Trying to start a community to help up-and-coming developers has reminded me of how I felt at the start.
There's a reason I only know one spoken language (English). Learning languages is hard.
That extends to learning a development language, too. It's really hard at the start. You've got to learn all these new concepts, none of which come naturally.
You may even be surrounded by people that do know what they're talking about, or at least, appear to, and you're starting to feel like you're stupid and can't make it in this industry.
Let me just tell you - you're wrong. You're not stupid and you can make it.
If anybody is telling you otherwise, you MUST stop listening to them. They are wrong.
I don't care if they've been developing for 40+ years and are a "wizard". They've just forgotten what it was like at the start. We ALL struggled at the start.
Find someone that will help you, not belittle you, when you have questions and you'll flourish.
If you need some support, reach out to me. I'm not linking back to my "community" because this isn't about "advertising" my thing, this is about you knowing you can do it - no matter what anybody else thinks.
Top comments (43)
Feels great to see people like you. Bringing positive energy to everyone, especially for the beginners like me. Much appreciated!
Thank you for your comment.
Contrary to what others may think, the development industry is very supportive, you just need to find the right mentor.
If I can help you in any way, feel free to reach out.
Thanks a lot Si. Will definitely do.
Personally I found it helpful in the early stages of learning to program to learn a bit about the process of learning.
When we learn a new skill, we're actually growing new connections in the brain, and that can't be rushed. It's only once those connections have grown that it starts to become second nature. For that reason, doing little and often is a better way to learn than a smaller number of sessions.
Absolutely! Everybody learns differently.
Personally, I could never sit in front of a 2 hour long video and learn. But give me some short articles and some hands-on challenges and I'll learn lots!
That's what I'm trying to achieve with CodeTips.
I think it's important to cultivate your own mentor for this specific purpose. This inner mentor is gentle, patient and kind enough forgive anything. This is something that has to be done actively because we get the opposite for free.
I'm not sure if I would have come to this conclusion if not for the unrelated practice of mindfulness and performing validation on my thoughts. Treating yourself like bunk is not okay beyond the span of maybe two minutes. Minutes, hours or days, one still has to pick themselves up and retry.
I've been coding for 20 years now. I get rejected by 22 year old full-stack developers (in interviews) because I don't have enough experience with React (only 2 years!).
I don't feel stupid but I feel we have a problem with those who make decisions nowadays. Because the situation is indeed stupid. Maybe we should be writing to them instead.
Im not saying this isn't a problem, but it's not what this post is about.
Yes, sorry, I wasn't trying to change the subject, just to expand it a little bit. Not only newbies can feel stupid because of what others tell them. I guess my point is that it can happen to everyone, even to seasoned devs. Thanks for your post!
Ah I see, then yes you're absolutely right!
Interviews are stressful for devs of many years, I still get very stressed and go blank in interviews; the only cure for that is practice I suppose.
I've gone to reply to your comment about 10 times, but couldn't quite find a diplomatic way of saying you're full of shit. So here comes the non-diplomatic response.
I truly hope you are not a mentor.
This sort of attitude is disgusting. Anybody can make it as a programmer, with the right dedication and mentorship.
Telling people they don't have it in them, or will never be more than mediocre, is probably why they lose the passion.
Maybe you should try nurturing them and helping them become a better developer.
Very reassuring. Thanks!
Wanted to add that people who think they're ninja rock star wizards sometimes aren't really what they say. For example, one of my leads told me I shouldn't get any onboarding instructions because "everyone has to suffer". He would belittle me in code reviews then do a force push to the master branch. 😒
That's a disgusting way to treat people. He wasn't a true lead, he just wanted to feel the power.
Trust me that those types of people should just be ignored.
After 2 months, I'll be a student of computer and systems engineering. I was so hesitated whether to make this decision or not because alot of wow students, whom I knew before, are going to join the department. Now, I believe it's not about who started first, but it's about who reaches first.
Thanks for these great words.You encouraged me!
It's definitely not about who started first, plenty of good devs didn't start learning until they were in their 30s/40s.
Just keep going and you'll definitely get there.
Let me know if you ever need to ask a question, or a community, to help with your journey.
Yes. That would be great :)
The site I run is CodeTips and you'll find a slack invite link on our Contact Us page.
Let me know if you have any trouble joining the slack group, or any feedback on CodeTips itself 😊👍
That feeling of 'I'm an idiot' is your brain expanding as it learns something new. Same principle as your muscles hurting as they get stronger when you exercise. Anything worth doing comes with pain and discomfort. Personally I hope to never forget this feeling :-)
I agree. It's incredibly frustrating in the beginning when others minimize the skills necessary to make code work.
In addition to when you're starting out, it's very much so learning a vocabulary that has a bunch of action tied to particular words.
For me, I could understand the types of loops without much diffucilty when starting out, but learning how I was specifically supposed to write out that code took a lot longer to be able to do without referencing prior examples.
Keep on providing a welcoming environment to others!
I appreciate your comment, thank you.
Sometimes we forget how things were at the start, and we take our knowledge for granted.
I don't know why, I just fancied writing a bit of a motivational post Haha 😁😁
Learning something new can be exciting - but it takes time, so give yourself time. Think back to something you know now that you had to learn. Now you can teach someone what you had to learn. You are so right about finding someone who can help you and answer your questions - that person was probably in your same shoes. Thanks for being positive.