My Advice For You, A Beginner Programmer
Published: 2022-04-27 03:40:26


My name is Matt Stead, and I am, like you, a beginner programmer. You are reading this article because you are contemplating learning how to code or you have already begun. Either way, you are here because you know that what you’re about to read is valuable advice from someone who is honest, aware, and handsome. Just kidding… but seriously, I’m about to give you some invaluable advice.

I am only a couple months into my coding career, one that I expect to be long, fulfilling, fun, exciting, etc. The list goes on. I love to code. Well, love is a strong word. Actually, this leads me to my first piece of advice. 

**Advice number 1: You don’t have to LOVE coding like you love eating or listening to your favorite song.**

You don’t have to eat, sleep, dream coding (although I’m warning you, this is becoming a theme in my dreams, I’ve even solved coding problems in my dreams..). My point here is more for those questioning whether they belong in this field. It’s import to realize how few people are obsessed with the entirety of their job… the answer is no-one. A job requires a certain skill that is utilized repetitively. Repetition leads to boredom. Boredom leads to not loving the entirety of your job. Make sense? People who love their jobs, love 70% of what they do, and that’s AWESOME. You have to find the career where you are happy to toughen up and battle through the tedious, repetitive parts of your job (the other 30%). You are willing to go through this because of your love for the 70%. 

To give you an example, I love building out websites and showing my friends and family and I really enjoy problem solving and learning new ways to accomplish different outcomes. I am driven to join a company and build an application that is an industry disrupter and I work hard each and every day to one day accomplish this.  But I didn’t love my last Friday night where I stared at my screen for 2 hours trying to figure out what was wrong with my code, only to find out that it was because I forgot to put a singular dot in one of my functions. I would have 100% loved to eat pizza then play guitar all night. But the world doesn’t work that way. Find something that stimulates you enough to grind it out all day, and keep you excited to go enjoy your hobbies when you’re finished. 

**Advice number 2: Ask questions**

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. A lot of questions. BUT, I realized that to become a coder, you have to be able to research your inquiry on google and figure it out yourself. This will be difficult starting out, especially when the solutions on google seem to have more complicated code surrounding it. But you will get the hang of it. Spend 10 minutes trying to figure it out yourself. If you succeed, great. If you fail, reach out and ask someone, you’ve suffered enough and it’s time to learn something new.

**Advice number 3: There’s no such thing is an expert, so don’t strive for perfection.**

In the past couple months, I have watched tutors, lecturers and instructors constantly looking up things in Google. When I first started, I thought to myself… “uh oh, maybe I’m in the wrong place.” This is totally false. There are no experts, so don’t put pressure on yourself to be perfect and memorize everything. Just learn how to apply your knowledge and solve problems you encounter. Google is the only expert. Google is your, and every developer’s friend. Be nice.

**Advice number 4: Code with others when you can**

I cannot stress this enough. To start my bootcamp, I wanted to be the best of the best. The plan was to code in silence, grind so hard I became the best coder in the room at all times. But what I quickly realized is I was much more productive coding with a friend. My friend and I went through a lab we both couldn’t do alone. We talked it out and reached the solution. The process of talking it out and figuring out the solution with someone the same level as me was invaluable. It is just as, if not more, valuable than sitting down with a one on one tutor and paying $100 you could’ve spend on a couple nice slices of pizza.

**Advice number 5: Learn the basics!**

Learn the fundamentals. Learn Github, learn what the hell npm means (check out my other blog here). Don’t start picking up the guitar and strumming without first learning the notes. Don’t go play the piano without first learning the scales. The notes, the scales are things like git, loops, data-types. So learn them !

**Last piece of Advice: Take your damn time and practice, practice, practice**

Don’t rush for the love of God! Let’s say you watch a tutorial or go to a class that talks about looping through arrays. The lecture made total sense and you followed along perfectly. You feel great about it. Cool, we don’t really care how you feel (sorry), we care what you can do. So go home, write up arrays and iterate over them until iterating arrays becomes as familiar to you as the back of your hand. 

Being able to read code is one thing, and it’s a great thing. But being able to write code is a whole different ball-game. And you need to practice. Be PATIENT. It will come to you with enough practice. Coding is a skill, one that anybody in the world can learn if they are patient and dedicated enough. Once you HAVE the skill, you got it! You’ll be able to utilize it whenever you want and go live that fulfilling (and luxurious, of course) life we talked about earlier.

Good luck!