A Letter to Code Newbies (from a Former Newbie)
Tags: codenewbie, bootcamps, career
Published: 2019-08-13 14:06:32

Dear Code Newbies, 

I know learning to code can be tough at times. 

Chasing bugs for hours, only to realize that you misspelled a variable name or left out a semicolon. 

I wanted to share some words of encouragement to reassure you that *learning to code is absolutely worth it.* 

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Five years ago, I was a total code newbie. If you showed me a piece of code, I wouldn’t know what to do with it. 

Now I’m the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of a venture-backed startup called **[Career Karma](https://careerkarma.com/?utm_source=Devto&utm_medium=fullpost&utm_campaign=august)** (Ycombinator 2019) helping people get jobs in tech.

I remember the hardest thing in the very beginning was *finding the time to code.* We all live busy lives, so making that extra hour to code after work at times seemed impossible. 

## **Discipline**
It took me months of "on-again-off-again" learning and doing tutorials to develop a habit where I can sit for two hours straight and focus on building a simple HTML page or solving a JavaScript toy problem.

For reference, now I can sit and code for 6-8 hours straight with time flying by. If you’re concerned that you won’t get there, don’t worry: you will. It's like going to the gym--being disciplined and consistent is everything.

## **Tutorial Purgatory**
After a few months of learning the basics of JavaScript, I got a subscription to Udemy and started my journey through tutorial purgatory. 

I would pick a JavaScript for beginners course, blindly copy everything that the instructor did, and midway through the course get bored and move on to the next tutorial that seemed more interesting. 

After a few months, I realized that I was running in place. I still couldn’t build a project from scratch, and most importantly, I didn’t have the confidence to explore on my own.

## **Learning How to Learn**
One day, I decided I would build a chat app--no matter what. I struggled tremendously because there was no instructor to guide me or answers to look up. I had to figure it out on my own using Google, Stack Overflow and GitHub. 

Interestingly, it was after I built that app that I knew I had what it takes to become an engineer--learning how to learn is the secret to becoming great at coding. 

Every single day I’m faced with technical issues and bugs I’ve never seen before. Being a software engineer means getting comfortable with not knowing the answer but knowing that the answer is out there--and that you will find it!

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There were tons of people around me who helped me how to code and I want to pay it forward.

If you’re someone who is starting to learn how to code or exploring bootcamps, direct message me, and I will add you to a group of people I’m mentoring. 

I look forward to seeing all of your coding journeys!

Artur Meyster
CTO of **[Career Karma](https://careerkarma.com/?utm_source=Devto&utm_medium=fullpost&utm_campaign=august)** (YC W19)


P.S. If you found it interesting, please comment below which point you are struggling with the most :)

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![Career Karma logo](https://744025.smushcdn.com/1245953/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/ck_logo.png?lossy=1&strip=1&webp=1 "Career Karma")