A question about learning and making a career out of programming

Career Advice
#1

I graduated high school and I want to learn to program but I honestly don’t know where to start such as which programming language to choose or whether to be front end or back end.I really want to make a career out of this because of two reasons:

1)I was somewhat good with computers since I was young and fascinated by them (it’s not programming but close enough)

2)I doubt my parents will have the means to take me to college to study CS without accumilating debt on themselves(I found alternatives such as resources online and freecodecamp)

Which leads me to the questions that i have which is where should I start learning(there are many courses to choose from in the curriculum) and how will i figure out which programming language(s) is right for me or whether backend or frontend development is good for me?

#2

…I honestly don’t know where to start such as which programming language to choose or whether to be front end or back end.

Don’t worry about that too much. Just learn. Find a path, any path. FCC has a possible path.

I was somewhat good with computers since I was young and fascinated by them (it’s not programming but close enough)

Yeah, that’s a good sign.

I doubt my parents will have the means to take me to college to study CS without accumilating debt on themselves.

Don’t discount things like Pell grants and Stafford loans.

I found alternatives such as resources online and freecodecamp

Yes, FCC and things like it are completely viable options. As are the in-person bootcamps (once the apocalypse ends). But if I were young, I would definitely see if I could get a CS degree to work. But it is possible without it.

how will i figure out which programming language(s) is right for me or whether backend or frontend development is good for me?

You will figure it out as you get into it.

I would recommend starting the FCC curriculum and learning. You will get exposed to all of this as you go. If you can, see if you can make a CS program work. If not, just keep learning. do the FCC curriculum and take little side quests if there is something that it doesn’t cover something well enough for you. If you finish, just keep self learning and building things. When that gets tiring, build things and learn new libraries. When that gets tiring, learn new things and build things.

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#3

Which language you start with doesn’t really matter that much. You’re probably going to learn several. When you find a good set of courses that work well for you, you learn whatever language that coursework is teaching. freeCodeCamp, the platform that this forum is closely tied to, teaches web programming (HTML, CSS, JavaScript and a MERN stack). I do think that web programming is a good place to start for someone completely new to the field.

I would also like to encourage you to at least see what your options are regarding college. It’s worth seeing what schools you get into and what sort of financial aid they offer. There are some state schools that are relatively low cost and have strong CS departments. Not only does a degree open a lot of doors, but there’s a lot of additional value that you can get from a college experience (if you take it seriously instead of partying). I don’t mean to discourage you from doing this on your own, but I do think it’s at least finding out for sure what your options are.

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#4

Thanks for the answers they helped clear some things up.I will try to find some avenues to get a college degree but as for now I have a lot of time due to staying at home a lot to learn to program.

#5

Thanks for the advice.I will be looking into college options but during my free time i’ll be practising here on freecodecamp

#6

Even if you do decide to get a degree, what you learn on FCC (or whatever) will be useful.

Be sure to file for the FAFSA to at least see what is available to you for student aid. And check out your local state schools, community colleges, and even technical schools to see what programs they might have. To get the right degree that increases your lifetime earnings, a little debt can be a good thing.