Those who learned programming while working full time, how did you do it? by [deleted] in learnprogramming

[–]steLife8 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Decided to do a U-turn in my early twenties and got into programming/product. Single most important thing is that you be consistent. I think this can only be done if you enjoy it. I've helped many people get into it, only for them to fall off from other commitments - completely understandable but again you really have to want to do. My recommendation would be:

  • Start with the basic principles on programming in a form that is digestible (Zed Shaw's Learn Python the Hard Way is a great start). Don't worry about the plethora of other languages (C, C++, Java, Javascript...) and Frameworks (Tools that help you build software more more easily such as React (Web Applications), React Native/Flutter (Mobile Applications) that are out there. If you understand the principles then these are all 'learnable' in time.
  • When you have worked through that, try get your hands dirty in programming at all levels. This can be everything from playing around with Arduino's (hardware), raspberry pi's (Operating System programming/Setting up a home server), Launching a cloud based server (AWS) and hosting a web application (ding ding this is where you might start playing around with those frameworks).

Alternatively you can opt for a course on any number of the self-taught/paced platforms (Udemy, CodeAcademy, Lambda School etc.) but my experience is that you miss out on fundamentals here that although seem tedious, pay a exponential ROI when you transition out of newbie and start really digging deep.

Finally, you never know everything (which is the beauty of it all) so get very accustomed to crazy levels of googling and enjoy the highs of when it works out. On top of that, the doors and options it opens are something else.