Self-Taught Developer: An Intro
Writing software is hard. It takes a lot of time to learn and master. On a not-so-unrelated note, accounting also takes a lot of time to learn and master.
Towards the beginning of my college days I decided I was not “smart” enough to get a degree in computer science. I took an accounting class and it came easy to me; so I majored in accounting. I started my career journey as an accountant and am still a full-time accountant today. However, I always wanted to do something more. In 2019 I decided to go head-on into the world of software development. After much thinking and questioning of others, I started learning Javascript. I am working towards my first full-time job as a web developer. Here is my journey so far.
freeCodeCamp
I started learning to develop websites with very minimal knowledge about the whole process. My first step was going through the Javascript Algorithms and Data Structures curriculum. The courses in this section are designed to not only teach you the basics of Javascript, but to also show you commonly used structures and how to debug your code. When I first started learning to code in Javascript, I knew I had to (1) understand the syntax, (2) how to structure the code, and (3) how it fits in the development of a website. freeCodeCamp is great for learning the first two, which was perfect for me as a beginner since it was overwhelming enough to learn the basics. Learning the third comes later.
My advice: Practice. Refactor your code until you feel you have a solid understanding of each topic.
freeCodeCamp is only a starting point. In my next article, I will continue my story.
