Technology is evolving at an amazing pace these days, and while most people have started to realize the importance of picking up some programming skills – no matter what industry they work in – it seems like many still have the wrong idea about how exactly they should be approaching their journey in learning to code. You’ll obviously want to start with one language if you’ve never coded before but sticking to it, in the long run, is one of the biggest mistakes you could make if your goal is to make yourself a viable employee candidate.
Languages Come and Go
We’re still heavily exploring what works and what doesn’t in terms of programming paradigms, and some languages that are popular today will be all but forgotten less than a decade from now. Even hot and popular ones like JavaScript are not guaranteed to stick around forever, and it’s important that you keep up with these changes and learn as much as you can from all sides, in order to have a flexible, attractive portfolio. This will not only make you a better candidate for a variety of jobs, but it will help you avoid falling behind the trends if they shift in the wrong way. Just take a look at Programering.Com and see how the discussions evolve over time.
Every Language Serves a Purpose
The fact that we have so many programming languages actually makes perfect sense, and it’s not a result of chaotic development as some people might think. The reality is that each of them was created with a specific goal in mind, and there’s something to gain from learning every language out there. Even if you don’t end up learning it in detail, studying the motivation behind each of those languages is still going to give you a valuable perspective on how things work and what direction you need to orient yourself in. it doesn’t make much sense to learn C# forever if your main goal is to work in data science, although it would certainly help with building some tools for that kind of work.
You Never Know What You Might Be Good At
And that brings us to a point that many people, unfortunately, realize far too late – it’s possible that your main skills lie in an area that’s completely different from the one you’re exploring right now. Just because you like how your current language of choice works, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t something even better right around the corner – but if you never take the time to look, you’ll never find it.
Your time is a precious resource, so use it wisely – make sure that every minute you spend coding, you’re actually learning something new and interesting, not just reiterating on the same old knowledge that you’ve had for months or even years at that point. There is always more to explore and learn, but it takes some initiative on your end to make that happen, so take things into your own hands and set yourself up on the path to success. Once you’ve hit the ground, you’ll not want to stop running.
