Learning to Code Part 1 of 5
This is a jargon-free, plain English series, written to inspire people who are considering learning to code.
It will also help non-coders, who work with coders, understand what the process is to get a feature built, into production, deployed and released on a web or mobile application.
So you want to learn to code?
In this article we explore if you really do want to learn to code: what motivates you and how to go about fulfilling your goal.
Wanting to become a developer and learning to code is a decision. It was a process that, for me, took about 18-months. During this time there were key questions I asked myself.
- Why do I want to become a developer?
- Do I need to have a computer science degree or software engineering degree to learning coding?
- How long will it take me to learn the skills required?
- Will I enjoy it?
- Can I make a living out of it — will I actually be employable?
After two years, since I retrained at boot camp, the last question is a — yes, but… the full answer is further down the page :-)
Why do you want to become a developer?
Everyone’s path is different. You need to answer this fundamental question so that you get the best answer that works for you. I started by reading articles like these by other people who had gone through the same decision making process.
My path was I love gadgets, technology and people — and not necessarily in that order. It started with people — many of my friends were developers.
I was variously a content-writer/ marketing professional/ product-owner and scrum master. My developer friends seemed to have a supportive community, interests out of the work place, a good sense of humour and minds full of questions.
As a marketeer I did know some basic HTML (hyper-text-mark up-language) and some vanilla CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). So email-marketing templates and the early development work gave me a basic idea of what HTML did — creates text blocks — and CSS — adds styling on the page.
It was only when I was responsible for driving digital transformation as a product owner, that I actually was asked by my dev friends to write some of the CSS in the files to speed up the work.
This happened occasionally when people were off sick, or devs more interested in “real” programming languages. It got me thinking and asking questions like so what’s a “real” programming language?
Do you need a computer science or software engineering degree ?
I was fortunate to work in technology for ten years and talk to a lot of developers.
I began to notice a pattern, there were the engineers and the CS (computer Science) guys. But there were a lot of devs that were neither. One was a waiter before he became a programmer. Another was in an advertising agency and retrained. Yet another deciding that he would never become a professional drummer — though he liked to jam on weekends — taught himself with various online video courses.
It got me thinking.
How long does it take learning to code?
The answer is three months at boot camp or forever as learning never stops. You have to keep training to keep on top of your game.
I researched and read as much as I could online.
I gathered a checklist of links from casual learning to on-line University degrees from my dev friends.
I sampled and tried JavaScript, the language I was told was the best entry level ‘real’ programming language that would help me on my journey to learn to code.
I researched companies and the programming languages they were using and found, indeed, JavaScript seemed to be a popular language.
I set up accounts with Stack Overflow, StackSkills, Udemy, Linked-in Learning, GitHub as recommended by the devs (never used any of them till boot camp and after!)
After 3–4 months I realised learning to code online was not for me.
I like the environment of a campus and any form of learning with other people.
The next 3–4 months, in that 6–8 month research period, I asked all the non-engineers, non-computer science graduates what courses they did and got a list of London-based boot camps.
Most accredited boot camps are three to four months.
While the fees are between £12,000 and £15,000 (at the time I did the course 2019), you have to save to pay for your rent, transport, living expenses possibly another £15,000 in London (£2,000 and £3,000) for 4 to 6 months as you are unlikely to get a job immediately. I graduated in April-May and was the first in my cohort to get a job which started in July. January to July was a 6-month period and I felt seriously broke at the end of it!
I sent applications to three accredited boot camps and did all their free-workshops knowing the high cost of making the last and final decision.
The free workshops are long sales pitches. Every boot camp promises you will get a job at the end of it.
For anyone who has rose-tinted glasses and thinks this is easy, TechCrunch has a great article I would advise you to read on this link.
I wanted to know from my dev friends who were non-engineers and non-computer science degree holders whether I would be able to pay back my fees in a period of 12-months if I got a job. The answer was always yes, depending on if you get a job.
For me, it was always a question of finding out — albeit an expensive, high-risk route — whether I would enjoy coding.
Will you enjoy learning to code?
For me the answer was a resounding yes. I came away from boot camp learning more that I thought that I would. We rapidly raced through the fundamentals of some “real” programming languages
- JavaScript — a front-to-back end language
- Python — a scripting back-end language
- PostgreSQL — a relational database
- React.js — a front-end JavaScript component Library
- Node.js — a JavaScript back-end framework
- MongoDB — a document-based database
Can you make a living after you have learnt to code?
At the end of three months I understood the general concepts of coding. I was fairly terrified. I did not feel confident that what I knew was enough to get a “real” job.
The key things that everyone recommends bootcamp grads are:-
- Make a portfolio site
- Keep an active GitHub account of your work
- Do coding challenges at least once a day after bootcamp
- Attend workshops, networking milk-rounds
- Keep a copy of your CV and hustle
I started looking for non-paying internships and mentors.
I lucked out. The first potential mentor I connected with via Linked-in was looking for interns.
I did a white-board pair-coding test and I even got paid!
It was the best three-months of my life after boot camp.
To learn more about learning to code “real” languages read Part 2 in the series Learning to Code -> next
