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Ask HN: How do I become a Software Developer?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I become a Software Developer?

#11

Post by _zero »

csorrell wrote: post #9

Well, I was 25 when I started learning how to code. The big motivator for me was the birth of my first child, and I was sick of minimum wage labor jobs. Transitioning into software was a long process for me. I spent about two years working at it in the evening hours before I was able to land my first real job. There's a steep learning curve upfront and it takes a lot of effort. I would recommend signing up for classe…

>Well, I was 25 when I started learning how to code. The big motivator for me was the birth of my first child, and I was sick of minimum wage labor jobs.

I don't have kids, but I certainly can relate. My family immigrated to the states from the Caribbean, making me a first generation American. They aren't well off and even though we aren't that close, I'd like to be in the position where I can assist them and their kids if they ever need help. I feel that the best way to do this is to pursue this path that I've chosen.

> I spent about two years working at it in the evening hours before I was able to land my first real job.

That's impressive. Thanks for the inspiration.

I know that nothing in life comes easy and that basically you (sometimes) get what you put in. I was uncertain yesterday, but I think today I'm ready to take the first step towards this crazy dream of mine.

>Best of luck. You can do it!

Thanks! And good luck to you as well. :)

Re: Ask HN: How do I become a Software Developer?

#12

Post by nikhilkalegregg »

You are young. Becoming a coder is very doable at that age. I started self-teaching myself how to code a little less than a year ago just before I was 24 with no prior experience besides believing myself to be raw at math just like yourself. If you understand math, it should not be too difficult. Everything is abstractions, and you get to create the abstractions. If you think about coding in terms of just organizing tables, it makes it really easy. Some of the fancier stuff might take some time (or some copying and pasting), but most of the syntax that is probably going to intimidate you is not necessarily useful in practice. Think of it as writing an argument in a philosophy class. What are the system’s conditionality’s? What is the end goal of the program? Sound, clean and uncluttered logic with a distinct argument and point is what you are going for. Personally, I found that I learned very fast using PHP, MySQL, HTML5, jQuery, JavaScript, and the LAMP stack. It gave me the foundation to do AJAX (asynchronous calling) and learn a lot of the intimidatingly sounding frameworks which are not altogether that useful, necessarily (I only know as far as my opinion). But I would recommend checking out that stack. They work together nicely and are not syntactically challenging. Another thing I'd recommend is replacing your recreational gaming like crossword puzzles, sudoku, etc with Project Euler. Its an enjoyable way to learn while using competitive fuel/energy rather than draining any oil of finishing a task for a task’s sake. However, for me, 100%, the single most important thing was setting myself projects, and committing myself to them despite my subconscious knowing they had no chance at success. The project I chose was a music new-era napster/iTunes in the cloud website. I would recommend something similar because it is relatively enjoyable to learn/code and there are a million different ways you can improve any base product you have, (offline playing, sharing at the blink of an eye, efficient uploading, and you can get rid of Spotify, Pandora, etc. You can also make it illegal as shit and feel like a cowboy and just see how great you can make it. Chances are, it will be really illegal but better than anything else you can currently get right now. Use that as motivation, enjoy the fruits of your labor, save money, and inspire yourself to keep going.

Once you've exhausted the features you can add to a music app, you can execute any idea that you come up with that utilizes the Internet, sharing, etc. You won't necessarily become a master of 4D printing, but any theory you have about anything you can test and create a physical representation of on the Internet. Don't rush building it for the sake of finishing. Learn and understand what you are doing and your next project will have the potential of promis. I spent 3-4 months working on a website that I knew had no chance of becoming anything. However, I just kept smashing my head against the wall and making it better while slowly but surely improving my skillset to the point where new things now come easily, because I understand the philosophy. Now that I have moved on from that initial music website I can now pursue much more innovative and intellecutually stimulating projects (which I wouldn't have been able to do had I not spent so much time on a project that I knew had no chance of success). Give yourself a throw away project, commit yourself to it, and use it as training for the next one. If you truly commit yourself, you should be able to build pretty much anything you see on the Internet 1 year from now. That is not a guarantee! But you have plenty of time and there no reason not to believe that you cannot.

Re: Ask HN: How do I become a Software Developer?

#14

Post by morepyplease »

Similarly I'd like to ask how to jump industries. I have 12 years in enterprise IT as a network and systems admin and the last 5 years I've been living and breathing powershell at work, developed several python/flask side projects (one full site with cc processing, coupon code checking with JS, email notifications, user registration, etc.). Learned to use git, developed my first published windows store app, and now continuing to learn c# for fun.

I find myself enjoying coding more and more each day and IT support less and less. But I "know" IT territory very well. From IT managers, to day in day out, to projects one cam expect. I live and breathe it. I feel out of my depths even applying or building a resume for a development job and have a family to support. What's the safest and best way to get my bearings and jump into a dev job?

Work is supportive of my advancement in coding, but its leveraged as a cheap way to automate processes.

Re: Ask HN: How do I become a Software Developer?

#15

Post by yashap »

_zero wrote: post #7
trcollinson wrote: post #3

To be frank with you, start working, hard. This is going to be your largest huddle. When you read this message, what were you doing? On Facebook (or some other social media)? On some game? Watching your giant Netflix queue? I don't know what it was but it probably wasn't coding. And if it was, then good! You're already on your way. I honestly don't mean any of that to be mocking. I am just saying, a lot of people fai…

>I don't know what it was but it probably wasn't coding. You're right, I wasn't coding. I waste a lot of time on the internet not being productive, so I'll change this. I signed up for a codecademy account recently, so I'll challenge myself by doing some exercises there daily. >So now you have to ask yourself, what are you willing to give up? I think I'm finally ready to give up all of my distractions. I'm getting si…

Agreed with it basically being lots of hard work, and that you have to be very motivated.

I'm currently 29, working as a Software Developer, and also started late. Got my MSc in Oceanography, had some basic programming experience (built basic websites for beer money, some light scientific programming), but not much. Decided I liked the analytics more than the rest of science, and got a job at a SaaS company as a Data Analyst. Really started falling in love with programming quickly there, and did the following: - took online courses like crazy (often waking up early to get some in before work, and more on evenings/weekends when possible) - always took on the most technical tasks at work, where I'd get to write as much Python/R/SQL as possible - started a coding club at work, great for group learning and motivation

After ~2 years of this I had gotten myself to a point where I could legitimately work as a Software Developer, and got a new job as one (at the same company). Stayed in my area of expertise, data science/analytics, but as a developer instead of an analyst.

I wouldn't suggest codeacademy, though. Maybe it's changed since I tried it, but my experience was that they introduced you to a bunch of syntax, but left out most of the fundamentals of how computer science and how to structure programs. I'd much more strongly suggest taking more involved courses. Some of my favourites include (note - bias towards Python, Scala and SQL courses, as that's what I happen to use a lot of):

Intro to Comp Sci (Python) https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-computer-science--cs...

Intro to Web Dev (Python) https://www.udacity.com/course/web-development--cs253

Data Structures and Algos (Python): http://interactivepython.org/runestone/static/pythonds/index...

JS intro: http://eloquentjavascript.net/

Functional programming (Scala): https://www.coursera.org/course/progfun

Reactive programming (Scala): https://www.coursera.org/course/reactive

Good databases courses (boring but good content): https://lagunita.stanford.edu/courses/DB/2014/SelfPaced/abou...

My personal feeling is that things like codeacademy get you superficial knowledge, like learning to use tools, when what you really want is deeper knowledge about how to build houses, regardless of the tools.

Re: Ask HN: How do I become a Software Developer?

#16

Post by burritofanatic »

I left law, ended up in QA, and am now a full time software developer. I think being in QA helped a lot when it came to teaching myself - would be employers would be glad you had work experience in a professional software development environment. This will be to your advantage, though trying to go dev from a QA role at the same company may be more difficult for political/business reasons.

I think the thing that got me where I am now within a reasonably time period is picking a type of technology (in my case, it was learning iOS and Git well enough) I wanted to work with, then stick to that until you become employed while attending every hackathon and relevant meetup, time permitting. You'll need projects that demonstrate your aptitude and ability.

If you or anyone else is interested, my story is actually on Codecademy: https://www.codecademy.com/stories/155-from-lawyer-to-ios-de..., and I've even written a book about the transition: http://quitlawandcode.com/

You're going to do fine. I know it seems like such a binary and insurmountable transition, but the more hours and practice you have, the more OOP and other concepts will just click for you. Also, you're not too late! I started at learning at 30.

FYI: I'm terrible at math, though I love learning, and would like to re-visit it when I have some more time (probably when I have high school aged kids).

Re: Ask HN: How do I become a Software Developer?

#17

Post by andymurd »

morepyplease wrote: post #14

Similarly I'd like to ask how to jump industries. I have 12 years in enterprise IT as a network and systems admin and the last 5 years I've been living and breathing powershell at work, developed several python/flask side projects (one full site with cc processing, coupon code checking with JS, email notifications, user registration, etc.). Learned to use git, developed my first published windows store app, and now c…

- Work is supportive of my advancement in coding, but its leveraged as a cheap way to automate processes

You are the magical "DevOps". Put that on your resume and wait for the offers to flood in. Just tell prospective employers that you want more "dev" than "ops".

Re: Ask HN: How do I become a Software Developer?

#18

Post by nphyte »

_zero wrote: post #7
trcollinson wrote: post #3

To be frank with you, start working, hard. This is going to be your largest huddle. When you read this message, what were you doing? On Facebook (or some other social media)? On some game? Watching your giant Netflix queue? I don't know what it was but it probably wasn't coding. And if it was, then good! You're already on your way. I honestly don't mean any of that to be mocking. I am just saying, a lot of people fai…

>I don't know what it was but it probably wasn't coding. You're right, I wasn't coding. I waste a lot of time on the internet not being productive, so I'll change this. I signed up for a codecademy account recently, so I'll challenge myself by doing some exercises there daily. >So now you have to ask yourself, what are you willing to give up? I think I'm finally ready to give up all of my distractions. I'm getting si…

go here http://www.freecodecamp.com/. if you stick through it you'll learn enough to get a job. Also it's not a cakewalk. goodluck

Re: Ask HN: How do I become a Software Developer?

#19

Post by kzisme »

nphyte wrote: post #18
_zero wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I don't know what it was but it probably wasn't coding. You're right, I wasn't coding. I waste a lot of time on the internet not being productive, so I'll change this. I signed up for a codecademy account recently, so I'll challenge myself by doing some exercises there daily. >So now you have to ask yourself, what are you willing to give up? I think I'm finally ready to give up all of my distractions. I'm getting si…

go here http://www.freecodecamp.com/ . if you stick through it you'll learn enough to get a job. Also it's not a cakewalk. goodluck

Awesome resource for learning it seems!

Re: Ask HN: How do I become a Software Developer?

#20

Post by _zero »

nphyte wrote: post #18
_zero wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I don't know what it was but it probably wasn't coding. You're right, I wasn't coding. I waste a lot of time on the internet not being productive, so I'll change this. I signed up for a codecademy account recently, so I'll challenge myself by doing some exercises there daily. >So now you have to ask yourself, what are you willing to give up? I think I'm finally ready to give up all of my distractions. I'm getting si…

go here http://www.freecodecamp.com/ . if you stick through it you'll learn enough to get a job. Also it's not a cakewalk. goodluck

This looks pretty neat. I'll check it out! Thank you.
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