6 tips for beginner programmers
A programmer is a craftsman like job.
First, you are a pupil who acquires knowledge from the master. In today’s world it might be someone who’s created an online course, a workshop instructor or your supervisor during the internship.
Later, when you have all the know-how required to work, you become a craftsman. Based on your experience you are able to develop best practices and deep understanding of the technology you are using.
The last step, which not everyone decides to take, is to become a master. It translates into being able to organize the information in a way that it can be passed it to someone who is just starting.
What makes programming stand out from other fields is the fact that you are unable to comprehend all the IT technologies — it’s such a dynamic and quickly developing area that grasping a half of it is bordering on the impossible.
That’s the reason why the learning process of a programmer is divided into learning technologies and… learning how to learn :)
The sooner we understand how to study new technologies and solutions, the more time we will have to pick up new ones and deepen our existing knowledge.
I have taught many people, including high schoolers, students and graduates. What turned out to be a common denominator were mistakes and wrong assumptions, which were slowing down the progress of my disciples.
In today’s blog post I would like to show you a few simple things you can change or add into your learning process to make it more effective.
1. Do not focus on ‘how to do’. Focus on ‘what to do’.
Lots of people start their learning journey with a book or an online course, which shows them the basics of any given programming language. After that they move onto something more advanced and so on, spending the whole time on studying just this one subject.
2. Approach the learning process as a project
Let’s imagine a situation — a colleague approaches who does not know anything about programming and you are in the middle of coding. He asks — “What are you doing?”
If your answer is limited to implementation details, i.e. “I’m setting up a rest API which shares two web sockets” — surely it won’t help him understand anything.
3. Not everything you do has to be unique
Each one of us was told in school that cheating is wrong. Not in many schools (I’m speaking from my experience) children are taught to tell apart plagiarism from inspiration and mimicry.
The system also works in a way, that the factual result of our learning are grades, not the knowledge itself.
4. Be brave and confident of your own value
Since quite a while, beyond programming, I’m also interested in avionics and aeronautics — in short, everything that flies, especially if it flies to outer space.
A situation I want to tell you about happens during commercial, passenger flights. It is a particular way of choosing pilots for a given flight. It basically comes down to the fact, that an experienced pilot will be allowed to fly only with another equally experienced pilot. A beginner will fly with other beginner. Why? Because otherwise one pilot might be afraid to question the decision of the more experienced one. As long as they have equal competence level, none of them will feel as a better or worse pilot.
5. Do not anticipate taking only “big steps” — taking “small steps” often will give you the intended result
Sometimes, people I meet tell me — “You are really fortunate, sitting in front of a computer, clicking and earning, sometimes without leaving your home.”
My response is always the same — “Then start doing the same! I can help you!”. After that a series of excuses occurs — “Nooo, I have no knowledge about computers”, “I don’t have any time!”, “I would have to sign up to a course”, etc.
Why I see those as just excuses? Let me answer with another question — “What do you have to do to become a writer?”. The answer is simple — “Start writing”. We can be better or worse at it, however the only requirement to be able to call oneself a writer is to start writing.
The same applies to programming […]
6. Solve one problem at a time
While creating an application, after the planning phase and looking at the project holistically, you should narrow your perspective to specific steps you need to take.
For example, if you’re working on a Messenger like application, start with a script which will save the given text into a text file. Of course, ultimately you will have to have a server, which will receive those messages and send them to the recipient. But thanks to this approach you will be able to understand how to handle relaying the text from the user to the code and how to process the text — this is something! After that you can create a simple server, work on the interface, but keep in mind to solve one problem at a time.
Let me cheer you up — there are many places which will help you get through this stage, maybe not painlessly, but in a more smooth way. Look for internships which will teach you the most. Look for internships in interesting, valuable companies.
What if you can’t find a place like that? Well, you will be in the same situation I once was. And the only solution is to create this place on your own, when you go through you journey. This is why, when I have found my place, the company I’m currently working in, TEONITE, I have implemented my own internship programme, BootMeUpTNT. I’m creating it in a way, so it could have helped me when I was starting my adventure.
I would like to encourage you too — if you are having a hard time finding your place — create your own BootMeUp. Help others in getting knowledge and share what you have learned — this way you will be able to make this difficult time easier for others.
