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coding "boot camps"
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2019-03-12 at 9:26 PM UTCI head mixed reviews on these things, but from what I've researched it seems like there are a handful of legit ones that are really intense but will get you a decent paying job, and there are a lot of other shitty scammish ones. But seeing as there are a handful of people here who work in tech I figured I'd ask what everyone here knows about them. Are there solid ones that will actually get you a decent job? Should I just learn it myself? Should I learn it myself and then go to one for connections?
I could go to one for free on the gi bill because I still have a bunch of that left and it would actually be beneficial because the housing money I get is more than I make at my shitty job so I'd actually have more money while attending. But I don't want to do it if it's a total waste. I'm just sick of dishwashing and shit. I need some money so I can buy a maseati. -
2019-03-12 at 9:31 PM UTCI never really did an official bootcamp per se. I kinda just did a bunch of research into various bootcamp and university program curriculums and designed my own personalized curriculum and went the self-taught way.
If you want, I can give kind of an outline of how my personal self-education progressed from total noob to paid developer. I might have to do it a bit later though because I have a bunch of stuff I need to get done right now. -
2019-03-12 at 9:36 PM UTCAre you even into computers OP? Like would you like to work making apps or whatever?
If you can go for free then it's a no-brainer.
I tried learning programming myself a few times, but wasn't able. I need some form of structure and discipline, otherwise I just wander off mentally and start playing video games or watching youtube or reading wikipedia or posting on here. I got free training from the government, and to be honest it was pretty shit, but it at least kept me focused. -
2019-03-12 at 9:53 PM UTCAh fuck it, I decided to write it up right now anyway...
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2019-03-12 at 9:54 PM UTCGadzooks' DIY Programmer/Developer Curriculum
Basic programming concepts and syntax
My personal recommendation is to go with Python. And, of all the things I'm going to recommend in this post, that is the one I most firmly believe in. Python is an absolutely beautiful language in that it is incredibly human readable, and involves a lot less boilerplate than a lot of the older languages (C++, Java, etc).
If you prefer to learn from videos, start with this series:
https://pythonprogramming.net/introduction-learn-python-3-tutorials/
I have not watched that particular series, since the creator (sentdex) has apparantly updated his playlists quite substantially since I was last viewing them. However, if this series is anything like the original series he had up on "introduction to python", then it's like very decent.
If you want another series (either instead of the above, or in addition to – it's not a bad idea to learn the same material from multiple different sources, because it will make you see some similar concepts from other material that didn't make sense the way they explained it, but suddenly does when explained differently):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGLfVvz_LVvTn3cK5e6LjhgGiSeVlIRwt
And another interesting video from the latter YouTuber that is absolutely awesome for review (but NOT for a beginner), is the following:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4mEzFDjqtA
If you'd rather use a book/ebook, a commonly suggested one is this:
https://learnpythonthehardway.org/
I, personally, did most of my learning from video tutorials. That, and a whole lot practice and trial and error in the pursuit of hobby projects that interested me enough to motivate me to keep learning.
Web Applications
Next, you're going to want to learn about web applications.
I personally recommend using the Flask library for Python. There's also Django, but Flask is a lot simpler (it involves less boilerplate code, for instance).
This YouTuber has a lot of videos on Flask, but I'd recommend starting with this series:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXmMXHVSvS-AjwTOtiW1DXFYTgUlrUmHV
There is a lot more to web applications, including deployment, security, understanding HTTP requests and the REST framework, and a bunch more. I might do a separate write up on some of that stuff later.
Data structures, Algorithms, and Computational Complexity / Optimization
Eventually, you're going to want to learn about different data structures as well as algorithms. And then optimization goes hand in hand with data structures and algorithms. Basically, optimization is about using the most efficient data structures and algorithms for the task at hand.
There's a lot to learn about these topics, and I don't want to burden you right now with them. But just be aware that they will become important later.The following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire! -
2019-03-12 at 11:24 PM UTCI have a little experience with C and C++ so I'm not a complete beginner to programming and I'm fairly confident I could teach myself (with the aid of resources like stack overflow etc) it's just that I don't really know what I need to learn to be able to do the things i need to do to get a job.
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2019-03-12 at 11:27 PM UTCu tush my b hole
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2019-03-12 at 11:36 PM UTC
Originally posted by OG_GREENPLASTIC_JOHNSON_III I have a little experience with C and C++ so I'm not a complete beginner to programming and I'm fairly confident I could teach myself (with the aid of resources like stack overflow etc) it's just that I don't really know what I need to learn to be able to do the things i need to do to get a job.
Are you looking to be a standard full stack software / web developer? That's what I am (although I do have a much wider skill set than I've ever used for work).
If you are really comfortable with the general concepts of language syntax (and I'd say a good measure of serious mastery is the ability to switch between coding languages with relative ease). You should be able to think in terms of syntax / control flow. Job interviews, although I haven't had many yet, from what I have read, they will basically ask you to explain (often with the help of a white board, or maybe even a computer to work on) how you would go about solving particular problems. A good way to solidify this ability is to do coding challenges (there are a bunch of websites that feature a whole bunch of these). Some of the more common ones are the recursive Fibonacci sequence generator, or finding lowest common denominators between two integers, and stuff like that.
But yeah, once you've got that down pat, you just need to round out your knowledge of web frameworks and deployment procedures, as well as becoming familiar with common design patterns. You also need to become very familiar with Git (version control).
Other than that, it's all about networking (the interacting with people kind, not computer networking, lol). Once you are confident in your abilities in the above areas, and have at least some experience with data structures and algorithms (at the very least, trees and graphs for data structures, and sorting and searching algorithms).
Also, I would recommend finding either a blog or Medium.com writer or someone(s) to follow in order to stay up to date on the current industry trends. The thing about this field is that it changes so damn fast. You might spend weeks or longer learning a particular library or framework inside and out, only to find that it's no longer the top choice, and you have to start learning another one. Trust me, this will happen A LOT. You have to be extremely flexible and really good at learning new things on a very regular basis. -
2019-03-12 at 11:48 PM UTC
Originally posted by gadzooks Are you looking to be a standard full stack software / web developer? That's what I am (although I do have a much wider skill set than I've ever used for work).
If you are really comfortable with the general concepts of language syntax (and I'd say a good measure of serious mastery is the ability to switch between coding languages with relative ease). You should be able to think in terms of syntax / control flow. Job interviews, although I haven't had many yet, from what I have read, they will basically ask you to explain (often with the help of a white board, or maybe even a computer to work on) how you would go about solving particular problems. A good way to solidify this ability is to do coding challenges (there are a bunch of websites that feature a whole bunch of these). Some of the more common ones are the recursive Fibonacci sequence generator, or finding lowest common denominators between two integers, and stuff like that.
But yeah, once you've got that down pat, you just need to round out your knowledge of web frameworks and deployment procedures, as well as becoming familiar with common design patterns. You also need to become very familiar with Git (version control).
Other than that, it's all about networking (the interacting with people kind, not computer networking, lol). Once you are confident in your abilities in the above areas, and have at least some experience with data structures and algorithms (at the very least, trees and graphs for data structures, and sorting and searching algorithms).
Also, I would recommend finding either a blog or Medium.com writer or someone(s) to follow in order to stay up to date on the current industry trends. The thing about this field is that it changes so damn fast. You might spend weeks or longer learning a particular library or framework inside and out, only to find that it's no longer the top choice, and you have to start learning another one. Trust me, this will happen A LOT. You have to be extremely flexible and really good at learning new things on a very regular basis.
Not sure exactly. I don't really care exactly what I do, I just want to do something that I can get good at and that is challenging but not insanely difficult. My perception is that the types of jobs that these boot camps aim to send people to are done by people who are moderately intelligent but not necessarily extremely intelligent, so I think I will be able to learn it and be proficient enough after a while. There's nothing I really have a passion for or enjoy doing that someone is going to pay me for so I'll just try to make this my hobby for a while and I think I will get into it.
Thanks for the info, will definitely look into those things. A couple of the coding classes I took were actually engineering courses so it wasn't just beginning programming, but solving different little problems. I specifically remember solving the lcd between two integer problems, along with some other algorithms for finding derivatives and stuff. It was difficult as fuck at first but feels good when you get it right. -
2019-03-13 at 12:09 AM UTC
Originally posted by OG_GREENPLASTIC_JOHNSON_III There's nothing I really have a passion for or enjoy doing that someone is going to pay me for so I'll just try to make this my hobby for a while and I think I will get into it.
You never know, you might discover you have a passion for a specific subarea in the field once you've expanded your learning into other areas.
Like, for example, one hobby project I am currently working on is a graph-based database for storing chemical data and reaction data that will allow for some interesting searching (such as finding the shortest sequence of reactions between two organic compounds), and, on top of that, I can add all kinds of machine learning and other data analytics features to possibly even discover brand new reactions.
I love working on it because I am passionate about both the programming part of it, as well as the chemistry involved.
Hobby projects are where I got like 90% of my coding experience from (I have a lot of hobby projects).
Another project (much smaller in scope than the chemistry database one) that I have been working on lately is an NiS bot...
https://niggasin.space/thread/35212
