Self Taught Programmers... Listen Up.

As a Self-Taught Programmer, I often get asked for my advice when it comes to pursuing this route. In this video, I give you my top 5 biggest pieces of advice to help guide you along your coding journey.

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Timestamps:
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Intro: (0:00​)
Self Taught isn't the "easier" option: (1:30​)
Don't overthink it: (2:36​)
Network (very important): (4:58​)
Dive into the deep end: (6:36​)
Self Taught may not be for you: (7:44​)

[mps_unltd]

I'm 56 and I'm a teaching myself HTML/CSS/JavaScript. It's hard, but I'm doing it and my skill is improving every day.
I'm going to be the oldest Jr. Front-end Developer in History

[jos]

My biggest issue with self-taught is I often wake up and say
"What now?"

[dylanpearce]

For anyone looking to get into their first dev job: you will feel like a fraud when you first join the company - that is completely normal, to be overwhelemed by all the holes in your knowledge. It is better to see it rather as an opportunity to solidify your skillset.

[SwiddyDiddy]

Luckily for us self-taught programmers most employers don’t care so much about degrees anymore.
Recently IBM, completely removed their requirement of any, saying: “we realized as long as our employees had the skills needed, we didn’t care how they got them.”

[luciogutierrez]

All this advice is gold. I've been self-teaching myself for maybe a decade, returning to the basics over and over, never getting into advanced topics, with a lot of frustration. A couple of weeks ago I landed my first programming job with a huge impostor syndrome. But what do you know, I've been able to complete all the tasks I've been assigned, learning a lot along the way. My advice would be: If you already have your bases covered with a course like CS50, Angela Yu's bootcamp or something like that, stop torturing yourself with theory you'll soon forget. You'll never gain mastery that way. Instead do many projects, learn how to google what you need right now and GET CONFORTABLE with NOT KNOWING and still DOING IT.

[abbaskhan]

Even people who go to college like me don't learn much in college because colleges don't teach much coding and you're 90% self taught atleast that's what I've felt so far.

[sarmadhadi]

I'm an 18 year old Self Taught Full Stack Web Dev. I usually work with Angular and Express. Learnt everything myself. Currently have 3 contracts on Upwork. Anyone can code. All you need is commitment... Good vid!!!

[doenaldjonathan]

The education system I'm going through is just a self taught system, all my coding experience is from self taught techniques

[TheWafflesalsa]

The thing about being "self taught" is that you never stop learning and you get better over time.

[DevoutJourney]

I’m a 36 yr old welder and am trying to learn to be a self taught programmer: I want to transition careers. This makes me feel better about my decision! It’s never to late to take a new path

[Melonemelo]

I'm 34 years old, have a bachelors in economics and now decided to teach myself python by working through the book "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python". I don't know where I will end up if I stick with it, but your videos are certainly encouraging! Thanks a lot

[JakeLovesSteak]

Oh our little Kenny is growing up! He got himself a sponsor! 😁

[knotsable]

Im 43 years old, and i have been working as a self thaught programmer my entire life. Best tip i can give: if you go to a job interview, and you can show a few impressive hobby projects that you made in your free time, you will probably make a better impression than applicant x with degree y. You also learn a lot more by actually finishing projects than endlessly do tutorials.

[coolbrotherf]

Networking is definitely the hardest part for me. I love learning and studying and working on projects, but I often neglect meeting new people as much as I should.

[thesoftwareproject]

We are all self-taught. You only learn programming by doing.

[jokerzz]

I think I've watched more hours of YouTube about coding than actually doing it, I really need to re-evaluate my life lol.

[juanurdaneta]

As a self taught I cannot stress enough how networking helps.

[codingwithbobbysiharath]

Great video. I just started my self taught route focusing on HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

[MrPanzerDragoon]

I've been on the self-taught route for nearly 10+ years now, I still don't feel like I know what I am doing, but I am still doing it.

[stefandeclerk]

Thanks for the advice. I'm that old guy (41) trying to go the self-taught route. It's a challenge because time is not abundant (day-job, side-hustle, adulting responsibilities), so it's taking a bit longer than I had hoped. But I'm starting to build some projects, so I'm making progress. One of the biggest challenges, however, is that I'll have to leave a career that I've built over the past 20 years to start as a junior dev somewhere. I'm a freelancer in the entertainment industry, so it's a totally different vibe and the contacts I've built up over the years aren't really relevant for dev work. But I remain positive. That video with your dad is a big motivation. Thanks.