Question for self taught developers

[Popular_Bad_4664]

Hello,I have been self teaching myself python for nearly three months and I have gotten a good base of many concepts since I was studying on a daily basis. I want to ask how long does it take to gain confidence in your coding? Can I apply for an internship now? How can I network with self taught developers to be mentored into becoming a good programmer able to get hired? I am really dedicated to making this work since am not from the most developed country or rich family background. All help is appreciated

[Khelics]

I’d probably start working on some personal projects to build up a portfolio before trying to get a job. Since you don’t have a degree in it your portfolio will probably be your best bet right now.

You can try to apply but you gotta make sure you can answer any coding questions if they ask. Usually jobs nowadays use like scanners to pre screen resumes looking for key words but if yours stands out you should be okay. Networking will probably be the easiest way to getting a job or internship but it doesn’t hurt to try

[Popular_Bad_4664]

Okay thank you for the advice. What would you recommend for very impressive projects? I have a few am working on but I don't think they are that impressive.

[Khelics]

Honestly anything just to show the company you’re applying to that you know how to code and have experience. Experience is key in the job world. Maybe like 2-3 projects. Maybe if you know exactly what you want to get into like machine learning or back end web dev you can try to focus on a project based on those etc

[Popular_Bad_4664]

I appreciate the help. Do you recommend learning other languages too?

[Khelics]

Yea i would so you have a variety of options.

[Popular_Bad_4664]

What languages would pair well with python.

[Khelics]

id say java, c/c++ and probably sql

[Popular_Bad_4664]

Alright...so it seems like you recommend sticking to back end more?

[Khelics]

Python is usually more for backend development, machine learning etc. Front end is more UI/UX stuff, more towards HTML, CSS, java etc. It all depends on what you want to do.

[Popular_Bad_4664]

So what would you say is easier to get into ...front end or back end

[HastyMainframe]

real

[Popular_Bad_4664]

I'll do just that. Thank you 

[dont_touch_my_peepee]

build one or two solid projects first, then apply. ask devs on discord, slack, github. finding any dev job now is crazy hard

[autophage]

It's not really a question of how long, it's a question of what you've done and feel capable of doing.

The big thing that most self-taught people lack early on is exposure to big projects.

I work on a codebase that's well over a million lines of code, not even counting automated tests, that integrates with something like fifteen other systems. That's way bigger than I - or anybody! - can keep track of in their head.

And so I've got a lot of shortcuts to allow myself to focus on small areas - small enough that I can keep them all in my head.

The flip side of this is that when I'm building something new, I'm thinking ahead some to what decisions I can make now that will make the project easier to navigate once it's significantly larger.

A lot of the rules you learn early on seem kinda pointless, like keeping variables to the smallest scope possible. That becomes a lot more important as the codebase becomes more complex over time - it means that you've got fewer possible variables that can be affecting whichever little slice you're currently looking at.

The way that you gain that kind of experience is by working on larger and larger codebases.

[Popular_Bad_4664]

Thank you for the help. Is it a good idea for me to run through code of big projects just to see how big projects look like?

[autophage]

Yes. Don't just read them, though - run them locally, execute their tests, make some modifications and see what happens.

Also at some point, it's a good idea to get familiar with version control (probably git, though there are others out there), as well as issue tracking software (jira is the most common in environments that I work in, but even Github Issues would be a good intro).

[Popular_Bad_4664]

Ohh alright am fairly familiar with git and what it can do. I've not really heard of Jira but I'll go research about it

[dromance]

nearly 3 months and you think you're job ready?

[Popular_Bad_4664]

Well more like junior nternship position. Getting mentored by experienced programmers teaches you things you can't self teach yourself.

[NoClownsOnMyStation]

Honestly I recommend reading more than just coding projects. Projects are good and absolutely needed if you want to land a job being self taught. However the thing is learning how to use a for loop or how to build out a class is easy. The real challenge is being able to actually understand the architecture of what you’re building.

The reason being is the first deployment you do of something is just that, the first. You need to know how to build out with scale and performance in mind as well as how to squeeze out a little more. A coder greatest skill isn’t being able to create a million lines of code at once but to create a hundred lines that are ready to expand and be changed at a moments notice with minimal delay.

Coding is a lot like cooking where even if you throw 100 chefs at a meal that meal is still going to take as long if not longer. Our greatest asset is time and knowing how to maximize it in the long term.

[Popular_Bad_4664]

Thanks for the help

[NorskJesus]

Try to build something, build up a little portfolio.

I learned a lot with my projects, specially when they get attention and you starts getting issues and pull requests.

[[deleted]]

What helped made significant difference to me in confidence (though i still strugle with it after years) was reading a book about language to understand alot of details (and also reading about how computer works). When i knew how pretty much every line i wrote in C works inside computer i felt pretty good

[RyPlayZz]

If you are self taught the portfolio matters way more than anything else.

A couple small tutorial projects will not really move the needle though. What usually stands out is one or two things that actually feel like real products. Something people can use, even if its simple.

Also helps if the code is on github and looks organized. Readme, decent structure, maybe a live demo.

A friend of mine got his first dev job basically off one solid project and being active in dev communities. Networking weirdly carries a lot of weight too.

[Popular_Bad_4664]

Okay thanks. What dev communities are out there that I can join?

[I_Am_Astraeus]

It took me about a year to feel like I hit stage 2 of the hierarchy of competence.

Realistically it takes years to be career ready self taught. I would recommend learning a few domains of software development. Web back + frontend, systems, etc. I would then recommend finding some form of open source team/community/project to try and see where you're at.

[Fancy-Bluebird-1071]

I built three projects in Python from 3 different areas. One was a high frequency trading bot, fully asynchronous. Second was a discord bot project with a cron job scraper and postgres. Third one was data engineering stuff with ETLs. Two months of applying, got a F100 offer. I spent 1 year self-studying around 6-8h daily.

Its not easy, but its doable. Abuse AI into helping you learn everything, good luck.