Self Taught Programmers... Listen Up.

In this video I collaborated with Self Taught Programming youtuber Kenny Gunderman to give advice on traditional education vs self taught programming.

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[lifeofcode]

I am self taught. Started building websites back in the early days of dial up internet. Now I'm 34 and been working professionally as a developer for over 16 years. Now I'm a lead software engineer, that works on machine learning and full stack web. Sometimes I don't know how I did it, but I'm thankful.

[JustinWellsDev]

No college, no Bootcamp here. I started learning iOS development in September through the 100 days of swiftUI course and finished in December. I started working on my own app, and applying for jobs the day I finished. After 180 applications and 100% of them replying with “We went with another candidate” automated response, I finally got a singular call back/interview. Got the second interview, and offered a position for $55/hour as an iOS developer at a large pharmaceutical company.

This is in Pittsburgh, PA so cost of living is actually fairly low as well. Absolutely love that I made the steps to change my life!

It was absolutely difficult though, mostly due to my schedule. I’m a single dad and found it difficult to fit learning into my daily schedule, so I started going to bed at 8:30pm since mentally I’m shot at night, waking up at 4:30 and coding prior to work. Stopping at 7:30 to take my kid to preschool, making it to work by 8:30, getting off work at 4:30 to make it to the preschool by 5:30, take the kid to the gym for an hour and be home by 7 to make dinner, eat, and sleep by 8:30 to repeat. That was what I did until I got the job offer in February

[jdt]

I am self taught. What Kenny said about how often it's "not what you know, its WHO you know" is incredibly true. I wanted to make games and had an opportunity to stop working for a while to teach myself to code and pursue that when I was 30 (I was an accountant beforehand). A friend of mine who was working as a software developer was interested in game dev as well and so was interested in what I was doing. His boss one day says he wants to hire a "junior" developer, my friend puts my name forward and boom. Now I'm 32 and have been a software developer for 9 months whilst pursuing game dev on the side. Make those connections people, you never know when it'll pay off

[blockblockgoose]

I'm learning C++ and Python self taught and I can say the hardest part about learning programming is actually getting everything setup for you to learn.

[MePeterNicholls]

One of the downsides of self learning, is finding out about the stuff you don’t know you don’t know. Then there’s rabbit holes and dead ends. But it’s also being able to look at something and go “oh yes that would work well with ….. pattern, design etc” we’re jumping in and getting very wet for sure, but sometimes forgetting to build up the foundational stuff

[FableCountry]

I graduated from a coding bootcamp. It took 28 weeks and approx $26k in tuition (+ $2k/month on rent and living expenses). Expensive but i was employed one month after graduating (lucky they saw potential in me). majority of my classmates took 3 months. One took 8 months. The rest gave up(4 out of 20). 5 years later, im still employed and now im halfway through my master's in computer science. Work is not super challenging but i like it enough. I do feel secure for now.
To get in, it takes some consistency and drive. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD so going to coding bootcamp was right move for me because of the accountability and structured, cumulative learning. Traditional would have been too slow for me, especially later in life. And good thing i switched before the pandemic hit.
Again, I feel Ive been lucky. I worked hard too but i know people who tried harder for less.

[mont]

I am a self taught.
I actually started programming when I was 9 years old. I was passionate about computer games, but none of them seemed to bring me joy for more then 2 days. So I decided to make my own game. First, I downloaded RPG Maker, which is a drag n drop software where you can create games. For a 9 years old, it looked very limited to me.
Once I was done creating the game (basically dragging and dropping things into the map) I thought my character was a bit too weak, and I couldn't find a single place to change his stats.
That's when I decided to go over the game files and found the character file, with it's class in it. Obviously I was already pretty conformable with computers, and that's why I decided to mess with the files. When I found it, I just opened and manually changed the stats of my character. When I clicked on play - BOOM, it worked! But every time I got to level 2, I would lose my stats and get them back to "normal". That's where I had my first challenge. Reading that file and trying to understand how to change the stats for each level. I gotta admit I didn't solve this, but I was pretty happy about the first part haha.
After that, I decided to create a Youtube Channel teaching how to create games like that with just a little bit of programming (just like changing the attributes and w/e), but I ended up deleting it after getting bullied at school lol.
When I was 13, I decided to enroll in a Web Development and Game Development course. There was when I got in contact with HTML, CSS and Java (we also learned stuff like Blender/Adobe Flash and w/e, but wasn't relevant to coding at all). Yeah, I didn't learn Javascript there, but we did learn some Java to code the games.
After that course, I kinda stopped for 1 year, and when I became 15 I decided to start studying Python (my current strongest programming language -> @ 21 y.o). I started learning Python and Java, but I hated Java and decided to just keep up with Python. I learned "a lot" by myself watching Youtube Courses for 2 years. When I became 16 (almost 17) I got my first job. Honestly, it was the best opportunity of my life. He wouldn't pay me salary. Instead, he would pay me memberships on Pluralsight so I could study the whole day. And that's what I did. Even in school I would go to the back rows in the classroom, put my headphones on and listen to programming lessons all day.
With this opportunity, I started learning Kotlin and C#. After the company went "broke", unfortunately, I decided to stop working there and getting back to my own studies. This was in the same time where we would have to take our "SATs" in Brazil (Enem/Vestibulares). I decided to abandon some of the application processes I was doing to focus on my programming lessons. However, my parents put a huge pressure on me to get into College, so I actually started Mathematics. I lasted 3 months there. Couldn't stand staying in that classroom learning anything that wasn't programming. So I decided to drop-off. At that time, I already had a job as a programmer and was making some money (very little), so that was another reason. I quit that job to start in a new one, and that's where I went back to python in a very strong way. My first project there was a Tkinter Timer that would track the time people would spend to do their activities in the company, and to integrate that with a SQL DB so we could use the hourly rate of everyone to know how much money was being "spent" for each project accurately. Everyone was aware of this, nothing was illegal, don't worry lol.
Then I had an opportunity to work as a Python Automation Engineer in a Law Firm. That opportunity made my Selenium Skills explode. I even created a Neural Network to solve some captchas there so we could download Law Suits automatically using Selenium. That was a really nice and complicated project.
After that I decided to open my own Company in Brazil, which offers Power BI + Financial Consulting services. I also got a job in Canada and am working as an Automation Engineer.
So I'd say self-taught is not always problematic if you follow a good path.
I will say tho that the fact I was self-taught didn't give me enough experience to learn good practices of coding. That came exclusively with sitting next to Senior Devs and watching them work. So if you're thinking about learning by yourself, make sure to study project architectures, good coding practices and whatever. This is a big deal.

[jwcyykq]

The stories here are inspiring me to stay consistent. I'm 31 years old and I'm unemployed. I kind of just stumbled onto the coding scene and I find it very interesting! I'm thankful that I did, and I'm hoping to advance my knowledge and find a great career that gives me sense of purpose in life. Everyone has a story and one day I hope to be employable at a company that gives me the sense of self that everyone seems to have in this industry. I also liked this Youtube video.

[camilohernandez]

I turned 33 this year and i’m a clinical psychologist. But last year I started to look for a different path and career, so I started doing some stuff on FreeCodeCamp and then CS50. I did a full stop on my patients and now got a trainee position on a really big company. I think one of the hardest parts for me is dealing with impostor sindrome, since I’m the only self taught among all the trainees I work with. But it is definitely possible and you just gotta learn every single day and it will really pay off.

[NickWhite]

Code FRIENDS10

They rarely do this type of a sale so I'd highly recommend jumping on it now!

[taylorswe]

Let's be honest, in the end we all end up getting saved by the indian guy on youtube.

[uwotm]

The hardest part for a selt taught route is just getting your foot in the door, with college you have more opportunities to network, attend career fairs, and look for internships, that makes getting a job much easier. And of course the more prestigious your college is the more of these opportunities you have, but the downside is the tuition.

[FrancoNSosa]

Very valuable video! Thank you guys for making it!
I started my computer science carreer at college 2 years ago, and it's been a mind blowing journey. I like to learn, and when we're talking about programming, there's SO MUCH TO LEARN!
Fortunately, I'm in a good environment in college, good professors, good knowledge, face to face classes help to learn and to keep me accountable, many decent peers.
Obviously I'm not learning everything from college, so when I'm not studying for college, I'm learning new languages or topics of my interest, taking on projects and getting on extra courses.

To me, like Nick said, it's not about going to college vs. learning on your own... Keep your mind open! If you wanna be a successful, professional programmer, you gotta use all the resources and mediums available for you! Everything has their pros and cons, you just gotta get the best of every one of them.

That being said, although my experience comes from both learning traditionally and learning on my own, I do have to say that the latter is pretty much a skill on itself. I mean, you gotta learn how to teach yourself to teach yourself efficiently and effectively, you know? But as Kenny said, and as with every skill that you hone, you gotta keep practicing! Keep coding, keep googling, etc.

At the end, I think the most important thing isn't any of what I've mentioned so far. At the end, it doesn't really matter how or where did you learned what you learned, but if you met your goals, and most importantly, wether you enjoyed it or not, cause if you didn't enjoy learning it, you're most likely not wanting to do it anymore.

Finally, learning can be painful or stressing sometimes, but if overall you're engaged and you enjoy the proccess, you'll be rewarded at the end. That's my take on the topic.

[darealmexury]

I'm a self taught developer, mainly web development, but I can write other languages as well like Python, C# and Java to name a few. I started by watching tutorials on youtube when I was 10 years old, using Notepad++ for 90% of my journey, I'm turning 20 this year and I've only started using VS Code 2 years ago. I still wouldn't say I'm anywhere near perfect when it comes to programming, but I'd say with enough time, motivation and effort, self teaching is definitely worth it.

And even if you are following a course, getting a degree. If you have the time, it's valuable to learn besides school if you're passionate about programming.

[LibertyReign]

Thank you so much!! This was really helpful and reassuring, I have been frustrated and I’m so grateful for this message! Thank you !

[mcmillanator]

Great video! Thank you for sharing. I learned by first teaching myself and later going to a code boot camp. I think finding someone else who can teach you what you need to know for the type of job you are targeting is invaluable. The boot camp didn't waste time on things that I never used. I used all of it. Even if you are learning on your own finding someone to model will help a lot. They can guide you on what you should learn to reach your specific goal. This can cut out a lot of time learning things you don't actually need to know.

[luishenriqueandradepellizz]

It was very hard for me to keep up self learning because of the routine, but I always preferes this way. I got into college now it does helps me a lot because it keeps me on time-schedule. My course is 80 per cent assignments, so the instructors give us the requirements for the application and then we need to go and find resources to build it. So this hybrid is works for me.

[tubadurantdoda]

Thank you this video came at a perfect time! I've been learning Python for months now and just recently I started doing projects with it. it can be hard but when you actually make it work there is great satisfaction in it!

[fblack]

Great video and insight. I'm 47 and have been in IT for a long time on the business side of things. Everything from consulting to business analysis, project mgmt and on and on. I've grown tired of this and want to start producing something more tangible. I'm starting out on the journey to learn how to code. Seeing the video and reading some of the testimonials in your comments is uplifting. I have a good friend who's been developing for 20 years and has led me to good starting tutorials. Thanks.

[SemiMono]

Self-teaching can be hard if it also requires self-motivation. When picking a project, I recommend picking something you're excited about. That extra boost to motivation could be what makes you stick with it long enough to really learn.