Computer Programming != Web Development

Hack Reactor, Dev Mountain, General Assembly. Full-stack, front-end, back-end. Bootcamps, bootcamps, bootcamps.

It's lot of information to swallow, especially if you've just been enticed into becoming a programmer by the guarantee of hard skills and a job in 12 weeks.

I'd learned programming during my undergraduate and have recently been looking for a way to apply those skills in the innovation economy. Up until about a month ago, the most promising opportunity (as far as I could tell) to transition from a non-computer science background into development seemed to be enrolling in a bootcamp. In fact, a bootcamp appeared to be the only option. I wasn't convinced about their merit, so I decided to work on some skills by myself first and then decide if a bootcamp was worth the investment.

Using various online resources, I learned more about web development and iOS development (essentially the curricula at coding bootcamps) but had lost the interest in programming I'd had when I started. See, what I like about coding is the application of mathematics. The equations and logic really speak to me. But where was the logic and reasoning in loading a picture of a cat to a website? Instead of figuring out how to teach the computer to work through complex problems quickly, my online resources were teaching me how to change the font of a website or the border of a picture to have rounded edges (woo!). In short, I was thirsty for algorithms but was feeding on interface design.

So--I naively thought--programming just isn't for me. Because, if bootcamps teach you how to program and bootcamps teach you web development, clearly, programming is just web development.

Programming is not web development

Boy, was I seriously mistaken. It wasn't until a friend mentioned to me that web development is just a subsection of the programming world that I realized I hadn't missed the boat. With all the information about bootcamps and coding and the "How I Got a Job at Google in 3 Months after Knowing Absolutely Nothing about Web Development" articles, I think it's easy for someone outside the programming world to think that web development is the only way forward with computers. Of course that's ridiculous, but in case any of you have felt the same way, I'm here to tell you that it's big world out there.

Computers are ubiquitous in today's world and they are only becoming more and more essential. Not only do we walk around with them all day inside our pockets, some people are walking around with them inside their brains and hearts. Computers can chat with us, recognize different species of fish, play chess, and even drive us to and from work. And guess what! Programmers are the ones who give them these skills.

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Autonomous Driving, Robotics, Bioinformatics, Cybersecurity, Data Analytics, and many many many others are all development specialties that have nothing to do with increasing the font size in your website's navigation bar. What's more, the internet is chalk-full of classes and books and blogs and data sets just waiting for you to get started. I've been working through Andrew Ng's Stanford course on Machine Learning from Coursera lately and am loving it.

For those who think web development is the whole universe of computer programming, know that there is life beyond HTML. If you like programming, but don't want to shuffle buttons around the interface of an app, jump into a course or talk to someone working in the field about how you can apply your skills to your interests. Not only do these skills give you a chance to significantly impact everyday life, they're also incredibly in-demand. So explore the options. The world is your IDE.