Learning how to code — my absolute beginners journey (3 months)
Learning how to code has forever been on my to-do list. But somehow, I never really started. Why? I think it was because of this coding cliché. You either see red bull drinking night owls who illegally hack themselves into databases or the genius silicon valley guys with IQ 150+ only caring about how to increase their money and power.
I am I joyful, creative girl who cares about fresh food, beauty, health and how to make the world a better place. I would have never thought that learning how to code could be a pleasure for me.
But then there was the other side. My great desire to discover the world of coding. Since about 8 years I work in marketing. And when you work in marketing it gets technical very soon. Be it for SEO or because of the algorithms, that f*** up my Instagram reach. I wanted to know, how it works.
I first started to learn how to code about 5 years ago. As I was working in a e-commerce store I mostly cared about web development. So I bought myself one of this cheap online courses, where you independently study with pre produced videos. I failed.
Why did I fail? Looking back I see three main reasons:
- no mentor, no peers
- only learning languages, no projects
- wasting time doing the wrong things
They say, if you have a strong why, you can make it happen. And so did I. I did not have one reason why tho, but three:
- I wanted to be able to realize my own projects like an app or some cool functions on my blog.
- I wanted to know more about how the web works so I can protect myself against risks online.
- I wanted to no longer being exposed to “experts” when I had a problem — and of course being able to finally understand blockchain and algorithms (I still have no clue about that yet at least I know now, how big this whole programming/coding world actually is)
My “Learning how to code”-Roadmap
I have been learning how to code for the past 3 months now and words can not tell you how happy my progress makes me feel like. And looking back, it wasn’t even that hard.
The one thing that has really helped me moving forward is the combination of not gaining knowledge but then also learning how to use the tools (hello Terminal) and work on some real life projects.
After getting over the life crises that working with the terminal, git, GitHub brought up, I seriously felt like an absolut pro, finally being able to not only code, but actually putting my projects out there.
If you wanna learn more about my journey, check out my YouTube video:
My favorite Ressources
> mimo is an online course with live coding sessions, 1:1 meetings and even a mobile app to support you on your journey. Their mission: “Become a web developer in 3 months”
> w3schools is my favorite site for references. Its very well structured yet includes all the information + nice examples.
>freecodecamp on YouTube is my favorite channel for project tutorials. I love to follow along their videos and complete the projects.
Thanks for hanging out! Talk to you guys soon!