In this technology-driven era, it is no more compulsory for students to attend particular graduation programs or to step foot in any classroom for being a well-versed Developer or Programmer. Indeed, if you have that passion for programming then there are various learning methods and resources available (both online and offline) that can help you to be a Self-Taught Developer. You can use these learning methods and resources to teach yourself the coding skills from beginner to the advanced level without any curriculum barrier. Meanwhile, this journey of being a Self-Taught Developer required a lot of dedication and consistency while following these learning methods!!
Statistically, around 65-70% of developers considered themselves as a self-taught developer and the number is growing rapidly. However, being a self-taught developer doesn’t mean to not attend any school or to not follow any mentor but it tends that you are not dependent on any particular person or platform to master the development skills and you can follow various learning methods to become a proficient Self-Taught Developer. Before moving further, let’s take a look at several major benefits for being a Self-Taught Developer:
- Self-Taught Developers are generally more proficient as they are not required to follow any particular curriculum to master the coding or development skills.
- Also, apart from the development, Self-Taught Developers hold the knowledge of various other domains as well such as designing, deployment, etc.
- Self-Taught Developers have a vast portfolio as they build multiple projects, participate in various contests, etc. during their learning process.
Now, get back to the point and discuss several best learning methods for Self Taught Developers that can help them to master the skills and achieve their career goals.
1. Read Books
Needless to say, books are still the best source of knowledge for any domain. Meanwhile, anyone who wants to become a Self-Taught Developer is strongly recommended to start the journey from reading the relevant books. Apart from the detailed and inclusive introduction to the programming world, reading the relevant and quality books will offer you various crucial insights regarding the programming and software development that you may not find anywhere else. There are several recommended books for the developers that can be taken into consideration such as Clean Code – Robert C. Martin, The Pragmatic Programmer, Programming Pearls, and many more.
2. Online Tutorials and Courses
Indeed, Online Learning is one of the best learning methods to become a self-taught developer. You can choose from plenty of online resources such as YouTube videos, online tutorials, course programs, etc, and can enhance your skills. You can opt for relevant online platforms such as neveropen, etc. that offer online courses and tutorials (both free and paid) to master the development skills. Apart from this, you can consider several webinars and live sessions as well to get more learning exposure. Meanwhile, you need to take care of consistency, particularly more in this online learning method.
3. Attend Coding BootCamps
As mentioned above, the self-taught learning process doesn’t constrain you to not attend any training programs, etc. And with the same concern, you can consider attending Coding BootCamps as well for your Self-Taught Developer journey. Meanwhile, these coding boot camps enhance your tech skills and make you proficient in coding to solve real-time problems and make a career as a software developer. Although you can not depend entirely on these boot camps to become a proficient developer as they work under a fixed curriculum and roadmap, however, you can take it as a part of your journey to get some advanced learning in an immersive environment.
4. Read Other People’s Code
It is one of the most effective and widely used learning methods by Self-Taught Developers. You can explore various open-source code available over the web to grasp some crucial insight and grow your knowledge. However, reading others’ code not only means taking a look at it instead you’re required to examine and run the code, review the code, do code refactoring, and other practices. Meanwhile, you can opt for platforms like neveropen, GitHub, etc. where you can find a huge variety of codes that can help you to gain more learning exposure and enhance your knowledge.
5. Participate in Programming Contests
For being a proficient Self-Taught Developer, you are required to analyze your skills and knowledge at various stages. And, this can be done through participating in Programming or Coding Contests as it allows you to showcase your development skills and compete with the best minds across the world. There are various renowned platforms that offer these contests such as TopCoder, International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), Geeks Coding Challenge (GCC), and many more. Moreover, these contests also reward you with various rankings and badges, scholarships, prizes, etc. that can help you to get various ravishing career opportunities.
6. Build Projects
It doesn’t matter how many coding books you’ve read or how many development courses you’ve completed, if you don’t know to practically implement all those concepts and knowledge then there is no worth of it! Indeed, building projects is very crucial for your self-taught developer journey as it not only validates your knowledge but also gives you confidence and encouragement. Although it is not necessary to build a very complex app as your first project instead you can start from building several minor projects such as a Text Editor or a Calculator or Snake / Chess Game and then move forward to some major ones.
7. Join Relevant Online Communities
Last but not least, you’re required to join and connect with the relevant online communities of software developers and related ones. Through these communities, you can meet and collaborate with various minded developers across the world that can help you to grow as a developer and master the development skills. It will help you to stay updated with the latest trends in the domain, provide code feedback, share project ideas, and various other aspects. There are various online communities for developers such as Developers Forum, Experts-Exchange, GitHub, etc. that can be taken into consideration to connect with others.
So, these are several major learning methods that can be followed to become a proficient Self-Taught Developer. However, apart from these, you can opt for your learning methods as well but whatever you’ll choose, you need to do hard work and maintain the consistency to get success!!
