
Learn to code in less than 5 months, get hired, and have fun along the way - evantai
https://medium.com/@andreineagoie/learn-coding-in-less-than-5-months-get-hired-and-have-fun-along-the-way-f8b9ce1a4e7e#.i69djkon2
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mywittyname
> 2\. Demand for people with this skill must be higher than the supply.

This point goes against all of his other points. A skill that takes six months
to get extremely good at is going to be commoditized in short order. So, it
seems like a mistake to bank on this kind of knowledge being relevant in 40
years.

Honestly though, I am starting to feel like a fool for completing a CS degree.
While I have a great career, most of the what I learned was useless. Back in
2012, I couldn't get a job doing machine learning because nobody wanted people
with those skills, and the few companies that did looked for Ph.Ds. So even
though I could build do cool stuff with ML in plain Octave, I couldn't get a
job in the field.

Today, all you need to do is to break into the field is read a few books and
learn a tool. The skill has been completely commoditized, rendering all that I
work I did moot. Then again, at least now I sort of have a job in the field.

~~~
RUG3Y
I'm a self-taught programmer and I'm considering getting a CS degree. I can do
quite a bit, but I don't see any storied jobs open to people with only a few
months of training. Is the demand really that high? Am I looking in the wrong
place? I'm motivated to get the degree because I actually want to learn the
material though, not just because I want to make money.

~~~
evantai
Hi RUG3Y. From my experience, there are a ton of jobs for the skill-set I have
mentioned above in my article. There will be more jobs in metropolitan areas
than rural, but you can also find remote friendly workplaces. I've mentioned
some places to check out in the article.

As for CS degree I don't have one so you will have to speak with someone that
does. In my opinion there is no better learning than when you are employed and
working in teams so I prefer that method for practicality purposes.

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jventura
I used to teach programming to students and really enjoyed that novice people
learn how to program. But when I read things such as how someone got a high
paying programming job with only 5 months of learning, I can't stop thinking
about an old saying in the stock markets that goes something like "when your
taxi driver starts giving you tips on which stocks to buy, sell it all and
leave the stock market asap"..

I don't know if it is me and I'm too stupid that I've done 12 of higher level
studies (5 BSc + 2 MSc + 5 PhD) when 5 months were enough, or if I'm targeting
the wrong subfield. If we look carefully, all this "boom" with shitty software
practices and instability is on web development and front end tools, and this
is what most of these "5 month" learners are targeting. Similarly to the taxi
driver above, I guess I should leave the web development job market asap..

~~~
evantai
Hi jventura, I completely agree with you with the exception of one axiom:
efficiency is more important than time spent when learning. If you read the
article, I only mention the best way to get your first programming job with
the least amount of friction. It takes years and years to truly develop your
skills, but I have met many people that get discouraged because of the little
progress they seem to be making when they are starting off (especially when
they don't come from a computer science background like yourself). I wanted to
write this article to show someone how it might be done in order to get those
positive reinforcements as soon as possible so they become good developers in
the future and they want to put in those years of practice (but efficiently)
to get truly proficient.

~~~
jventura
Hi evantai, please don't get me wrong as I'm really glad that you could figure
out a better deal for you.

My comment should be seen more as a kind-of rant because, in one hand, there's
lots of instability on the web dev subfield, on the other hand, there's too
much people without real skills entering the job market and these things are
interconnected. On a final note, my comment only shows to me that I should
think about moving along to another CS subfield, as web dev is currently too
"hot" and plagued by low quality tooling and practices.

All in all, it is me that is wrong, not you, as I've probably lost too much
time learning only to be doing web dev.. :)

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magicbeanss
What does "code" mean to a person who doesn't know data structures or
algorithms? This man says he's a "software developer". What does that mean if
all you know is JS and Angular? Web Apps?

I'm a web developer WITHOUT a CS degree, but with many years of JS etc.
experience... what can I do to transition into the role of "software
developer", which undoubtedly comes with a higher salary??

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havetocharge
Kudos on trying something new.

However, please realize that it's a bit naive to think that you get extremely
good at anything non-trivial in 6 months.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_(book)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_\(book\))

~~~
evantai
I don't think you can get good at anything non-trivial. I think you can become
average. That's why I recommended in the article to start working in teams and
on real projects. That's when the real growth happens, and that's why you want
to get hired as soon as possible. From there, you're on equal footing with
everyone else and the rest is ambition.

