Development is a profession where you will never truly flourish unless you have an insatiable hunger for knowledge.
Bootcamps can not teach you this. Bootcamps don't teach anything you can not teach yourself.
The internet is flooded with free/cheap tutorials with content extremely similar to bootcamps, and almost all popular technologies have great documentation. Do not use a single source! Dive into udemy, laracasts, khanacademy, youtube, etc. Why spend thousands if you can learn the same for a bit of loose change?
You will get stuck a lot. Bootcamps teach you to directly ask an instructor when you are stuck. It fails to teach the harsh lesson that you first need to be able to find your own answers.
An employer will not hire anyone who is not self-reliant.
That doesn't mean you should never ask for help, but unless your question starts with "I've read the docs and tried these 5 things" both peers on the internet and coworkers will not take the question seriously.
You should create heaps of unfinished hobby projects. But with each semi-failed ugly thing you make, you leap closer to being a professional. A violinist's first year on the instrument does not sound great either.
Don't believe people who tell you you can learn development in two weeks. It is hard work and requires continuous practice, just like any other skill.
But I do truly believe that a professional developer only requires that one single personality trait: endless, unstoppable curiosity — Any curious person can learn to program!
You should create heaps of unfinished hobby projects. But with each semi-failed ugly thing you make, you leap closer to being a professional. A violinist's first year on the instrument do not sound great either.
Thanks for some great observations. I have some pretty hideous looking projects from a couple of years ago I'm not sure should ever be viewed by anyone :S
I agree that curiousity and wanting to figure something out is really important. My manager calls it 'guiding someone to realisation', not giving them the answer and not even having the conversation until they have tried their best to google and tinker around with the code to make it work.
Haha yes, it's difficult, but I think we should never be ashamed of the learning process.
A year ago I would have described myself as a senior backend dev, but the code I wrote back then seems not that great now. Chances are that year-into-the-future me will think the same about current-me.
It's true that there are some harsh or even toxic critics on the internet, but there are also plenty of devs who are either helped by, or willing to help with code of any level.
I'm trying to be confident enough to share more code with the world, it's not easy, but when I do it I'm always surprised that there are plenty of constructive positive responses.
"You should create heaps of unfinished hobby projects. But with each semi-failed ugly thing you make, you leap closer to being a professional. A violinist's first year on the instrument do not sound great either."
Thank you for this. I thought I was wasting my time.
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We're a place where coders share, stay up-to-date and grow their careers.
Development is a profession where you will never truly flourish unless you have an insatiable hunger for knowledge.
Bootcamps can not teach you this. Bootcamps don't teach anything you can not teach yourself.
The internet is flooded with free/cheap tutorials with content extremely similar to bootcamps, and almost all popular technologies have great documentation. Do not use a single source! Dive into udemy, laracasts, khanacademy, youtube, etc. Why spend thousands if you can learn the same for a bit of loose change?
You will get stuck a lot. Bootcamps teach you to directly ask an instructor when you are stuck. It fails to teach the harsh lesson that you first need to be able to find your own answers.
An employer will not hire anyone who is not self-reliant.
That doesn't mean you should never ask for help, but unless your question starts with "I've read the docs and tried these 5 things" both peers on the internet and coworkers will not take the question seriously.
You should create heaps of unfinished hobby projects. But with each semi-failed ugly thing you make, you leap closer to being a professional. A violinist's first year on the instrument does not sound great either.
Don't believe people who tell you you can learn development in two weeks. It is hard work and requires continuous practice, just like any other skill.
But I do truly believe that a professional developer only requires that one single personality trait: endless, unstoppable curiosity — Any curious person can learn to program!
Love this:
You should create heaps of unfinished hobby projects. But with each semi-failed ugly thing you make, you leap closer to being a professional. A violinist's first year on the instrument do not sound great either.
Thanks for some great observations. I have some pretty hideous looking projects from a couple of years ago I'm not sure should ever be viewed by anyone :S
I agree that curiousity and wanting to figure something out is really important. My manager calls it 'guiding someone to realisation', not giving them the answer and not even having the conversation until they have tried their best to google and tinker around with the code to make it work.
Haha yes, it's difficult, but I think we should never be ashamed of the learning process.
A year ago I would have described myself as a senior backend dev, but the code I wrote back then seems not that great now. Chances are that year-into-the-future me will think the same about current-me.
It's true that there are some harsh or even toxic critics on the internet, but there are also plenty of devs who are either helped by, or willing to help with code of any level.
I'm trying to be confident enough to share more code with the world, it's not easy, but when I do it I'm always surprised that there are plenty of constructive positive responses.
You have a great big supportive community right here. I was really surprised what kind feedback I got posting in this forum.
"You should create heaps of unfinished hobby projects. But with each semi-failed ugly thing you make, you leap closer to being a professional. A violinist's first year on the instrument do not sound great either."
Thank you for this. I thought I was wasting my time.