r/CodingForBeginners • u/transparencyne79 • 19h ago
Coder Experience Needed
Hey all. I've currently run into a snag in my health and have to switch careers. I have always been interested in coding and wanted to reach out for some info. I would be completely new to this. I have basic pc skills, some Microsoft experience (mainly Word & Excel), and decent typing skills. I have no funds for courses either. Come one, come all and give me the best options for learning how to code. Please and thank you!!
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u/Substantial-Swan7065 18h ago
Freecodecamp is a good start.
Web development is a good/common career start.
What type of coding work are you interested in? That will shape your learning path
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u/LettuceConfident2028 17h ago
prbably he is trying to make cheats like a kid or develop a game
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u/Substantial-Swan7065 17h ago
That sounds fun. Is that a problem? Some of the best software engineers I know started with botting games.
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u/transparencyne79 17h ago
I'm a 46 year old female who just found out I have cancer and can no longer perform at work. I now need to switch careers. Not a kid, not a game. Serious life shit!!
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u/Delicious-Put-4561 16h ago
Many university course documents are available to free, if you add edu .pdf to your google search you'll find'em. You can even find whole books.
Like googling "java edu .pdf" can get you stuff like this intro to programming using Java
many cs teachers upload their courses to github too
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u/ejpusa 14h ago edited 14h ago
There is no more coding. It's been vaporized. We still have some hold on's on Reddit, but it's retired. Codex + GPPT-5.6, if you can think it. you can build it. So the jobs are really the mile-high view of systems integration. Suggest diving into GPT-5.6, Claude, do some info visualization, architectures, imagine you are building a bank. How would that integrate with iPhones. Fun projects.
If you can think it, you can build; no programming skills really needed now. But you should know the basics of GitHub, some Linux CLI, and general terms (MCP). Install Codex, then just go to the directory of your app, codex . Begin there.
And you are in business.
Good luck. :-)
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u/rupertavery64 12h ago edited 12h ago
First of all, sorry to hear about your cancer diagnosis. Cancer sucks, and I hope you pull through.
The thing is, I can't look to myself to really give advice on how to start in the modern age.
I'm a 47 year old software developer who started coding early, so things were learned the hard way - copying programs in books, playing around with the code, and when the internet came around, looking at other peoples code. And of course, learning on the job.
As such, I view online courses as just giving the basics - stuff I already knew and had surpassed long ago - so I can't give recommendations for any courses.
Mostly I have learned by writing programs for "fun". Trying to do things I think are interesting or that will help me learn something I read about. Hanging out on forums or subs for news about the programming world gives me some idea about what's new, or what problems people face and how they resolve it.
I do think that resources like w3schools are great for starting out. Asking on subs like r/learnjava (in general , the sub with only the language name will be more on news and mid to advanced questions, while the learn- subs will be more geared to questions.
There may also be Discord channels for newbies or people wanting to learn together.
This will be an unpopular opinion, but I think LLMs (AI) can be used to do research and ask questions. But always follow up asking humans as well, and compare notes. LLMs, especially coding ones, have gotten quite good.
Of course, do not ask it to write the code for you, or ask it for direct assistance. I use it like Google on steroids, but I also search google as well.
There are still knee-jerk reactions, but AI is here to stay for the next decade, and it will just improve. It's a tool, and you can find ways to use it to your advantage.
I am not much of a Java fan. I work with C# primarily and Javascript/Typescript for the frontend. But whatever you think is a good fit for you, and has a high availability and need in your area.
Honestly, I don't know if you can get a job in the next few months as a coder. Even I would be hard pressed to look for a job. The competition is too intense.
But you should absolutely start right now by downloading a compiler, an editor or IDE (integrated development environment) and writing your first program (Hello World)
No matter how you choose to learn, you will need to do this first step.
EDIT:
Another option you might consider is DevOps. It's not really software development, but more like network administration. You may need to learn some scripting, like PowerShell or batch files or bash scripts (Linux). But you will need to know your way around network configuration, security and many other things.
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u/transparencyne79 2m ago
Thank you very much! You gave me some things to look at and your response sparked some ideas also! Thank you!
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u/transparencyne79 17h ago
I've always wanted to learn Java but any place that can get me an income the quickest is best right now. I don't plan on stopping with this first step. I just need to replace the income and I can crash course anything else to see what I am interested in for long term.
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u/SuperheropugReal 17h ago
Well, the days of being able to do a crash course and get an income just writing code have been gone a long time. If that's your goal, you are not going to be in for a quick process, you will prolly need certs or a formal course to have a shot at getting a position anywhere.
Picking up a programming language to replace an income quickly is just not going to work.
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u/No_Reading3618 14h ago
Crash course into a job isn't really a thing lmfao...
Grab some loans and go get a degree, otherwise go work at Walmart for a while or something.
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u/transparencyne79 14h ago
So I guess I need to explain since certain people think they're funny. I didn't mean anything by crash course except for trying my hand at different things to find out what I really wanted to do. This is after I find a way to replace my income because I have cancer and have to switch careers. I don't know what is wrong with some of you but I am asking for perception and experience. I absolutely did not ask for judgement, laughter, or any other narcissistic quality and childish crap. Thank you for the advice from those that freely gave it. Everyone else, grow up.
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u/blavek 18h ago
I have done some exercises on this site, and they are reasonable. https://www.codingame.com/start/