
Ask HN: Self-taught novice to junior dev position? - olddesktop
I&#x27;d like to get a job as a junior dev. This would be a career change from journalism. Can I teach myself the necessary skills, build a solid portfolio, and expect to find a position, assuming I can demonstrate proficiency? (A coding bootcamp or going back for a 4-year degree is not feasable at this time.)<p>Background: Basic knowledge of HTML&#x2F;CSS and C -- enough to build a portfolio website and finish Ch1 of K&amp;R, respectively. They&#x27;re hobbies. From here, I&#x27;d like to learn Ruby&#x2F;Rails, HTML&#x2F;CSS, Javascript&#x2F;JQuery, and MySQL.<p>I&#x27;d use books to teach myself, supplemented with web at least for access to exercises and to place a portfolio on github.<p>Is this a reasonable expected course of action? Would you recommend this or any other stack of languages (book recommendations are appreciated). Are there any ways to gain skills like pair programming in a virtual setting? What would you do if you started a career this way?
======
wmccullough
This was how I got started in the industry. I won't center this on myself, but
I'd give you this advice...

Start building shit.

Build anything. Build games, build websites, build console apps that compute
large sums of numbers. Make yourself code daily, and commit to micro-projects,
even if you never list them on your portfolio. Try to focus on learning one
strong object-oriented language and then one strong functional language. Learn
to appreciate both styles for what they are without being dogmatic about one
or the other.

Don't just memorize design patterns, build mini-apps that implement them, and
then do the research to understand why people recommend them. Pair programming
is great, but don't do until you've done much of the above. Right now is about
freshness. It's about putting on your favorite music and tinkering. Tinker a
lot. Download someone else's program, and debug it. Debugging will teach you
more than most care to admit.

Read anything you can get your hands on related to programming languages. Read
blog posts about new features to languages and why experts love or hate them.
As you get into libraries that help you to accomplish your goals, go to their
source control page (if they are open source), and read the issues and
suggestions. Read the rebuttals from the maintainers as to why they won't
accept suggestions.

Books I'd Recommend:

-Code Complete -Pragmatic Programmer -Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (Not about code, but will help immensely).

------
olddesktop
I did not see this before posting. The questions dominici poses here seem
relevant as well:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12533446](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12533446)

