So you want to learn to code? My personal advice would be to attend a bootcamp, because they offer a structured curriculum, mentors, dedicated learning time, collaboration and networking between students.

Unfortunately, not everybody who wants to learn to code can afford the money and time commitment that a bootcamp requires.

Luckily, there’s an alternative that many prominent software developers have chosen: the self taught route. When teaching yourself to code, you learn on your own schedule using free or paid online / offline resources. 

But in order to be successful on this self learning route and jump from beginner developer to junior developer quickly, you will need to incorporate some of the magic of bootcamps into your self taught journey. In this article, I’ll be sharing how you can do that.

Before we get started, you should know that this article was originally a talkI gave at the Developers In Vogue MTB session. I decided to turn it into an article for more accessibility after receiving some good feedback.

So grab a cup of coffee or your favorite soda, get a pen and notepad, and jot some notes down. I’ll also be dropping some random quotes here and there, so brace yourselves ?.

So how do you get started?

There are five phases you should go through when teaching yourself to code:

  1. Pick a niche.
  2. Find structured learning resources for your niche.
  3. Learn.
  4. Build something, anything!
  5. Network.

Let’s go through each phase in more detail.

Pick a Niche

“If you want to succeed, limit yourself.”

When starting out on your self taught developer journey, it’s important that you pick a niche. This makes sure that you don’t overwhelm yourself. It limits your learning and gives you the opportunity to devote your attention to a small subset, so you can create an entry point.

Software development is very versatile and comes in different forms. Start by getting an overview of what programming and software development in general involves.

Here are 2 good resources to give you an overview of what programming and software development careers are all about.