A. You can build a website with Notepad alone
B. Buy a good ol book. I have a hard copy of Eloquent JavaScript which is excellent.
Get a good bunch of pdf, guides and book, a subime text or notepad++ portable editor and study easy at work,also if you cant do that, try to get a physical copy of a book and start reading. While you will learn from practice, you only need the console of a browser or just learning the basic and practice at home.
Good luck and dont give up. For example in my job I created a digital agenda to hold addresses, numbers and critical info that was need to have asap, so I learned and made something usefull at work.
I would say try reading books there’s more than one way to learn. Also, use your lunches to actually code on a PC, however, ask your supervisors first out of respect.
I think it depends on your job and how it’s structured but you might want to tell your bosses upfront. Where I work, we use remote desktops and IT has access to our computers. I doubt they use it much, but they can look at what we do. So that may be something to think about if you are trying to do it on the sly. That said, not a single person at my work cares if I use my work PC to learn to code as long as I’m meeting my basic job duties. Actually, I might even be able to get personal development hours out of it . . .
Otherwise, I’d say go in early or leave late or use your lunch break so that there aren’t any conflicts. Then, work out of a book or bring your tablet or cell phone and use an app or website off of it. There are some decent apps. I think something like SoloLearn could at least keep you practicing in your spare moments.
If you have a smartphone, you can download https://enki.com/, which is a free application on iOS and Android that is marketed as a “5-minute daily workout for your dev skills”. I’ve used it and it can be useful. It shows you small chunks of concepts from different programming languages or concepts you choose from and you keep on reviewing. Good luck.
Hi,
In my job I have not got time to write any type of code so I try learning the following 3 ‘thinking’ ways:
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With the algorithm challenges I take a list, and then I think in pseudo code how I am going to solve it, and if I have time write a quick pseudo code on a notepad, so when I get home I can code it up. Even if I can’t write it I still have an idea how I can tackle the challenge.
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If the night before I am having problems with any of my projects, I spend the day thinking about how I will solve this particular problem or other ways I could do it. This gives me plenty of ideas to get stared when I am at home.
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I look at the next few challenges ahead and start thinking and planning. For example I am only on the TwitchTv challenge at the moment, but I have been thinking about the calculator challenge: how will I lay out the buttons, what buttons do I need, what kind of code will I need for each button. I feel that this will be a big help when I actually come to these challenges and I can research some problem/solutions early. Also on my lunch breaks I make a plan on paper.
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Yes there is - there’s always a way security can be breached - imagine if an employee did it at home and used Tor to hide their traffic - there’d be no way to link to them unless they made some stupid mistake. Just like other crimes - it’s possible to not get caught. I’m not recommending that you should compromise a corporate network (was joking to the person who wants to learn coding at work) though being real with you, a network can always be compromised, and again just like any other crime there will be people who don’t get caught - there are also people who do get caught again like every other compromise. But saying “there is no way” oh yes there is. Let’s address security and the best way to avoid long term damage - rather than saying there is no way to compromise a network and not get caught.
Let’s keep this on topic, please.
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I haven’t been on fcc much lately, due to other commitments, but I had to voice in on this one.
I’ve owned several small (actually TINY) companies over the years, up to a max 11 employees. The companies were small, but we earned and put enough away to be able to retire. A couple questions:
- Does your current employer pay you?
- Are you paid salary/hourly or by piece?
- Do you respect your employer for employing you?
I am wondering why you need to figure out ways to do your own thing instead of the work you are paid to do (“discrete learning” makes me think of the old “Boss key” on pc games). If you have down time or other “unscheduled” time, why not go in and talk to your employer about your plans. Tell him you want to improve your skills, maybe figure an angle how you can improve or increase efficiency in your current position or for that of a co-worker. Try to make it a win-win and maybe they’ll open the wi-fi at certain times of the day for your outside learning. You don’t HAVE to tell your employer that it is a free course, just tell them you are wanting to take and complete an online course.
As an employer I appreciated the people that came to me with special requests. I know that not every employee completely fills their entire day with the allotted work. On slow days an hour for lunch is 1h 20min, on busy days it might only be 30 minutes - but it is a give and take.
Much like every course you will take online stresses “academic honesty” you should also practice “workplace honesty”. Don’t risk getting locked down, working under a cctv camera or having your pc monitored. You said yourself that you can’t afford to lose your job, so don’t take that chance.
Cheers
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I also work at a desk job, and I can somehow relate to your feeling. I adopt a slack-and-relax approach when learning code at office.
“This job pays little, and I am just an unimportant small potato rotting in the cubicle. Instead of wasting my time here, why not try to make a better use of it?”
My practice of discrete learning / slacking has been gradually changing since the first day of my work.
1. Ingesting information all the time (about 3 months)
I am lucky enough to work at an office with loosely controlled IT system. I can freely use wifi, although youtube is blocked. At first, I tried to read as much as possible during office hours, because I felt lagging behind by not learning about programming while letting time slipped away in the cubicle.
I binged on information about javaScript by opening numerous tabs in Chrome when (pretending to be) working on my full-time day job. Luckily my boss did not give a damn on what was in my browser as long as I got my job done.
2. Feeling tired for no reason (about 2 months)
Information binging, like binge eating, is not a sustainable habit. Due to frequent switching of focus, the side-effect of multitasking (I know some can switch their focus fast, but I simply can’t do that…) started to take its toll. I often felt tired for no reason, even though my job is quite light on duty comparing to my colleagues (they are the more important employees, whereas I am just a clerk proving clerical support). This tiredness made it difficult to focus even I got off from work. Not the optimal state for freecodecamping.
3. Culling input and adjusting output
I started my information dieting by only reading information from a few trusted and quality sources during lunchbreak e.g. freecodecamp medium, codeburst.io, << Eloquent JavaScript >>. I appreciated each byte of information when I ate less. Also, this freed up more time for my day job, and my performance was more satisfactory.
If you could not use wifi, emailing simple questions and writing code on paper are good ways to slack and relax.
4. Working hard for myself and my salary
After regaining balance between working full-time and freecodecamping, I started to brainstorm ideas and hacks to make my life in cubicle easier. Though my boss is not as supportive as @MadDogDean, but writing one or two VBA templates for docketing in Word would not hurt. This also gave me a slight edge over my co-workers.
Unexpected benefits of slack-and-relax approach
Now, my practice of slacking is :
- Reading a piece of information / problem during office hour
- Thinking about it when commuting
- Working on it at home.
Actually working on different stages during different hours is not a bad idea. This gives the problem sufficient time to sink in my head. Problem solving becomes easier when the problem itself unfolds and becomes a relaxed coil, rather that a tight mess. Unfolding takes time, so a bit slacking during office hour is actually beneficial by kickstarting the unfolding process earlier in a day.
As an employee, it is nearly impossible for me to concentrate 100% in my full-time office job (afterall, this is only a job). Discrete learning / slacking helps me to relax when working my day job (around 15% of my mental energy goes to slacking and kickstarting problem sinking). Be sure to reserve some mental energy for your day job, and don’t overwork yourself in freecodecamping. Try to find a point of intersection between the two.
@runsf, wish you all the best in juggling a full-time office job and freecodecamping!
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Agree. I did this when I was learning SQL and they ended up paying a year for one of my online bootcamps focused on SQL. I sold it as I needed it in order to perform my job better - and take the task of running the reports I needed from the programmers. It was more cost efficient to pay me to learn than to task programmers regularly with doing something for me.
Hi, lots of good comments here. Einstein is also said to have taken a job as a patent clerk so he can get all of his work done in a couple of hours and devote the rest of his work day to his own research. So, it depends on whether or not you can get all of your work done and then some extra too within your work hours. Try to be a good sport and do at least 50% more than what you think is reasonable for a full-day’s work. Self-deception is extremely easy.
After that, most learning books/classes says we need to “prime” our brain with the problem, and have a balance of “focused” thinking and “diffused” thinking. So, how about getting to work 1 hour early, work on some difficult coding problems to prime your mind, then have diffuse thinking during the morning hours, and code focused during lunch, and diffuse thinking during afternoon work and commute time, and 1-2 hours after work on intense focused coding. I saw a lot of people who took classes during work doing something like this. They also preferred to stay at work 1-2 hours after 5pm to study instead of going home. They said they’re no good once they get home. I currently think drilling is not emphasized enough in coding. So you can do 1-2 sections from freecodecamp, and then write a code pattern on a note card. Then try to write variations of that pattern on blank note cards. This is for “recall,” known to be the most effective way to learn anything. After several cards, try to see if you got them right. During your lunch time, you can type your written answers into a browser-based code editor and see if they run without errors. For javascript, W3School has “Try It” button that opens a browser-canvas. If you type any HTML or javascript, it will run the result and show you the output. Almost any language has browser-based editors trying out short code sections intended for learning. On weekends, I suggest you work on bigger projects that is fun for you, so you can stay motivated.
Cheers, and happy coding! =-P Jennifer