Learning code is hard!

I've been working for 20 years. I worked in different places, different jobs like plumbing, accountancy, banking, teaching.

Long story short: at some point I had to move forward and make something that I wanted to do because, you know... Life is short but working days can be very long if you do something you don't like.

So, 4 years ago, I decided to change again and became a developer. I didn't knew anything about the job at this time, neither about how to achieve that. I only knew that I wanted to make video games (spoiler: I didn't 😁).

Anyway, after some research, I discovered Le Wagon, an intensive nine weeks long coding bootcamp that was perfectly fitting my needs: a way to catch up quickly with the basics of The Code.

I finally ended up by teaching code at Le Wagon, at Fewlines and after that, at O'Clock, so I am pretty well aware of both sides of the picture... And let me make a statement here: For most people, learning to code is hard. And I hear you in the back:

You can't be a developer in two or three months.

Even if this is often some kind of troll, I have to agree with it. But let me be clear, if you consider those bootcamps to be developers factories, well...

Read again, because they're not.

As I said before, they provide a way to quickly learn the basics of programming and computer science. And most importantly, they teach you to learn in a right way.

This is a perfect way for people, like me, that didn't make related or great studies, or even people that just want to change their jobs.

Nowadays, a lot of companies are hiring developers to suit their needs. It is a labor market in expansion and maybe you are a junior developer or you may work with one at some point.

So, here are some tips that you could try as a learner or provide as a more senior developer.

Do not compare

As a coding teacher, I often hear students say that they feel less competent when they compare themselves to other learners. I was doing the same when I started my journey. And boy... this is demoralising.

When we compare to others, we are more inclined to see the negative side of it without even trying to consider that they may have more knowledge because they have more practice. This is not magic if they do know about something you don't, that's because they learned.

The only one unique person in the world we should compare to when learning to code is oneself. Take a breath and look back. What did you knew one month, one week or even the day before? What are you capable of now that you weren't before?

More often than not, it will be a lot. So be proud of that.

Don't be afraid!

Being a junior developer is something absolutely normal. Every developer was a junior once, even if some of us tend to forget that.

It means that you can't know everything and it is normal! It also means that a junior dev must tell when something is not understood or when there are questions.

One of the best way to improve is to ask for explanation.

Stupid questions don't exist. If you're not a junior dev but work with one of them, keep it in mind too 🙏.

Don't be afraid either by the quantity or density of information. Sometimes there will be a LOT of it. Focus on what is understandable is the way. You will have time to learn the rest later 😉. This specific point leads us to...

Follow the flow

It is ok to be curious. If you're not, you should try, if you're TOO curious, take your time. Have confidence in your mentors/teachers/coworkers that have more experience than you.

They should tell you what to learn when needed, what to leave aside for the moment. As we stated earlier, the quantity of things that we can learn is tremendous and you should focus first on what is important right now.

How to know if something is an important thing to know? Well... Ask for it 😁.

As a friend told me one day, knowledge can be compared to a sphere.

Our knowledge is the sphere. The more we learn, the more this sphere grows.

The space surrounding the sphere is what we do not know. The more the sphere grows, the more its contact surface with the unknown is growing too. This can lead to a feeling where the more we know the less we think we know. But it also helps us to make connections. For exemple, a subject you left behind at some point because it was too hard to understand, could now be accessible because we learned other related things.

One thing to note though: Do not confuse being a junior developer with having things to learn. I hope for you that you will always feel that you learn stuff. It is, in my opinion, one of the most important skill of a developer.

Note for junior's coworkers

I had the chance to work with fantastic teams, where I could learn a lot and this is because I had such wonderful coworkers, and they always took the time needed to explain until I got the point. They were always available, for any (work related) question.

I also had the chance to give code courses, and thus be in contact with a lot of code learners. This is an extremely good way to learn and improve your skills because explaining a concept forces to have a deep understanding of how it works. As any other skill, mentoring is a practice.

Working with junior developers is nice because you will also learn a lot. It may be about new good practices, about new tech or, simply, about yourself.

It is worth it 😁.