Many university graduates have difficulties quantifying what they learned from their studies, particularly if their major was in liberal arts or the social sciences. There are theories you will never find applicable to your working career. There will be papers you won’t even remember writing after you’ve submitted them for review. With programming, the sentiment is very different.
Learning to code is based on practice and repetition, much like speaking a foreign language. You will see immediate results from the hours you put in. Knowing even a bit of code gives you much more opportunity in the workforce. We operate in a technical age, where understanding how applications and programs operate is invaluable.
Companies are looking for tech-savvy employees. Even if you’re not working in IT, having a general knowledge of code can save the business money, both in time and resources. And, if you are unable to find work in the field, there are always small start-up companies looking for developers who can code to give them a hand and are willing to pay accordingly.
Learning to Code Is Easy
In this day and age, there’s no excuse as to why you’re not learning to code. There are websites designed to make this journey tolerable. Free, open-source applications will help you detect bugs in your code. Developers share and collaborate online on Github and Google Code giving you an invaluable source to learn code from. Message boards will help you with everything from WordPress to JavaScript. And let’s not forget, the wealth of knowledge that is YouTube.
Programs like Ladies Learning Code or Girl Develop It aim to tackle the stigma of programming being a male-dominant profession by encouraging young females to get involved in the industry and by learning to code. They offer free workshops in select cities across North America.
Ladies Learning Code Workshop hosted by Shopify in Ottawa, Canada
Check out Codecademy and Codeschool for user-friendly tutorials so you can start learning to code from your browser! Use the W3C Markup Validator to see if you are pumping out good code.
Marketing Yourself with Your Code
Learning to code is unfathomably rewarding. You are able to see the fruits of your labour immediately, and there’s nothing quite like instant gratification. You can use anything you develop as part of a portfolio to market yourself to potential customers and employers. You can build your own website or modify template based website while integrating search engine optimization and Google Analytics: both skills are high in demand.
The bottom line is that you’re in control of your online presence. Learning to code puts you in the driver’s seat.
Coding is a Creative Outlet
The line between arts and science is becoming more blurred as many individuals see the web as an outlet for creativity. Being able to personalize your relationship with your browser can be a truly remarkable and efficient experience. If you know how to manipulate your surroundings, you’d be amazed at how much you can get out of traditional mediums. The web is developing in a multitude of ways at exponential speeds. Multimedia is becoming more interactive. Using conventional technology in innovative ways is what companies need in order to remain competitive.
Some examples of this would be interactive documentaries and YouTube advertisements that allow the user to control the experience.
These are a few of my favourite interactive games:
Tipex Advertisement
Saved by the Bell Game
Zombie Movie Adventure
Want to start coding but still not sure where to start? Join the Mindthis coding mentorship where you will be advised every step of the way.
Join today by emailing us at coding@mindthis.ca.