TeamHave you ever wondered how should you start learning to code? What could be the best approach? These are the questions of every person who wants to start learning how to program. Many people opt for a formal degree. On the other hand, there are many self-taught developers already working in the industry.
Whether you have formal or informal programming knowledge, an employer will probably want to see your performance. In this case, your skills are crucial. If you have the right skills, you get a job!
But how do we acquire programming skills? When it comes to programming, the internet is full of great coding courses, so it is up to you to choose the language you want to learn.
However, before you start learning to code, you need to make a plan. Pay attention to the following questions:
- Why do you want to become a programmer?
- What programming language do you want to learn?
- Do you want to create games, applications, or websites?
As you can see, a lot of questions should be answered. So we have decided to make this article and explain how you should start with this process.
1. Why do You Want to Become a Programmer?
As we all know, programming jobs are well-paid. Therefore, many people want to become programmers just because of money. Money has always been a big motivation, but if you want to become a really good programmer, you have to love it. You should enjoy solving problems and making creative solutions.
Take into consideration that the learning process can be long and sometimes can be difficult. We didn’t say this to discourage you. On the contrary, our intention is to motivate you to find the right path and not waste your precious time.
You can start your journey by watching YouTube programming tutorials. On YouTube, you can also see other people’s coding experiences. That is also worth watching. In short, go through this process to determine if this is really for you!
2. Choose Your Programming Language
If you have decided to become a programmer, congratulations! Now it is crucial to choose the right programming language you want to learn. When it comes to choosing a programming language, you need to decide whether you want to create games, programs, or websites.
Front-end development
In general, website development is also called front-end development. Website developers deal with the part of the website or web application that is displayed in the user’s browser. In the beginning, there are two fundamental things to learn – HTML and CSS.
HTML is a markup language (not a programming language) that helps you create the main website structure. In short, it helps you to add main elements to the website such as text, paragraphs, images, links, etc.
On the other hand, a website without CSS will look unappealing. CSS adds a nice layout, colors to your text, links, buttons, fonts, etc.
If you learn all these things, you will be able to create a static website without any functionality. So if you want to place a calculator or quiz on your site, you will need JavaScript. Javascript is a client-side programming language that runs in your browser. It will take you a while to master this, but be patient and persistent!
Back-end development
Back-end developers should be able to make a business logic that will communicate between a server and a client. The server is just a computer that has more capacity to deal with client’s requests.
When we want to visit a particular website, we enter its address. When we press the enter key on our keyboard, the website should appear on our screen. On the other hand, back-end developers create a function that retrieves our URL, processes it, and returns the page we requested.
This was an example of how one segment of back-end development works. If you want to get into it, choose one of the following programming languages: Java, Python, PHP, Node.js, or Ruby.
Maybe you want to become a mobile developer? Find out more about the mobile app development process.
3. Make a Portfolio Website
Don’t forget to build projects during the learning process. These could be mini-applications or parts of information systems that you can show to your potential employer. The best way to point out your skills is to create a portfolio website.
A portfolio website is usually a landing page that you can use to say something about yourself, your skills, and your projects. But remember the main focus should be on your projects. Don’t make a long story about yourself. Instead, take this opportunity to describe the projects and technologies that you have used.
