If you are new to the dev world, WELCOME!
I have been doing a lot of mentoring lately and the most common thing mentees ask for is resources. I spent multiple hours replying to mentees and putting together emails with links to all of my favorite resources, including some that wrote myself. After a couple copy and paste's(You can write things twice, but not three times!) I decided it was time to put all of these resources into a blog post.
I am a big fan of quick, short, easy to read posts, so I tried to keep this list pretty tight. There are DEFINITELY many other great resources out there, but these are my favorites. If you have some you would like to share please do so in the comments!!! 🤗
Where to Start
A big question for anyone entering the industry is where do I start? Should I try to teach myself? Should I do a bootcamp? Below are a few posts that might help you answer that question.
Bootcamps
If you are considering joining a bootcamp, then these two posts are for you. This first post has a lot of great bootcamp recommendations from those who were recently in a bootcamp or completed a bootcamp.
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This second post has some great advice on what you can expect from the bootcamp experience.
Career Switching
If you are looking for some content on what it is like to switch careers, then these posts are for you.
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Online Courses
If you decide a bootcamp isn't right for you or the cost is out of reach, consider an online course. Here is a post that breaks down the pros and cons of some popular online resources.
Support and Mentoring
One of the best things you can do for yourself when you are starting out is to find a mentor or a support system. Coding is HARD and even the best of us question our abilities at times. Here are a couple resources that can help provide that mentoring or support system you need.
CodeNewbie
CodeNewbie truly embodies its slogan which is, "The most supportive community of programmers and people learning to code." You can get involved with CodeNewbie in multiple different ways. They have a podcast, which has incredible content. They also host a conference called Codeland, which I have heard wonderful things about. Last, but not least, one of my favorite aspects of CodeNewbie, is their Twitter chats!.
They host two Twitter chats each week.
- The first chat, which is Wednesday at 9PM EST, is a general discussion that focuses on a single programming topic for an hour. Topics range from hard hitting ones like ageism in tech, to lighter ones like Frontend vs Backend. One of the really nice things they do after the chat is done, is compile all the Tweets with the hash tag #CodeNewbie during that time and post them under a Past Chats section.
- The second chat, which is Sundays at 2pm EST, is a 30 min coding check-in. In this chat you can let everyone know what goals you accomplished the week before. You can also let everyone know what goals you want to accomplish in the upcoming week. It is a great way to help keep yourself accountable!
However, if you are looking for more of a 1-1 mentorship experience, here are a couple other resources to checkout.
CodingCoach.io
Recently started by the amazing @emmawedekind, this site is very simple and allows you to reach out to a mentor via a list of contact methods the mentor has chosen.
Mentors are from all over the world and have all different backgrounds and experiences. I think there is a mentor on there for everyone.
Dev.to Mentoring
Another mentoring resource is RIGHT HERE, on dev.to! If you go to the Mentorship section under your settings, you will see that you have the option to be a mentor or find a mentor.
If anyone has used this yet, let me know how you liked it in the comments!
Beginner Language Agnostic How-To Guides
Nothing beats a good "How-To" guide when you are starting out. Here are a few How-To guides that I wrote myself, along with a couple others.
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Dealing with imposter syndrome? News flash, it affects everyone! This post contains some tips that can help you conquer it.
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Brutal Honesty
If you want some real truths about what you have ahead of you, then I highly recommend these two posts! Both authors share their candid experiences about breaking into the tech world and offer some great advice to help you find the right path.
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Good Luck!🍀
I hope that as you learn and grow you find the same satisfaction that many of us enjoy every day in our jobs. Hopefully these resources can help put you on the right track to achieving your goals! Good luck with your journey, we are all rooting for you!!! 😃
Top comments (13)
I'm in my first job as a "developer" at a non-software company and I've been struggling with trying to figure out how to switch to a more traditional role. Thanks for these resources. They seem helpful :-).
Have a friend looking to make the plunge. This is well timed. Thank you!
I could have used this when I was starting out!!
I really appreciate you writing this article. I'm in the middle of a career switch and the resources you provided will be used as motivation to continue moving forward. Also, I had no idea that dev.to has a mentorship.program; I'm jumping into that right now!
Thanks for the comprehensive guide!
Also, for fundamental Computer Science skills,
like data structures, algorithms, oop, memory concepts, etc
Check out HackerRank, leetcode, ProjectEuler
or this post
dev.to/aspittel/daily-coding-puzzl...
Excellent! Thank you sharing that!!!
@kim_hart 👀
Thanks for this list :) Definitely diving in to it today.
I never knew I needed this. Thank you ♡♡♡♡♡♡
This is such an amazing resource!
I am sending this to so many of my friends 🙏🏽
And what do you know, I already found a new support community on Twitter thanks to tonight's #CodeNewbie chat!
Thanks for the guide