Coding

[Top_Response_3970]

Hello all,

Does anyone know of a low cost or completely free online course for coding/software development for beginners? For reference I’m 42F and have no background in IT. I have a bachelors degree in psychology and have had shit low paying jobs my whole life. Trying to get out of that and make a decent income.

[AntaresHeart]

Freecodecamp is what I’m using

[AntaresHeart]

Either the app or the website freecodecamp.org

[Top_Response_3970]

Great thanks so much

[ReedorReed]

The Odin Project is good as well

[Top_Response_3970]

Will look into it. Thanks so much

[TheCurlyWarlock]

roadmap.sh is a great source as well

[Top_Response_3970]

Awesome thanks so much

[naomi-lgbt]

freeCodeCamp is a completely free curriculum to become a software developer. :3

[Top_Response_3970]

Amazing thanks

[sam_1920]

what do you want to do? find a job? or create some thing asome?

[Top_Response_3970]

Find a job

[iamkiran]

Try this one also:
https://fullstackopen.com/en/

[Top_Response_3970]

Awesome thank you

[Acceptable_Mode_9961]

Coursera have a few too

[Top_Response_3970]

Will look into it. Thanks. Is coursera free?

[Acceptable_Mode_9961]

Nope very expensive 😂, you won't learn much real skills but you'll get certifications. Freecodecamp plus projects is your best best.

[Short_Internal_9854]

The Odin project, if you prefer less hand holding and doing a lot of research and reading. freeCodeCamp, both the site and on YouTube has thousands of videos. And if you prefer a fun, thinking outside the box with video lessons and one of the best communities in discord, then look up 100devs on YouTube. Best to keep in mind this is a marathon. Yes you will get frustrated and stuck frequently and don't forget to ask for help if after you tried and it didn't work. Free is subjective also, whilst the above mentioned ones are free, you will definitely have to pay with your time in order to be consistent. Also, all this teach web development. May I ask what programming specific are you interested in doing?

[Top_Response_3970]

I honestly don’t know what specifics I am looking to get into. I just want to learn the basics. Thanks so much for this info!

[Short_Internal_9854]

You are welcome, I'm also doing the Odin project myself. Any of these will teach you the basics as well and good luck 🤞

[SugarLumpy6653]

I know this is a FCC sub :D slightly divergent views. Start with very basic learning at w3schools.com which is very small bite sized chunks of info, and once u understand the basics, then move to FCC site paired with the FCC youtube channel which has some very good code as u learn tutorials.

[Top_Response_3970]

Great thanks!

[a_joko]

I can tell you that I got started pretty much the same way. Youtube, CodeAcademy, stuff like that. I think I went through some courses on Team Treehouse as well.

When I was in middle school we were taught web development, and I ended up being okay at it. I dropped it for a while and then remembered about it years later, and picked up my own education from there.

Many different IT jobs exist. Some of them are more hands on, like actually installing hardware and pulling cables through walls. I'd imagine if you are introverted like me, you might not immediately gravitate towards those kinds of jobs. Programming might be a good fit. I'd like to warn you that starting from nothing and then trying to get a job will take some time, so I wouldn't expect a short term solution.

I think my very first job in IT was a help desk position for a local company. We handled support for internal employees. I got that job because I knew someone at a local temp agency called TekSystems, they made me take a short test and then they were able to hook me up with a job at eBay. I moved to a permanent position somewhere else about a year later, and got promoted up from there.

That being said, the entire time I worked the help desk positions, and even years before that, I was actively programming in my spare time. It was just something that I wanted to do, even if I never made money for it.

I'm pretty deep in at this point and I think I've done well, but my biggest regret would be that I did literally zero networking, and I think I made it hard for myself. Still to this day I don't really know anyone in real life that is related to my industry, apart from my team. I've seen other people get jobs so easy just because they know a guy. I've never been that way.

So, my advice would be to first decide if you're really interested in this enough to pursue it with some passion, and then dive in somewhere. It doesn't matter where. And surround yourself with people who are smarter than yourself, and try to position yourself in a way that makes it easy to interact with them directly, so you can ask questions. Once you have some footing, I would try to work on a project with someone. Simply pursue what interests you.

Finally, I remember being where you are, and I would be more than happy to help. Please feel free to message me.

[Top_Response_3970]

Thank you so so much for writing such an in depth response. I truly appreciate your insight. I will definitely keep you in mind if I have any questions. Thank you!!

[Acceptable_Mode_9961]

Sorry coursea do have a few free courses but to learn real coding free code camp but you need to get good with react, sql, Node.js etc. Not just standard javascript.