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Gavin Hughes
6,487 PointsI think I need a plan...
Hi. Hoping I can get some advice...
I'm really enjoying the experience of learning to program. I learned some HTML and CSS when I was much younger at school and am now getting to grips with JavaScript.
I just wondered, of the people here just starting out, do people tend to have a clear idea of what they are looking to achieve and therefore what languages they are looking to learn?
I ask because although I'm enjoying what I'm learning, long term I don't see myself wanting to be a front end web developer or anything like that. I didn't really know where to start so I chose JavaScript as a first language to get to grips with and am now kind of just going with it, with no real end goal in sight. That's not to say I'm not enjoying it though!
Would there be anything wrong with, say, working my way through various different tracks and learning different languages to see if there is something I really like and want to explore further? Or would that be a bit pointless?
I guess it come down to not knowing what direction I really want to go in and I'm just hoping I'm not the only one!
4 Answers
Keith Schumacher
4,723 PointsHi Gavin, Learning any programming language will benefit you, so don't fret you're wasting your time.
These are the questions you could ask yourself to direct your learning: Am I trying to get a particular job? If so, learn the language/tools relevant to that job. Do I have any projects I want to accomplish? If so, learn the language/tools relevant to that project.
If you have no interest in jobs and no interest in personal projects, ask yourself why you spending your time learning a programming language.
If you simply like to pass the time learning random stuff, and like treehouse, then I would suggest it doesn't matter what language you learn.
Gavin Hughes
6,487 PointsThanks Keith, makes complete sense. I think I just went the HTML/CSS/JS because some of it was familiar and it seemed like an obvious place to start but I've since began to question it a bit.
Ultimately, although a very long way off I would like to land a new job. I'm just not entirely sure what skills/languages I'm going to need. I obviously need to give it some thought.
I'd also like to work on building some iOS apps so Swift / Objective-C is definitely in my plans.
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,826 PointsHey Gavin,
I agree with Keith in that it will not be pointless. I also had no clue which way I wanted to go, so I did what you are thinking about, and with the exception on Android and Java (so far), I did all the tracks for both the Front-end and Back-end here on Treehouse. So far, I've come to realize that I do enjoy the Front-end Development (not design though). I've also accepted that Python and myself will never get along, lol.
I've pretty much got the Front-end down, so lately I've been focusing on iOS development and Ruby on Rails. PHP is great too. So... just learn what you want and start to narrow your field down, or work toward a Full-Stack knowledge base as I seem to be doing now, until one eventually just grabs hold. All I know is that, for me, it will NOT be Python.
Keep Coding! Keep Learning!
Gavin Hughes
6,487 PointsThanks very much for your input Jason, it's much appreciated.