9 years of failures, and I am finally going to start again

I work in the tech industry but I am not a programmer by trade. I am not a newbie, I can use an IDE, and debug code, write a few Java classes here and there, but I am by no means good at it.

I have been trying off and on for 9 years to become a programmer, and while I learned a lot over the years, my knowledge is disorganized, and I don’t feel confident.

While life certainly came in the way more than once, I did not make the best use of time. So now, at 37 years old, I am giving this another go. I am going to dedicate evenings to learning programming, with the end goal of getting a promotion in my job by February 2021.

Here are the courses on Udemy I am going to finish by then -

I am going to update this thread on a regular basis. Considering I have a terrible track record, I hope I can fulfill my promise to take this seriously and make something of myself.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Feel free to join me in my journey!

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4/10/2020

Worked on some File Operations in java. Learned to use BufferedWriter and FileWriter. Managed to use it for something I needed to do at work. I was thrilled about automating a task I would otherwise have to manually do.

Today I intend to finish the Array’s section in the Java Developer course.

See you all tomorrow!

Hi there,

Glad to hear that you set a goal and in the process of pursuing it.

You might be a little too hard on yourself, just by first impression upon reading your post.

Instead of saying 9 years of failure, it could’ve well been 9 years of simply living your life. I’m 32 and I discovered programming/web-design last year, however that doesn’t mean I wasted 31 years of my life not pursuing programming. Simply said, programming just wasn’t on my mind in terms of career choice, it never occurred to me to learn and find a job in programming.

Regarding the best learning method:
My experience is, the more time you spend hands-on coding, the better. However don’t burn out yourself. Try 1 hour or even 45 minutes each day. Eventually you will find yourself coding for 2 or 3 hours per day without realizing how much time you spent.

How many months necessary?
If you learn consistently everyday without stopping, 6 months should be enough for making a portfolio page to showcase your skills. If not 6 months, 9 months should be reasonable too.

Regarding bootcamp or learning website:
Personally, freeCodeCamp is the only I used, and I found it enough to learn the basics, enough to show potential employers that I know the basics of front-end and back-end and most importantly, the ability to learn.

The worst thing you can do to yourself:
If you are too hard on yourself during the learning process, personally what I experienced was anxiety and feeling of failure, and I put off learning for 2 months, which I look back with some regret because, had I just kept learning, I would’ve end up where I am right now 2 months earlier. Being too hard on yourself, in my opinion, is the ultimate killer.

Hope you enjoy your programming adventure.

Cheers,
Codey

8 Likes

Hi guys,
Thank you for sharing, you are giving me hope as I realise I am not the only one.
I quit a decent marketing job in February 2019 to become an entrepreneur and develop a business idea I had. I build up a business plan, pitched investors, got funded and used more than half of that money and all my saving to pay a web agency for the development of my website.

Now that we are in lockdown because of COV19, people are not buying and I have to rethink my whole strategy and personal life as well. With all humility, I think I can have good ideas but you cannot pitch investors for every new idea you have, or at least the idea must be developed enough to sell shares at a better price and get something out of it.

This is why I’m here; I’d like to become a full stack developer and start eventual ideas by myself without the need to pay a third party. I would also use my newly acquired skills to (hopefully) land a remote job and work from home.

I did my research and got told it is possible to become a programmer and get a job within 6 to 9 months but it seems too good to be true: why isn’t everyone becoming a developer considering the learning time and the fact that it is a high paying job (is it really?).

I already started coding and few times but did not pursue as there wasn’t a real need. Now that I’m job less, I really need to do something to generate an income and believe that making friends to exchange, talk and support each other is the determining factor that could make me a real programmer.

Guys, I am looking for a coding buddy. If you are looking for someone to discuss things with and work on project together please contact me :slight_smile:

Let me know what you think, your opinion matters to me.

Best,
Will

4 Likes

Thank you very much for your kind words. I appreciate it.

4/17/2020 Update

The last few days, I spent some time practicing Java, and while I did not make as much progress as I would like, I still spent time on this, and that’s always a good thing.

Over the weekend, I am going to finish Lectures 99, 100, 101,102, 103.

I will report my progress.

I would be more than happy to serve as a partner. Feel free to reach out to me.

Much obliged to you for sharing, you are giving me trust as I understand I am not alone.
I quit a not too bad showcasing work in 2017 of March to turn into a business person and build up a business thought I had. I develop a field-tested strategy, pitched financial specialists, got supported and utilized the greater part of that cash and all my sparing to pay a web office for the advancement of my site.

Hi I’d love to work together :slight_smile:

4/28/2020 6:48AM Central US

It has been a few days since my last update. I am happy to report that I have been spending time learning Java, I am made good progress on my goals.

I am currently on Lecture 108 Java Programming Masterclass for Software Developers

I am also writing integration test code for my job, and while this is nothing too complex, it reinforced that idea that my career should progress towards the technical side and not the managerial side of things. I am truly enjoying it.

I hope you are all doing well. Stay safe, and I will follow up with more regular updates.

I was meaning to write a more detailed response to you, but I haven’t had the time.

I am sincerely hoping that I will get to this point soon. Yesterday for example, after I finished work, I spent time working on code, and the desire to do so came to me naturally. I was not mentally exhausted, and I was pleasantly surprised.

They say, a goal without a time frame is just a wish. Therefore in order to get serious about this, I need to set some time based goals. Whether or not I live up to them, time will tell, but I should give myself a deadline to finish the course I am working on start making some solid strides in my career.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I truly appreciate it.

5/11/2020 8:37PM Central US

Very productive day today. Finished Section 08. I am done with Array, Array Lists and Linked Lists. Although why I would want to use Linked Lists for most of the things I want to do…I am still not sure, because Array Lists are perfectly well suited for most tasks.

I am about to start Section 9: Inner and Abstract Classes & Interfaces. I am going to give myself to the end of the week to finish this. I will report back with any updates.

Thanks again for all the support.

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5/22/2020 4:29AM Central US

My learning career is progressing along nicely. I have been spending time learning new concepts and going through the course. I am now 6 lectures away from finishing Section 9: Inner and Abstract Classes & Interfaces. I will report back once this is done. I am hope that by the end of this week, I will be done with this section.

Then, on to Java Generics!

Side note - took on some tasks at work that require coding, and I told my manager that I will need help from the developers on the team, but I am more than happy to work on the tasks. I have a couple of items lined up, and I hope to successfully finish them. I get the feeling this will go a long way in building my future career as a technical analyst, and eventually a developer.

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11/06/2020 4:50AM Central US

Well…I am back.

Had an absolutely crazy last few months. While I did not make a whole lot of progress in my learning, I’ve had some small wins at work. I have a second job, and while it doesn’t pay much at the moment, there is always potential.

However, I am here to pick up where I left off. I am going to try and post an update at around this time every day.

Last time I posted, I was working on Java Generics. I have progressed past that and I am now, and I am now starting Java Collections.

image

Off we go!

2 Likes

I’m glad to hear you are keep going. It took 11 years for me to start my own project. Before I worked as a dev on a several companies and had a feeling that I am a bad fit for all of them.

great to hear. Hope all is going well!

Thank you so very much! While I am not working on a project as such, I am working on completing the Java Developer course and then start working on projects.

So far so good. I will post another update shortly!

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You remind me of myself. Yup i feel like im reading my own story lol. i started programming when i was 24 i actually started working as a backend dev on .net and java. Then i suddenly stopped when i turned 27 because of internal problem at work and i worked as a call center. Now i am 35 going back again to what i loved. Im learning web development react and node
Js so it will be easy for me switching to freelance or company since im a bit too old for corporate here in our country. Keep doing what you are doing you are doing a good progress. Now me and my friends back from high school is planning to create an app just in our local
Just piece of advise if you pick a programming language stick with it for a long time just one, then if you master it you can learn another one