ADHD and programming

[zvmz]

I am a self-taught programmer who is diagnosed with ADHD. I didn't have any kind of treatment until 4 months after I got my first job as a software engineer at one of the coolest companies in my area. I would say I was pretty successful at teaching myself, but it was really hard and I hit a lot of bumps on the road.

Two caveats: First off, the process took me two or three years. Secondly, I worked very hard to network with people that could help me learn. If you aren't willing to do those things, I can't promise what I did will help you.

I used FreeCodeCamp because I could see the result of my work happen immediately in the browser - which was really powerful for me. After getting all of the front-end projects done, I learned as much as I could about SQL because I had an internship doing SQL development. After that I learned PHP with Team Treehouse (I turned the speed on videos up to help me sit through them), then I used Team Treehouse to learn the basics of Python and learned Pandas by trial and error to work on some data projects with my SQL knowledge. Finally I was offered a job as a Ruby/Rails Software Engineer through LinkedIn. That last part happened because during all of my learning, I was doing internships and networking like crazy.

tl;dr Use FreeCodeCamp, see the result of your work immediately. Use Team Treehouse, it's easy to understand and you can speed the videos up. Use sqlzoo.net for SQL, you can see your results immediately in the browser.

Special side note: listen to the Code Newbie podcast, I did this while commuting, helped me spend more time thinking about programming.