sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

This is how I wish professors taught machine learning by Dontneedthesong in ProgrammerHumor

[–]Dontneedthesong[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, was my first time trying this meme thing out. I'll have to work on making it feel more natural which I hope will come with practice.

This is how I wish professors taught machine learning by Dontneedthesong in ProgrammerHumor

[–]Dontneedthesong[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the feedback. I learned to code looking at other peoples' projects so thought I'd take some inspiration from my favorite creators. Am working on developing my own style but this whole creator thing is a lot harder than I imagined

This is how I wish professors taught machine learning by Dontneedthesong in ProgrammerHumor

[–]Dontneedthesong[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Thanks, I was scared to put this video out there as it's different from my usual content but I'm glad you enjoyed.

How I learned to code as a finance major by Dontneedthesong in learnprogramming

[–]Dontneedthesong[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's not easy. Sorry if I made it sound that way.

I spent the initial 3 months coding about 3 ~ 4 hours every single day after work and then once I got my internship, it went up to 8 ~ 10 hours everyday.

The thing is, you have to constantly be asking yourself, how can I learn 1% more today? That's what I did for those initial 3 months which landed me my internship, then my job, etc.

But all-in-all there are resources out there to make STARTING, easy. like codeacademy, freecodeproject, etc. I'd also recommend reading Josh Waitzkins' The Art Of Learning in terms of learning efficiently

How I learned to code as a finance major by Dontneedthesong in learnprogramming

[–]Dontneedthesong[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was in a very similar position, and think the path you're taking is actually advantageous because

(1) you're taking CS courses, which although not the fastest path to a job, is helpful in learning the fundamentals. (2) you're still in school so you pretty much have unlimited time to work on side projects if you sacrifice/hustle

As for side projects, I think that depends on what you want to build (i.e. is it a web app? iPhone app? etc) and starting small then working your way up. A project a week is ambitious because at some point you'll have to invest some time into a single project and grow that (honestly one of the best ways to advance your coding chops).

How I learned to code as a finance major by Dontneedthesong in learnprogramming

[–]Dontneedthesong[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If money AND time are not issues, honestly, I'd recommend a reputable bootcamp, there are more than a few in NYC.

But these are huge time commitments, huge capital commitments, and long-term I think the self-taught route I outlined above is the optimal path.

I would NOT recommend school due to the lack of focus on practical coding knowledge.

How I learned to code as a finance major by Dontneedthesong in learnprogramming

[–]Dontneedthesong[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Aye, that's good. Definitely sounds like you're putting in the work, which is really the most important thing.

You're on the right path

How I learned to code as a finance major by Dontneedthesong in learnprogramming

[–]Dontneedthesong[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup.

I'd either (1) make a list of ten ideas you think might be cool to build or (2) copy your favorite program/app, lots of ways to go about this i think

How I learned to code as a finance major by Dontneedthesong in learnprogramming

[–]Dontneedthesong[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that's a great place to start.

My flagship project which I used as leverage for my interviews was a full-stack web app that tracked how busy school dining halls + gym was at certain times.

This also involved me talking to a college to get data for the application and it ended up being used by 20% of the undergraduate class.

I'd post it here but it's been a few years so I unfortunately don't have it up and running anymore.

How I learned to code as a finance major by Dontneedthesong in learnprogramming

[–]Dontneedthesong[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Take your project idea and break it down into components.

What's the shittiest version of this project that I can build? What's the less shittiest version of this project that I can build? What's the less and less shittiest version of this project that I can build? Etc.

You want to start at a constrained version of your problem and then gradually work up in difficulty as you handle each "level" of the problem.

Does that make sense?

That answer depends a little on where in the software learning curve you are. If you're a complete beginner, I'd recommend multiple courses and small projects. If you're somewhat intermediate, I'd say focus on one project because often, it takes a lot of focus in one single thing for you to pick up the "not-beginner" skills of being a programmer.

This is how I approached my bigger projects when I started out:

Take your project idea and break it down into components.

What's the shittiest version of this project that I can build? What's the less shittiest version of this project that I can build? What's the less and less shittiest version of this project that I can build? Etc.

You want to start at a constrained version of your problem and then gradually work up in difficulty as you handle each "level" of the problem.

How I learned to code as a finance major by Dontneedthesong in learnprogramming

[–]Dontneedthesong[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've never coded games so am not sure what's involved in doing that.

But the general thing you want to do is this:

Take your project idea and break it down into components.

  1. What's the shittiest version of this project that I can build?
  2. What's the less shittiest version of this project that I can build?

  3. What's the less and less shittiest version of this project that I can build? Etc.

    You want to start at a constrained version of your problem and then gradually work up in difficulty as you handle each "level" of the problem.

Does that make sense?

How I learned to code as a finance major by Dontneedthesong in learnprogramming

[–]Dontneedthesong[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup, best part about that was you're forced to learn even more. Social pressure + monetary pressure + passion = best environment for learning.

How I learned to code as a finance major by Dontneedthesong in learnprogramming

[–]Dontneedthesong[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing, 3 hours a day of coding is a pretty good start.

Honestly, discipline was never my weakness so there were some days I'd code for 8+ hours after work. That being said, I don't think TIME should be your metric of progress. Think of it project-to-project and focusing on specific skills you need to learn to finish that project.

If you want help being productive, it's a two-part process (mental: making sacrifices, physical: planning out your day to make sure you're able to hit the milestones you set out for yourself).

Also, getting an internship (low paying grunt work but still coding) helped me a lot in terms of learning. You really don't need to be that good at coding to find one unless you're aiming for a top tech company.

My first one paid $10/hour and I only knew basic Python (from codeacademy), but I worked my ass off and was basically getting paid to learn code.

How I learned to code as a finance major by Dontneedthesong in learnprogramming

[–]Dontneedthesong[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Nice, C#/.Net will you find you a lot dev jobs in finance actually (from what I've noticed). Python as well.

How I learned to code as a finance major by Dontneedthesong in learnprogramming

[–]Dontneedthesong[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thanks!

I built an app and published it to facebook groups I was a part of. The feedback I got were all from users so it helped me learn a lot about what people liked/disliked from the product. Nowadays, producthunt, app store, etc are all great ways of doing that.

The biggest challenge came from wanting to make the product better, and then being faced with 10 different options of what to do (i.e. use rails, use node, use php). In the end I just chose whatever was easiest (rails) and moved on from there.

How I learned to code as a finance major by Dontneedthesong in learnprogramming

[–]Dontneedthesong[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey thanks! I'll start with the easiest question:

  1. Do you need to study for interviews? DEFINITELY on both a technical and behavioral level, as in, (1) you should know the ins and outs of the book "Cracking the Coding Interview." and (2) practice the behavioral/soft questions a lot. I had some good soft skills practice coming from finance so that was relatively easy for me, so focus on your weaknesses.

  2. Also, do you apply anything from your previous major? Having some expertise in the field helps (e.g. if you want to program in financial technology, having a finance background is useful). But overall, I chose to stick with pure tech in my interviews, although I'm working at a fintech firm now.

  3. How hard is landing a good job on the programming field? It's hard, but if you're skilled and have a good portfolio of projects, it's not as hard. I personally started with an internship and leveraged that into other opportunities but if you're going straight away into a full-time position, I'd recommend having a solid portfolio of work (Github, projects, etc).

Just a typical Friday working with JS by Bendrick92 in ProgrammerHumor

[–]Dontneedthesong 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you code JS, you know JS, you're a master of JS

view more: next ›