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Is there a “traditional background” for programmers anymore? Episode 4

Is there a “traditional background” for programmers anymore?

Debating traditional computer science vs bootcamp vs self taught paths into tech.

· 48:46

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Paths
  • Educational paths toward programming 
    • Self-taught - blogs, articles, tutorials, online platforms like Udemy, code academy
    • 4-year computer science degree
    • 2-year “web design” degree
    • 12-week full-time boot camp
    • 6-month part-time bootcamps
    • Bootcamps that specialize in a discipline like data science, graphics design
    • Bootcamps that serve underrepresented groups - resilient coders, shecodes.io, 
      • time, attention, resources
    • Master in computer science
  • Side door and back door entryways to tech 
    • Product management 
      • The mom test
      • product school
    • Project management
    • Support, then technical support
    • Solution architects
    • Developer marketing
Advice for people thinking about getting into programming
  • Learn hello world
  • Go through a codeacademy or similar interactive course
  • Try to build something on replit or glitch where you don't need an actual environment set up
  • Connect with other new devs on Twitter
  • Use https://exercism.io/ to get feedback about your code, don’t work in a silo
  • https://roadmap.sh/
How to pick a language or stack to start with in 2022
  • Programming languages are tools
  • Some are more commonly used to build specific things 
    • JavaScript/TypeScript - web (started as front end, now is also backend, is what browsers run), iot, drones, most things support javascript (Airtable, lambdas, google sheets, etc.)
    • HTML/CSS - web (front end only, structure and style)
    • Python - web, data, machine learning
    • Ruby - web, small utilities
    • PHP - web
    • C#/F# - enterprise, windows, azure, games like X-Box
    • Go - CLI tools, scalable servers and large-scale programs
    • Elixir - web, event-driven systems, distributed systems
    • Java - enterprise tools
    • SQL - data only, not for building applications
    • R - data
    • Fortran, COBOL, VBA, objective-c, Perl - I would not invest much in learning these unless it was required for a job I was already hired at
  • CJ says - learn javascript, but then I say learn ruby and ruby on rails
  • Whatever you decide, stick with it until you feel comfortable building decent working applications
Cord management
Other mentions

Black tech pipeline - https://blacktechpipeline.com/ 
wnb.rb - https://www.wnb-rb.dev/
codeacademy - https://www.codecademy.com/

View episode transcript

Creators and Guests

CJ Avilla
Host
CJ Avilla
Developer Advocate @StripeDev. Veteran. 📽 https://t.co/2UI0oEAnFK. Building with Ruby, Rails, JavaScript
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Colin Loretz
Host
Colin Loretz
I like to build software and communities. Building software at @orbitmodel 🪐 Coworking at @renocollective 🎙Sharing software learnings on @buildandlearn_
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