Learning to Code? Don’t Let These Beginner Mistakes Slow You Down

If you’ve already taken your first brave steps into the world of coding, congratulations! You’ll soon find out (if you haven’t already), that learning to code is quite different from the type of learning that you may be used to at school. In fact, we’d venture to say that learning to code is more like learning to play a sport or an instrument — you can’t become good at it without practice.?

Many coding beginners fail to understand this, and become sorely disappointed when they realise that they still cannot write their own code after going through several tutorials, whether it’s on their own or within a structured course. One study finds that 9 in 10 people quit online coding courses because of how time-consuming and tedious the process is. This is one majority that you’ll definitely wish to avoid being a part of.?

Thankfully, pitfalls made by programming beginners are actually easily avoidable if you know what to look out for. So read on to save yourself thousands of hours and a whole world of frustration as we shed light on what beginners get wrong when first learning how to code.

Understanding the universal rules of the coding world

But before we get started, there are some rules within the ICT industry that you should always keep in mind.?

The first is that changes are constantly happening, and fast. This is especially true in the ICT industry. The second rule is that there’s no such thing as the perfect code, so you’ll probably be wasting time looking for it.?

Now with that out of the way, let’s take a look at how you can avoid contributing to the high attrition rates of coding programmes.

Beginner mistake #1: Learning too many programming languages at once

From the time you start picking up a programming language until the time you graduate, you’ll probably hear ten different people talk about why you should be learning some other coding language instead. While it’s definitely good to stay on top of tech trends, dividing your attention by attempting to master several programming languages simultaneously can hardly be described as the most effective way of doing so.

You’ll be much better off sticking to one language and exploring all of its possibilities. Why? Because employers are more interested in knowing what you can do, whether it’s building a website, an app, automating their processes, or something else that contributes to their business. They’ll be far less impressed with a candidate who only knows how to build arrays and lists, and not much else, in several languages.

Focusing on one language also allows you to grow exponentially. Once you’ve landed a position on a team, you’ll be able to work on real world problems and truly hone your skills. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to gain a deep understanding of your field. But you’ll pick up new coding languages much faster once you’ve attained a level of mastery in one. Picking several at a time is just going to get you confused and slow down your progress.

If you need some help deciding which programming language to choose to get you started, here’s a general breakdown on the most popular coding languages to get you started.?

Beginner mistake #2: Choosing the wrong learning material

As you may have already realised, there’s no shortage of resources online. The problem lies in picking the right resource. After all, any course can claim that they’ll be able to land you a high-paying job, but there are ways that you can go about ascertaining the truth.?

For starters, what do their past students have to say about their programs? Don’t take their star pupils’ reviews on their website as gospel. Scour coding forums such as GitHub and Quora for unfiltered opinions on how effective those programmes actually are.?

But beyond online reviews, you’ll also want to make sure that the course you’re following (or even paying good money for) aligns with the latest trends and job demands. When in doubt, ask yourself: Is this course preparing you to work in a growing or a sunset industry? By the time you’re done learning, will the job that you’re gunning for still be around?

Finally, you’ll want to look out for courses that are as up to date as possible. We can’t stress enough how rapidly the ICT industry changes. So make sure that whatever you’re learning can be applied in the real world before diving in. The caveat is that computer science fundamentals will always stay more or less the same. But if you’re looking at learning libraries, you’ll want to make sure to get your hands on the most up to date learning resources.?

Beginner mistake #3: Getting stuck in tutorial purgatory with no project

Once you’ve settled on a course of your choice, you’ll want to spend some time familiarising yourself with the fundamentals of coding — but not too much time! A lot of beginners wrongly believe that they can only call themselves coders once they can write flawless, bug-free code from scratch.?

Let us tell you an industry secret: Even the best programmers search for answers and inspiration on websites such as Stack Overflow, w3Schools, and GitHub. That doesn’t make them bad coders. It’s just a more efficient way of doing things, just like how a graphic designer might expedite their workflow with templates, or a music producer might weave samples into their soundtrack. But that’s also what makes coding exciting for programmers, because there are always new things to discover from experimentation.

All this to say that you should really get out there and try building your dream website or app once you understand a few fundamentals. If you get stuck, learn a couple more tricks, and head back to your project. Coding is something that you can only truly learn by executing. Watching videos can only get you so far. Thinking that you can learn from videos and tutorials alone is akin to saying that you can become a professional dancer from watching TikTok videos.?

Even the instructors that you look up to are probably stuck trying to figure out solutions to their own personal projects. It’s not uncommon for people to hit a roadblock for days or even weeks before having their Eureka moment. So get out there and start coding. That will immediately put you head and shoulders above your classmates who have never touched a single project.

A final word of advice

Want to hear more advice from the pros? Getting advice from seasoned professionals can help guide our career development journey and point out what’s right and wrong with our current approach. Get on the fast track to a career in ICT by joining the TTAB Career Conversation for first-hand, exclusive industry insights.