- Many people are keen to teach themselves to code because it's a career path that can quickly pay off — to the tune of $100K a year or more after just a few years of experience.
- We spoke to an impressive panel of self-taught, successful coders who shared the following guidance for others who would like to follow in their footsteps.
- One tip? Start as soon as possible — perhaps with a free online course — and stay connected with other programmers in the course to remain updated on the latest technology.
- Pay attention to the challenges presented in situations you're confronted with, and try to imagine solutions for them.
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Around two-thirds of software developers are actually self-taught. Research from Stack Overflow on more than 56,000 coders also found that less than half have a computer science degree.
One reason that people are so keen to teach themselves how to create and engineer software is that it's a career path that can quickly pay off — to the tune of $100K or more after just a few years of experience. While coding itself may be considered an entry-level tech skill, it's a basic building block that can open the door to a wide range of higher-paying positions, from tech lead or software architect all the way up to CTO.
If you want to join the ranks of six-figure tech stars who taught themselves to code, take a page from the playbooks of people who have done it. Business Insider spoke with an impressive panel of self-taught coders who leveraged their hard-won knowledge into enviable salaries and shared the following guidance for others who would like to follow in their footsteps.
Start by doing — and do it online
Damien Martin, who works at Shufti Pro, became inspired about AI and machine learning at age 11 by the futuristic products envisioned in movies like Back to the Future. As a result, he started cracking the books to master coding. Having gone the longer route of book learning, Martin doesn't advise it, instead recommending the avenues of YouTube and self-learning websites for a quicker, less painful path.
"Start as soon as possible," said Martin. "And you must start by doing. Enroll in an online course — some of these have the leading coders and programmers to teach you." He added that it's also important to stay connected with other programmers as part of your marching orders. "You need to constantly remain updated on the latest technology, as well as job offers."
Don't get overwhelmed
Software implementation consultant Bharat Nain grew up taking apart toys to learn how they worked, so his parents took the hint and enrolled him in a C Language programming course when he was 12. This skill would prove invaluable not just in helping him champion the code for the robot on his high school's first robotics team (which placed second in the world out of 3,000 teams), but later in paving the way to a lucrative career in technology.
This didn't happen overnight, and Nain acknowledged that the path can seem intimidating when you're first starting to get your feet wet as a coder — particularly if you're serving as your own teacher.
"Learning to code can sometimes be equated to climbing a mountain," explained Nain. "If you look at the peak, you might shy away. It's best to take one step at a time." To do this, he advises finding a starting point by building software that truly interests you. "Have faith in yourself and don't give up for at least a year of persistent effort," said Nain. "And if it helps, enroll in an online learning program where you are surrounded with a support system of other learners and instructors."
Leverage free resources
Will Manuel — who as president and CEO of Core Mobile Apps has well-exceeded the $100K mark — recalled how difficult it was to learn coding when he was first starting out. "Ever try talking to a Martian in his own vernacular? Yep, basically the same as that," he joked. But like the other self-taught coders we spoke with, Manuel found the challenge of the learning curve to be well worth the effort. While in college, he took a job in the computer lab, which helped create a foundation for teaching himself Photoshop and HTML. He then used these skills to begin publishing his own basic websites, which led to his first job in the industry as a web design director.
From his current vantage point of running his own successful agency, Manuel suggests that would-be coders take advantage of today's low or no-cost opportunities, many of which weren't available when he started out two decades ago.
"The pathway to becoming a successful programmer, specifically in web development, is a lot clearer today," said Manuel. "There are so many free resources out there that anyone with the desire to learn can teach themselves how to code and make six figures within a very short period of time." He added that his key take-away from over 20 years of coding is: "Start with who you want to bring value to and why. These are the underlying questions that will put you on the correct path to earning six figures and beyond in the space."
Try video tutorials
Being a self-taught coder doesn't mean you can't learn from others. Web designer and blogger Becky Beach used Lynda.com courses to teach herself advanced JavaScript and CSS, then building her own projects to showcase on job interviews. Beach now has been making websites for 17 years and got into contracting four years ago, the latter of which she reports "pays much more." Today she makes over $130,000 a year by coding. "I was able to make $70 hourly doing front-end development for companies like Verizon and 7-Eleven," said Beach.
When going the route of video learning via sites such as Lynda.com and Udemy.com, Beach suggests going above and beyond. "Make your own projects to cement those skills in your mind," she advised. "If you just watch the videos, it isn't enough. The projects also help you get interviews if you put them on a website." To make a quick responsive website, she suggests using WrapBootStrap.com, a site with Bootstrap templates. "Bootstrap is a great CSS framework to learn to make websites faster," she explained. "You can make a website with WordPress easily too."
Solve a problem
Coder today, chief technology officer tomorrow? That was the path that Jim Joyce, CTO of Finxact, took. His road first to teach himself to code and then to the C-suite began back at age 10, when he had an important problem to solve with a video game that he loved. Armed with a beloved Atari 400 that came with Atari BASIC but no storage device, Joyce had to rewrite the program any time he wanted to play one of the sample games documented in the product manual. "It was amazing that these simple instructions could produce a video game," said Joyce. "Playing the game, I would imagine what part of the program was running. I loved writing and tweaking the code more than actually playing the games."
Today in his leadership role, Joyce still believes in the value of approaching coding with a problem-solving mentality. He recommends developing an understanding of specific benefits and challenges presented in situations you're confronted with, seeing what things make a job easy and imagining solutions for the things that don't. "Write code to solve a problem that you understand intimately," said Joyce. "Writing code to solve problems keeps you engaged and gets you past the challenges that seem to trip you up every day. But, eventually, you get over those humps, you get better and faster — and that's a very rewarding way to to make a living."
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