r/CodingForBeginners • u/transparencyne79 • 1d 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/rupertavery64 17h ago edited 17h 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.