How To Become A Self-taught Developer.

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Ankur Tyagi

How To Become A Self-taught Developer.

A Thread... pic.twitter.com/4tGlFFUkp9

— Ankur??? (@TheAnkurTyagi) August 3, 2021

In this blog, I’m going to show you the e2e process of "How To Become A Self-taught Developer."

Along the way, I’m also going to discuss:

• How to learn to code in the first place
• What to learn after learning to code
• How to get your first coding job or internship
• Is it important to get a computer science degree?

It’s easy to lose motivation or get so frustrated you feel like throwing your computer against the wall, at the start of your journey but the truth is if you’re going to be successful at becoming a self-taught developer you need a solid game plan before you get started.

If you are clear about your vision then you can easily achieve it.

You just need to follow the steps to learn things and what are the skills required to become a dev.

We know that everything thing starts with basic.

Focus on basics at the start.

It’s often hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

But when you’re in those tough, dark spots, try to find the motivation to hang in there.

You need to learn every day and practice every day so that you can sharpen your skills.

Don't let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.

You need to know what motivates you and make sure you’re doing things along the way that’s stirring that motivation so you don’t give up.

1. Pick a platform to learn to code.

• Udemy
• Frontend masters
• Pluralsight
• Code academy
• Coursera
• Khan Academy
• Free Code Camp
• The Odin Project
• W3Schools
• Code Avengers

I love Free Code Camp & Khan Academy.

I have to say that these platforms helped me in programming due to their user-friendly and interactive lessons.

You will get to work in an interactive environment where you can enter your code to answer a question & see the output.

*Web Development: *

You will learn how to build websites and interactive applications.

You can choose the path such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript.

2. Commit to learning.

Learning is a very fundamental skill.

You have to make a determined effort to learn and take action on the right things.

Learning is the beginning of wealth.
Learning is the beginning of health.
Learning never exhausts the mind.

The more that you read & code.

The more things you will know.

The more you apply the concept you learn, the better you will become.

If you think education is expensive, try estimating the cost of ignorance.

3- Choose a specification:

Being a full-stack developer, you need to be very strong in front-end as well as back-end coding.

To simplify this complex learning process, it is most appropriate to choose a development specification in advance which would help you later.

When you start out doing both at the same time, you won’t be good in either, and hence your knowledge as a full-stack developer will be really limited.

It is much better to learn both separately, than combining the two after gaining experience in each.

4- Follow a course structure.

Whether it’s a Bootcamp or an online course, try to follow a preexisting structure.

Sometimes you can't see the road ahead but as you keep going, it gets clearer.

Stay the course as the fog of life dissipates.

Coding requires actual work.

5- Learn Online

Traditional education is slowly dying.

Not everyone has time or money to spend on a 4-year college degree for the knowledge that can be readily accessed online.

You can learn CS :
There are great courses out there offered for free by

• Stanford, Harvard, MIT

6- Build actual shit (code code).

The best way to transform your class knowledge into practical knowledge is to build things.

The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.

The only developer who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and apply.

You are not going to feel confident if you do not implement something practically that you learned via an online course.

We humans, learn best by doing it.

There's a saying that:

Practice makes a man perfect, right?

7- Be consistent

The first thing to do is to set aside time for your learning.

Set a specific time every day during your daily schedule within which you’ll learn and be selfish about it.

Being consistent in your coding habit is a great way to build confidence.

8- Pros and cons of being a self-taught developer?

One of the biggest pros is, of course, that self-education is completely free.

All it takes is time and a Google search bar to find all the resources you could possibly dream of to help you learn to code.

The biggest con is the lack of an organized curriculum.

You’re entirely responsible for your education, so you have to put the time in to find all your materials and resources.

This takes hours of scouring the internet that could be spent actually learning your craft.

Today, no matter the industry you are interested in, be it biology, finance, or even farming, there are opportunities for programmers who are excited to use software to solve real problems.

Look for hackathons, clubs, and like-minded peers you can join to surround yourself with.

- The Resume

*Keep it to one page, and keep it basic. *

No fancy fonts or weird styling.

Make sure If you’re only starting to learn a language, it’s better to say that you have introductory knowledge than to try to pass yourself off as an expert — you’ll get caught.

- GitHub

*If you’re not on GitHub, the good news is that it’s never too late to start. *

GitHub is a tool that is invaluable to programmers.

It lets them track versions of their projects, share their code, and contribute to open-source projects.

- Is it important to get a computer science degree?

The most important thing is that you are interested in studying it, because computer science could be quite challenging, but also rewarding.

There is a lot more to software engineering than just programming.

Doing projects that you choose on your own is one thing; being given programming requirements/assignments and deciding how to implement them is another thing altogether.

Then there's also developing/presenting project proposals, testing plans, and documentation which is essential in the working world.

In my personal opinion, As for myself, I did a CS degree, Even if you think you won't learn anything new from going through the track for a CS degree (but you probably will), you should still do it.

It's like a golden key that unlocks many opportunities, as soon as you are done with your degree.

But one key point to remember, many students with computer science degrees think that's enough to have recruiters falling at their feet.

They're wrong.

Computer science and IT graduate jobs require more than just a graduate with a related degree.

IT employers care about your transferable skills (such as your ability to organize your workload and communicate professionally) just as much as your technical ones.

If you really think you can piece together online resources to teach yourself, you’re welcome to try forging your own path.

But if you want to invest in yourself, possess a clear advantage in the job market, and give yourself the best shot at a successful career in technology, a Computer Science degree will be worth it to you.

Thanks for reading.

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This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Ankur Tyagi