In the past decade, we had a huge amount of demand for programmers and other related skills. This change happened due to computerizing almost everything we had working manually and that trend still continues. Therefore; some existing industries shrink and people have to adapt to the market changes and learn new skills. I have seen people from different fields want to learn programming due to demand and financial benefits.
You might question the possibility of becoming a programmer in less than a year, and I would agree with you if I hadn’t seen people doing that in less than a year. Let’s be clear, you are not supposed to become a great programmer in a year or even an intermediate one. You want to find a good-paying job in the field which will have the growing opportunity and the possibility of learning other skills that will make you a valuable software developer. So, you want to be good enough to solve the easiest problems which need programming skills.
There are different ways you can get to programming, but in my opinion, becoming a front-end developer should be your chosen path if you want to find a programming job very fast. I’m not saying this because front-end development is an easy job, I think there are tasks that can be done with fewer skills at the front-end side, and you can learn more rewarding skills in that short time frame.
Study Your Local Market
You need to study your local market before investing your time and money in a specific programming stack. It can increase your chances if you chose to learn technologies that have more demand in your area. There was a time that most programming Bootcamps were teaching Ruby on Rails and that technologies had high demand in some cities and very little demand in other cities. So, do your homework to not regret it in the end.
Find the best Source
After choosing the programming language and frameworks, you will need to find a course, book, or Bootcamp which will provide you with the necessary knowledge and the road map to success. This part depends on how much money you want to invest in yourself. I have seen a $30 course doing better than a few thousand dollars Bootcamp. Spend a good amount of time to find the best fit for you.
I would suggest lookup at www.udacity.com, www.udemy.com, and www.coursera.org. These websites have very valuable coursed you will probably find what you are looking for in one of these.
Create Projects
When you finished your course you should start making many sample projects to show your skills to potential employers. This is probably the most important part of this mission. After this point, you should not stop learning and working on projects, at least until you find your first job. You will need to start with simple projects like a to-do list and calculator. You would also need to create a portfolio website that will show off your skills and the interviewer can find your sample projects from your portfolio.
Apply for Jobs
When you have your portfolio ready, you should make a resume for yourself to be able to apply for job openings. I would suggest working on your Linkedin profile also and considering that as a type of resume because you will see a lot of people messaging you if you have your Linkedin prepared. The last phase of this path will be applying for every possible job opening which can fit your skills. I wouldn’t care about the requirements that I don’t qualify for and will apply for the jobs I can imagine myself doing it.
This part can be very fast for some or a very long process for others. You can find a job after the first interview or have 100 interviews without any offer. Just keep working on it and improve your interview skill and you will have an offer one day.
Conclusion
This is not going to be easy, and you better understand that at the beginning. There will be times you are going to feel that programming isn’t for you and you want to stay in your comfort zone. You have to fight all the way until you find a job. Don’t give up if you had a terrible interview. You just need to get better at interviewing and keep working on your coding skill. Sometimes you will get rejected just because you don’t fit the job and not because you are not good enough, keep that in your mind. I promise you the result is worth the hard work so don’t give up.
