For National Coding Week, we reached out to some of our software developers at OnSecurity to hear their perspective on the changing role of coding in the workplace.
Ben Guest has been a software developer at OnSecurity for over three years. He was initially self-taught, having commenced his career in coding with web development before progressing into software. We sat down to talk about entering the industry without formal education, and his advice for those looking to get coding without a degree or extensive educational experience.
How to learn coding fundamentals
First, we discussed advisable languages for learning coding. With an abundance of languages, and several popular ones to choose from such as Python, PHP, and JavaScript and Rust, it can be hard to know which specific programming language to begin with when learning coding fundamentals.
“My recommendations for those getting into coding would be to find some good initial tutorials on the basics of using a language like python.” Ben says. “Brilliant has some excellent courses surrounding interactive problem solving”.
Mike Oram, VP of engineering at OnSecurity, expressed similar suggestions for coding beginners. “Coding is not about maths,” He says, “But it is about problem solving.” To figure out whether coding is for you, he advises looking into some beginner video tutorials online, such as YouTube or Codecademy. “Coding regularly is the key, little but often”.
Regular exposure to coding, in turn, helps to build an understanding of coding terminology, offering a better foundational understanding when you feel confident enough to progress to other programming languages.
Choose the right coding tools
Where can I find online courses?
“It can be difficult to learn programming basics alone, so you may want to consider joining a learn to code meetup such as codehub or codebar or if you want to fast track it then a coding bootcamp is the way to go. coursereport.com has a huge list of bootcamps from around the world with real student reviews”.
Engage with Coding Communities
Engaging with coding communities and online developer communities is equally as important in your coding journey. Others can provide feedback and advice on coding concepts, helping you to enhance your foundational understanding and build skills in lieu with developing technology.
Why do so many coders self-teach?
Self-learning coding isn’t something unique to the industry- it’s actually relatively common. In fact, a 2018 survey by HackerRank determined that of 39,000 software developers surveyed, 74% identified as partially self-taught.
This statistic is certainly reflective of the team at OnSecurity- even those who learnt initially through structured education agree that they have self-taught in the past to enhance their skills, or to supplement personal coding projects.
There are several reasons that influence coders to learn independent of a computer science degree or formal coding education. For example, many self-taught programmers learn code to build their personal projects or startups, to minimise the hiring costs it would take to actualise their ideas.
Self-taught programmers have good opportunities to gain real-world experience and gain practical skills that prove useful in several workplaces. Free courses provide enriching coding content for aspiring coders without the expense of higher education.
Additionally, the rapid progression and growing intelligence of technology means that there is always more to learn. As Mike says, “The tech around coding is constantly changing. Working as a software developer means needing to stay on top of everything.”
Coding in the age of AI Technology
AI technology - the theme of this year’s National Coding Week - has introduced new and previously unexplored variables to software development and coding. “The big change at the moment is AI code helpers, such as GitHub co-pilot. This helps us to write code faster and so generally improves the efficiency of developers.”
Mike expands to reassure budding coders that AI coding technology - despite its immense capabilities - is still relatively in its infancy. “The technology still has a long way to go and requires a lot of human intervention at the moment but we are already seeing the benefits, particularly for more mundane tasks.”
In essence, any time is a good time to start coding, and coders are perpetually useful to a variety of sectors.
How to keep up with changing technology
With technology’s intelligence developing at such an exciting rate, keeping up is half the task for many software developers. “Keeping up to date with these things is a continuous task.” Mike admits. But that should by no means be a barrier to enhancing your coding skills. “Attending conferences and meet-ups are a great place to start, there are also lots of email newsletter you can subscribe to for different technologies, and then Twitter (X) is always a great source of information about generally what's happening in the tech space.”
Conclusion
As Ben summarises, enjoyment and a genuine desire to learn are the best soft skills for learning to code, with free coding online courses, coding challenges, and personal projects laying the all-important foundations for effective practical learning.
“The process should be challenging, but rewarding when you finally solve problems. Coding (and computational thinking) is a process that takes practice, so learning to enjoy it will help massively.”
It's imperative that coders of any level embrace continuous self-teaching, no matter how casual, and recognise the importance of patience when learning coding languages and systems.
Good luck on your coding endeavours!
