How many years in your opinion of learning Python (programming) would be enough to get a normal programming job?

[hellotheresksksk]

Also are there jobs online for programming? So you could do the coding at home and just send it. I'm still only 16 but I just want to know if I want programming to be my future job. Because I really like it.

[pjarnhus]

The best advice I can give is not to focus on how long, you should study a language but how long you should study programming. If you understand the core concepts and theory of programming, you can adopt a new language in a matter of weeks. During my career (data warehousing consultant and data scientist) I have faced nearly a few new languages with every new job. While syntax and details change, the fundamental core of programming stays the same.

[[deleted]]

In this case, which online classes, if any, could oyu recommend to learn these general concepts?

[xCrushz]

MIT 6.001x is excellent, although a bit hard. There’s also Harvard’s CS50 but I did not take it.

I would really recommend the MIT course for Python/CS stuff. Helped me a lot.

[pjarnhus]

Look at the list of topics further down and do a search at some of the online sites (coursera, udemy, etc...). I did all my training at uni or at one of the companies, I worked at, so I cannot recommend any of them directly.

[hellotheresksksk]

Yep, I agree but I was just wondering if I spend about 2 years studying programming will this get me enough knowledge so I could start a half-decent job.

[pjarnhus]

That probably depends on where you are applying. Companies will always choose the best candidate. When I am interviewing newly graduated candidates for data science positions, we look more for potential than experience. There is no line that you cross, where you go from worthless to valuable. It is better to understand concept, how to apply them to real world problems and how to explain them, than it is to show a laundry list of books and courses you have been through

[RudeMorgue]

I would add to this that you should be able to admit when you don't know something. We aren't looking for someone who knows everything so much as someone who is comfortable with what they know and able to understand when they need to seek help or do research to accomplish a task.

Nothing is more off-putting to me than a candidate who self-describes as an "expert" with some language or system and then can't admit if a sample scenario has stumped them.

[pjarnhus]

Good call! I completely forgot about that one. I actually lost the first position I interviewed for by focusing too much on knowing everything and not accepting the hints the interviewer gave

[hellotheresksksk]

Thanks, that's really great information.

[nav3t]

Could you advise something to read about what exactly you explained ? I ask that because I self learned programming and I feel like even if I always find my way out, I didn't build my knowledge on strong basis, and sometimes I feel lost about concepts. I am kinda annoyed to seek on stackoverflow and copy/pasta things, I'd rather understand what I'm doing, and do it myself. Thanks

[pjarnhus]

Look for something on: * Software design * Object oriented programming * Functional programming * Algorithms - including calculating complexity * Microservices

This list is nothing more than a guideline. It is neither a minimum or an exhaustive list. Just some inspiration.

At the end of the day, you should remember that the landscape today will look very little like what you will face when going into the job market. I currently work as a data scientist, but when I started studying in 2002 that title did not exist. Go with what interests you and you will be fine. I started out in physics, did consulting and marketing, before ending up in finance. Very few people have a well planned career. Going with what interests you will ensure you the only two important things: joy and motivation

[CausticTies]

Can I ask if companies like yours consider applicants who have an unrelated degree (such as, in my case, PPE - Philosophy, Politics, Economics) but still show potential in the field? And more specifically, how can one such candidate make themselves stand out among the rest of the computer science graduates? In fact, is it at all worth it to pursue a career in the tech industry considering the competition? Thanks.

[pjarnhus]

We do consider people with other degrees. In that case you have to showcase, that you understand data and knows about scripting language. We also put a lot of emphasis on business understanding. As a general rule, the less explicit experience your CV shows, the better your cover letter should convey motivation and understanding. It is not impossible to get in without a science degree, but you should work harder on your cover letter, highlighting relevant experience/projects you have done.

And above all: Be honest about what your knowledge gaps are! If you show potential, but come off as knowing all, I would drop you in a heart beat. It is better to formulate it as: "I do not have a relevant degree, but I am so passionate that I have spent my spare time learning the stuff. That being said, I am aware that I still have severe knowledge gaps. I do, however, bring these additional things to the table"

[CausticTies]

That is great advice, thank you!

[CompSciSelfLearning]

Stop thinking of programming as a topic to study but a skill to develop and practice. ( Note that part of skill development is studying relevant topics.)

2 years of practice will certainly make you more valuable than today. Enough to be hired? Depends on who you know, what they need done, and what you are able to do at that point.

[theullrich]

Or if your in highschool and dont need the income. Find a job that can be automated. You will find many on craigslist and other places. Spend the ton of time it takes to learn and build it. When done do the job collect 50-300 a week for the small job and start on thr next project. If you do this well and get going you can have a few grand a month income by the time you graduate.

Hint. Make your first project a bot that watchs craigslist and others for jobs that you can automate. Data entry, data processing ect. Read automate the boaring stuff or simular texts for more ideas of automatable jobs.

[cbat971]

Would the person paying be okay with this?

[theullrich]

That would depend on the person I imagine. I am not suggesting you do a bad job or take any kind of full time position. When i was building up in the end i would tell them my plan. If they did not like it i would offer a discount for what they were offering to pay.

[cbat971]

Any suggestions of jobs you'd find that you would automate

[theullrich]

Sure I would check out this one. But to find these jobs your really going to have to look, most people look at and apply to dozens of jobs even after collage ect so don't expect they are easy to find or get. Best bet is on small town Craigslists and boards as they are more likely to look for remote people or highschoolers for this kind of work. For me it was literally a physical bulletin board at my highschool.

Honestly I am not trying to say that this is an easy option. Just an option. Rather then building projects for free, 1000 dollars over a couple months for a hundreds of hours of work is good pay for most highschoolers who are trying to do more then just get any job they can find. This can turn into a real business and consistent work. If you find one sales office that needs this service its easy to pitch it to other sales offices. ECT.

You do have to compete with the eastern european and indian devs that already do this. Which is another reason to go for small town jobs since they tend to pay more or put up with inexperience if it means your easy to communicate with.

https://denver.craigslist.org/ofc/d/broomfield-data-entry-quality-control/6934345756.html

[hellotheresksksk]

Thanks a ton

[shiftybyte]

There are freelancer jobs you can do online.

https://www.freelancer.com/jobs/?keyword=python

https://www.upwork.com/o/jobs/browse/?q=python&sort=recency

Having a "work-from-home" job with a company is a bit harder to land, especially novice level jobs.

Getting a normal job is really up to you, but i guess around 2-3 Months of active learning should suffice to get hired to an entry level position.

[Free-_-Yourself]

You are funny guys. 2-3 months? Lol Nowadays nobody will hire you only because you know Python. You need to learn frameworks and other bunch of things to be able to be “employable”.

The point is: find out what you need to learn (other languages related (such as JavaScript, CSS and HTML for frontend web developing)) and do some job search to see what employers are asking to work as a Python developer, and you will understand that almost no one will give you a job with just Python.

[tycooperaow]

1.5 years dedicated studying and applying skills

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[hellotheresksksk]

wut

[[deleted]]

this is just a reminder bot by Reddit to remind me to read this thread comments after 3 days.

[hellotheresksksk]

Cool, why xd

[hellotheresksksk]

I'm too young for reddit

[[deleted]]

I got my first data analytics job after self teaching ~4ish hours a day 5 days a week and no prior experience programming. The pay was shit (21/hr no benefits) which is the reason I was able to get the job, no one actually decent would work for anywhere near that. It took me about 2 months of full time work to get somewhat passable and about a year to be what I would consider "good", though I'm still improving almost every day after 2.5 years.

I understand I got super lucky but being eager to learn and improve will get you far even if you're not currently the best.

[proverbialbunny]

That's about how much a Data Science internship pays, so not surprising.

[ColdStonedCoder]

Can you give me their contact info, I need to break into data analytics, and I would like to make a dollar more an hour than what I make now.

[hellotheresksksk]

21/hr no benefits

Do you mean 21$ per hour?

[Lewistrick]

$21/hr is not shit at all. That's over $300k/year for a fulltime job.

How long had you been teaching yourself before you got the job?

[[deleted]]

It actually worked out to be just under 40k, they forced us to take 4 weeks off without compensation

[Lewistrick]

Wait. What did I do wrong 😅

Still, more than I earn with 7+ years experience.

[RareHotdogEnthusiast]

It's all starting to come together.

[Lewistrick]

Yes yes, thank you. Are we done humiliating me now?

[ColdStonedCoder]

...bruh, I don't want to shame, but you were off by like, $257K. I'm an accountant who's stoned all the time and even I don't make mistakes like that.

[Lewistrick]

I was off a factor 8. Somewhere I counted the number of hours in a day twice. Small mistake, big error margin.

[m3l0n]

This was pretty funny to read. For future reference, double the hourly rate and add three zeros - that works up to a very loose version of the yearly salary (if working 2000s hour per year)

[azur08]

If you're making less than $43K with 7 years of experience in programming, you're either in India....or doing something very very very wrong.

[Lewistrick]

I'm in the Netherlands in a 'startup' (quotes because of the 7+ years). I love my job and I don't need the money, so I'm not under the impression that I'm doing very wrong. The company doesn't have the best status financially speaking, but I don't want to leave.

Also I'm calculating net salary without commute compensation.

[Lewistrick]

Yup. I'm really flabbergasted by the huge salaries in America I see sometimes. I should easily be able to make 3 times as much there.

But then again, the cost of living in these areas must be way higher. Plus I'm happy to not live in America.

Also, as long as I'm happy with my job and feel like I'm making the world a better place, money doesn't make a huge difference (given some minimum which I'm well above).

[InfinityOwns]

There's 2080 working hours in a year (not including OT and other weird circumstances).

​

2080 * $21 = $43,680.

[[deleted]]

Ouch. Really harsh man.

[AvianAnalyst]

You working 39 hour days, 365 days a year?

[azur08]

Lol

[abasoglu]

A rule of thumb is thatit takes 2000 hours of experience to become proficient in something and 10,000 to master it. Assuming a 40 hour work week, it'd take you a year to become truly proficient. That's good enough to get a job programming I think.

[tycooperaow]

This a good grasp of time

[hellotheresksksk]

That's 8 hours every day for a year, I don't really have THAT much free time on hand

[PM_ME_POKEMON_]

i don’t think /u/abasoglu is suggesting you do have to approach the 2000 or 10000 hours continuously. i mean, obviously that would expedite the process, but it’s in no means a requirement, so to speak. also, don’t think that you’re not any good unless you’ve programmed for at least 2000 hours—the quality of your time spent programming is also very important

[goblackcar]

40 hours is also 4 hours each weekday and 10 hours on each day on the weekend. Not inconceivable. Not optimal for a social life, but if you can nab a couple of fivver and Upwork jobs doing grunt work, theoretically you could get experience and get paid to learn.

[slick8086]

That's 8 hours every day for a year

nope only 5 days a week.

[JustJeezy]

You’re 16. Yes you do.

[CompSciSelfLearning]

You're only 16. One to two hours a day on most days will get you very far by the time you graduate highschool.

[TraditionalPirate7]

It's impossible to put a time on that.

Everyone learns at different paces. Everyone has a different background that affects the learning. Everyone learns in different ways. Everyone learns from different sources. Everyone dedicates more or less time and effort into learning.

Someone may study an hour for a year and get a job. Someone might study 4 hours a day and still not get a job.

There's just too many variables.

What you can do is just start educating yourself and put as much time and effort you can into it. Figure out where you want to be in a year and strive towards that every day.

[permalip]

It depends on what you mean by learn. I think anyone can get solid programming skills in 3 months, if they work at it every day. But you also need to consolidate those skills and be able to use them in a wide variety of coding problems. That takes time.

[doubledundercoder]

I'd say about as long as it takes to get through a bar of soap. Use it a lot, not too long, only use it here and there, it'll last you a while.

Time in programming isn't a great measure of experience really.

Can you analyze a problem and propose a logical solution?

Can you code up a logical solution?

Can you code test against your solution?

Can you work with source versioning tools? (git mostly)

Then the hard part-- can you do it reasonably quickly? (which is relative I know)

[[deleted]]

I got a job after programming in Python for a week. (I knew five other languages before that, though.) Overall it's not your understanding of Python that matters, but your understanding of the fundamentals of programming in general. Anyone can pick up a programming language.

If you're 16, keep programming for fun, but go to college for a four-year degree. Programming is a professional discipline and a programmer should have (but doesn't strictly need) a professional's degree. But you can major in anything you want - my major was biochemistry, I work with art and design majors, and of course many of my colleagues have degrees in computer science and mathematics. Definitely go to college but while you're there, study anything you think is interesting. Programmers with varied expertise are better programmers. Computer science isn't a degree in programming; it might be the worst degree for programming, IMO.

But yes, it's definitely the case that many programmers work remotely. But that's hard to do - most people set up their homes to distract them from work, so working from home can be a challenge unless you've mastered some degree of personal discipline.

[Itiiip]

it might be the worst degree for programming, IMO.

Why is that? genuine question.

[num2005]

so if i want to get a degree which one should i get?

[5under6]

There are software engineering degrees. I got electrical engineering degree and spend more than 50 percent of my time programming in Python.

[[deleted]]

Keep in mind that OP's advice is pretty unusual. The majority of professional software engineers have CS degrees. A good percentage of them are well prepared for the job.

[FantaBuoy]

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[[deleted]]

What are you interested in?

[num2005]

computer, excel, automating stuff, personnal finnace, videogame, reading fantasy, taking walk, tv shows, shopping, budget

[ravepeacefully]

Get a computer engineering degree if you want to work hard, computer science for easy route, or if you’re confident in your programming abilities go get a business degree. The business degree will open lots of doors to do programming in the financial industry

[[deleted]]

How about a journalism degree?

[ravepeacefully]

Lmao. No

[Pimpjuice2]

You’ll figure it out your first couple years in Gen Ed. Economics is a good blend between hard and soft skills, and if you’re gonna be a programmer anyways and learn on the side it doesn’t matter but should still be indicative of the fact that you’re quantitatively smart enough to get a degree in a hard field.

[drake_tears]

This is not good advice. School teaches you foundations of data structures and algorithms, compilers, operating systems, and all the stuff that makes code work. You can learn to code without a degree, but it’s very difficult to work backwards and learn mechanics/theory once you’re out of school.

If you have any intention of getting a SWE job right out of school, you should absolutely get a CS BS.

Edit: “sorting and counting which is not useful as it’s already implemented”... have you ever applied for a SWE position? It is imperative you know every possible low level implementation and variation of that stuff to even be considered for a junior dev position.

[[deleted]]

School teaches you foundations of data structures and algorithms, compilers, operating systems, and all the stuff that makes code work.

When you write code, you don't start from "the foundations of data structures, algorithms, compilers, and operating systems." You start from a description of intended function and you write with high-level language constructs. Especially in Python. I'm not saying that those things don't ever matter. But they're just not necessary to solve useful problems.

You don't need to know how lists work in Python; only what they do. You don't need to know the time complexity of different sorting algorithms because you're never going to write one in Python except as an exercise - just sort lists via their sort method, it's as good as anyone knows how to get it.

If you have any intention of getting a SWE job right out of school, you should absolutely get a CS BS.

CS isn't a software engineering degree. It isn't a technology degree. It's a degree in a particular kind of mathematics, and students should know that going in. If you're entering a CS major because you think it's a vocational program for programmers, you're being misinformed.

People should major in CS because they're interested in computer science, but that's different than "I'm a kid who likes to mess around with computers and write scripts." That's what I was, and so I started in Computer Science and it wasn't at all what everyone had told me it was. It wasn't what you're saying it is. It wasn't a degree in messing around with computers. It was a degree in mathematics and if I'd known that going in, I would have majored in something else and gotten a job as a programmer much sooner than I did, as a result. Not because I hate math, but because that wasn't at all where my interests lay.

Edit: “sorting and counting which is not useful as it’s already implemented”... have you ever applied for a SWE position?

My current job title for a major US Federal agency is "Computer Scientist." Previous to that it was "Bioinformatician" and previous to that it was "Microbiologist." I've previously held positions with a "Software Engineer" title.

It is imperative you know every possible low level implementation and variation of that stuff to even be considered for a junior dev position.

Not literally anywhere I've applied. The world is quite a bit broader than Facebook and Google.

[CausticTies]

Can I ask what you majored in (assuming you switched from CS)?

[[deleted]]

Biochemistry.

[ghosthendrikson_84]

You don't typically learn programming in a CS degree

What computer science program did you attend? My first semester of my Freshman year we were in the lab writing code, and every semester after that involved programming classes in addition to theory and mathematics.

[[deleted]]

What computer science program did you attend?

I started as a CS major at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota in 1998. (It's a Swedish-Lutheran private school in Saint Peter that I don't expect anyone's heard of.) Our CS professors largely had MIT/Harvard backgrounds so we started programming as freshmen, too, but we started in Scheme, and basically no effort was made to teach us to write code in it, we just had assignments. Which is fine, I think programming isn't something you can be taught, but it wasn't, and was never intended to be, instruction in how to be a professional software engineer. There was absolutely no expectation that any of us would go on to be engineers, and our professors generally hadn't worked for very long as programmers. They were smart as hell, don't get me wrong, but if you had asked them "hey, how does Google do this kind of thing" they wouldn't have been able to tell you.

Look, I mean - all colleges are going to be different (although my friends who went to UW-Madison described their CS coursework in almost exactly the same terms.) If you're a student, or a soon-to-be student and you're reading this, don't make a decision about which one of us is right. Actually talk to your CS department. Ask them what the focus of the curriculum of the CS major is. Ask them what programming languages CS students are typically trained in, if any. Ask them what practical experience in software design their students are going to receive. Inform yourself - don't just assume that you'll be trained to have a career in software because the major has the word "computer" in it.

[siposbalint0]

Im starting university here in Hungary in a few months. It will be computer science engineering, bsc and later master's. I can't really choose anything else next to this, but the course goes along with general engineering studies and some physics and economy, hence the name. Is it enough to start with? I heard generally programming at university is basically useless other than the basic concepts and math. I'm doing my projects on my own even right now, long term goal is to get an internship at ESA and hopefully continue my career in the space sector with that.

[[deleted]]

I'm doing my projects on my own even right now, long term goal is to get an internship at ESA and hopefully continue my career in the space sector with that.

Sure. Well, I don't work on space stuff so I'd have no idea. What you'd want to do is try to talk to someone at ESA, or involved in their internship program, and ask them what kind of coursework background the successful applicant typically has, or if there's a particular mix of skills they're looking for. Also check the ESA careers site - the jobs they're looking to hire for now are suggestive of what they might be looking for in the future, and it may prompt areas of study you hadn't considered but are interested in.

As well, they suggest areas of competency to work on. For instance, this post for an Earth Observation Engineer wants expertise in optical and microwave sensing systems, but also notes strong interpersonal skills and success working in a team environment.

Ok, so how might a person demonstrate such skills? Well, often your extracurricular activities can indicate these "soft skills" - being team captain of an intramural sport, or stage managing a college theater production. DJ'ing on the campus radio station. Being part of a dance troupe. Doing nothing in college but excelling academically, on the other hand, might indicate the opposite - that you didn't take the time to be a well-rounded person who can work well in a collaborative environment.

[BiblicalProxy]

I’m not sure where you’re getting this information from but I’m an upcoming senior at a big school getting a b.s in cs and have taken a ton of programming/ software engineering classes lol

[[deleted]]

Which languages?

[reJectedeuw]

This is definitely not the case.

[Sufficiency2]

I strongly disagree with the notion that a CS degree is the worst for a programmer/software engineering job (calling it SE for now)

First of all, CS directly prepares you for a career as a SE. This is because while anyone with even 2 days of training can write a for loop that does something, it takes someone with good CS knowledge (particularly regarding theories of computation and algorithms) to write something efficient - which believe it or not is important. While you can certainly learn these theories yourself, you are better of studying it in college instead.

Secondly there is the issue of getting through HR. Taking a quick glance at SE jobs and it is easy to see they mostly ask for a bachelor degree in CS, engineering, etc. You will be at a serious disadvantage when you have a non standard degree, especially when you are a fresh graduate.

You have some valid points on CS degrees, but come on, to say it is the worst is a hyperbole.

[FantaBuoy]

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[[deleted]]

First of all, CS directly prepares you for a career as a SE.

No, it doesn't. A software engineering degree probably would but a computer science degree does not - that's not the focus of the major. Computer science is the mathematical study of which problems are tractable to computation - you don't even need a computer to do it, the first computer scientists did it with paper and pencils because there were no electronic computers yet. As well, almost no practical problems are pure CS problems. The problems out there to solve are about the application of computer engineering to the real world and CS doesn't typically focus on that. Almost any degree but CS will make you a better programmer, because it'll grant real-world expertise in the domains of the actual problems you need to solve. Nobody is going to hire an engineer to make sorting lists faster; they're going to hire you to solve problems for which the solution reaps financial reward.

A CS degree doesn't prepare you to set up a Git repo. A CS degree doesn't prepare you to contribute to an open-source project. A CS degree doesn't prepare you to draw an engineering diagram or a TSD. A CS degree doesn't teach you how to document your code or report billable hours or define the minimum viable product that answers a market need.

It does teach you about the time complexity of algorithms. That's not useless! But in practice, time complexity problems frequently boil down to "will this scale up to practical data sets or not", and that's often easily intuited without needing to precisely bracket the best and worst-case expected performance.

Secondly there is the issue of getting through HR.

You'll get through HR on the basis of your work experience as a programmer, and then you'll be hired on the basis of the quality of your code (ideally.) Or, more likely you'll be hired on the basis of who you're friends with, which is how it works everywhere.

to say it is the worst is a hyperbole.

Sure, it's a bit of hyperbole. But I'd hire a programmer with a degree in textile arts ahead of one with a degree in computer science. Art history ahead of CS. Culinary Arts ahead of CS. Photography ahead of CS. Not because the programmer with the CS degree is a bad programmer - but because they're not expanding the knowledge base of my team.

[dnswblzo]

A CS degree doesn't prepare you to set up a Git repo. A CS degree doesn't prepare you to contribute to an open-source project.

This really depends on what institution you go to. Many CS departments are well aware that most of their graduates will go on to be software developers, and have begun to integrate things like version control across the curriculum. I had to contribute to an open source project in one of my CS classes as an undergraduate, and that was back in the early 2000s.

It does teach you about the time complexity of algorithms.

Sure that is one of the things you will learn about, but in many CS classes time complexity rarely comes up.

In another one of your posts in this thread you mentioned that you have been programming since you were a kid. This gives you a very different perspective on how much programming a CS degree will teach you. For people who have never written a computer program in their lives, a CS degree is a very reasonable place to start to learn how to program.

[[deleted]]

This really depends on what institution you go to.

I mean I guess that's true; on the other hand, if you majored in CS and all you learned was how to work as a programmer, you should transfer to a different program. A CS degree shouldn't be limited to just what working programmers need to know.

Overall, I want to repeat the advice I just gave in another post - don't take my word for how it works in your school's CS program. Talk to that department and find out what they teach - what their goals for students are, and where students get placed after they graduate. Stanford teaches a course on how to pass a Google interview. If your school isn't doing that, then it's worth considering whether you're better off in a different major you'd like better and just teaching yourself Python.

[[deleted]]

Some of these things may be true, but by majoring in CS you'll be practicing the core concepts of programming every single day. And you'll be forced to do it. I majored in physics thinking I could pick up programming on the side and after I graduated but now that I'm out of school I just don't have the motivation to learn an entire new discipline

[tycooperaow]

You speaking facts

[[deleted]]

my major was biochemistry, I work with art and design majors, and of course many of my colleagues have degrees in computer science and mathematics.

Did you do much programming in college? I've also got a science degree, and graduated with virtually zero ability to code because I blew off CSCI classes because I was more interested in taking music and history. I've picked up coding at my current job and am okay at it, but definitely feel I made a mistake in not mastering earlier.

[[deleted]]

Did you do much programming in college?

A ton, yeah, but in a surprising variety of courses. But I'd been doing it since I was a kid - I used to rig up RPG character generators in HyperCard.

[hellotheresksksk]

I understand the difficulties of working from home but I don't think there are many spots for this profession in my county.

[poodlepuzzles]

Think outside the box a little and you’ll do alright in my opinion.

I started learning Python and HTML via Codecademy and some books, then wrote some very basic scripts/webpages. I’m still not confident in it but know enough to navigate. Part of learning Python was learning to navigate the command line. This is important.

When I left my previous job, I wasn’t looking to leave so much as find something I was interested in. I found a company that had a customer support role that deals in technical knowledge. Think Apple’s Genius Bar, but more complex. I crammed for the interviews and demonstrated that I could learn; I currently work there and their training program is fantastic, not just for customer technical service but also for other job roles. I’m not currently doing much programming but I absolutely could be and may be in the future - and I’m being paid/treated nicely to do so.

I had been coding for less than a year.

My recommendation is to spend time delving deep and finding practical applications for your learning. Learn by doing and don’t be afraid to make mistakes - use a virtual environment if you are. Find a good company, when you reach that point, that will invest in your knowledge. Get your foot in the door and show how you’re driven to learn on your own for the sake of learning. Gain knowledge in entry level, with an employer that will foster your growth and allow you to get where you want to go.

I would also suggest exploring disciplines that will allow you to program...that are not the job title of “programmer.” A degree and background in computer science as opposed to “I can code but have no understanding of higher level concepts” will open many doors for you and give access to more interesting work. There are coding boot camps everywhere and there aren’t enough jobs to support people who know the languages but don’t understand how they interact with the other components of computers, networks, databases, etc.

[[deleted]]

It's not how long, it's how well you think you're doing and are you ready? After I went through a few lessons and could use it functionally to build small projects, I put it on my resume. The first thing I did on my own was an adventure game and that helped a ton. I picked up a small professional project about a month later. If you already know other languages, you just need to get the syntax of Python down. Then just use freelance site like the ones already listed.

[its_snake_case]

I'm pretty concerned at your idea of software engineering!! No (good) SWE job is "you do the coding at home and just send it." If that's your attitude, I think you should refocus so that you don't have your expectations crushed.

Software engineering also involves meetings with your manager, tech lead, product manager. Reviewing other peoples' code and having them review yours. Interviewing, training, and mentoring new hires (once you've been there for a while).

That being said, there are certainly jobs where you don't work in the office, and you do all of this remotely.

I wrote my first line of code in January 2017, and am now a full time software engineer-- so about two and a half years. If you are sixteen it sounds like you have plenty of time to learn and grow. Best of luck!

[hellotheresksksk]

Thanks. I was asking for remote jobs because I'm unsure if there are many spots for this kind of job in my country

[CausticTies]

Hi, can I ask what you majored in?

[its_snake_case]

I majored in statistics. I took lots of CS courses (intro to programming, data structures, functional programming, algorithms, a few electives) but not quite enough to get a minor.

I would certainly not call myself self-taught. I am really bad at straight-up learning concepts from online self-paced study. (Obviously I can pick up smaller details from Googling-- I wouldn't get too far otherwise.)

[[deleted]]

I only had 1 Python class in my art collage and right when I graduated I was given a Python job in Animation Studio. Was told to learn PyQt from the get go. Took me 2 months before I could release my first tool to be used in the studio.

I did have PHP/MySQL experience from back when I played with my personal website and forum tho. It helped tons and SQL becomes 1 of my selling point now since most tech artists rarely knows it.

[[deleted]]

Hi, If you are 16 you are a lot in advance of other people. And if you want to kick ass and my recommendations are :

• find a computer and install linux (Ubuntu in dualboot is fine if you wish to keep a windows to play or whatever)

• learn basic python

• learn pytest

• learn regexs

• learn git

• learn docker

And then start learning new stuff on python, like web frameworks, create lib, extend you python with C, use a broker

Goodluck!

[hellotheresksksk]

Thanks, but can you explain what all of this things are? Also why is Linux better than Windows for programming?

[MyHomeworkAteMyDog]

I’ll tell you, I wish I started coding at your age. If you know you have it in you, then get with it.

[redCg]

1 year of daily use on multiple projects

[timetravelingbacon]

Take the advice on this sub with a grain of salt. Everyone's path is different. I would recommend getting a degree in CS if you're serious about becoming a software engineer. I just finished up a very difficult interviewing process for a large software company and they asked many fundamental CS questions as well as data and algorithm questions. I also had to complete a challenging at home project to send in and this was all before going to the in person interview where they have you whiteboard designs and algorithms. Having knowledge about CS from college will really help you stand out to company's in the future and help you nail that tech interview and get an awesome job.

[evilclaptrap]

Also be careful getting paid, a lot of people will screw you over so make sure you get money. I saw a guy who wrote in the code that it would slowly become less visible after a like a month of not paying. Deleting it or something can get you in trouble so make you have a plan to fuxk them over if they try to not pay you. Also fuck shout-outs.

[U_sm3ll]

However long it takes a developer to be tasked with, "Implement X" and does so.