Have you ever tried so hard to find your way into the dream field but never gort a chance to finally reach your goal? No matter how much work you put in it never seemed to be enough. And then you are left hopeless and completely lost, without any motivation to continue your path. That was a story of a Reddit user who for 2 years have been trying to get into software development.
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Key Takeaways
- The software development field is seeing significant growth with 26.9 million professionals, making it highly competitive.
- Self-learning is a challenging journey for software developer, that may leave some people frustrated.
- Despite challenges, the programming community emphasizes the importance of persistence and leveraging one’s strengths.
Software development became a hugely popular field that has seen quite an increase in specialists with 26.9 million people working in the industry. It is seen as a fastest growing business sector with more and more workers trying to join in.
Undeniably, this also makes it a field with a large competition. Being a high-paying job with a lot opportunities to work remotely, this became lucrative position for many programmers. That’s why it requires constant training and development from its pursuers. Specialists are expected to constantly add value to themselves and their skills as otherwise they won’t last in the industry.
Note, nonetheless, that competition can be different depending on the location and area of focus. For example, now web development becomes less popular while app developments is ranked as one of the most in-demand jobs in 2023. Doing research before going all in into studying is very important if you don’t want to end up in a state of constant competition and without a proper position in the industry.
Trying to Become a Software Developer on Your Own
Recently, we stumbled upon a story shared on Reddit of a user who have been for the past 2 years trying to get into the software development field and has already lost all hope that his path would end successfully.
“It feels so hopeless. I have been trying to become a software developer for 2 years now. University is too expensive for me and bootcamp I was planning to go to went bankrupt few days ago. Apprenticeship schemes won’t even send me a rejection mail, probably because I haven’t lived in the UK long enough to be funded for training I receive.”
He shares that he has been self-studying, but since he has a full time job he can only dedicate around 10 hours per week to that matter.
“Initially I’ve started with C++. Didn’t like it so much so switched to Python. Did not like the syntax so switched to C sharp. Loved it, taught myself up to OOP until I realised it’s lot easier to find a job if I go into web development. I started doing the Odin project and i am only at the stage where I learn CSS and the landing page.”
His path of trial and fail has lead him to another obstacle in a form of CSS programming language. OP shared his stress of trying to learn it, as most of the time it’s hard for him to make sense of the structure and use of it. Self-learning was starting to feel frustrating and not leading to any kind of professional development.
“What’s the point? Every week I see A.I being developed for crazy purposes. University is 15k£ per year and a 4 month bootcamp is 8k£. I can’t even teach myself the very basic of CSS with 10 hours of studying time per week and I am supposed to compete against people who spent 4 years studying. How do people do it.”
Having noticed a discouragement of such extent, Redditors decided to help their fellow programmer and shared their views on the matter.
If you Love it – Stay in it
Many users noticed how the author empasized that he liked learning C# and so acquired enough knowledge to work with it already. Many voiced that this would probably be the best way to find the job the op was looking for:
“There should be plenty of C# jobs. If you were doing so well in that, I’d suggest sticking to it.”
“There seems to be lot of C# .net developer jobs throughout the UK.”
“The majority of C# jobs are in web development, and it’s a very popular choice all around the world. I know for certain that it’s popular in the UK. You’ll sometimes see them use the term ASP.NET, which is the web app framework for C#. So you can just keep doing C# if you want.”
“Many web jobs use c# as the backend… learn how to make asp.net core websites. you don’t need css to be a webdev(at least, not all jobs require it).”
The takeaways here is, if you are good at something look for ways to implement it into your work. Especially in programming, where you have projects being bild up on one another. Don’t just learn the basics – learn how you can implement them in real life and what opportunities this opens for you.
Work Despite All The Challenges
Programming is not easy and it takes time before you get comfortable with it and stop stressing over even simple tasks. At least that’s how many coders on Reddit confessed to feeling, trying to encourage OP to continue his path in CSS and reach to his dreams:
“Everybody feels that way about CSS. Even veterans with decades of experience. I certainly do. It’s extremely finicky, which is why I generally just use a CSS framework like Bootstrap to make my life easier. So don’t let that stop you. You don’t have to be perfect at it. AI isn’t going to replace programmers any time soon despite what the clickbait industry is saying. So don’t worry about that.”
“Stick with The Odin Project. Having a bit of skills for Front End is always good for Back End i guess. Also, if you find the need to make a portfolio website, don’t be ashamed of using WordPress for it. Programming is hard that’s why a lot of people giving up. Be consitient. Everybody have been through your phase of frustration or lack of confidence. And if you need some Youtube Channels to help you with your programming journey, let me know.”
“If you enjoy backend you should feel right at home with front end frameworks like react or angular. Reality is not a single fucking person really understand css. And most of its features are barely used. What most people do is use a design library and build on top of it. Logic of frontend is still multitude more important than css.”
“I feel just for your words that you have two problems: First, lack of confidence. Second, commit to something and start building things. A lot of things don’t make sense the first time I learn about them. But once you are building something on them they start to make sense, yes Flexbox was one of them. I first enconter Flexbox on FreeCodeCamp and didn’t make any sense at all, I started to understand it a little on TheOdinProject, and it truly started to make sense for me on the Etch-a-sketch and Calculator projects.”
Some even gave advice as to how the author could organize his time and use resources to get more training in software development:
“If you can afford to and if you are 100% serious about being a software developer, work part time so you can get more time to learn. This means you will learn the knowledge at a faster rate and hence be able to apply to entry level roles sooner as well. Also, don’t rush things when you are learning. Experiment, try things out, play around to find out what works and what doesn’t work. Take time to learn and accept the fact that learning needs to take time. And trust me when I say this, the more you do something consistently, the better you will get at it. So, to get good at CSS, just take the time to learn and do it everyday. You need to also be serious about improving and staying in the loop. Make a GitHub account and create things. It doesn’t matter how small it is, just imagine something and make it a goal to create it. Use the knowledge base you currently have and create something. Then put it into GitHub and as you learn more topics, you may improve what you created.”
“Even in The Odin Project it has been suggested that you can supplement your learning by any external resource (like YouTube channels) you want.. If you’re struggling with CSS, try out videos of Kevin Powell. For practice, you can do the responsive web development course of freecodecamp, its a practical course where they teach you Html And CSS by making you code. This will surely help you understand and use CSS”
The general consensus among all the people replying to the post was that yes, finding a job when you are a self-taught specialist is challenging. It’s not impossible though. If you are staying on a learning journey and working on your portfolio, you can absolutely find a job after some time. And even if it does require a formal education, somnetimes any diploma, not just CS one. will be viewed as an andvantage. If you are an aspiring programmer, who enjoys the work, you should not be afraid and discouraged by occasional failures. One of the users said that your goal shouldn’t be a good software developer, it should be “to be a better software developer”.
“There is no ceiling and the further you swim the larger you recognize the ocean is.”
Best Resources for Software Developers to Master CSS
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is an essential skill for web developers and designers, allowing them to style and layout web pages with precision. As the web continues to evolve, mastering CSS is more important than ever to create responsive and visually engaging sites. So, if you still gained motivation to start learning CSS or to continue learning it, here’s a list of sources that might prove to be helpful during your self-studying:
- MDN Web Docs: Hosted by Mozilla, the MDN documentation on CSS is an excellent reference for both beginners and experts. It covers all properties, selectors, and concepts in detail.
- CSS-Tricks: This website offers articles, videos, and an almanac detailing all the CSS properties. The site also features snippets and in-depth guides on more complex CSS topics.
- Flexbox Froggy: An interactive game that helps you learn Flexbox, an essential CSS layout model, in a fun and engaging way.
- Grid Garden: From the creators of Flexbox Froggy, this is another game-based tutorial, but this time focusing on the CSS Grid layout.
- Codecademy’s CSS Course: An interactive platform where you can write code in real-time and see instant feedback. Their CSS course covers everything from the basics to advanced topics.
- freeCodeCamp: This open-source community offers a 300-hour responsive web design certification that covers CSS in depth, among other topics.
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