5 Signs of an Inexperienced Self-Taught Developer (and how to fix)

There's a lot of hate out there towards self-taught developers from those who hold CS degrees. In fact, I'll show you a comment in this video calling for the eradication of all self-taught engineers!!!

But don't sweat. There are too many of us out there for that.

Yet we need to ensure we are growing so that we prove valuable teammates, dependable programmers, and competent "engineers."

In this video, I'll explain what I think are 5 tell-tale signs of an inexperienced, non-traditional, developer and what steps you need to take to grow out of it.

(Weekly live events, coding challenges, book readings, and community chat)

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:19 CS Grads hate us
01:24 Sign 1
02:29 Sign 2
04:35 Sign 3
06:09 Sign 4
07:15 Sign 5

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[softcolly]

As a dev for over 20 years, the majority of my knowledge is self taught, and that's after studying at University.

[georgewashing]

I have a CS degree and manage an engineering team at a top tech firm. Anyone who thinks that non-traditional developers are somehow lesser or "need to be purged" is naive (to be overly generous) and more likely just arrogant to the point of being a detriment to their team. Having people with diverse backgrounds (e.g. chemical engineering, geology, finance, etc.) adds perspectives to technical problem solving that results in better overall solutions.

[lawrencecollins]

Very refreshing to read all these comments. I am 87 and started coding/learning computing in the 50’s using machine code, assembler, pseudo code, cobol. What I am learning here is that the greater mass of interested and active people in the coding business are following a strong discipline. It was the Wild West in my day and a wonder anything functioned properly at all. Congrats from me to all readers here. Keep learning. Do it as simply as possible. Remember some poor guys and gals have to fix your work some day. Have great and interesting careers. Well done getting this far. Keep going and enjoy. BTW when I first visited the Central library in Scotland for a book about computing they had nothing. NOTHING.

[Sweet_Ptat-piiie]

I've seen similar comments but I just wanted to be another affirming voice. I have a CS degree but most of my knowledge is self-taught. I'm sorry that my fellow CS grads are trying to gatekeep. They are probably a little bitter about all their college debt.

[dabneyapplechunks]

A VERY ancient senior developer here, so ancient that there was almost no formal education like the modern CS courses available when I started, except for in some obscure mathematics departments!
Having interviewed, hired, fired and mentored many graduate & non-grad developers in different settings, I can confirm that all your points are important. But also several personal qualities are beneficial if you want to both become an effective software engineer and enjoy the journey. These have little to do with coding or even design techniques and a lot to do with being prepared to cultivate skills like careful listening, humility, patience and persistence. Not to mention the ability to tolerate being in a state of confusion for way longer than is comfortable - sometimes that’s the only way to reach a state of clarity.

[mbeek]

What you describe are signs of INEXPERIENCED developers. Period! I’ve seen CS grads do all five of them, and then some! As a computer scientist, turned developer, I’ve taught students at the university but also on the job as a dev. Most go on to become good experienced developers, while some never do, degree or no degree.

[spinostu]

I'm an Experienced self-taught developer currently working on 3 huge PRs...thanks for the pull up 😊

[slayeryt]

I'm a CS major and the only crime in this video is the lack of a red sus reference at 0:46.

[Warpgatez]

I’m a CS grad and if you think you gain the knowledge you need for being an “engineer “ from school then you’re high as a kite and misguided.

[jasonwelsh]

I have seen all of these offences committed by people with degrees, for the record. Great list by the way.

[dvillegaspro]

I have always thought I was a weaker developer because as a junior dev I haven't learned more languages and frameworks outside of JavaScript and React, but I figured I wanted to get really good with programming concepts, techniques, patterns and architecture and I can then apply those to other languages later. Thanks for helping me feel better about not being a massive polyglot yet.

[christophhenninger]

4:17 I (mostly self-taught) do that stuff like this:
I branch of develop (that is my main working-branch), then I start to work on the feature. I commit and push everything up as every step is done, so I created my user-model, then I create the form, then I create the login-check. Every time I test, commit and push.
When the feature is done, I create a pull-request, but to be honest since I am the only one working on that project I merge it without reading it again.
Code _in my branch_ can possibly be broken when I try to use it. Code _in develop_ should never ever be broken.
The main-branch is by the way my release branch. So when the release comes up, I branch v1.0rc (in example) off of develop, get it into a state where I am sure it will work on the server, then merge that first into main and tag it as v1.0 and second I merge it back into develop of course.
On the server I pull it again from the tag and create a docker-container, first to make another test, then to really send it to production.
Of course "production" is a little webservice with one user: me.

[Codotaku]

Him: Only the syntax is different
C++: huh
Rust: yes
Haskell: good luck

[salimbendag]

Hi everyone, Personally I am an engineer in biology, I hold a master of science in biotechnology and I am currently almost finished with my PhD in marine biology, and I am now trying learn how to code and be a self taught software engineer, and i have to say coding is far more difficult than anything I went through obtaining that "Engineer" or "Dr" status, so self taught deserves respect, It was diffuclt yet they did it ! Much love to the community!

[feraudyh]

I had a boss who said to me "I don't care if you understand what you are doing, all I care about is whether it works". Thanks JPA.

[baziwan]

Why people hate non college grads, is because they paid ~200k for a degree and you make pretty much the same as them. It is partially Envy, and jealousy I think.

[dameanvil]

01:25 🤔 Inexperienced developers often focus solely on making code work, neglecting essential pre-coding observations and considerations for maintainability and scalability.
02:29 🔄 Large, unorganized code changes in pull requests can lead to confusion and difficulty in diagnosing problems. Commit often, test each commit, and keep pull requests focused on cohesive features.
04:35 📚 Constantly learning new languages or frameworks may hinder true understanding of programming concepts. Focus on mastering core concepts rather than accumulating superficial knowledge.
06:10 🚥 Working on too many tasks simultaneously can compromise efficiency and depth of understanding. Prioritize tasks, complete them one at a time, and avoid overcommitting.
07:17 🙈 Reluctance to share code for critique indicates a fear of criticism. Embrace feedback, especially during code reviews, to learn and grow as a developer.

[wendiborden]

College educated with 2 degrees here (CS and Business Admin) and feeely admit having worked with many self-taught developers I admire and myself learn from!

[Archon-Zero]

Started programming at 10 years old in BBC Basic, as an adult spent 10 years in the industry before deciding to go to uni to help further my career. My experience tells me that you learn more, and better in your first 6 months on the job under a good development team than you will doing 4 years of university. I wouldn't have hired 90% of the class I graduated with. University has an almost negligible value in the programming industry other than getting hired. In my humble opinion.

[Spekplant]

This advice does not just aplly to coding but in so many other aspects of product development, great post thank you.