The Mind Changer to a Career in Coding

A couple of people have written off coding as a career due to fears and myths they have. These include assumptions like to be a developer, you need to be a math whiz, it is just impossible to embark on a self-learning journey, coding is Greek, it’s a bit of a dark world with no life and one can drown alone and developers work like underground hackers day and night.

Let us take a little journey to ease some of the stress and doubt in my personal observation and experience.  Hopefully, this helps you re-consider if coding has been your passion and if these fears have put you off.

1. You do not need to be a math whiz to have a successful career in coding. Some developers did not even do well in math and are successful software developers.

2. You can be a self-taught programmer. I have met many developers who have started their careers through self-learning on the internet, taking tutorials, building personal projects and so forth. In fact, self-learning is something we continuously need to do, even if we have a university degree. To constantly improve our coding skills, we need to stay updated on latest trends, adapt and learn. With low-code platforms like OutSystems, you can learn to code in a month. The resources are readily available online and the support from the community is amazing.

3. Not Greek at all. I must admit that whenever I add  a new coding language to my skills, I go through a mini frenzy even after years of being a software developer. The mind is sometimes wired to fear the unusual and unknown. However, the minute I start to learn that language, it soon feels so natural, like I was born knowing it. The trick here is to get started.  Many of the tutorials we get from reputable learning sources will direct you to the resources you need to have to start learning, and you will continuously code as you learn, making it easy to understand.

4. It’s not a dark world, and you are not alone. Developers are the most supportive individuals that I have met in my working life. I believe the fact that everyone understands 1 person cannot know everything, and we work in an environment where we learn from each other constantly. The developer teams I have worked with have always been, in the true sense, a helping and supportive team that always strives and supports everyone to grow.

5. Coding can be fun and games. I am personally enjoying being a software developer, and would not have chosen a better career than this one. Developers are not  hackers, we are problem solvers. We are highly interactive among ourselves and others. Like any other team, we have a healthy balanced work life, even more balanced and flexible than other career paths.  As much as the end goal is to create practical and quality solutions, the process involves a people-centric culture.

In each career, passion  is the main reason for choosing a career path. This is me saying if you have a passion for coding, never let anything anyone stop you from going for it.  

Websites to help you learn to code:

OutSystems Training

W3Schools

Free code camp

LinkedIn Learning

Plural Sight

Udemy

You may have a look at these articles that will help you get started:

https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/programming-tutorial/coding-for-beginners

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-learn-programming/

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