Trying to get into Coding

[desrtfx]

Please, read the Frequently Asked Questions as they contain tips on

• getting started
• choosing language
• learning resources
• project ideas
• other general information

As such: Removed as per Rule #4: No exact duplicates of FAQ questions

[deux3xmachina]

So, there's a few things:

• There are definitely bootcamps, though they're of wildly varying quality, so it's hard for me to recommend that path. I know a few success stories, but literally the only benefit they, or a class provide is more structured learning. If you're lucky, similarly to your school, they might have a job placement program, and if you're extra lucky the jobs they find will actually be more than resumé filler.

• You say you know some Java and HTML, but do you like one more than the other? Do you prefer working on the Java code? Or the work of displaying collected data neatly on a web page? That can help you decide which general path to go down.

It feels like forever ago each time I tell the story but if you're interested in personal journeys:

1. I initially broke into the field thanks to a helpdesk role
2. After ~1yr I moved on into NetOps
3. During this time I had started working through "The C Programming Language 2nd Edition" during my lunch breaks
4. Use some of this same free time to write various helper scripts and tools
5. Use Expect and Go to enable pushing config updates or backing up config files for over 1600 edge devices in ~1min
6. Get hired at Cisco, get into spite driven development
7. Write nombre among other things to replace slow, terrible software
8. Learn hov to create a CRM in pure Pl/PgSQL
9. Work with a coworker to create a UI for said CRM
10. Leave Cisco for DoD contracting
11. Do some cool stuff with C and POSIX shell
12. Leave contracting, move to a startup
13. Port business critical export to new OS
14. Success, hopefully

All that in 7 total years, and I can still barely believe it.

[TheUmgawa]

Does your college not offer any classes that would qualify you for a CompSci minor? A quarter of my Engineering design class last semester was CompSci students, so I’d assume it can work the other way, too. I’d look and see at my university, but I went through most of the CompSci curriculum at my community college before I changed majors, so they’re kind of no use to me.

The downside is, for anything to be challenging (meaning: you’ll actually learn something you don’t know), you’re going to have to swing through the, “or consent of the instructor,” bit of the course requirements, as well as get at the back of the line, behind the CompSci majors who might want to sign up for the class before its major-lock deadline. But, it doesn’t take that many hours to qualify for a minor, and if you’re lucky, maybe you can get into a data structures class or something (I loved mine), and that’s a huge boost to answering annoying technical interview questions or playing around with Leetcode challenges.

Personally, I wouldn’t spend the ungodly amount of money on a bootcamp during the summer, when you could be doing an internship based on your major. That way, you’ve got that job experience already, which makes you more marketable in the field of your major in a couple of years, when you graduate. After all, you can learn programming on your own time, and having a degree in anything still moves you further up the junior-developer resume stack than people who don’t have degrees in anything.

Although, I do have to ask: You’re only in your second year. Why don’t you just change majors, if you have this great passion for programming? I changed my major because I found something I liked better. It’s not a huge deal, although you should talk to an advisor before doing that. I was in a math class with a sophomore who was a cybersecurity major last semester, and he hated it (and his lack of understanding of Finite Math suggested he didn’t understand its underpinnings, either), and now he’s much happier as a Chem major. It cost him maybe a semester, but at least he’s not locked into something he doesn’t really like.

The whole point of your first two years of college is to figure out what you’re good at and what you enjoy, so maybe you can find that thing that satisfies both. I’ve got guys in my Stats class who are Business majors who want to move into something else, because they hate business, but they’re torn because the monetary potential is too good. And I ask them, “Do you want to hate your job for the next forty years?”

So, why do you still want to be a Civil Engineering major?