When NOT to Buy Online Courses for Development Tools (For Beginners & Intermediate)

Self-Taught Route

Photo by Dimitri Houtteman on Unsplash

Typically, online courses are excellent investments since these will help you improve your skillset in software development. However, there are some tools that you can certainly learn on your own with the help of YouTube tutorials or the internet and certainly DO NOT require the guidance of a course. The goal of this article is to save you time and money!

Overall, if you barely started considering software development as a possible career path, and are not sure which direction to follow, I would suggest you avoid buying any type of learning material until you figure out which path you want to follow.

If you are a beginner, try building (aka mimic) one of the classic noob projects (such as a To-Do List or Calculator) and check out if you like software development. There are plenty of tutorials on the Internet that will teach you how to install the things needed to build simple stuff.

It’s good to have so many learning material options available in platforms such as Udemy or Coursera. However, the downside of buying many courses without knowing exactly what your career path is, will only get you trapped in “Tutorial Hell”.

Anyhow, without further delay, these are the following tools that you can for sure learn on your own despite being a beginner or intermediate:

1. HTML5: Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is not a programming language but it is the standard language used to create the main structure of web pages. HTML5 is simply HTML’s most recent version. Why HTML? HTML is typically included in most web development courses. So why spend money in a course that covers HTML only? there are several Front-End or Full-Stack courses that will go over HTML anyway. As mentioned previously, if you are a very beginner, you should be able to find plenty of free resources that will allow you to check out this markup language and play with it.
2. CSS3: Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a styling markup language as well. CSS3 is simply CSS’s most recent version. This tool allows the developer to decorate or style any websites (or web apps) and include layouts and animations. As mentioned in the previous bullet point, a lot of complete web development courses will most likely go over CSS, so there is no point in buying learning material that covers CSS exclusively. You may find plenty of CSS material that is free as well.
3. Unix Commands: Unix commands via command-line (Terminal) are essential for running servers, installing packages or modules, and moving throughout your computer’s hierarchal filesystem. Every file is stored in a directory or folder, and has a unique pathname. Unix commands have been around for a while, there’s plenty of documentation and free resources. In addition, learning the main commands on YouTube shouldn’t take that long.
4. Shell scripting with Bash: Bash script is basically a series of UNIX (mostly) commands written on a plain text file. The goal of this is to avoid writing individual commands repeatedly. There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube. In addition, bash shell scripting is not an essential requirement for every employer, but it’s always good to know.
5. Git: This is a version-control system that allows developers to track their projects’ progress. This is another tool that you don’t need to spend too much time understanding since it has a few main commands, and additional ones you can google them. So, do yourself a favor and don’t spend too much time understanding every aspect of Git, unless your current position or job that you are applying to requires it.

Conclusion

Time is a resource and you should choose wisely the learning material that you are going to buy. Focus on obtaining resources that will teach you the specific tools, languages or requirements of the specific role that you are looking for. Remember that some things (the least complex at least) can most likely be found for free on the Internet.