Just started my journey I start cyber security college 3/4/2024 and excited to get going as this has become my new hobby. Any suggestions or guidance will be greatly appreciated and not shunned.
Hi just staring my journey and changing career at 43. This is something I’ve been looking forward to and it’s becoming a hobby fast so I know I’ll be successful because only when you give up you loose. Thanks in advance for all the help and tutelage.
I'm a friendly, non-dev, cisgender guy from NC who enjoys playing music/making noise, hiking, eating veggies, and hanging out with my best friend/wife + our 3 kitties + 1 greyhound.
It's cool to hear about how ya arrived at DEV. There are lots of folks that land here when changing careers. We should probs consider dedicating a tag to it... gonna consider that. 🤔 But, just to say, you'll fit right in!
Anywho, my name is Michael and I'm a Community Manager at DEV. To be clear, I'm personally not a developer, but if you have any questions about using DEV or wanna talk about the software industry more generally, don't hesitate to hit me up!
Just started my journey I start cyber security college 3/4/2024 and excited to get going as this has become my new hobby. Any suggestions or guidance will be greatly appreciated and not shunned.
I'm a friendly, non-dev, cisgender guy from NC who enjoys playing music/making noise, hiking, eating veggies, and hanging out with my best friend/wife + our 3 kitties + 1 greyhound.
No probs at all! And right on, I'd be happy to give a few general pointers.
This is very dev.to-specific, but one series you might enjoy browsing through is Sloan's Inbox.
Sloan is our mascot here at DEV and each week we share a different questions that comes in from the community. Admittedly, if a question doesn't come in, we typically just make one up that we think would be helpful. 🤫
In any case, there are plenty of questions that come in from beginners and the answer might be helpful to ya!
Also, on this note, if you have a question you wanna ask anonymously, you can send it in via the form here and we'll ask it on your behalf. This can be helpful for amplifying a question you have + if there's something you'd like to ask privately, it gives you the option to do so.
And, as for some more general advice, here are three things I've picked up from listening to others in our community:
1) Just know that it's normal to be overwhelmed. There's soooooo much to learn out there (more than is possible) and a lot of these concepts build on each other. I've heard folks regularly claim that early on they didn't realize how much they didn't know, then there's a point (often several points) where it's like they reach a peak (i.e. they finally get comfy with what they've been leanring), only to realize that there are way many more mountains to climb. Hope this makes sense! I don't mean to be discouraging, rather, I just want to point out that this is a common feeling.
2) If you're learning JS, invest time learning vanilla JS and don't just focus on frameworks. I think there are differences of opinion here, so don't take my word as absolute truth, but in general I often hear folks touting the benefits of learning vanilla JS before getting too attached to any frameworks. Frameworks are used in tandem with JS to make things easier and more efficient but they can also limit you and hold you back from learning about what's going on underneath. Don't get me wrong, I don't think you have to avoid them for forever, but it's good to be aware of the pros and cons.
3) Early on, you'll probably become a generalist, learning many different things across many expertise, but as you go on, you'll have the option to specialize... continually consider what it is you want to do and how to get there. I'm not saying that you have to have a fully concrete idea of what you're hoping to become and stick with it. Rather, I think you should try out many different things and learn a little bit about each... that way you get a taste of what's out there + a good sense of what the different roles focus on and how they work together. If you have in mind that you want to work with AI, but then as you get into it, you find it's not for you, you can change... you can change back too! Continually expanding your knowledge will open up new pathways and new realizations. I'd recommend looking up the concept of a T-shaped developer as this is what I hear many folks are striving to become.
Hope this info is helpful and best of luck to ya out there, Chris!
Michael, OHHH Thank You for this post! Reading through the newcomer posts it seems that nearly everyone has extensive experience in development. Your comments brought some relief, much appreciated!
I'm a friendly, non-dev, cisgender guy from NC who enjoys playing music/making noise, hiking, eating veggies, and hanging out with my best friend/wife + our 3 kitties + 1 greyhound.
No probs at all, Holly! Glad this message was encouraging. 😀
We def have plenty of beginners here, so despite the looks of commenters' skilled backgrounds, I assure you there are many here who are also just beginning. Anywho, we pride ourselves on being a diverse and inclusive community here, so I hope that the experienced folks in our community will be good guides and friendly stewards of the software development world for ya. After all, everybody had to start at some point right?
Well, that's all for now, but welcome to DEV and hope you get a lot out of the platform here! 🙌
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Hi just staring my journey and changing career at 43. This is something I’ve been looking forward to and it’s becoming a hobby fast so I know I’ll be successful because only when you give up you loose. Thanks in advance for all the help and tutelage.
Welcome, Chris!
It's cool to hear about how ya arrived at DEV. There are lots of folks that land here when changing careers. We should probs consider dedicating a tag to it... gonna consider that. 🤔 But, just to say, you'll fit right in!
Anywho, my name is Michael and I'm a Community Manager at DEV. To be clear, I'm personally not a developer, but if you have any questions about using DEV or wanna talk about the software industry more generally, don't hesitate to hit me up!
Thanks so much I’m also open to any suggestions to help me on the path to succeeding in this field any suggestions welcomed. Thanks again.
No probs at all! And right on, I'd be happy to give a few general pointers.
This is very dev.to-specific, but one series you might enjoy browsing through is Sloan's Inbox.
Sloan is our mascot here at DEV and each week we share a different questions that comes in from the community. Admittedly, if a question doesn't come in, we typically just make one up that we think would be helpful. 🤫
In any case, there are plenty of questions that come in from beginners and the answer might be helpful to ya!
Also, on this note, if you have a question you wanna ask anonymously, you can send it in via the form here and we'll ask it on your behalf. This can be helpful for amplifying a question you have + if there's something you'd like to ask privately, it gives you the option to do so.
And, as for some more general advice, here are three things I've picked up from listening to others in our community:
1) Just know that it's normal to be overwhelmed. There's soooooo much to learn out there (more than is possible) and a lot of these concepts build on each other. I've heard folks regularly claim that early on they didn't realize how much they didn't know, then there's a point (often several points) where it's like they reach a peak (i.e. they finally get comfy with what they've been leanring), only to realize that there are way many more mountains to climb. Hope this makes sense! I don't mean to be discouraging, rather, I just want to point out that this is a common feeling.
2) If you're learning JS, invest time learning vanilla JS and don't just focus on frameworks. I think there are differences of opinion here, so don't take my word as absolute truth, but in general I often hear folks touting the benefits of learning vanilla JS before getting too attached to any frameworks. Frameworks are used in tandem with JS to make things easier and more efficient but they can also limit you and hold you back from learning about what's going on underneath. Don't get me wrong, I don't think you have to avoid them for forever, but it's good to be aware of the pros and cons.
3) Early on, you'll probably become a generalist, learning many different things across many expertise, but as you go on, you'll have the option to specialize... continually consider what it is you want to do and how to get there. I'm not saying that you have to have a fully concrete idea of what you're hoping to become and stick with it. Rather, I think you should try out many different things and learn a little bit about each... that way you get a taste of what's out there + a good sense of what the different roles focus on and how they work together. If you have in mind that you want to work with AI, but then as you get into it, you find it's not for you, you can change... you can change back too! Continually expanding your knowledge will open up new pathways and new realizations. I'd recommend looking up the concept of a T-shaped developer as this is what I hear many folks are striving to become.
Hope this info is helpful and best of luck to ya out there, Chris!
Michael, OHHH Thank You for this post! Reading through the newcomer posts it seems that nearly everyone has extensive experience in development. Your comments brought some relief, much appreciated!
No probs at all, Holly! Glad this message was encouraging. 😀
We def have plenty of beginners here, so despite the looks of commenters' skilled backgrounds, I assure you there are many here who are also just beginning. Anywho, we pride ourselves on being a diverse and inclusive community here, so I hope that the experienced folks in our community will be good guides and friendly stewards of the software development world for ya. After all, everybody had to start at some point right?
Well, that's all for now, but welcome to DEV and hope you get a lot out of the platform here! 🙌