If you are viewing this post then I am really grateful. I used to be a mathematics student from Nepal and I want to learn coding and start my career as programmer. Being non technical person and completely newbie to the field, I used to get stuck and sometimes frustration comes. However, from the help of friend I learned about simple blogging with GitHub pages and also doing some Python Beginner course on Coursera. I heard this platform from friend and I am enjoying it here.
Please take a time and give your suggestions to complete newbie from non technical background. How can I learn efficiently and become productive? If there are any resources you recommend or any rule or any suggestions are requested.
Top comments (19)
Welcome to the community! As a mathematician you're used to thinking logically so switching to programming shouldn't be too hard. Coursera courses are usually very good so you've got a good start.
What I'd recommend next is to do a Computer Science course, to get good fundamentals before you move further. They're usually called something like 'Introduction to Computer Science', 'Computer Science Fundamentals' or 'CS101' (that's what they're called at American universities). I've heard very good things about Harvard's CS50 online course.
Maybe check out freeCodeCamp and join the forum. freeCodeCamp provides courses in two main tracks, web development and data science. The main reason I'm recommending it is the forum. freeCodeCamp is hugely popular, the forum is very active and it's moderated by experienced developers. If at any point you get stuck, ask your questions there. Feeling discouraged? There's always someone there who will have your back. It's also a good place to ask about courses and resources.
My last bit of advice is: Build your own projects. If you have finished your Python course, you know enough to start making things. Have the Python documentation open in your browser, refer to it all the time and google anything you need. Focus on making something that works. You'll hit lots of problems on the way, and it's in the solving that you'll develop your programming chops.
I appreciate your recommendation thanks alots.
I truly love the last paragraph. And the idea of using documentation. It's one thing I dread but seems it's a gold to learn to know. Thanks.
Thanks for your support.
I started to code 6 months ago and now I got a job as a web developer intern. I'll share what I did and what I recommend. Start Harvard's CS50, it's a very nice course with hands on approach.
Most courses and tutorials don't make you build something, just keep pushing dozens of hours of classes that you won't remember later on, and CS50 makes you build stuff and learn with that from the start until the end.
Only join courses that make you build something, that's my tip.
Have a journey learning programming, and good luck!
Thank you for your suggestion.
Welcome to the community!
I have a couple of short advices (on mobile right now)
Thank you very much for your suggestion.
Surely the thing is to learn to program, before you try anything like 'simple blogging'....
There are many courses out there, but I doubt there is anything better than
coursera.org/learn/interactive-pyt...
This uses a thing called codeskulptor, written and supported by Scott Rixner, one of the instructors, and you need absolutely nothing else.
It was absolutely free when I took it, and they still say 'enroll for free'.
There's also an article on medium, on how to become a programmer:
medium.com/swlh/programming-i-want...
Python expertise is, I guess, not the most-in-demand skill. But it's beautiful, complete, and well supported. And a good start, like chaining 40 lawyers together at the bottom of the sea.
Thank you for the suggestion.
Go to college. That is number one option. It is or will be a waste of time and cash though since you had to go through mathematics. MOOC is the next alternative. You want a community, where you can turn to for little help and guidance. Find a friend, a coding buddy or a mentor. Python is simple to pick up in no time. You can talk to one of these guys (experienced devs) to see which niche is available, suitable to your skill and knowledge.
For resources, youtube and usually, MIT OCW is my goto.
github.com/ossu/computer-science this is ossu.. there you have it.. They even have their own community with lots of grey headed devs.
Good luck man..
Thanks alots for your suggestion.
The Python Beginner course is definitely a step in the right direction to begin your coding journey. To improve your skill, read some code written by other programmers (Eg. on GitHub), implement some common statistical calculations (you can use open data sets from the "Awesome Public Datasets" repo on GitHub), and try to solve challenges on coding/algorithm contests.
CodeCamps help you learn an entire stack of technologies (Eg. Angular, ExpressJS, MongoDB) and will set you on the track to professional coding. You might also want to apply to degree programs at universities that are known for their software development courses.
Thank you. I am definitely going to follow this.
Thank you.
Very inspiring.. Keep it up mam. Nice to see someone from Nepal in Dev.to
Thank you for support
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