Beginning
I'm a self taught dev. I am writing this piece of article to self taught devs, but I.T's or computer science student / expert can read it too. Life as a self taught developer, is not pretty easy as it seems but what keeps us going is the passion, I mean the energy that comes from within.
Have a direction or a goal and be motivated
First of all, people get exposed to tech videos, news, articles, movies and other software engineering materials that may cause them to be like; "hey! this gonna be quite exciting stuff to try", others too would be like; "Derm! I wanna be able to hack my school's system or work place database or anything that runs on a server or machine", "I would like to make lots of money like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg amongst others". Well it all good to get on board with the growing tech universe. But just before getting on board as a software developer, ethical hacker, data analyst or any area in the field. You would have to get or find a purpose. I know people or let say, friends who, suddenly got interest in software engineering as a self taught, but within one or few months studying programming and watching online tutorials, gave up on it.
Personally, what kept me going was the goal I had in mind coupled with some level of intrinsic motivation. Well! basically for me I wanted to be a pen tester and also develop a psychological App in my field of psychology. I would say this helped me a lot. But God has also been my strength too. I would encourage newbies to check if they have passion and purpose for software engineering. If you don't. Then it may be better one doesn't move further in this field because things can suddenly get boring.
What you need to do if this is still your passion
Yeah! If coding is still something you desire for and want to get good at it as a self taught dev. I have out line a number of ways or tips that can help you keep the fire burning;
1. Be consistent: consistency is key for self taught developers. This is because, we are not computer science student or in any formal training. Gush... myself imma psychology student with psychological theories of Jean Piaget and B.F Skinner running through my mind almost everyday in class. I don't know for you? May be you may be driver, a librarian, a paster, a boxer, a social science teacher or something else. Just look at how we are coming from different perspectives in other disciplines. Because of this distractions we need to be consistent with our personal studies in learning. If possible code each day, to help strengthen your muscle memory. This helps to know the instructions very well.
2. Read coding articles and lots of them: One advise an I.T friend gave me, was that I should read lots of tech related articles. This has really helped me a lot in my journey as a full stack developer. You will hear of new release of frameworks and even when an existing module or library is being updated to the latest version. Reading lot of tech articles would help your uncover hidden treasure in the tech environments. Like you reading this article of mine, would offer some information to you that you may have not seen if he hadn't bother to read.
3. Learn more than 3 programming languages: You may have heard some folks preach learn and master one particular language and that it. Example; learn and master python and that it. You create all your systems in python and nothing else. Well, in my rule as a self taught full stack developer, I would say, learn more than 3 programming languages. It may be difficult but I would urge any self taught like myself to try and achieve that goal. Doing this would make you very versatile and adaptive. You would strike with extra force in any development you may embark on. The odds of you getting hired would be pretty high. I use 7 different programming languages, I can tell it been very helpful in my journey as a developer. Someone reading this may even boast of a higher number than 7. but it good to keep learning new languages, but it should be more than 3. I know we can, because you are smarter and intelligent being.
4. Do not rush in learning programming language: As a self taught programmer, you don't want to be learning at a fast pace that would not yield any understanding. We must understand that unlike computer science student, we have no guidance from an expert who may give explanations to concept pertaining to various concept in computer programming. So you need to make sure to be patient and study to understand. Because as you learn, you build on what you have previously understood. For example, learning python is very easy to get started with, but if a newbie doesn't take time to understand it syntax, one becomes likely to face lot of bugs in future projects, and may even find hard time debugging errors, due to lack of understanding of it basics. A coder who really understands a syntax, finds it easy to understand a bug and to easily debug them.
5. Have a role model: As self taught devs, it good to have model that you can follow. A model who can motivate and encourage you. A model you learn from and ask for help when needed. My role model was Guido Van Rossum, I just loved him when I started learning Python Programming Language. I didn't get to meet him anywhere but I just get motivated by his achievement and hard work. Yours can also be anyone who is very good in the field, could even be a close friend of yours. Try to keep in touch with them if possible. So you can learn from them. and get the best of advise.
6. Never give up: I must say things can get very difficult as you move on the journey as a self taught developer. Searching for the best fit framework for a project could be challenging, resolving bugs in a system can also be very challenging at times, especially when you don't happen to find a solution from stackoverflow or the internet, that can be very funny. As self taught, sometimes coding may seem boring. But despite all these set backs, one must not give up. Your persistence would mostly yield a break through, so keep working hard. I believe you will succeed in this if you do not give up.
7. Solve a problem: I will write a whole article on this last point later. But to be frank, as self taught developer, you may start off coding with just as a hobby. But to be a relevant or functional coder, you would have to find a way to solve problems in the community or the world at large to become influential or beneficial. You must be very creative to come up with innovative systems to solve a problem. This would give you a sense of fulfilment in your software engineering career.
Conclusion
As a self taught software developer, one trait we seem to have is the willingness to learn. Never stop learning, keep learning and keep searching information on google and youtube, when you run into errors, search the internet or visit stackoverflow, chances are high that you would find solution to your error code. HaPpY Coding! And thanks for reading my article.
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