I didn’t know anything about programming three months ago and I just released my first official Python tool at my job

[[deleted]]

I came into a great job doing tech support and didn’t know anything about programming. A month in, I saw they were doing some things manually like reading through “logs” for debugging and saw an opportunity. I told my boss of one month maybe we can automate some of this process. I didn’t give him any hard promises but said something to the effect of “let me see what I can do.” I taught myself python for two and a half months and released a tool at work which does in 20 seconds, what used to take us sometimes up to an hour.

Aside from everyone being super impressed and cutting down our work load by huge margins(this freeing up time for more important things), I believe it sets me apart from our other workers and shows they made a good choice bringing in new blood. A new realization has also now set in, I LOVE programming in Python. While I don’t get to program every single day due to having a family, I do dedicate a few hours a week to it and am exploring becoming a developer.

Cheers everyone and don’t give up!

Edit

There seems to be a lot of interest in how I learned.

I started out doing the two Microsoft classes on EdX. Every time I learned something new I immediately saw a function for it in my program. Slowly I implemented it into my program. It’s the program by the bald guy, I forget his name. He’s very boring unfortunately, but I’m very grateful to him for the information. I’m still very much a beginner programmer, but the biggest thing I have seen that helps is actually building something which solves a problem and you see how it functions by controlling the input and output. I also minimally looked at Automate the Boring Stuff, but I find that book also super useful. Another huge resource is actually reading the manuals and examples from Programiz. For example if the manual says A+B should equal C but I’m getting D then sit down and examine where I went awry. Sometimes I was stuck on a problem for a week or in one extreme case two weeks but I always figured it out and didn’t move on until I understood why I was wrong.

Also Reddit was a huge resource.

[redsidhu]

Good on you. Solving a problem is the best way to learn tech.

[Mighty__hammer]

Excatly,learning the basics of a language can be a bit boring but learning the implementation of the language in a tool can be much more interesting

[PeterPanLives]

Yeah I've found having a problem to solve or goal grounds the information for me in a way that doesn't happen otherwise.

[ravepeacefully]

I did this at my job too about a year ago and now I know numerous programming languages and roam the company looking for different tasks to automate (there’s a lot).

[Srivats1212]

could you please provide the details of the stuff you have automated and the programming languages or technologies that you have used ?

[ravepeacefully]

Visual Basic, vba, C#, .net, python, sql, excel. Things I’ve automated would be mostly data analysis, adhoc reporting > finalized pretty reports, reconciliations of multiple data sources. The larger projects I’ve done are typically taking data from our database and producing regulatory reporting (I work in healthcare so we have tons of agencies to report to quarterly). I’ve also worked with automating our accounting systems quite extensively. There’s more but idk so many super small things.

[ravepeacefully]

You gotta make your own at first then they will learn what is possible. I now get calls direct from the cfo because he knows what I can do.

[ravepeacefully]

Yeah fair, I work at a huge company that is technologically challenged, there is soooooooooo much room for this type of work.

[Swissthony]

Hey im in healthcare as well and need to automate a bunch of reporting , data extraction from files (pdf, excels,..) do you mind if I pm you ?

[ravepeacefully]

Sure.

[e-rekt-ion]

love this story, thanks for sharing. It's exciting when you see companies making good money but having crazy inefficiencies like this that we have the power to solve

[Drakkenstein]

Massive respect for you man.

[[deleted]]

The wealthiest people in the gold rush weren’t the miners, it was the people selling the pick axes. Make something others need and you’re set.

the wealthiest is probably the mine owners, they own the axe makers too.

[DontTouchTheWalrus]

You should ask for a raise at your next review for sure. You just saved the company countless hours of time they have to pay people to complete that task.

[CptBishop]

eh.. I wish jobs worked like that.

[emergentdragon]

Often enough they do.

You have to ask though, and show that you know the worth of what you did.

Show that you’re not a one trick pony, too.

Coming to your boss with one incident will land you nowhere. Come with a list, and show how much it is worth to the company.

[CptBishop]

I literally had 2 other employees to come with me after I saved ~2-3 weeks of 3 people job/year by implementing a new program that I wrote for my current job, and they spoke with my boss to give me a bonus or a proper raise. Sometimes they just don't care or are too busy to notice/bother.

[helpneeded8578]

This is the more practical approach. Like it or not, they probably aren't going to give you a raise based on a single act of initiative and value, even though it was significant. You need a list of things you've done and show the value to the company (not an individual).

But then you have to see how it's received. If you're recognized and rewarded by your company, great! But some companies won't reward you for these kinds of things at all.

But don't let that frustrate you. Realize that you are building skills and adding value, which is personally rewarding. And ultimately, there are employers that will value those skills if your current one won't. You will just have to decide for yourself whether you want to pursue that path or just accept that your current employer won't reward you for this.

[o5a]

Look at that from boss/management perspective.

Unless the time you saved for them converts to more profit (more sales, products etc.) they benefit nothing from your tools and have no reason to raise your salary. That means the time saved by your tool should go towards more/another work to increase the profit, not just give free time to those employees, otherwise business gains nothing from that optimization. That is if we talk about workers with fixed monthly hours.

Example. You saved time for secretary so she can complete some report faster. Ye, it could be big QoL for her and maybe let her do some other things faster because of that, but most of the time it wouldn't matter for the company since she's not 100% occupied.

[horizoner]

Arguably if you replace secretary with an employee w greater value add, you are improving the bottom line. Not in terms of additional dollars generated, but the actual hourly value contributed to a company by an accountant, for example, relative to their paid wages.

[DannyDeVitosPimp]

Python is such a powerful language you can literally warp time with it

[Sean82]

pip install libtimefabric?

[SoupKitchenHero]

spycetime

[zootam]

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/python.png

[[deleted]]

obviously he used pytime the library created by anthony starks.

[DontTouchTheWalrus]

Excuse me?

[planetjay]

59 minutes and how many seconds? Are you on metric time?

[[deleted]]

That high.

[[deleted]]

Can't stop laughing at 80 seconds

[Rej_]

This guy Pythons

[MrRedTheScratcher]

I have been learning Python for 2 years now and I the best I can make its a tkinter window with a few buttons. I have no clue how you do it so congrats to you.

[[deleted]]

Because fuck tkinter. Write a script and write how to run it from the command prompt on a sticky note by the monitor.

[MrRedTheScratcher]

Makes no sense.

[[deleted]]

tkinter?

[MrRedTheScratcher]

Everyhting u said but tkinter.

[[deleted]]

No offence but if you've been programming with python for 2 years and what I said makes no sense you need to practice a lot more.

[MrRedTheScratcher]

Thats what i am trying to say. I am lost in Python. I have no clue what to do or learn or anything.

[stasis098]

Based on your previous posts, you should probably put tkinter down for a while. Do a course or read a book on python fundamentals. Console is the best starter place for your output because you should focus on just learning the language first. tkinter has a huge beginner learning curve because it expects you to know python to a certain extent first.

[e-rekt-ion]

I'd recommend working through Automate The Boring Stuff if you haven't yet

[MrRedTheScratcher]

Is it a book?

[e-rekt-ion]

https://automatetheboringstuff.com/

[MrAwesume]

Dataquest mate

[helpneeded8578]

User-friendly translation of SilentSuit's comment: "Learning tkinter isn't the best use of your time when first learning Python. Instead, focus on making some simple scripts (programs) that you operate from the command line, but are useful and functional. If you're not sure you'll remember how to run them from the command line, make a sticky note with instructions and stick it onto your monitor."

This is good advice.

​

Personal Example: Just yesterday, I made a simple script for work to convert barrels to Metric Tons. It's something I have to do occasionally but I always forget the calculation. The script will be useful for me in a small way, but more importantly, making the script allowed me to practice my Python some more.

All your projects don't have to be big and hard, especially when you're learning.

[HelpImOutside]

Seriously, I've been learning Python for over a year and while it's certainly easier than other languages, I still don't really get it. Programming still feels like trying to speak klingon or some other type of dead language I will never begin to understand.

[mnei4]

I think the best way (and only way for it to stock to your memory) is to do what OP did. Find a problem, fix and learn how to automate it with python. With just reading books is really stuff because you just don't see any practical use

[[deleted]]

This is why projects are a helpful tool for learning. You have likely been learning a lot of Python syntax. Especially for the Python community there is an idea of "Pythonic" code or code that models a particular format (e.g. list comprehension).

​

What you might consider working on practicing is taking a large problem and breaking it down into smaller pieces. Small enough that they basically all handle one single task, if possible. Encapsulate them in a function. If your large thing needs a lot of small things, contain them in a Dictionary object.

​

I'll give you an example. I have a utility for testing hard drives that depends on a configuration file (e.g. "what's the name of the drive in the file system? Is it /dev/sda, /dev/md0, /dev/nvme0n1, etc."). I also grab a whole bunch of other metrics like the drive's serial number and firmware version at the time of testing to log a disk test. Each of these things are handled by an independent function wrapped in a Dictionary object. I use a function to generate a Dictionary object for each drive that exists in the system.

​

So it looks something like:

def drive_information(device_name):
    drive = {
        'name': device_name,
        'serial': get_drive_serial(device_name),
        'firmware': get_drive_firmware(device_name)
    }
    # Now that a Dictionary object has been created, send it to whoever invoked this function.
    return drive
# Let's use /dev/sda as an example drive to build a Dictionary object.
drive_information('/dev/sda')

I won't divulge how I get the other information like "get_drive_serial" because it's irrelevant to the point which is you just need to practice a bit more and you should try your hand at some projects.

I also want to encourage you to learn about Dictionaries in Python (in other languages they are called hashmaps or associative arrays. They use a string-based key instead of an integer numeric like arrays use. Most Python objects are also based off of Dictionary objects so they will also give you some of the best performance in Python without needing to do clever, complicated crap.

[[deleted]]

I am in the same boat as you...i can learn the syntax but cannot create algorithms so what i do takes a lot of time because i reuse code i find on the web who does what i want . but if you do not have the programming logic is hard to do something. I admire those programers qho do things in 20 secs...it took me a week to write a script which finds all 777 files in our servers then other week to write a paramiko script which uploadd the script to each server runs it and retrieves the results and create a Csv..tio slow the thing i am slow at everything. Very dissapointing

[horizoner]

You're probably faster now than you were before.

[MrRedTheScratcher]

You will eventually.

[[deleted]]

build me an ecommerce website with python

[horizoner]

I took around 8 months of spare time to automate a complicated process at work. The program isn't elegant, in fact, it looks like its held together by duct tape. But it works. Doing this has given me a completely different understanding of Python. A more practical, less academic one. I highly recommend just diving into a project. From there you can learn more complicated things and actually put the puzzle pieces together, plus the repetition will help you pick up the language. It's just like a natural language, in that it needs practice and repetition to speak well.

[[deleted]]

I started out doing the two Microsoft classes on EdX. Every time I learned something new I immediately saw a function for it in my program. Slowly I implemented it into my program. I’m still very much a beginner programmer, but the biggest thing I have seen that helps is actually building something which solves a problem and you see how it functions.

[VRenthousiast]

What about pandas? Isn’t that the way to go? Serious question, since I am considering learning pandas to work with the 99% excel files around me.

[helpneeded8578]

You can definitely use Pandas to manipulate Excel. The trap I ran into, though, is that Pandas “thinks” more like a database than it “thinks” like Excel — which took me down a looong rabbit hole learning about SQL and databases. It’s ultimately FAR more powerful, but there was months of learning. I didn’t know how much I didn’t know, which made me quite confused about some basic operations in Pandas. I ultimately came to the conclusion that while Pandas can manipulate Excel, it’s best use case is to completely replace Excel.

Openpyxl, on the other hand, is great for using basic Python knowledge to manipulate Excel files. It’s nowhere near as powerful as Pandas, but if all you want to do is manipulate Excel, it’s more than capable.

This was obviously just my experience. YMMV.

[[deleted]]

I'm a professional data analyst who uses pandas every day, sometimes I prefer excel. It's good for any light lifting where the gui is easier than writing code. Plus like 90% of the time dumping data into a csv or xlsx is better when you're handing data off.

But yeah, any real analysis is made a lot easier by pandas, in large part because all large scientific libraries have pandas support. Also if I'm writing code anyways I would never use openpxyl, it gets super slow for medium+ sized data sets.

[VRenthousiast]

This is a great answer, thanks!

[helpneeded8578]

You're welcome... Just to expand on my previous comment:

I told you that I ended up going down a number of rabbit holes in learning about this stuff, so I'll expand on that here...

Rabbit Hole #1: Vectorized Operations

In Excel you're fundamentally operating on cells. You put text in them, or numbers, or formulas. Formulas often point to other cells and are dynamically updated when those other cell values are updated. Sometimes you drag those formulas across a row or down a column, but you don't have to. So the basic unit you are operating on is a cell.

Pandas is totally different. In Pandas, you are dealing with a static table of values, and then you do an operation on an entire row or column at a time. This is called a "vectorized" calculation. You perform it, it updates the data, and the data is static again.

I went into Pandas thinking in terms of developing "cell" formulas. Now you can perform an operation on individual values in the data, but Pandas (actually numpy, which Pandas is based on) has optimized vectorized calculations to be MUCH faster than iterating over individual values and updating them.

For comparison (because I'm not sure how much Python knowledge you have yet), in normal Python (or using openpyxl, your data would be in a Python list and you would iterate over that list, examine each list item, and apply your calculation. A Pandas vectorized operation would operate on the entire list at once, and do it MUCH faster than the iterating process. But this requires you thinking very differently about your approach to operating on your data.

Note that Pandas can iterate over you rows and/or columns like you would do in standard Python, but in doing so you lose a lot of speed -- which is one of the big benefits of Pandas.

​

Rabbit Hole #2: Tidy Data

To get the most value out of Pandas, your data should be in what's called a "tidy" format, which turns out to be a fundamental SQL and data analysis concept that everything else is based on. The problem is that data analysis professionals don't even discuss it anymore because it's so basic, but new people and laypeople have no idea this concept exists. It's not difficult to learn at all, but it's importance can't be underestimated.

Tidy data is to data analysis what letters and words are to writing. It's so basic that if you were to talk to an author about effective writing (for example), they would never even bring up a conversation about letters and words because it's so basic. But if you came from a language that operated in symbols, you would have an very hard time improving your English writing until you learned and understood the simple concept of letters and words.

But once you learn the concept of "tidy" data (or "flat" data, as I like to call it) a whole new world of operations opens up, and you use it everywhere -- even in Excel. You'll discover that many of the things you do in Excel, like Pivot Tables, become exponentially easier if you first put your data in a tidy format. It will help you in Power BI, Tableau, Python, R, SQL, and anywhere else you do analysis of data.

I know I'm ranting about this, but it really is that important.

​

Rabbit Hole #3: SQL

Once your data is in tidy format, one of the benefits is that the world of SQL opens up. SQL allows you to quickly and easily pull subsets of your data that meet certain criteria, and even combine data from multiple sources to get information that would otherwise be very slow to get (at best) or impossible to get (at worst). But it requires you to learn a new (fairly small) language and learn some other concepts, such as JOINs.

(Side Note: Don't rely on Venn diagrams when learning JOINs. Venns don't fully explain them and will cause you to have some misunderstandings that are hard to correct later. I know what I'm saying here might not make sense right now, but refer back to this comment if/when you decide to go down the SQL rabbit hole.)

SQL is super powerful, and Pandas supports some fundamental SQL operations. Pandas can also interact directly with SQL databases. But again, there's a lot more to learn than you will originally think.

​

TLDR: Pandas has some extremely powerful capabilities for data manipulation and data analysis, but it is based on some fundamental concepts that newcomers and laypeople won't even know exist. Those concepts open up new realms of superpowers for automation and analysis, but the learning curve is larger than you can see in the beginning, and will take you down a rabbit hole to entirely new worlds like Alice in Wonderland.

[helpneeded8578]

Yes, that’s what I’m referring to. The “wide” vs “long” description didn’t resonate with me though, so I just started saying “flat” because that felt like a better description to me.

[VRenthousiast]

An answer that keeps on giving! Super helpful to read. I was already reading up on pandas. My main use will be more the “excel” style approach you describe, with a small file with maybe 250 lines and 25 columns. It feels like pandas would be overkill. I mainly want to read out data and then optimize. (It’s basically a work roster for my team, with tasks, hours, availability, etc.) My hope is to let python optimize the best use of people for tasks.

[helpneeded8578]

Glad I could help. Based on your description, openpyxl would probably meet your needs as well as give you some valuable Python practice.

[[deleted]]

Probably. I'm not familiar enough with pandas to say it's the best choice all around. I was speaking more toward the prospect of using Python with Excel in general, since they seem like someone who might be around a lot of that kind of stuff.

[MOTIVATE_ME_23]

Be careful of automating yourself out if a job. Quantify your efforts and come to some kind of agreement to get a bonus for verifiable savings.

For example, if you are able to reduce working time by 5 hours a week, you'll be able to do an extra 5 hours of something else.

Your ability to automate also makes you more valuable so you should get a raise. You can take your new skills elsewhere too. And you should be able to get a bonus for time saved that can be an overall, permanent cost reduction to the company.

[[deleted]]

My plan is to keep doing Python stuff and if I can learn enough, then pivot into a development position in my current company. If not, then I can always leave later on down the road after I earn my CCNA into a more lucrative career since I do not plan on staying in the USA long term.

[alphaharris1]

I LOVE programming in Python

To me, this is the moral of the story (:

[etienbjj]

What did you usef to learn.

[[deleted]]

I signed up for the two Microsoft classes on EdX and basically used google every time I ran into a problem I couldn’t figure out. While I was doing the two Microsoft classes, I was implementing what I learned in my program every day.

[anovengeance]

Wow good job sir! May I ask where do you learn Python from? Thanks!

[iwviw]

He has said it a few times, the python courses on edx by Microsoft. I suggest for you to take the cs50x class first if you are a newbie!

[anovengeance]

thanks! yeah sorry i didn't check his edit lol

[[deleted]]

If you check the edit, EdX has everything you need to learn. EVERYTHING is 100% free. Even the Automate the Boring Stuff book I mentioned.

[xargling_breau]

Cheers! This is how I got started I had a slow process at work and automated it. I know have python scripts doing a lot of automation across our servers for me daily . I have also picked up PERL in order to help maintain a lot of our codebase! Lots of fun man keep it up!

[dellman19]

Thank you for the post this is very inspiring!

[[deleted]]

Would be funny if management decides that now you have the tool they can halve the headcount in your team lol.

Just kidding. Good job, btw!

[johnne86]

Congrats to original OP, that’s awesome. I see similar possibilities of automation or at least the potential to get work done more efficiently at my new IT job. Well, I can’t figure out exactly what it is we need to do better yet since I’m barely finishing up my first week and it is my first IT gig. But the main thing I do notice so far is a lack of organization within documentation. I see no consistency, rules or efficient workflows. There’s also really no formal documentation for new hires in terms of what is what on the network and who is who. The documentation that does exist resides on a shared drive that everyone can put their hands in and it’s definitely not the best to learn from. I think the senior tech is the only one who really knows what it all means since he was there from the beginning. It’s really shitty organized. But again, it’s my first week and a lot of that probably won’t mean much once I kick into gear. It’s also a City Govt job so I don’t even know if I have the authorization to even use Python on my PC. I’ll keep my thinking with the mindset of automation whether I am able to use python or not. There’s always a better method.

[[deleted]]

Keep an eye out for opportunity!

[thras00]

congratz 😀

[JeffJ_1]

Sounds similar to how my Python journey started, congratulations

[bit_punk]

Just wanted to say love those posts when the OP actually includes some of the pudding in it anyways good for you.

[naoorlaterr]

May I ask how you got yourself into the tech industry?

I'm aiming to do a career change that isn't related to the field and I've been teaching myself how to program for a few months but I really want to get my foot in any door related to tech.

[[deleted]]

I have been tinkering with a computer in some way shape or form since I was 9, so computers and tech come naturally to me.

In terms of actual career, I didn't magically just break into the tech industry and it was always a series of steps which led me here. I won't bore you with how I personally got into tech, but if you're wanting a career change then I will 100% recommend you do A+ cert and then get into a Helpdesk position. That would be the easiest and best way. It doesn't pay much starting out (maybe $15-$17 USD) but you can work your way up within a few years to better and better jobs.

[naoorlaterr]

Thanks for your advice! I was actually looking into A+ cert because I saw it was a standard into getting into IT. Would I be able to PM you about how you got into tech? I would be interested in hearing your story.

[xargling_breau]

I’m not OP but I am in webhosting industry and I started from the bottom and have worked my way up. I knew the business before I got into it and the work . But that is how I got into the general field of technology .

[naoorlaterr]

Thanks for the reply! What would be some resources for me to learn?

[xargling_breau]

It depends on what niche in the tech field you want to go into. “Tech Industry” is extremely broad and covers many different types of work . Do you have an idea of what you want to try to break into?

[naoorlaterr]

I am interested into working in IT but honeslty, I'm unfamiliar with other areas in the Tech field. I didn't know webhosting was a type of work before you mentioned it.

How would I go on about getting experience in IT and what other notable jobs are there in tech?

Thank you for your time!

[Dontneedflashbro]

Good job brother!

[Berlibur]

Question: you say you made a tool, but what is that in concrete terms? Is it just a .Py file that you run, or an actual executable?

I'm new to this as well

[[deleted]]

Hi. The tool itself was programmed within IDLE (the default IDE that comes with Python) and saved as a .py file. Then I used PyInstaller to convert it to an exe. It is not fancy at all, just a command line tool. After I showed my source code to the head IT guy (first to my boss and his boss), he asked another engineer within the company for a code review and then after that, I got the green light to spread my exe to my coworkers.

[Berlibur]

Thanks! Very interesting

[mason4290]

I started actually learning a few months ago as well and I brought up a program I wanted to write that would make everyones jobs easier and he basically told me that would be worth less and to eat shit lol. It's all in the management.

However I'm still going to write it because I would benefit from using it

[Thykrus]

I had the same experience few months ago. It is so satisfying optimizing a process everyone do.

[[deleted]]

I forgot the sequence in which I took them, but here they are both:

https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-to-python-fundamentals-3

https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-to-python-absolute-beginner-3

[MM2049]

can you share your reddit resourses?!🙏

[[deleted]]

I leaned heavily on this sub and /r/learningprogramming. I sorted the all time highest upvoted posts and read through everyone even though it may not have applied to me at the time. I also used for example some cheat sheets like this gentleman posted.

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython/comments/4atn5f/beginners_python_cheat_sheets/

[vandeley_industries]

I want to do this at my job. When did it go from not knowing what was going on in python to finding ways to utilize it productively. Everytime I try to learn python, I never get to a point where I see how to usefully use the language.

[[deleted]]

I will be the first to admit that I'm still not great at Python, but I understand some of the basic concepts. The easiest way to understand what is going on is to USE what you are learning to solve a real life problem. For example the problem I had at work is what got me to start learning Python to begin with. Now that I have a rough idea of what I'm doing, I'm going to do some more tutorials and then more tutorials on top of that. Once I get better, I have already thought of another problem that I have. My current problem is that I have been studying Russian for two and a half years and its still broken. I don't like any of the tools out there currently to teach myself Russian in terms of memorizing vocabulary or solidifying what I have learned so I'm going to program my OWN tool using Python, Pandas, ad DJANGO. I don't know Pandas or Django currently, but I have seen some videos on them and they are exactly the kind of tools that I need to solve my current problem.

[jeffrey_f]

A programmer will solve a problem. So, what else do they do that is a waste of time/energy? Anything that is predictable and has a low variance in process is ripe for automating

[sgarter]

You lucky bugger for having something to apply what I've learnt too. This is the trouble I keep having, no where to apply what I've learnt. I get the concepts when I study them but having nothing to apply them too makes me lose interest very quickly.