You may not have enough money to pay for a school or boot camp, you might already be working and are looking to switch careers, or you’ve decided to learn something new.
Whatever the reason, there are certain things you’ll encounter as a self-taught developer no one can prepare you for.
It gets lonely.
Teaching yourself is a very solitary venture. There’s no teacher to ask questions, no students to collaborate with, and no attendance requirements to motivate you to learn when you’re supposed to.
Most of your days will be spent alone studying the course material, coding, or fixing bugs.
This can eventually worsen your mental health and motivation to keep going. Even though it forces you to figure things out on your own, without a helping hand, it can become overwhelming.
Sure, there are ways to connect with others in this digital age through media like Discord, Twitter, or Stack Overflow, but these can only close the distance between you and other developers so much.
Different personalities respond differently to being alone for extended periods, but teaching yourself to code is bound to elicit a reaction from even the staunchest of introverts out there.
How you respond should let you know if this is the right path for you or if maybe it’s time to look for help.
No connections.
One of the bonuses of learning how to code in a classroom setting is your peers eventually become your first connections in the software world. The instructors could also have people they can introduce you to during the semester.
But when you’re learning solo, there are no professors or students to network with. This in turn leads to no recommendations of your skills to potential hiring managers or recruiters.
In the end, when you do feel ready to start applying for jobs, you’ll be making many cold calls and sending cold emails given your small network.
You could alternatively try and mingle with computer science students from local universities, join coding clubs, or participate in coding competitions, but this could vary based on your location.
The demand for software developers will drive the existence of some of these things, but either way, it’s up to you alone to build your network.
Stronger imposter syndrome.
Many developers generally experience imposter syndrome given the number of things they are constantly learning, but this is worse for those that are self-taught.
The phrase itself, self-taught, already raises questions.
Are you qualified to teach programming — including to yourself — and learn the content? Is the instructor in your course qualified to teach? How do we know you learned anything?
Those with degrees or boot camp certifications at least have that paper from an accredited (hopefully) learning institution confirming they went through a rigorous learning process and are job-ready.
What do you have?
These are the kinds of questions you’ll be asking yourself a lot. A strong portfolio should get you started, but you’ll have to do extra work to prove you’re just as capable.
How will you know you’re ready?
Traditional learning institutions typically have an event to signify the end of formal education — graduation. Inversely, they also have one to signify the beginning of learning — orientation.
As a self-taught developer, you have neither of these things. You won’t know exactly where and when the learning starts or stops or when it’s time to start working.
No one being around to tell you doesn’t help either. How do you know when you’re ready then? Is there an “a-ha” moment in there somewhere?
There’s good news and bad in this scenario. The good news is no developer will ever know they’re ready regardless of how they learned how to code.
The bad news is those in learning institutions will have some sort of guide those that are self-taught won’t.
Gaps.
A single online course that teaches you all you need to know about software until you’re job-ready doesn’t exist. Sadly, too many people fall for these “0 to Hero in 1 Hour” tutorials on YouTube thinking they work.
As a self-taught developer, it’s up to you to create a curriculum of what you’ll need to learn.
This can inadvertently lead to gaps in your learning since what’s on the course may not necessarily be everything you require to master the content.
Sometimes people catch this early on and learn the necessary material. Other times they find out too late when they’re applying for jobs and have to go back to the drawing board.
The software world is massive, and you’ll never know everything there is to know. Regardless, every developer should have a base level of knowledge before applying for jobs.
That leads me to something I tweeted that applies here.
“The hardest thing about programming is not knowing what you need to know but not knowing what you don’t need to know.”
If you’re interested in teaching yourself how to code but don’t know where to start, I made a playlist on YouTube that can help.
I’ve also written an article on if it’s possible to teach yourself to code and land a job within one year that might interest you.
All the best out there!
