How I would learn to code if I were to start all over again in 2024

Is it even worth learning to code in 2024, with all the tech layoffs and AI taking over our jobs?

And if you do decide to teach yourself to code and go through all the trouble, what is the right approach?
I can’t tell you the exact and most beneficial approach for you, but I can share the failures and wrong paths I took, and how I would do it now.
But first, a little more context about my relationship with coding.

I wrote my first line of code more than 20 years ago. I went to high school in Romania and I had to choose my specialization early on, in 9th grade. I decided to go for Computer Science, even though I didn’t have a computer. But I loved math, so it seemed like a good idea. I didn’t excel at it, but I enjoyed it, even though it was mostly pseudo-code with pen and paper (or on the chalkboard).

As for college, I had no clue what to choose, so I tried many different things. I eventually studied Philosophy and loved it, but it wasn’t a very lucrative career. After a few years of blogging and small freelance gigs, I started to dive into WordPress more and more.
For the first time, I discovered that coding can be fun. Playing with those WordPress themes was my first glimpse into the fascinating world of what is possible with code — something that my high school teachers failed to show me.

So, I decided to dive deeper and took a course on Web Design to learn the basics: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (also some jQuery). After this course, I struggled for a few years to get a job in tech but with no success. This was mostly because I wanted to freelance or get a remote job right from the start. I didn’t want to live in a big city and waste my time in traffic. Also, I didn’t imagine a company would hire me without a CS degree. In the meantime, I took a job at a land surveying company to pay the bills but continued to learn programming on the side.

Fast forward to 2019, the year I decided to quit my job and try again, but this time with mobile development. I enjoyed it way more, and it was in higher demand on the job market. I managed to get a freelance gig on Upwork with a 5-star review and successfully built a React Native app for a local flower shop. I added these two projects to my LinkedIn profile and they were enough for a company from the UK to reach out to me. The interview was an easy take-home assignment, and they offered me a job.

Yes, it was that easy in 2019 so I’m well aware of how lucky I was back then. But now getting a job in tech (especially remote) is much harder, so I would take a completely different approach.

Learning to code in 2024

How I Would Do It Now:

1. Be more pragmatic and have a plan.
   Being pragmatic and following a plan will shorten the learning curve. Having a structured approach with goals will help you reach them faster and more easily than sort of stumbling in like I did.
2. Pick one thing in the beginning and become good at it.
   Clients and companies expect you to create software solutions that will help them make money. Todo apps are fun and a necessary step for learning, but they won’t get you hired. Whatever you decide to learn, master the basics first, and then build something more complex and useful.
3. Don’t expect to be passionate about it right from the start.
   As you can see from my story, my relationship with programming is a long and complicated one. The better I became at coding, the more I enjoyed it. The more I enjoyed it, the better I became, and the more I earned.
   Passion, the same as motivation, will come after consistent action.
4. Find a mentor.
   Having someone to guide you on your journey is super important. By receiving feedback, you’ll learn from your mistakes faster, without wasting precious time.
5. Network more.
   This one is big for me since I didn’t network much in the beginning. Even now, I still struggle with this one since I live in a small city and have to travel for networking events and tech conferences. But I’m trying to do it online as much as possible.
6. Learn in public, right from the start.
   This is my biggest regret since learning in public is the most important one on this list. If I were to choose only one, this would be it because you’ll network (by default) and have a structured approach. You’ll not have only one mentor, but a tribe.

If you decide to start learning programming in 2024, congratulations. It is a brave decision and one you will not regret. I hope the lessons I learned the hard way will make your journey a bit easier.

Remember to share all your failures, successes, and everything you learn right from the start. It will help you to learn better and to encounter greater opportunities.