program to read the data, the program I made just makes the dumping faster, and also puts the audio files in folders that use names based off of the names used in the actual game), and a web based metronome (I really should finish that) (oh, I also play trumpet in marching band). Recently, about 2 or 3 months ago, I got my wmw python library (wmwpy) in a worming state, so I started rewriting where's my editor to use wmwpy. It's gone so well, and I even made it so that there's less errors. Plus, I recently learned how to package wme as an exe so people don't have to install all the dependencies, and make sure it's working correctly. That's where I'm at right now. I'd say I have a good amount of things to put on my portfolio. Anyway, reply with "pizza bagels" if you read all this.

[@jlf_]

Not reading that but i’m really sorry or really happy for you man!

[@ego-lay_atman-bay]

@@jlf_ honestly, I don't blame you. I don't want to read it all either (and I was actually surprised at how long it really was after I finished).

[@mwai_dev]

Hi Nick, I self & college taught I have been attending a college for the past year, I took a course in C. Then found mobile development, took a year off to start a startup, didn’t work out but I learned iOS and Android development in the process. A few more freelancing gigs and landed my first role as a Mobile Engineer 9mons ago. I’m still taking courses at the college plan on getting a masters degree cause I just love this

[@kaycampbell364]

what course do you recommend for android development please?

[@mwai_dev]

@@kaycampbell364 Hello, I'd recommend Philip Lackner's Jetpack compose beginner series. After that I would highly recommend you to take a project based approach to your learning build small single page apps and workng your up, increasing level of difficulty with each app. All the best!

[@GodRockCafe]

Solve a problem. Self taught is folk who have some self motivation to solve said problem. Been doing so since 1984.

[@rjbourgeois5490]

As a self taught, the thing I couldn't get down is not the programming itself. I had several personal projects in the works that I got pretty far in on my own. My problem stems from the my methodology. I don't have the knowledge base to describe to others within the field how I'm working, the industry standards and termonology used. I can complete a well put together project on my own, but as far as I can tell, I'm not going to be passing any coding test or employee interview due to my lack of being able to communicate with others to technically describe how and why something works. I'm more of a hands on type of guy, so I have trouble with that. As far as I could tell, no one would consider someone who doesn't used standarized words to help visualize what I'm capable of creating and what I innerstand already.

[@jamestucker4800]

I was self-taught (since 14 years old), then went to university for computer science & statistics. Best decision I ever made. Especially in that more data science / mathematics / statistical route, good luck self-learning that. You don't know what you don't know. University provides that solid foundation.

[@skysky4198]

@jamestucker4800 hi i am 24 and in last year of bs physics.....should i go for a degree in computer science from vu?? Virtual uni that provides degree online?? In pak

[@rightwingsafetysquad9872]

I have a minor in CS and in my opinion, every coder is self taught. Writing code is just a small part of computer science, and being in a traditional institution is very helpful for the rest of it. But if you just want an entry level job, not much point in paying for college or university.

[@impyrobot]

In many EU countries you can get a degree for free so it's worth doing while teaching yourself at the same time and doing your own projects and practice and it's much easier to break into the field with a degree and being a proficient programmer/developer

[@vodkawhisperer3923]

I also thought that until i found out that its not true by actually going to university. Theres an entire 2 modules to just learning java in detail

[@rightwingsafetysquad9872]

@@vodkawhisperer3923 Did those 2 modules actually teach you Java? Or did they just tell you what to go learn on your own then test you on it? If you want to learn the finer points of software engineering, such as when to use one data structure or another, college is good. If you want to learn proper methods for discrete computation of naturally continuous functions, college is great. If you want to learn to code, just use one of the cheap online schools.

[@brycedundas9892]

I consider myself very lucky to be where I'm at right now. 5 years ago, I got a job as a CAD Designer for a mechanical engineering firm. Coding was interesting to me, and I knew a little, so I took what I knew to start developing some automated design templates and custom add-ins for our CAD systems. My boss was impressed by my work and the time it was saving the team, so my work started investing in me. They paid for me to take a few courses and now I'm a full-time dev with the same company! My primary focus these days is on developing / maintaining software automation solutions for our CAD and ERP systems. Typical daily drivers for work are VB (and iLogic), C#, SQL, and occasionally some others for certain projects.

[@InsertAUserNameHere]

As someone who is just learning to code I appreciate the conversation. I took some coding classes in college as a requirement but I have not worked with it. I left my IT support role this year and the one thing that gave me pause about going into coding was AI and what it meant for the future of software development. The ability to work remotely, be creative, and stay in the IT field are part of what makes coding attractive to me. I decided to push the fear aside and go for it. Time will tell if this was a good idea or not.

[@bobtheturkey5671]

How has it been going in the last 2 weeks? :)

[@TRXSH503]

Hey I want to hear an update on this if you’re able to :))

[@InsertAUserNameHere]

@@TRXSH503 Hey! I switched from coding to graphic design and that is going well.

[@jeffrey5602]

The best and most knowledgable guy at my company who everybody turns to to fix hard problems doesnt have more than a high school degree. And he is one of the reasons why some of my colleagues havnt switched jobs yet (my comp is a bit shitty at times). A few of them told me if he quits they will move on as well. He is just a joy to work with.

[@nw42]

A piece of advice for those starting out: you’ll get frustrated and hit a lot of roadblocks, and _that’s a good thing._ As a professional software engineer, our job is to *solve problems.* A lot of it can be easy, but a lot of it won’t be (after all, the stuff that doesn’t require _any_ serious thinking has already been automated away.) Over time, you’ll build your confidence and your ability to work through problems… but you’ll always have plenty of times when you feel like you’re banging your head against a wall. So when that happens to you _now,_ it’s actually a sign that you’re developing an incredibly important skill. Get used to the feeling of frustration, because it’ll become an old friend. Learn how to take a step back, take a deep breath, maybe take a brief walk, and then center yourself and start thinking through how you might unravel the problem. You can do it, and it will get easier with time.

[@zoltan.halasz]

I am also self taught, changed careers at 39. My work is super interesting and challenging now, in angular v15. My advice for juniors is to learn the programming foundations very well, do lots of tutorials and be very curious and tenacious. Then apply asap and do real work.

[@vinbia]

Is there any programs you'd recommend for a complete beginner? Currently looking at Intro to programming with python / cs50 by Harvard

[@zoltan.halasz]

@@vinbiaI would recommend learning also javascript (for frontend and node.js). This was part of my journey.

[@vinbia]

Thank you!

[@skysky4198]

I am bs physcics graduate?? Should i go for another bachelors degree in computer science?? And at that time i would be 29...would it be worth it??

[@UnrulySaintT]

Your story is really inspiring. I'm 38 and I am a chauffeur but I want to switch my career to become a Frontend Developer building awesome websites... Please can you recommend best KZbin tutorials for me and where to also access free resources for HTML and CSS

[@docxpac5115]

I am 30 y/o with basically no experience beside html code in high school. Anyway I’ve always been interested in game dev since I was a teen & I’ve come across a local full stack program, deciding if I should pull the trigger. I read some of these wonderful stories in the comment section. I hope I can come back to this very comment I post, years later with a great story of my own ✌🏼+❤

[@richardancog7520]

Same here

[@Virsidus]

Good luck fellas!

[@bluevizor5989]

Best of luck to you!

[@brandyn6124]

I'd like to include my own statement here. While all of this is pretty great advice, I personally think that even if you don't have a portfolio built as a self-taught developer, still apply to jobs anyway. The worst thing that can happen when you apply is not hearing back from the company, but that shouldn't discourage you. Keep applying anyway and hopefully one day you'll end up in a spot where you were dreaming about. Good luck to anyone out there and study hard! ❤

[@theotherside8258]

A lot of the companies rely on references more than qualifications. Qualified people expect higher salary and may have less real time experience.

[@scottmichaud]

I agree with basically all of the video. I went through university for physics and education. After doing my year of teacher's college + placements, I self-taught programming while working as a PC hardware journalist. The first thing that I will say is that having a project and scratching and clawing your way past it is exactly the same as defining your own curriculum. Instead of grades, you need to be motivated by the intrinsic value of your project. Some people want or need the structure of a school to learn, and that's absolutely fine. One of the biggest problems that I see, though, is when people refuse to take up these personal projects (and networking!) because they feel like they need to complete a course or a book as a rite of passage. No. Just do thing. Don't stop yourself from doing thing because you think thing needs to come after other thing. That's not a necessary hurdle. That's procrastination, and it's probably boring and demotivating at that. (The projects need to have small distances to milestones, though! Constant positive re-enforcement!) The other problem that I will mention is that, because you're defining your own curriculum, you will get *very* strong in certain areas, and completely miss others, so you will have no idea how much you actually know. This is fine. As you keep trying new things, you will keep filling your gaps. Be intellectually honest with what you do and don't know. The experts have plenty that they don't know, too. That's why conferences exist. Bugs happen. If you stick to problems that you already know how to solve, then you're not growing. In short: - By self-teaching, you're creating your own curriculum, and the best way to learn a concept is to try, fail, and try again. - Just do thing. A lot. Your blob of knowledge will grow in whatever direction you practice. - You will have gaps, and you will be more blind to them when self-taught, but that's okay.

[@skysky4198]

I have bs physics degre at 25...should i go for anothed bachelors degree in computer science to enter tech field??

[@skysky4198]

And then i would be 29 ..would it worth it??

[@scottmichaud]

@@skysky4198 I am in the tech field, and my degrees are physics and education. I do not have a compsci degree. It was a long meandering road, though. Journalist to indie game dev, few years doing factory equipment UI in VB for a local consulting company, eventually game dev on the side introduced me to a VR studio who introduced me to a tech startup. Now I work for a ~450 employee tech company. Interestingly, the two companies that paid the most, neither asked for a resume. That said, a compsci degree has benefits, but it is not required to enter the tech field. At all. There's also the why. What is your reason for wanting to do tech?

[@scottmichaud]

@@skysky4198 I’m in the tech industry, and my degrees are Physics and Education. I only took a couple CompSci electives (two + one of my math ones was basically compsci). It was a long meandering road, though. After college, instead of being a high school physics teacher, I got a job as a tech news reporter. I then did indie gamedev on the side. At some point I got a job at a small business consultancy writing mostly Java web servers and maintaining factory equipment touchscreen UIs in Visual Basic. At the same time, I helped out a few indie gamedevs. Eventually a VR studio introduced me to a tech startup. I now work at a tech company of ~450 employees. Of course, some people benefit from the structure of CompSci degrees. That’s fine. Also, it depends on why you want to go into tech in the first place.

[@scottmichaud]

@@skysky4198 I got a tech job with a Physics degree. Not going to diminish CompSci degrees, because they help some people, but they're not necessary. Both of my two highest-paying jobs never even asked for a resume.

[@fblack1]

Great video and insight. I'm 47 and have been in IT for a long time on the business side of things. Everything from consulting to business analysis, project mgmt and on and on. I've grown tired of this and want to start producing something more tangible. I'm starting out on the journey to learn how to code. Seeing the video and reading some of the testimonials in your comments is uplifting. I have a good friend who's been developing for 20 years and has led me to good starting tutorials. Thanks.

[@AdrianTregoning]

I'm 41, married, 2 kids and a degree in mechanical engineering which I completed in 2005. I did a Java course through Codecademy but didn't enjoy it. I took on the Harvard CS50 and finished it - it was quite an eye opener. I think it's easier when you're younger! But I walked away knowing I know very little, but ended up creating an Android app using Java, despite Java not being one of the languages on the CS50 course. Anyway I'm carrying on with a Udemy course still with Java presently. I'd say I'm a year into my experience. It's sometimes a bit lonely, sometimes a frustrating and motivation comes and goes but I keep telling myself that today, I know more than I did yesterday. So to all the people struggling alone, you're not alone. Keep on keeping on. We'll get there.

[@bighands69]

People confuse software engineering with programming. Most people want to be software engineers in that they want to create software with applications. Programming is an art that can be done in of itself with no application at the end. Techniques of programming make their way into software engineering. May I add a suggestion to you in your journey into information systems you should leverage your mechanical engineering degree with programming. I am sure you have done physics such as mechanics which would be worth your while using that as the basis of your journey. Data science using python would be straight up your alley and when you do go down that rabbit hole you could use it for software engineering. Are you doing any of this for a career by any chance?

[@wolfvash22]

Did you developed your career as a mechanical engineer or just went right into learning about software?

[@AdrianTregoning]

@@wolfvash22 I was a mechanical design engineer for over 15 years. I still do the odd thing for friends.

[@wolfvash22]

@@AdrianTregoning I see, so you used to do CAD drawing or finite element analysis I guess. What brought your interest into software?

[@AdrianTregoning]

@@wolfvash22 I have done some FEA's but am certainly no expert. Yes I started off with 2D AutoCAD then used SolidWorks for about a year, SolidEdge for less than a year, Creo for a year at De Beers but most of my career was with Inventor. As I was in design work opportunities aren't great where I live. Project engineers have work here yes but that I find incredibly boring. I've always been curious about software and enjoys computers. I regret not having started this path years ago. I guess I just love learning new things. I'm quite sure I can craft a better career working from home, for less hours. I don't need to chase a big salary nor do I want to be locked in a cubicle for 40 hours a week. Not sure if that answers your question. In a nutshell: new challenges, new thinking.

[@danielvest9602]

I was self taught then went to college at 40 and learned what I was missing - mostly ridiculous buzz words and industry standards, but having a group of professors input definitely helped me know what to study.

[@epicdungeontiles]

I struggled with typical structured education in school and college. It took me a while to find my own path and I did so by teaching myself programming, primarily on the web, but I've moved into other programming areas over the years. I completely agree that it's very much dependent on the individual, some people require structure to be put into a situation where they have to learn and others find that suffocating and sort of rebel against it and others could do either! Great video!

[@skysky4198]

I am 25 and have a bs physics degree..should i go for another bachelors degree in computer science?? And then i would be 29 at that time?? Would it worth it??

[@yorkaturr]

I started learning coding when I was 6 years old in the mid-80s. A lot of kids had a C64 back then but not many continued coding for fun until adulthood, like I did. Internet didn't arrive until I was 16. It was fairly easy to land my first job when I was 20 years old, and have been coding professionally ever since. I feel extremely lucky for being born at the right time, and having a dad who bought me my first computer.

[@mcmillanator]

Great video! Thank you for sharing. I learned by first teaching myself and later going to a code boot camp. I think finding someone else who can teach you what you need to know for the type of job you are targeting is invaluable. The boot camp didn't waste time on things that I never used. I used all of it. Even if you are learning on your own finding someone to model will help a lot. They can guide you on what you should learn to reach your specific goal. This can cut out a lot of time learning things you don't actually need to know.

[@JustinSBarrett]

Lots of great advice here! As an older (>50) self-taught programmer who's dabbled in different platforms and languages over the years, I was very blessed to be the first dev hire at the company where I work. 18 months later I now manage two other developers (both with degrees), and we'll likely grow the team again within the next six months. While I'm happy with how far I've come without formal training, I'm also extremely aware of my shortcomings. However, I've been persistent in learning new things so that I can provide greater value to the company and move things forward, and so far things are going well.

[@OluuObi-rb8gs]

Hi! Will love to connect. Are you on LinkedIn?

[@NotesNNotes]

I did a bootcamp, but it relied heavily on us learning more complex concepts on our own - and I imagine that's how a lot of traditional schooling is as well. The complete absence of a formal resource is very impressive to me, but I think we all self-teach at some point, so I don't like the idea of using it to undermine the skills of a self-taught programmer or dev.

[@HousePlant_Ambient]

I work as a coordinator and hobby is in Eurorack Modular. Recently been learning (Teletype) coding for music. Because of this, I realized I want to move forward with my life and pursue a career in programming. So, all of this is encouraging. About to 34 years old, but I just hope it works out.

[@datamagaldadze1134]

I am 16 years old and I've been coding since 2020. Currently I am a full-stack developer and worked in one startup company but still can't reach a good company and salary. This is because I've focused on learning different things that didn't really develop me that much, so I think that before you start , first analyse what languages are more needed and just follow that path.

[@hawks3109]

I don't agree with this because the language is just a tool. What matters most is understanding concepts. Runtime analysis, how to optimize systems, how to identify bottlenecks and other more subtle issues. Understanding design patterns and how to think. The best way to develop this is constantly learning new things across the field (which school is great for). The technologies you learn is a very small part. It's nice to have experience in something the company is looking for, but what's best is understanding those are just tools anyone can learn, but not everyone can learn algorithms and data structures and how to utilize them efficiently on the job.

[@curlyfried3117]

I went the bootcamp route. I don’t regret it because it kept me dedicated to it, and really helped me learn with a structure I wouldn’t have followed on my own.

[@RonIsElite]

I was in a community college going for computer programming degree. I made it all the way through most of the semester but I had to take a break due financial issues and then my dad vision started to go blurry, so I had some things going on in my life. My father passed away in February 2023, so after that I was going through things but I eventually recovered from that moment. But now I been thinking about if I should go back to college and finish the rest of classes I have left which was 6, or do a coding bootcamp, or go down the self taught route. I currently downloaded python on my laptop because I wanted to test myself and see how far could I progress myself in coding. My dream in life was to become a game developer but I know it will take a long time to reach it, but I will continue to push myself to the limit and evolve further as a human being.

[@MagixMinh83]

I'm on the same road as you. Self teaching Python and later on working with GDScript in Godot Game engine. As I'm aiming to become a solo game developer as well. Python and GDScript are very similar, so the transaction will be easier.

[@RonIsElite]

@@MagixMinh83 ok that’s cool, I wish the best for you and your journey.

[@MagixMinh83]

@@RonIsElite Thanks. Good luck to you as well 🙂

[@RonIsElite]

@@MagixMinh83 thanks

[@BusDriverBob]

I'm mainly self-taught but have a AAS in CIS. I have over 30 years in the industry. I think the main thing I did not agree with was that you should have a portfolio of work for potential employers to view. What it comes down to is if you can answer the questions on an interview. I have interviewed tons of people over the years and within a few minutes you can tell if someone is skilled or not. I just interviewed someone the other day that was obviously not skilled but a few days before I interviewed some one that was.. light years of difference. The good point his guest makes is keep coding, keep learning. This will help you more than anything else.

[@chroniccomplainer3792]

As someone with a degree in business IT, i cant imagine being a self taught computer science guy. Those classes i took were by far the hardest part of my degree. Super tough java and python sections that killed my interest in coding.

[@badprofilepic882]

It may seem impossibly challenging to people like us but I have a lot of friends who breeze through everything and treat it like it's no big deal. Everyone has their own strengths

[@terrillwilson1345]

Computer science is way more than programming, they are really just self taught programmers

[@lesassassin]

I'm a SysAdmin - I loved coding, but I'm not able to keep focused with walls of code attempting to solve someone's issue of corners being too round. They're exactly n-1 round, so deal with it.

[@lobotekken123]

What were the names for the java python courses??? I want to cover them but coding so far seems so easy for me

[@chroniccomplainer3792]

@@lobotekken123 i have all of my assignments in my email, i could easily go back and get them. My professor made the assignments himself so its not really a website or anything i could link. The one i remember killing me the most was a java vending machine. It had to have every feature of a real vending machine. And the really hard part was having the machine always return the change in the least amount of coins possible. He also made us list certain items at certain prices and gave us scenarios like "someone inserts a 5 dollar bill, they buy chips for x, they buy a drink for y, etc" but you would end up with the machine needing to spit out change in weird denominations. The machine had to keep track of inventory and send out orders to keep itself filled. Just a bunch of difficult stuff imo. I got a C on that project and i was a 4.0 gpa student at the university of Pitt 😂😂😂

[@CesarChin3]

These comments are all ever encouraging. Thank you all 🫡❤️🎯

[@rohithnambiar1348]

In India, unless you have a CS degree it doesn't really matter if you are self-taught cause you have no value, if you got into a good college and then got a good package, its shows that you can handle responsibilities and that you are capable, IMO I don't think people in India try to get a CS degree to actually learn CS rather they do it so that it makes it much more easier to get a good first job

[@BusinessWolf1]

why do you give a fuck how your first job is? you have 4 years of time to change jobs that students don't, by the tine they finish you are already mid or senior level

[@kirik9126]

Yes, then there is also btech vs bsc.

[@gilbertrothanglien854]

Not true. Im from india without a degree. I have been working as a software developer in 2 different companies now. At the end of the day every company requires skills.

[@rohithnambiar1348]

@@gilbertrothanglien854 maybe you got lucky but every year the competition increases and it gets harder to get a job as a self taught developer, I am not saying it’s not possible.

[@rohithnambiar1348]

@@gilbertrothanglien854 And when you get a degree, immediately when you graduate a job is guaranteed and also since you have a degree your career growth is also guaranteed. Self taught developers also have to undergo harder interviews and they may also not find a job immediately

[@geriibra1645]

I am self taught and you need to get your hands dirty. If you are following a tutorial and in the tutorial the instructor is building a project go out of his way or go ahead and try to complete the solution of your own. You will create that way more problems and fix them and make you understand much more. Also create a good linkedin profile and send lots of cvs each cv tailored to the company you are applying. It is hard and long journey and it is hard to push yourself alone but if you stick with it you will make it. If I did as someone who suffers a lot from ADHD everyone can!

[@shantanukulkarni8883]

1. Learn the C programming language as much as possible. Pointers, memory allocation, structures, arrays, learn all that even if it feels challenging. 2. Program in C, practice it and write your own programs. 3. Learn C++ or Java. learn OOP. 4. Create some small program and use things that you learnt. 5. Now you are ready to learn anything like JavaScript, Kotlin, Python etc. for developing the specific project idea. 6. Architecture of web app, App dev overview, Software engineering etc. are mostly concepts that you can learn with some common sense. No need to get really deep into technicalities. 7. Learn some Data Structure and Algorithm stuff too. 8. By this time there will be a new trending thing like right now Mojo is heading to replace python (they say)

[@rinzler9775]

Agreed - get a good base in C and C++, then learn the "toy" languages as needed.

[@MrCmon113]

1. Get a PhD in category theory. 2. Learn Haskell. 3. Never use any other programming language, never write code that actually does anything.

[@jdubz8173]

I was self-taught at first, then I got an associate's degree, then I continued to be self-taught from there. The only thing I really got from college is the connections I made to get my first job. If I could've somehow gotten those connections without college, I would have. I value my on-the-job experience way more than the experience I got from college. If you're a person who has connections to people in the industry, just get into some junior role and do your best to understand the fundamentals of coding before hand to ease your time in that role. Also expect to constantly be learning, experimenting and working very hard (outside of your job role) to be successful. It can be very hard but very rewarding. The key thing here is to create as good an impression on the people around you as you can. Connections while on the job always led to better opportunities for me.

[@darrenfrancis8126]

my cc college's programming classes are basically self-taught. my dsa class rn is online and it was the only option. she hasn't responded to any of my emails she just gave us assignments that are word for word found on the internet but the book she gave us is great and also has a companion website which is great for practice. I wont be taking any more programming classes here and cant wait to transfer so i can actually learn and grow

[@nestiray]

4 year is the same honestly

[@darrenfrancis8126]

Are the projects not harder at a 4 year? My main problem is they don’t have enough professor here to teach cs

[@nestiray]

@@darrenfrancis8126 At least in my school the professors are really bad, usually international grad students who speak broken english and a lot of them use the curriculum from other schools, which only make sense if you had a competent teacher explaning. So classes are really useless.

[@DanielKaspo]

7:33 is the key here: most successful self-taught programmers got into it *because they had a goal in mind*. Whether it was modding a game, or making a cool-looking MySpace page, or any other crazy idea out there, having a goal in mind is the first step. Programming was just the thing you needed to learn to get to it, and you learned you kinda liked it while doing it. The best part of the mindset? In the future you'll set new goals, and as long as you have the same mindset, you can and will learn any skills necessary to reach that goal. I started off similarliy to Kenny. I started branching into hardware development because I had wants (for example: an underdesk treadmill that could use incline and hook up to Twitch or a gaming adapter that turns keyboards into controllers.) Those goals were so far outside of my regular scope but because I had spent years having a goal in mind and using programming to reach it, it was the same process, just... with less / different programming.

[@sybergen333]

As someone about to be a 2nd-year in a computer science course, I'm currently self-taughting myself Python and the AI crash course by reading an e-book about it. I'm also interested in web designing with HTML with CSS. Hopefully both goes well.

[@masonbandhauer6343]

Love reading stuff like this, i ended up on SOFTWARE KZbin somehow and as of yesterday i started learning python. I am also "self-taughting/teaching" as well looking to maybe go to a college for it after a year if I need it as i am in a gap year right now.

[@Loxo18]

​​@@masonbandhauer6343bro I'm almost literally in the same boat as you, except my gap year is almost over and I just started learning python last week

[@MrPekmano]

This is the perfect video for me. I am an architect that wants to learn how to code and look for more opportunities down the road. I was thinking really hard about taking an online masters degree from a prestigious school which costs a fortune…then I realized their whole curriculum is basically covered by CodeAcademy’s Computer Science career path at a fraction of a price. I’ve been learning on my own and making some progress and I appreciate this video for giving me a morale boost!

[@mschwanitz]

I'm a VP of Project Management (the Dark Side) at a major company you've heard of with 20+ years of professional experience in business. I also have an MBA and the student loan debt to prove it. :) I started learning to code last March and am on the cusp of releasing my first app as a solo full stack dev for my side hustle. I did the CS50 thing and then spent probably 400h watching KZbin videos which I know now is "tutorial hell" and have learned 10x more from just trying to build my app vs following tutorials. From the advice on this channel I shelved the tutorials and just started failing at coding and spent my learning time googling and reading Stack Overflow posts which has taught me more than any video could. To paraphrase a quote I read somewhere, "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want." This is true and now I have a ton of experience on how not to code that's made things start to click for me. I find it very cool that you can continue to learn and develop at any age and its never too late to take your life in another direction. You can do it if you put in the time - no degree required.

[@MrPekmano]

@@mschwanitz Hello from the other side! Thank you for your kind words. I really resonate with the part where you said it's never too late. In fact, architecture is not what my college degree is about: I was supposed to be a geologist. I really enjoy my current trajectory with coding and I'm excited to see where this is taking me. Thanks again!

[@Relentless_Rise]

I am starting of my own self taught coding journey. I was feeling overwhelmed but after seeing the video and reading the comments I feel more energized to continue gridding

[@eetswalads5528]

My advice to young people (specifically them) when wanting to self-teach programming is to compete in CTFs and competitive programming. No group of computer professionals has a more in-depth and diverse understanding of computers as hackers/security experts and no group of people is more equipped with knowledge of DSA/mathematics/etc. than competitive programmers. AND both are competitive and fun! It doesn't directly prepare them to be amazing software developers but, lays a very strong foundation for them to flourish into amazing software developers.

[@epicm999]

Good advice! Just make sure to be self-motivated or have some sort of accountability if you try these.

[@FuzzyDPozzy]

I was a college student this year , I did cyber security and networking and let me tell you , they didn't absolutely teach me anything important. It was like this the first month we were given our assignments. We had to write an assignment we had no idea about. The work to complete the assignments was done by me. So basically self-effort ,or self taught same thing. When i was asking a question my teacher was saying "That we are not allowed to answer the question" . So the main reason I went to the college was that I could ask questions and get answers but that didn't happen. Sure things got a bit better but when you have assignments to complete, and lets say the teacher does a class and talk abouts 1 different thing instead of focusing on one thing do you really learn, when you have to go home and do your assignments instead of do active learning in what you were learning at that day at school no. So From my personal experience, the college, university is just like work , they dont teach you anything more than you could learn by yourself. You meet some good people, but then is only stressed because you want to learn but rather you have to do your assignments.... and those assignments are like work. I was disappointed ngl and from the most part if it wasn't for chatgpt i am not sure i would be able to complete any of my assignments...

[@pierreollivier1]

As a self taught i think the advantage for a company, is that if you pass the technical interview, they have the guarantee that you’ll be able to learn what ever they throw at you. The main issue tho is that they have to guarantee about your inter-personal skills, how you work in team, etc. If you have a CS, they have more trust because you made a strong commitment, you took years to learn that stuff, you had to listen and you had to work with a bunch of people, you have often deeper (sometimes a bit useless) knowledge of computers, math, etc. But probably less autonomy, i think this can be the issue with CS students a lot of them never had to really find the knowledge, learn and adapt. But in the end it depends a lot but every side has its own perk, and downside.

[@pierreollivier1]

@First Last I think big part of it is due to the fact that if your learn on your own, you are constantly reminded that you are dumb, Like what got me into programming seriously was listening to an interview of Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of C++, I felt like such an idiot, like at the time I was just learning about programming following a java tutorial, and grinding through not even being able to write a simple calculator app with a GUI, while that guy at my age was writing compiler to pass the time. And throughout my learning journey it kept happening you are always learning from people that feels like they are so knowledgeable that I feel like it would be hard to develop a proper ego, where as folks that have a CS background it's easy for them to build a big ego if they come from a prestigious college as the mindset in that kind of environment tend to go that way.

[@BusinessWolf1]

​@@pierreollivier1 As a self taught I only get egotistical about one thing, and that is being evaluated as worse at stuff than people with a CS degree with the sole determining factor of their degree

[@ci6516]

That’s a very poor take , to pass exams and complete projects you have to research your own and do what “self taught “ do. It’s just CS students are tested on this and have to prove they know this as they continue. Where as self taught with absolutely no college degree can be seen as simply doing the bare minimum to get the job , there’s no proof they actually understand anything

[@ci6516]

On top of this , most jobs do require a degree or experience. And now it’s much harder to get that initial experience . Also most self taught are very narrow in scope . A CS grad can go into data science, data analytics, machine learning and AI , quants , IT , teaching and tutoring , ontop of your normal web development and software development stuff . Self taught would be very hard to pivot to new parts of the industry

[@pierreollivier1]

@@ci6516 I'm not saying CS students aren't great, I'm just saying that I've seen first hand friends of mine going to college, doing the bare minimum in Computer Science, yet landing a job at a great company simply because of the school network. I'm not saying CS is useless, or that the people there are worst than self taught, But if you hire a self taught, and by hiring i mean he makes it through the rounds of interview, imo you have the guarantee that whatever you throw at him, he will learn it quickly, whereas CS students from my experience, they get a great amount of trust right away because of their degree, and knowledge, but sometimes they actually didn't program that much because some CS degrees kind of suck when it comes to teaching the good skills to their students.

[@jasontricolor2978]

A lot of people comment about the person who choose a self taught route should be more motivated into the projects they are building, and that it is more difficult for them to keeping motivated, and I don't argue that, but the motivation doesn't need to be in the projects itself, in the coding itself, but what is the motivation in your life? Who is your motivation? It could be another person you want to take care of, it could be your pet, it could be yourself. This is the strongest motivation in my view, that what makes you leaving bed for learning every day with the dream of being accepted in an application or making a living with coding in any means. Everyone should seek for this motivation and think deeply what they love, who they love, who they want making proud knowing that you are doing your best and will reach there!

[@damiangonzalez7352]

Yes, and also the days you don't feel motivated u can just pull the discipline card, a mix of that should be enough

[@faallzera]

I was a self-taught developer before I started out my graduation in System Analysis and Development, but one thing I've noticed: Computing courses on colleges are hard as fuck. I'm programmer, but I've been beaten the shit out in data structure and calculus.

[@josecanciani]

It’s said that once a father told his son “it’s not what you learn in college, it’s a sign for a future employer that you have what it takes to commit for years and succeed, and that is very valuable for them”. I don’t think that’s all it is, although y is a very good point. I think college gives a general foundation that it will help forever. It’s not for everyone, and you can definitely be a self thought programmer. What I’ve found in my years of experience is that self thought programmers usually stick to one technology and they have it difficult to switch. They also generally lack knowledge in other areas what can cause problems growing their careers. Let me be clear, I’m not saying it’s all of them, I certainly found incredible programmers and professionals who are self though. There’s place for everyone in this field.

[@justgivemeanumber8215]

The thing about universities, is that you're FORCED to take certain things, and basically get a bunch of mandatory info. I would say like computer architecture, operating systems, discrete math, all that stuff -- self-learners aren't going to do as much. Simply cause it's not directly practical. I would say there can be a self-test for self-taught programmers: explain how a computer computes, in detail. How does it take from information input to result output?

[@terezip2213]

I concur. I never really made myself a portfolio or worked on anything impressive, but I did do a lot of computer architecture and design self-teaching, and that was the most valuable thing I did for myself. one might think that learning how an ALU works, for example, would be irrelevant to , but it gives you those foundational logic skills that you can build on - it's a lot easier to understand/make abstractions when you know how the heart of what's being abstracted works.

[@clemonsLA]

Yeah because knowing exactly how the compiler and CPU and threads work is going to help me solve this API issue or that JavaScript issue.

[@justgivemeanumber8215]

@@clemonsLA you don't need to know exactly how computers work, but if you don't know it at a comprehensive levels, then there are issues that are beyond you in all domains, including JavasScript. Whether you can get by without encountering those issues is another .... issue.

[@clemonsLA]

@@justgivemeanumber8215 You seem like a nice guy. lets just agree to disagree.

[@justgivemeanumber8215]

@@clemonsLA I don't even really disagree, when it comes to professional tasks (it's really rare to get to the levels where this theoretic knowledge even matters). I just myself always wanted to know how computers work. And I bet you've done some studying in that regard, cause you don't want to deal with magic-boxes for a living, right?

[@perfectionbox]

I never had a developer interview ever ask about education. I've worked at EA, Microsoft, Ford, Corel, etc. They were all perfectly fine with self-taught.

[@eightsprites]

I been on those interviews interviewing people. School doesn’t help I tell ya. Had to run simple coding tests just to see if they actually could code. Often a number of questions are enough. But both camps has about equal failure rates. Yes asked about education, but that was more to build a history of the candidate, it ment zero when it comes to hire/not hire.

[@KEKW-lc4xi]

I found university to be trash experience, but I found community college to be highly beneficial. I strongly recommend pursuing an associate's degree in computer programming, and afterward, focusing on personal projects. Through personal projects, I've gained a significantly greater amount of knowledge compared to my university education. Moreover, universities tend to enforce a heavy emphasis on mathematics, much of which is unlikely to be utilized in practical scenarios. In cases where complex math is necessary, there are already existing libraries that can be easily imported into your application. By formatting your data appropriately, you can just feed your data into these functions and obtain the desired results without fully understanding the mathematics involved.

[@Kenionatus]

The whole point of universities (besides research) is to educate highly academic specialists who really know their theory (but are pretty far removed from everyone else is doing), so it's pretty obvious that a university degree is not the right qualification for most positions imo.

[@theotherside8258]

I would suggest that a structured college programme would ensure you don't miss some stuff, it will be designed to give full coverage and overview and able to give a wider range of challenging tasks to build up expertise. Self learning could miss valuable areas and be limited to a smaller range of projects to learn from. When you are self taught you don't know what you don't know and could pick up bad and wasteful habits without knowing. Each route might pick up different types of learners. A self learner might be more enthusiastic and dedicated than somebody doing a course for a job

[@merlijnfolkerts3066]

I'm a self taught programmer (I know some python html and css) and I am making a website for someone for 50 euros, which normally isnt a lot but im 16 y/o so its okay. I do think that technically you can learn anything yourself, but with a teacher it can go so much more quickly; that doesn't only count for programming, also for stuff like music instruments and various other skills.

[@ytbook9639]

I’m 17 and I know web dev but how do I get a job

[@codewithjarred_]

@@ytbook9639 send me your resume and i will tell you

[@ytbook9639]

Jarred I am a full stack developer I know HTML CSS and JavaScript, React, Tailwind Css Python and Django and other tech im now building a full stack app that I’ll deploy soon

[@codewithjarred_]

@@ytbook9639 what projects have you already completed? you will not find jobs unless you have a portfolio, and preferably a niche because remote programming is so much competition.

[@mciii]

​@@ytbook9639 you probably won't since you're in high school. Search for internships at startups

[@LibertyReign16]

Thank you so much!! This was really helpful and reassuring, I have been frustrated and I’m so grateful for this message! Thank you !

[@HereForASeason]

I am self-taught, mainly in Java. I used my skills in data entry jobs to automate workflows and created utilities to clean up data. Because of this I was eventually promoted to a position my company created just for automation and process improvement using Python (I didn't know the language but it was easy to learn quickly). I've been in this position for a year and a half, gaining experience and knowledge, and hoping to transfer into a traditional software development role in the next year or two. Sometimes you just have to make opportunities where you are to get to where you want to go.

[@reneticsk]

That’s pretty awesome, nice job!

[@kaycampbell364]

What course do you recommend for learning java?

[@steveyuhas9278]

I taught myself cloud networking, coding, and devops/cicd tools. Just landed a job as an SRE. My experience was the only thing that helped was networking. It was all about who I knew... But... here's the catch.. That will only get you the interview. Your dedication to learning and focus on learning the things that matter is what will get you the job. My favorite thing about self learning is that I decide what is important and what tools real world professionals are using. It's a lot of work to make your own curriculum and to cater your learning to what people look for... But the benefit is you have exactly the skill set people need. Not the cookie cutter college skills. Even with all that being said... I'm 38 now. If I had to go back and do it again, I would definitely go to college. I did, and I screwed it up when I was young. But if you have the chance and the money... Do it.

[@AetherMomon]

I think this really depends on many factors. What sort of resources you can find online, what type of learner you are, current education level, etc. Like for example with education level. If someone goofed off during high school & had a low GPA in high school, then most likely that person would need college because they would be behind on things like mathematics & science. Not only would they be behind compared to other programmers, but it would be extremely difficult to develop the mindset needed to be a programmer/software engineer which might be picked up from college

[@rainkidwell2467]

And thus, they should not try!

[@AetherMomon]

@@rainkidwell2467 I agree they shouldn’t try to become a self taught programmer. I’m afraid they would be doomed to fail. College would be necessary to prepare them for being a programmer. I suppose you could argue that it’s possible to buy the right books & take the right online courses in mathematics & science & be able to learn the skills needed. But it would take more self discipline than they have given they didn’t take high school seriously. So they would need more guidance, many college freshmen need the level of guidance they’d get from college

[@rainkidwell2467]

@@AetherMomon seems your college education didn't teach you enough to recognize sarcasm.. No matter, I'll decrypt it for you: People like you are the reason so many people wait so long before they pick something up and realize they love it. People like you are the problem with modern academia

[@JustABoy98]

A question, although I didn't goofed completely 9-12th grade, I had A grade in 9-10th but due to lockdown and some family problem i went completely downside in 11-12grade and failed , now I am redoing it . But my question is I am a pre- medical student ( I love bio , there is no way I want to change it) but since I was a kid I always wanted to be a developer aswell. What would you recommend me? I want to make being a developer as my second part-time job career till ( I become nurse) which is in like 6+ years? I want to be self taught developer on my own before that as a side hustle/ part-time jobber , I don't have maths after 10th grade but I was always good in science . What tips would you wanna give me ?

[@tankaccount2990]

I feel like this isn’t really true, when I was 9 my family dropped schooling in general for “unschooling”, at that point I’d been programming Arduinos for 2 years so I just continued doing that, eventually switching to Python/Lua/Assembly, been doing this for about 8 years now and I’m finally starting to be competent, I’ve never done any advanced mathematics but I was able to figure out the math behind Neural Networks ( simple ) and the training algorithms ( super difficult :/ )

[@garylong9260]

Thank you Mr. Nick and thanks to your friend for this video. I am in the process of self-teaching myself to code. It has been very challenging. I have a couple of certificates edX, and Codefinity, but I still struggle with simple logic problems from Codingbat('squirrels and cigars'). I have been at this for almost 3 years. Watching your video has given me a glimmer of hope! Thank You!

[@Eefernet]

For self taught, I highly recommend just learning one language and stick with it. There are a lot of projects you can do. Think about ways you could use your programming as a tool to solve problems. Once you learn, learning another language is easier.

[@becquerelian]

The most valuable thing I personally learned from college courses is modularity and readability. Syntax can be easily picked up from anywhere, but in a job you will be working alongside other programmers - it's important that they will be able to read your code and not accidentally break it when making changes. Good technique is something that's difficult to learn or enforce on your own.

[@vodkawhisperer3923]

Programmers have to be paranoid

[@iananseman2118]

Great video as a manager I would recommend getting a college degree for software development. Not necessarily because college is great but the title is helpful. Many employers still require it and having no degree can make the job search more difficult. No degree can also be used to justify paying someone less and hurt advancement in the future. You can get there being self-taught but it is the more difficult road for most in my opinion. Talent and work ethic are the ultimate factors.

[@the_cringe_nerd]

I'm traditionaly taught via schools but the most important lessons you learn is to teach yourself. You never know when something new and improved comes along to derail your current knowledge base

[@doingtime20]

Dev here for a long time, this video plus the comments from the other devs in the comment section is all solid gold.

[@SuperAnatolli]

Well... Many employer don't give a **** about your skills. All they care about is your papers. No examina from a university or similar = no job. Make it easy for them to filter candidates.

[@twi57ed]

Clueless

[@guitarman840]

As a self-taught developer with over a decade of experience, the best advice I can give someone looking to break into the industry is to do whatever you can to get your foot in the door at any dev shop. It doesn't matter if you take the "best" University course available or go the self-taught route, when you start your first job, you're not going to know a damn thing anyway. That's not a knock on your ability, it's just that no amount of preparation is going to teach you the ins and outs of every combination of system and service out there. Great you know languages X, Y, and Z - Can you use them together with libraries you've never heard of? To interface with APIs you've never seen? To use tech stacks that gained popularity last month? No...so don't sweat it. Get a jr dev gig at a company that will pair you with the right people to help you develop those skills and you'll be just fine.

[@hamm8934]

Graduated from an Ivy and it was only worth the networking. The classes were massive and essentially taught by over worked grad student TAs who don’t have the time to teach you because the university views undergrads as piggy banks for the executives. Outside of passing coding interviews, I wouldn’t say the actual course work is that helpful for programming. What is helpful is learning how to learn. Universities have monopolized people’s self confidence in what is able to be self taught. A lot of it is a game of telephone.

[@buncharatngon2412]

I study IT in college, but honestly I feel bored bc everything that teachers can teach me and other students is just basics and no deep discussion (they just read the powerpoint slides, nothing more, nothing less). I feel lost almost everytime and even now I'm third-year student and I still don't have any idea who I will be or what I will do after graduate. Then I decided to start over again and have been trying to self-study for quite amount of time. It's way better than going on class (dead serious) and I can focus on what I can do along with what I'm interested in Just wanna say thank you for this video, it just gives me more motivation to believe on my process

[@dev__004]

If I had to "learn" coding or any tech related stuff , I will choose to be self taught rather than go to college. But the network, connections and experiences that colleges provide is valuable if you have similar minded people sorrounding you throughout the college years.

[@HaggisMuncher-69-420]

The networking is complete crap tbh. I've had one person offer me a finance job from law school. Other than that you all go on to do your own thing. It's the same lie the universities push to get people to keep enrolling.

[@cmxpotato]

College also lets you work with faculty with niche or in very specific fields. I had a professor who was a former SWE at Pixar doing research in 3D cloth physics. Working under him on his research gets you that background and his direct connections to the computer graphics industry.

[@dev__004]

@@cmxpotato yeah colleges give you an opportunity to network which is more than the education that they give

[@cmxpotato]

@@dev__004 That is definitely not true, especially professors specializing in niche topics. My AI prof and computer graphics prof knows stuff inside their head that are not anywhere online or in books. Massive rude awakening when my computer graphics prof assigned us an insane final project. Had to start digging up research papers and that did help a little. We ended up having to derrive the linear algebra ourselves to track a 3D object from a camera, then render new 3D objects around it. A lot of university faculty are former industry professionals, inventors, or leaders. I definitely learned a lot from one of my professors who decided to take me under her wing as one of her researchers.

[@dev__004]

@@cmxpotato that is actually really happy to hear. But i dont think that every one has the same luck. As you said professors in niche topics who have been researching in that topic for years and have the passion will give you valuable insights but not every professors though. There are many professors who stick on to the syllabus and just the syllabus . I aimed my comment at those type of people. Also like i said in my original comment, this type of networking , be it professors, friends etc, is more valuable

[@kcseanbrixd.calinao6700]

As someone who's on college, I would say it is more beneficial than just being self taught. I'm a college student with scholarship but am also a self taught person, i learn by myself and gain experience at school. dont get me wrong, that doesn't mean i know more, its just that i learn with quality really fast.

[@jamess.2491]

I went through college in EECS at a really good institution and I gotta say basically everything I learned that I used for development was self-learned. But my education made me much more well-rounded and allowed me to move beyond just being a developer.

[@rtothec1234]

Experience is the best teacher and everyone must pay that piper to get good regardless of how they started. You just gotta write programs, test, fail and repeat until you just get it.

[@seanzhang3873]

I believe it's really important to learn through creating your own projects, especially ones that can be useful to you. It's a surefire way to amp up your motivation and you get this amazing sense of accomplishment when finally finished. Trust me, you'll pick up heaps of knowledge as you navigate any hurdles along the way.

[@jaydeepmodha1]

But as a newcomer how would I know that project X is going to be useful for my new project Y?!?

[@seanzhang3873]

@@jaydeepmodha1 You can just start off by creating something you need right now, for example some workflow automation that helps your productivity, or some mods for a game that you play frequently. After building a few applications, you should be able to gradually advance to more challenging applications. This kind of project based learning is far more effective compared to learning by only watching tutorials in my opinion.

[@jaydeepmodha1]

@@seanzhang3873 oh! Agreed 👍🏻💯 thanks for reply...

[@washyourhands907]

I went to a College University startup degree on a scholarship. The first two years, I had two different professors and both were amazing. The last two years I had another revolving door of two professors. I learned basically nothing due to bad teaching and poor leadership those last two years. A good teacher means everything, even if you’re willing to do it yourself.

[@ibrahimfarukyahuza6144]

I am a 99% self-taught Developer where am specializing in web development. As I am talking now, I spent over 5 years in it and developed many projects under web development. I am thankful and grateful to the almighty for the strength and support he gave me and keep me on track.😊🥰

[@phatboi9835]

I've been developing software for 30 years. Started out with VB 4 and a little c++, used VB 5 for first few years of my career then moved to c# when it was beta and been using it ever since. Today I am a Full-Stack developer using React and Angular. There's no reason you 'must' have a degree to be a software engineer. One major benefit I have is that after 30 years of successful development - I have absolutely no debt. Like this video stated - everything you need to learn is available on KZbin and Udemy, to name a few.

[@danield.7359]

For autodidacts the rise of AI such as ChatGPT is a relevation. ChatGPT is your fellow student, your peer that you never had. It's your assistant professor and knowledge base that you can ask right away instead of complicated internet searches. If you're working hard and your learning approach is well structured you may become an equally good programmer, maybe even better than someone who went the traditional way of education. Being a college student is no guarantee for anything. It always depends 100% on how you spend your time at the college.

[@borispsalman]

Yes but ive noticed its quite hard to rely on chatgpt when doing something for example in laravel where you need to have code divided into multiple files, i think its easier to use chatgpt to give you a code to train a neural network than to do some more serious web development.

[@danield.7359]

@@borispsalman I'm studying the Django framework right now an ChatGPT was a great help in moments where I wanted to ask questions. However, it's not possible to rely on ChatGPT and you are right with that. It's not going to do the job for you, many times because of the simple reasons the the technology has advanced/change since 2021, the training cut-off date of ChatGPT. So sometims the knowledge of ChatGPT is simply out of date. But where it works nicely is in algorithms or when asking how things are principally done, I mean when thinking in solution patterns, use cases and best practice. That's where ChatGPT shines in my opinion in its role as assistant.

[@fallenreven1390]

I'm self teaching currently and this has helped with my motivation to keep going . thanks guys