Coding in college
In 3 years of college, I didn’t really learn a lot of useful things. Most of the programming courses were outdated and theoretical courses had almost no practical use. But there is one skill I learned in college which makes it all worth the time: learning how to code.
The endless coding labs with fictional exercises made you stop and think about your code. It required your focus on syntax and patterns instead of real application behaviour. As a beginning programmer, this is the thing you need! A vast foundation of basic coding skills to build upon. It’s the only thing I learned back then which still serves me today.
Here are some of the things which I think are the basics for a beginning programmer. You need:
- A good theoretical knowledge to build upon.
- In-depth courses, not just about the syntax of languages, but also what happens behind the scenes. I’m talking stuff like memory management, compiling, error handling etc.
- A huge focus on patterns and OO.
Note: these days, it’s highly recommended to not only focus on OO. - An equal amount of time to put this theory into practice.
- Exercises which are not real-life examples, but rather make you think about how to program the right way, no matter what.
That’s what college gave me. You’ll learn all the other aspects of coding in the years to follow. As long as you learned how to learn, you’ll be fine.
The one tip I have for beginning coders is don’t start coding on the real stuff right away. It’s better to begin with a bare programming language for the sake of learning, instead of relying on several frameworks. Don’t be a dumb coder, know what you’re doing.
As long as you learned how to learn, you’ll be fine.
About
My name is Brent. I’m a web developer who reads, learns and thinks a lot about all kinds of topics. I’m very curious to know your opinion about this post, whether you agree or not. You can leave a comment here or contact me on Twitter. If you want other people to know about this post, the best thing you can do is click the recommend button below and share this post in your own network.
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