Important things to know before you begin Software development
Tips to help kickstart your career
Software development is an integral part of our daily activities. The platform you use in viewing this article, your favorite social media app and that game you enjoy playing are all products of hours upon hours of software development.
Software developers design, create, test and deliver the software we use. As such, software development is no easy task and it takes time, commitment and dedication.
Misconceptions of software development
Dear reader, many online tutorials are claiming to make you master "X language" in a few days or some hours but don't be deceived, they are false. Such tutorials won't help you much. Rather they will only brush on topics and cause you to miss out on important aspects of the language. One thing I have learned since I began my journey in tech is that there is no quick way to master any language. To achieve any form of mastery, you have to watch those long hours of tutorial videos or read books extensively and practice so many times. The learning phase of your journey is the most crucial. So you should start from the basics and not rush them in any way.
Another misconception is that software development is a get-rich-quick system, this is also false. I know the attractive salary tech has to offer is enough reason for us to choose It as our career but you should approach it with an open mind and not set huge financial expectations initially. Learning and developing yourself should be your priority at the beginning of your journey.
Finally, you don't need an expensive setup to learn to code. A 4GB ram computer is enough for you to start coding. That $5000 setup is not necessary. In the beginning, your focus should be on the knowledge you are trying to have and not how fancy your gadget is.
Steps in becoming a software developer
There are no absolute steps that must be followed but I believe doing the various steps below will help your software development journey
Self-question
The first step to take is to ask yourself why you want to be a developer. Is it because of the attractive salary or creating software interests you or do you just love typing away and writing codes? Knowing your reason will reinforce you to pursue and achieve your goals.
Research
The next step is to research thoroughly the various fields in software development. You may want to be a mobile developer, web developer or dev-ops engineer. Software development has numerous fields so you need to pick one. Researching them will help you stay focused on one path and know the goals you need to accomplish. Using Google and other search engines will provide all the necessary information you need.
Join a community
After choosing your niche, you should find online communities of your niche to join. There are awesome communities on Twitter, Slack, and Facebook. Joining a community is necessary for support and networking. You will meet developers from different parts of the world and they will support you when you are stuck with something. You should be active in the communities you join and provide help in any way possible.
Choose a learning platform
Pick a learning platform and stick to it. I know it is good to learn from different sources but it is better to have one major source of learning and later check others for supplementary knowledge. Remember to always opt for the full course teaching the required programming language. Some platforms are:
Start from the basics
After choosing your platform, you should take your time to learn the basics. Having a good foundation in the programming language is crucial; you can only truly become a master when you understand the basics. Take things slow and give yourself time to learn all the necessary aspects of the language. You do not need a special learning timeframe to follow as we are all different, so learn at your own pace and take all the time you need. Avoid using frameworks at the beginning, use them only after you perfectly understand the basics.
Practice
Practice and keep practicing. Practicing is not as easy as it seems but you have to do it. To become that experienced developer, you need to do lots of practice. Any incredible developer you know started from scratch and kept practicing until they arrived at the senior level. They weren't born with codes in their head so you need to be disciplined and put in all the required work to achieve any form of mastery.
Read codes
To progress in our coding journey, we need to keep learning. Even senior-level developers are still learning. So try to read other developers' codes from time to time. That beautiful site or app is a result of a series of codes working behind the scenes. Inspect those sites or apps you frequently use and try to understand the logic in their codes. Doing this will expose you to a lot of things you don't know and also improve your skillset.
Build
After a few months of learning and practice, challenge yourself to build a little project. Don't be scared as you don't need to know so much before you build something. Just make sure you build from scratch all by yourself. One can forget things after a while, so try to use google when you are in such situations. even senior-level developers use Google. After you build your first project, building the next one will be less challenging as you now have more experience. Building something on your own will help you see your weakness and areas you need to work on.
Summary
Software development is an important part of our daily activities.
Software development is no easy task and it requires time and dedication to become a successful developer.
Don't rush to learn any language.
Software development is not a get-rich-quick scheme.
Know why you want to become a developer.
Make a thorough research on the career path you pick.
Join a community
Pick one learning platform, stick to it and check others for additional knowledge.
Start from the basics, avoid frameworks at the beginning and learn at your own pace.
To achieve mastery, practice over and over again.
Read and understand codes as they will help you grow.
Challenge yourself and build projects on your own.
Conclusion
I hope you found this article interesting and useful. Remember, good things don't come easy so if you patiently do all the required work, you will achieve success. I know you can do it 😉