As a developer who is just getting starting in their journey, you need to understand that every single developer has made a mistake at one point, and it may be the most simple mistake, or the most difficult mistake, but what makes the developers great is being able to learn from the mistakes they have made. Here are some common mistakes that developers make and how you can learn from them to create an easier journey for yourself.
When starting out, lots of developers, especially self taught developers suffer from not being able to create a structure to their learning. It’s understandable, however, why people do, since there is such a wide variety of things to learn, it’s very easy to get lost in the ocean of resources. But one way to overcome this, is to create give your learning a structure through the use of goals. Creating long term goals which you can then break down into bitesized manageable short term goals will give you a structure to your process.
It’s also very important to ensure that you do not skip the fundamental concepts. Learning to code requires you to understand the basics like the back of your hand. I tried to brush past OOP because I knew that it was hard, and because of this it put me back months when I came to trying to learn a framework like Django. Having a strong foundation in a programming language before diving into advanced topics can really help you later down the line.
While I have previously mentioned it’s easy to get lost in the ocean of resources, it’s also extremely useful to get into the habit of reading through documentation of different frameworks or languages. This can help you because you are able to read other developers code and hopefully you will be able to understand what they mean. This can also help you when you get started with the framework since you won’t just be jumping straight into a project with no idea how to use the desired code, which in turn will cause you to get frustrated. For example, using Templating languages in something like Django can be confusing if you’ve never used a templating language, however when used correctly it can be extremely powerful.
I know that when you’re learning to code, especially as a self taught developer, the journey can be very lonely. However, it’s very important that you are able to find feedback on your code, whether it’s just a peer review of your written code or a code collaboration on a project, you can learn a lot since people are always willing to give feedback. There are lots of ways you can do this, whether it’s participating in forums, attending meet-ups or just reaching out to people on social media. I found that the best way for me to find feedback was to create an Instagram account where I posted a lot of my code but in an informative way. People would always give me feedback both positive and negative, and it really shaped my understanding of different ways that people will code.
This next point is extremely crucial when learning to code. Do NOT ignore version control systems like Git and GitHub. Not only are places like GitHub extremely useful for you to improve your skills, but there are a lot of people who consider a GitHub profile being the be all and end all – and this even sometimes includes Employers… If you want a career in this industry, you will find yourself using these systems whether you like it or not and they can be extremely daunting when you don’t use them, and not using them can lead to code management issues.
One thing that is covered by the majority of universities or courses but not really spoken about much online is the failure to plan. Taking a new project without planning what you are trying to do can really put yourself hours behind. Lots of developers will just jump straight into a project thinking that they know what to do, even if they do, they will still encounter problems. There are many ways to solve these issues, such as creating a project outline, a flowchart or even wireframe what you want.
While problem solving is the art of coding, it’s extremely infuriating, and while proper planning can help this, you still can’t iron out all the problems you may encounter. So in your journey you need to understand that you have to be patient when you have issues and embrace the problems. If you can’t get past a problem, take a break and come back to it with a clear head, or even speak to another developer to see if they can help, since communication and teamwork are crucial to a developers success.
Self taught developers and developers alike will always continue to make mistakes whether they realise it or not, but the main way to progress as a developer is to understand the mistakes you’re making and learn from them. This isn’t an easy journey, but it can be extremely rewarding in more ways than one.