Thread: How to Develop Programming Skils Quickly?

As I've mentioned elsewhere I want to learn how to program, and I've already started learning Python. Recently, I read an article that mentions how getting a job writing code will greatly speed up the process. My question is: where do I find this job??

I've done a basic search, and everywhere I've looked thus far assumes you already have programming skills.

At first, I thought about just applying for those jobs anyway, but I didn't because it feels dishonest and I'm not entirely sure I can develop the skills quick enough to perform the jobs. Another idea I had was to simply do the jobs listed as practice, but the jobs posted don't give much details until after they hire you.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to get a programming job with next to no skills, but a passion and willingness to work long and hard to develop the skills along the way?

Originally Posted by newbieXtra

Does anyone have any ideas on how to get a programming job with next to no skills, but a passion and willingness to work long and hard to develop the skills along the way?

First, and foremost why do you want to learn programming? This alone dramatically changes the approach you should take.

If you want to be able to test ideas, and if viable pass it onto talented people, just make stuff and look stuff up as needed.

If you want to actually be a good, no great, programmer buy books, and make a LOT of stuff. Look at open source code, etc.

You're not going to get a job with no programming experience with anything that'll teach you. Let alone whether or not they even give you the time of day with no experience.

Originally Posted by Icy

First, and foremost why do you want to learn programming? This alone dramatically changes the approach you should take.

I want to learn how to program to eventually be able to sell software online. I have a few vague ideas of software I would like to create but nothing solid yet.

One of the reasons why I want to learn how to program is simply because I've always wanted to before but just never got around to it, mostly because before I had no real focus in life and was just drifting.

Another reason is like I said before my ideas are really hazy right now, but I think if I could create some programs and play around with them for awhile, I believe one of my ideas might solidify and take shape into a solid product that could be sold.

To answer your question: volunteer for a non-profit, many are looking for any kind of help, you may not get paid but you will get a job programming.

The REAL answer is: learn a little about programming and hire it out. I really don't get you guys that think you can write really quality code with 2-3 months of learning to program. If this was 1998 you could cowboy together some crap and people would be like wow, this is cool! Those days are long gone! To write flexible, scalable, secure, user friendly, well documented code takes YEARS of practice. Sure you can bang a program to calculate your gas mileage in a week, but when all of you talk about writing mega website, iphone app, cloud based computer apps after reading a book or taking a class you are just kidding yourself. If it was really that easy to learn why do top notch U.S. guys make $85,000+ a year doing it?

Well, I've been working with every type of coding from microcode/assembly right on thru 4th gen and a touch of AI stuff as well... 2 cs degrees and don't actually do much programming any more in my job... sad! BUT, one of my boys said " let's crank out some iPhone apps Dad...you're a hotshot programmer with sheepskins on the ole wall!"

SURE, how hard can it be? Just like my old Ada and C++ days... right? We bought a couple of mini-macs, downloaded the developers kit and bought a book on MVC and objective C... piece of cake, right? NOPE!

Yep, you can crank out a ton, without having a clue as to what really happened... kind of like driving a car today... you push the gas, but does the pedal actually do anything with gas? NOPE!

So, it's been 6 months, 5 or 6 books later, me hacking around, digging deeper and deeper into graphics and this and that, and I've had a ball... the boys have moved on... no patience it seems...

BUT WHY do you wish to program? It's good to know what the contractor is giving you when you hire someone to code your idea... but most likely... you'll get EXACTLY what you asked for... so it is good to know a bit about what you getting into, at least in this sense.

I can tell you that you will have a long way to go, to simply pickup a book and start cranking out apps. I remember the early days, when folks would say... it assembled or compiled... DONE! whoops ... run time errors, memory mgt, and all the other bits... whoa Nelly!

Any way, grab a book, buy a Mac, and have fun... just don't become discouraged... you'll be a far better requirements writer for the folks coding your apps....

Originally Posted by healthstatus

To answer your question: volunteer for a non-profit, many are looking for any kind of help, you may not get paid but you will get a job programming.

The REAL answer is: learn a little about programming and hire it out. I really don't get you guys that think you can write really quality code with 2-3 months of learning to program. If this was 1998 you could cowboy together some crap and people would be like wow, this is cool! Those days are long gone! To write flexible, scalable, secure, user friendly, well documented code takes YEARS of practice. Sure you can bang a program to calculate your gas mileage in a week, but when all of you talk about writing mega website, iphone app, cloud based computer apps after reading a book or taking a class you are just kidding yourself. If it was really that easy to learn why do top notch U.S. guys make $85,000+ a year doing it?

I don't want to hire out. I want to do it myself! I never said I would be able to write quality code in TWO DAYS. I know it takes years (some say 10 years) to learn how to do it that's why I was hoping someone had a way in without experience or a degree in computer science, so that I could get the experience.

I was thinking more along of the lines of an apprenticeship, where I agree to work with a company for a set number of years and in exchange they teach me the ropes. Do they have apprenticeships for programmers?

Originally Posted by jmktok

BUT WHY do you wish to program?

Because I've always wanted to learn how.

Originally Posted by jmktok

I can tell you that you will have a long way to go, to simply pickup a book and start cranking out apps. I remember the early days, when folks would say... it assembled or compiled... DONE! whoops ... run time errors, memory mgt, and all the other bits... whoa Nelly!

Any way, grab a book, buy a Mac, and have fun... just don't become discouraged... you'll be a far better requirements writer for the folks coding your apps....

Why is it people are so quick to outsource these days?! What happened to its all about the journey, the process? Yeah, yeah outsourcing is quicker but you learn no skills and you don't grow!

I want to do this myself, maybe not everything (I can't stand CSS) but a lot of it yes. I'm excited about all of the things that are to be learned and there's so much that right now I'm working out a plan/syllabus of what to learn and how to learn it.

Why is everyone so quick to assume that I want this done yesterday, when I haven't even said anything of the sort. But nonetheless, this (becoming a programmer) is something I've already decided to commit myself to for the next couple of years bear minimum.

Oh, and by the way, why should I get a Mac when I can use Ubuntu for free on any ol' computer?

You want to learn to code? Great!

Here are some ideas:
- Do you want to program desktop applications, web services, iPad apps, robots ? Choose what languages you need/want to learn.
- You will need to understand some concepts used in programmation. But what you will really need is a lot of time to code, to try different options, to see what happens...
- Books will be your friends. There are some good forums on the Internet also. And as JamesF said you can try to find a local coder.
- On github you can find open source projects you can join. That's a good thing because you will be able to see code from other people and you will be motivated to help the project.
- You can use a PC, a Mac or Linux. You can use many text editors. Don't spend too much time to choose -> Begin to code

Originally Posted by newbieXtra

Because Yeah, yeah outsourcing is quicker but you learn no skills and you don't grow!

With outsourcing you learn skills like team management, specification writing, communication, time management and managing a budget. I have been writing code for 30 years, I am REALLY good at it. I outsource 95% of my projects.

You don't have to be a mechanic to drive a car, you don't have to be a carpenter to live in a house.

It all depends what you want I suppose. If your goal in life is to learn to program - either take a short course and go learn, or just plug in and try and DO something. If your goal in life is to create wealth in a scalable manner, without leveraging your time, then programming is just a tool, and quite frankly one that's becoming less and less important for achieving goals.

If it was really that easy to learn why do top notch U.S. guys make $85,000+ a year doing it?

How rude. I make much closer to 150k, thank you very much.

I don't think it's the job that necessarily speeds up the process but being forced to program several hours a day. If you have the self-discipline to spend that time already then you don't need the job. The way I learned was to think up a project I thought would be fun or pick a skill that I didn't know and build a project around that. I would code, test, bug fix, etc. until it was up and running then move on to the next project. Although it would be nice to find someone to pay you while they teach you I don't think that's very likely...

There's already been a lot of practical advice posted in this thread, but I have to share my experience - because I am a programmer and am completely self-taught.

I did buy a few books, but the things that helped me the most were the following (in no particular order):
1. I learned to set up a server on an old laptop I had and used that as a development environment. (Linux, Apache, PHP, MySQL). I did everything on that laptop and learned the basics of the command-line.
2. I utilized books, but also made good use of online tutorials! There's tons of free info online.
3. I constantly thought of simple problems to solve and then figured out how to solve them with code. Simple, sometimes stupid stuff like an app to scramble the letters in my name or an app to combine different words in two different arrays.
4. I looked at a LOT of other people's code and played with it to see if I could change it or improve it.
5. I would find different ways to do something, and wasn't afraid to break code over and over until I found ways to make something work.

It's really a practice game. To get good, you need to practice. Write a LOT of code. Soon, you will find you don't need to constantly look up what a function does or how it works - you'll know it by heart. You'll be able to think in code to some extent. You'll be able to whip up quick apps to solve the problems you really need to solve.

When that time comes, you'll know you can move to the next level - trying to use your programming skills to solve problems for other people. When you can do THAT, you can do it for money.

Having programming skills is a great asset if you don't have the capital to outsource it. It never hurts to learn new skills.

Originally Posted by xindexer

4. I looked at a LOT of other people's code and played with it to see if I could change it or improve it.
5. I would find different ways to do something, and wasn't afraid to break code over and over until I found ways to make something work.

Same here. Started that way about 12 years ago. Started with Perl.

My method of learning to program is to accomplish a specific goal, and seeking out the best method to acheive it. I have used VBA and another program called automate which has helped a lot with automating mundane and repetitive tasks. Every time I need to learn something new, I search for it, and if I can't find a solution I ask on a forum or think about it some more. After 3 years I've gone from knowing nothing to learning a lot about VBA and how it works.

I have been trying to teach myself how to program, and heard alot about various softwares to begin with. After some research I chose Python for its depth of users and flexibility. Does anyone have good tutorials they could point me to?

If you only want to learn to do your projects, then it would make sense to actually first make a site and try to sell the software (without actually having it yet) - 30 day trials where you don't charge anything can be used for this.

If people are buying and there's a need then buy a pre-made script if it exists (even something similar but for another industry usually works well) and fix it up (or outsource as now you know you can sell it) in accordance to existing customer feedback and put it out there. Then refine and sell, sell, sell.

If you have an interest in games, why not stop by some of the larger Game Engine forums and post up your willingness to help in a project/modification. Something like an Iphone App would probably be good for you + theres always the chance to get a little cash when its done.

you won't get paid, but its good fun working on games/apps, and so long as you pick an engine that uses the language you want to work with, you'l get exp as you work.

alternatively, just start your own project.