HOW TO CHOOSE A PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE? As a complete beginner
Disclaimer: I am a non-programmer, haven’t studied IT. Although, I wanted to learn a programming language and below you will learn what I have learned during my research. This is my experience in a nutshell.
PART 1
Isn’t it exciting to learn that one of the first programmers were women? Grace Hopper and Margaret Hamilton, who played significant roles in the tech world at its very beginnings, have just recently been (posthumously) granted the Medal of Freedom by President Obama.
Either inspired by those amazing figures or you out of need to change your career path, the decision to tap into the programming waters in today’s world is one of the best that you could have made not only for your career development. At the pace the technology is developing not understanding how it works may turn out to be equal to what illiteracy is right now.
HOW TO DECIDE WHICH PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE TO LEARN?
Finding the right programming language is not easy but I’ll try my best to simplify the first steps for you. Before you choose your programming language you need take a few things into consideration:
1. WHAT YOU WANT TO DO:
There is a few types of “products” that you can be developing with code:
- web applications
- game development
- mobile applications
- data analysis / statistical computing
2. THE LAYER OF THE PRODUCT YOU WANT TO DEVELOP:
There is two types of programming languages that you will most probably be choosing from: front-end & back-end. Applications have layers and simply put front-end is “all things beautiful”: everything that the end user sees. It’s the face of an application. If it was a car, front-end is the body. Back-end is what the user can’t see but what works underneath the applications. It’s what the engine and the ‘guts’ are to a car.
3. THE TECHNOLOGIES THAT ARE CURRENTLY POPULAR OR GETTING POPULARITY.
Technologies change all the time. It’s no use learning a programming language that is becoming obsolete.
Below is the list of the most popular languages by fossbyte.
4. YOU MAY WANT TO CHECK THE POTENTIAL SALARY (ALTHOUGH DO NOT CHOOSE A PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE JUST BECAUSE IT MAY PAY YOU MORE THAN THE OTHER)
If you have any questions, let me know. As I mentioned. This is just the first step. Depending on what you have the interest in you should investigate further. If you know any IT people — a chat with them would be the most beneficial for you. Don’t be afraid to grab them for coffee or lunch.
If you think this article can help someone, I’d mean the world to me if you shared it.
Stay tuned for Part II
Good luck!
Iwona
