You may have heard about Jack Dorsey (Twitter), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Kevin Systrom (Instagram) and many others. These are some of the most well-known programmers and tech aficionados in the world today.
But, have you ever considered what made them so successful and knowledgeable in the field of programming? No, it wasn’t a college degree, a specific course, or a certification that got them there; it was their desire to pursue Self-Taught Programming, combined with a lot of hard work, motivation, and patience!
Who is a Self-Taught Programmer?
Being a self-taught programmer does not imply that you do not attend school or follow an instructor; rather, it means that you do not wait for someone else to take action on your behalf and instead prepare to improve your programming skills through any means available to you, such as training courses, books, videos, discussions, and so on. Being a self-taught programmer takes more than a few days or months, and it necessitates a great deal of patience and devotion.
However, your hard effort and perseverance will pay off in a variety of ways, some of which are stated below:
- Self-taught programming assists you in becoming a problem-solving specialist as you face numerous challenges along the way.
- Because you found it out on your own, it helps you comprehend how things operate better.
- You will study a variety of techniques and methodologies that you will not find in any school or course.
- Apart from coding, it also aids in the development of other relevant skills such as testing, project deployment, and so on.
Benefits of going with a Self-taught Programming
You have a unique perspective compared to “traditionally trained” software developers and computer scientists. E.g. You may provide greater variety in experience via defining.
Unless you’ve spent your entire life doing nothing, you’ve acquired a variety of useful talents while CS students were studying. You could have studied economics, psychology, philosophy, basket weaving, or something else entirely. It’s yet another talent that CS people have overlooked.
Not that people from more traditional backgrounds don’t have benefits, but in a world of compromises, we self-taught people win in certain respects.
You will have a decent portfolio of projects by the time you become a self-taught programmer, which will help you with your future professional chances.
What Difficulties are Faced by Self-Taught Programmers?
Needless to say, becoming a self-taught programmer is not without its challenges, and a rookie must navigate many unknowns and obstacles on his or her way to becoming a good programmer. In a similar vein, let’s look at some of the most prevalent and widely discussed issues that Self-Taught Programmers face:
1. Identifying Valuable Learning Resources
One of the most difficult challenges for newcomers to the self-taught programming path is locating useful and relevant learning resources. They frequently need to devote significant time to finding educational and enriching information. And, with hundreds upon thousands of internet resources available, it is becoming increasingly difficult for individuals to select the most useful. Furthermore, you may come across learning resources that contain several unnecessary or irrelevant topics, or that lack several crucial topics – as a result, you must be very cautious when selecting learning material, as substandard resources will not only waste your valuable time, but may also cause you to lose interest in your programming goals.
2. Lack of Consistency throughout the Entire Learning Journey
Another issue that self-taught programmers frequently face is maintaining consistency from start to finish. We all begin learning something new with great passion and consistency, but as time passes, we lose interest, which causes us to take some unneeded gaps in the learning process. You can’t afford this haphazard learning technique to becoming a skilled programmer, especially in the programming arena. However, if you’re really not in the mood to learn any concept or topic on a given day, you can choose to review previous ideas and/or solve practise questions on sites like GeeksforGeeks, etc. to keep the learning rhythm continuing.
3. Greater Chance of Impostor’s Syndrome
You may not have heard of the term ‘Impostor’s Syndrome,’ but you have undoubtedly experienced it in numerous aspects of your life, whether it be academics, sports, or anything else. Impostor syndrome, in the context of self-taught programming, is a mental state in which you mistrust your programming abilities and believe you are inferior to other programmers. However, it is not a dangerous condition, and many skilled programmers experience it as well. It piques your interest in learning more and expanding your horizons. Though it should exist within a person to a certain extent, it begins to damage the programmer’s productivity and confidence, especially among young self-taught programmers, after a certain degree. Read more; How Can I Learn Programming on My Own?
4. Lack of Social Interaction and Community Discussion
It may not appear to be a significant task or difficulty, but it is!! The majority of people believe that the self-taught programming method tends to do programming or coding in solitude, which is why self-taught programmers generally don’t stress social connection and community discussion. Keeping in touch with the relevant programmer’s community, on the other hand, is critical in a number of ways, including keeping up with the latest technologies and trends, creating a competitive environment, sharing learning resources, asking questions or providing solutions to specific problems, and so on. Additionally, there are numerous online programming communities to examine, including Developers Forum, Experts-Exchange, Stack Overflow, Reddit, and many others. Read also; The best Laptop to Buy for Programming in 2022
Reasons Why You Should Hire Self-Taught Developers
1. They have fire in their belly
Developers who taught themselves to code are usually very passionate about what they do. Self-teaching computer programming takes a lot of self-motivation, dedication, focus, and discipline, and you probably wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t something you enjoyed. Self-taught programmers who are good at what they do love technical challenges and chances to show off their creative coding skills.
2. They’re not alone
Even though working alone is a big part of self-teaching, most self-taught developers will have built their own strong network along the way. Self-taught programmers are often part of a community because they have solved problems, played games, and learned on social media, shared platforms, and interactive websites (CodinGame is our favourite, of course!).
This means that when you hire a self-taught developer, you also hire his or her community and network. Your developer will know where to find help, advice, and expertise. If you want to grow your team, they might even be able to suggest other self-taught developers.
3. They keep pace
Programming languages and development tools can change and improve very quickly, making it hard for formal education to keep up. Self-taught developers, on the other hand, don’t use out-of-date coding skills they learned in school because they’ve grown with programming. These developers always know what’s new because they never stop learning. They keep up with the changes in technology and know how to do research.
4. They’re “ready to rumble”
Candidate onboarding and training are important to employee satisfaction and retention, but they can be quite pricey. Self-taught developers have a lot of real-world experience and will likely be ready to hit the ground running (or at least jogging) with little training, saving you time and money.
Change the way you hire people if you want to make sure this is the case. Why not give candidates real-world coding challenges to see how they do? Or, even better, host your own hackathon to find out how applicants solve problems and how they work.
