Did you figure out how to navigate your company’s awkward in-house software on day 1 of the job?It’s not about intuition; it’s about recognizing that you are capable of learning new things, regardless of how old you are or how inexperienced you are.
You can and will be successful if you figure out how you learn.
Photo by Bonnie Kittle on UnsplashI nearly failed trigonometry and Spanish in high school, but I ended up teaching bilingual trig a few years later.
Don’t worry; I wasn’t unqualified.
I just figured out how I learn.
Programming is one of the few fields where self study can get you just as far as— or futher than — formal study.
You just have to figure out how you learn.
Some people use online courses or games to learn the syntax of a language.
They are able to take what they’ve learned from these exercises and use it to create a full-scale application.
Other people will reach the end of the same online course and then stare at a blank text editor, not making the connection between the syntax they memorized and the functional application of the code they are trying to write.
Some people thrive in coding bootcamps because they are working collaboratively and learning from others.
Other people realize that they’re just regurgitating code that they’ve learned… or stashing the instructor’s examples for later use.
There are coding tutorials all over YouTube.
I’ve done a few.
Many of us have.
Some people are able to do a tutorial and then immediately apply what they’ve learned to build something of their own.
Others get through the whole tutorial and leave comments like, “How do I change the color of the box on the top?”The bottom line is that only you know how you learn — but don’t ever sit there thinking that you’re incapable.
If you’re having trouble conceptualizing something, break it down.
Ask someone to explain it.
Don’t be one of those people who is afraid to ask questions.
I promise you — the senior back-end developer that you admire asked at least one question today.
¹ Added quotation marks around “coding” because of the apparent debate about whether building entire websites in HTML/CSS alone counts as “coding”.
Did programming come naturally to you?.Have you ever experienced imposter syndrome?.Share your thoughts in the comments.
If you liked this, you might enjoy:What I Wish I Knew Before I Learned to CodeThe questions that held me backmedium.
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