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There are no best routes to success, the path to being a self-taught developer is no different.
Long story short, I was a Microbiology student in my final year who wanted to try out something different to spice up my career. I was introduced to tech a year before and I was confused because I had no guide. So, here are the 5 things I wish I had known as a self-taught developer.
#1 Have a defined learning path
If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.
Understanding what you want for yourself with a defined goal makes it easier. Don't get distracted by what is "hot", "in-market", the best programming language, or what makes you more money.
The tech ecosystem is unbelievably large, pick a path, it can be the web. development, mobile development, data science, etc. Still confused about what path to take, read this .
Do your research and decide what path to take by either asking a search engine or anyone around you that is into tech.
#2 Surround yourself with better developers, like-minded developers, and probably get a mentor.
I had this love for staying alone(some people say it's being introverted...). When I started learning HTML on FreeCodeCamp, I did not know how to connect with other developers.
I was learning all by myself. Whenever I had a problem, I would use Google (lol, I never knew what Stack Overflow was) or other online resources.
Being introverted or shy should not stop you from growing. Oops, I couldn't find a statistical fact to support this but, being mentored or taught saves you a lot of time and headache as compared to teaching yourself.
#3 Learn and understand the basics
When I started web. development course on FreeCodeCamp, I was keen on receiving a certificate and showing it off on social media. It's funny, right?
I later realized I did not get so much on FreeCodeCamp. I had to watch HTML and CSS video courses by Traversy Media on Youtube before I could understand the concepts of HTML and CSS.
P.S I went back to FCC, finished HTML, CSS, and Javascript, and got my certificate on the responsive web. design.
Understanding the basics matters a lot. It might look silly but try to understand every concept, every line of code(at least most of them if not all) you will thank yourself for that later.
#4 Learn by doing
Watching tutorials, reading books, and seeing other people code is not enough. Getting your hands dirty is actually key in learning. If you watched a video tutorial or read an article on how to center a div container today, you have to DO it to master it. Open up your code editor, punch in those codes and run it.
There is a quote by Confucius that says:
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
Learn, write codes, repeat ...**
Tutorial purgatory might be the worse thing to happen to a self-taught developer. It limits growth and downplays the initial passion with which you started.
Tutorial purgatory is the mindless scrolling, pausing, and playing of video tutorials. The copying, and pasting of the code snippets.
You can escape tutorial purgatory by simply DOING. Get your hands dirty, understand what you want to code, write and run it.
#4 Learn how to communicate, collaborate and build projects.
I always thought I will have to build a complex dashboard, a CLI, another programming language before I'd be called a front-end developer. It doesn't matter what you have been building, as long as you're building and learning while at it, it is fine. It's fine if it's landing pages with just HTML and CSS. Just make sure you don't stop there. keep building, keep publishing, keep learning to build more... (You've got this)
Go out and meet people. Do not let your personality get in the way. Go out, meet people, go for meetups, grab every opportunity to grow.
Being a self-taught developer is not a straight road, the goal is to keep learning and growing. Don't get discouraged, you will thank yourself later for being consistent and hardworking.
I hope this was helpful.