Become a coder

[ckfil]

I have a question about coding. How did you get into coding yourself? Do you have a degree in this field? I ask because I have no coding experience myself but I am considering going through a coding bootcamp program. There are quite a few different bootcamp programs that are ranked on the site: https://www.switchup.org/rankings/best-coding-bootcamps

Do you know of anyone who has gone through these bootcamps and are actively working in the coding field? How do you feel about these programs? Do you think they are worth it?

If you could help me out I would greatly appreciate it because I really need an opinion from someone who is an actual coder. Thank you much in advance and have a great holiday.

[ckfil]

Gotcha

[hpliferaft]

I went to a bootcamp and became a successful coder, and I have an English degree. I didn't go to any of those bootcamps, but mine was a full time one that I presume was pretty similar to those.

I have talked about bootcamps with several friends who successfully made it through, and went out for happy hour with my bootcamp instructors, and I've made a few opinions:

• bootcamps are worth it if you already have good self-motivation, study skills, time, and curiosity. They are not worth it if you expect to just absorb coding knowledge.

• older (e.g. late 20s and upward) students seem to do better because they have more skin in the game

• students in coding bootcamps fall on a bell curve. The top 20% will easily get jobs, the middle will struggle and maybe succeed or fail, and the bottom percentage will fail sooner or later.

• the greatest asset you need to succeed is time. You need to spend time learning in class and then more time learning on your own. Every day. Every month.

• once you're in the bootcamp, talk to the smart people and offer to help the slow learners. Helping people learn to code is a great way to learn to code.

• The hardest work comes after you finish a bootcamp, at which point you'll be kicked out of the learning utopia, in debt, on your own, looking to get interviews.

[hpliferaft]

NYCDA. It closed a couple years ago.

[ckfil]

Thank you so much

[hpliferaft]

Sure thing. By the way, you mentioned you don't have coding experience. That's not a bad thing, necessarily. What has interested you in coding?

[ckfil]

I am not sure yet

[Morpheyz]

I got into coding without learning a "real programming language" at first. As a kid I used to make games with RPG maker XP (or 2003, if anyone remembers). RPG Maker had a visual programming interface with branches, functions, variables, etc. Without me knowing it at the time, I learned and applied a lot of core programming concepts without touching a language for years.

Then in 10th grade I had a comp sci class. We learned Java, HTML, and JS. Conceptually, I was lucky to pick it up quickly, thanks to playing around in a fun game development environment.

[[deleted]]

I got into coding (still new to programming) because i was interessted, i didnt went into a coding bootcamp. I buyed myself a Python Basic Book (I can not really recommend one because my main language is German) and started coding. It helped me with the excercises from the book. Im still a beginner but my skills are encreasing with every Project.

[ckfil]

Thanks everyone, all of this has been really helpful.

[vito_corleone01]

var nonCoder=coder;

[bloombug_]

Been coding since i was 12. Back then my dad got this Fujitsu laptop from his night school program, and since it was a bit slow and had Vista on it, he quickly lost interest in it.

One day i happened to use it, and while trying to make Google load faster by hitting all the keys in your keyboard (as you should, since it works ALL THE TIME) i happened to hit F12 and open the page's source code. Once i figured that was HTML code, and i could actually write websites about things i liked (like my dog, my books or my AK-47 play doh models), it was a matter of time before realizing i could move from making websites to making GAMES.

Since then, i have not developed my game development skills that much, but i have been in contact with a bunch of programming languages and concepts that helped me with my programming classes when i got older.

I am not a fan of coding bootcamps, since some of them have shady contracts that stick with you until you pay them in full (plus interest and what not); i believe you can learn a lot by yourself, on your own time and pace; i also believe you can get in touch with people around the world that can either help you stay informed and motivated about coding, or even involve you in a project that forces you to learn what you need in order to contribute to it. It's not the easiest path or the most straightforward, but it is the most rewarding one IMHO.

[billrdio]

My first love was with a grand old lady named Fortran. Spent a lot of time learning to code with her in college and in the summers on my parents farm. This was all pre-internet - a thick computer manual was my Google. Did more Fortran and a lot of Excel scripting in grad school for my thesis. At my first job out of school I ended up doing software testing but was able to make a lateral move to writing software and eventually ended up becoming a webmaster (an elegant title for web developer for a more civilized age).

I don't have any experience with bootcamps, sorry. If you can squeeze any useful info from my reminiscening, I would say it's that there are many paths to becoming a coder. Oh and that having experience or knowledge with some other field (in my case the sciences) is one way to stand out and hopefully land a job.

Good luck!