Learn To Code Before You’re Done Reading This Blog Post
There’s an amazing thing happening across the world right now: everyone wants to learn how to code. And let’s get this straight first—THAT IS AWESOME. As businesses continue to become technology dependent, the number of software developers required will grow. We need more programmers to keep up with the demand and drive innovation. Still, these marketing geniuses (I’m being genuine, these guys really know what they’re doing) are relaying a misleading message behind these “learn to code in three months” programs.
First, it says to the people enrolling that you can short circuit a computer science degree. You can’t. Let’s stop trying. We can, however, quickly show people what it’s all about and without these hefty price tags. Becoming a developer is a long journey that goes beyond academics. I remember my first day of CS106. My professor replayed that famous law school scene, “look to your left, look to your right, only one of you will pass this course.” In the end, it was loosely true. Several people left the course before the semester was up, but it wasn’t so much about not passing the course. The people that left were simply not a great fit. Being a software developer requires a certain amount of masochism; a tolerance for pulling your hair out while simultaneously banging your head against the wall and still being OK that the problem you were solving was the result of a missing semicolon.
If you’re considering joining one of these programs, what I’m saying to you is: don’t believe the hype. As detailed in this article, there is simply no six-figure guarantee at the end of the tunnel. On the flip side, there are lots of cheaper options to start learning that will, at the very least, prepare you to get the most out of a class. Just keep in mind that a 3 month course in coding is the equivalent of an equal length session with 8 minute abs—it will give you a sense of what it takes and you’ll feel the burn, but in the end you won’t look anything like Marky Mark.
It can, however, be an effective way to experiment in a new field and see if it’s a good fit. You’ll learn the real challenges around writing good code. It could even be used as a way for project managers to improve communications with their technical staff. From a developer’s perspective, the more people that understand what we do for a living, the better. It means less meetings where we have to expend energy justifying why a change request isn’t just a matter of dragging things around in Dreamweaver, less time explaining why “doing it in Ruby” is not a solution, and less guilt/more sympathy when the bits don’t line up in our favor causing us to miss a deadline or code through the night.
Another unfortunate side effect of the massive marketing campaign behind these programs is the implication to non-technical business leaders that software developers are commodities. Too often I’ve heard, “just hire a few more developers and push up the delivery date.” This is akin to doubling the oven temperature to cut the cooking time in half. So many projects fail due to this type of mentality. They either run out of money or the codebase is fragmented, sluggish, and not maintainable. The best products are formed from reasonable time/budget constraints and a chain of command where the senior developers have several years of experience and a real stake in the company…. But that’s a subject for another blog post.
/end rant
For some more reading on the topic, check out: Why Learning to Code Is So Damn Hard
