8 Years A Developer | What I’ve learned | Self-taught
This year marks my 8th year in the software industry. From freelancer to full-stack developer, to SRE, it's been a wild ride.
In these 8 years, I've made many mistakes and learned some valuable lessons. In this video, I want to share 8 tips ... 8 nuggets of wisdom, for developers, especially those starting out or working their way into the industry.
Leave your feedback in the comments!
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
00:27 1. Learn to push back
01:58 2. Ask Questions
05:08 3. Learn to read documentation
06:17 4. Prep for the firehose
08:23 5. Take breaks
09:12 6. Be conceptual
10:37 7. Be humble
11:45 8. Foot in the door
** Career Path Coding Tracks **
Web Developer - geni.us/jBigBd
Software Engineer - geni.us/AbMxjrX
Machine Learning - geni.us/GporLlT
Python Developer - geni.us/tv2FJBU
DevOps Engineer - geni.us/MgHtJ
** My Coding Blueprints **
Learn to Code Web Developer Blueprint - geni.us/HoswN2
AWS/Python Blueprint - geni.us/yGlFaRe
** I write regularly **
travis.media
** FREE EBOOKS **
📘 travis.media/ebooks
LET'S CONNECT!
📰 LinkedIn ➔ / travisdot. .
🐦 Twitter ➔ / travisdotmedia
🙋🏼♂️ Website ➔ travis.media
#selftaughtdeveloper #coding #codingtips
** Some of the links in this description may be affiliate links that I may get a little cut of. Thank you.
Among all the youtube coders, you have this straight to the point and sincere attitude that makes you dramatically stand out from the rest. I am 33, i have been working on my coding skills for months now and videos like these are pure gold. Thank you!
pretty sure, you have not seen all the youtube coders on youtube.
I was looking for your channel for years! Thank you so much!!!
I love how humble you are and the insight you share.
I’m self-taught as well and have thankfully been successful, whatever that means to me at least. I really enjoy your channel, and your recent DevOps vid was awesome. Thanks for the vids and looking forward to your channel being successful!
Hey Travis, really appreciate your solid advice, I find my self at the beginning of my journey as you once were and transitioning from where I am to where I would like to be… you are definitely my go to guy on KZhead for clear and definitive advice in becoming a software dev, just wanted to say thanks man ❤️👨🏽💻
"You don't have to prove yourself, people see it in your work"
Only a patient mind from a patient being like you can honestly relate the ups and downs. Your patience leaves you with the typical insight to recognise patterns software developers face on a daily basis, before they make it. You always break information down to easy connect with one another when required. Thank you very much. I solemnly appreciate your kind encouragement and counterpatience to support upcoming developers, inccluding their ideals and manifestations. Thank you.
Amazing content man. I've gone down a similar journey as you, glad you've taken the dev advocacy educational route, extremely clear communication of soft and technical skills.
Thank you for sharing your experience and advice. I def feel like this its always so much to learn being push to the next. Thank you.
Hi Travis, great video and good and supportive advice. Keep-em comming!
Thankyou 🥺, I just really need this past few days. Struggling feeling knowing everything but its difficult.
I absolutely agree with the advice on taking breaks. There were so many times things came to me while I was driving on my lunch break lol. 💯
Just starting out - this is very helpful. Thank you,
Thanks for all the tips, really appreciate it
Thank you Travis for for the sincere advice. You are the best. I am also a self-taught developer
Great video. Giving hope that It's part of the job to face all these challenges everyday. thanks a lot
Appreciate the great advice, thank you 👍
Wow, Thank you so much for these tips
Thanks for sharing Travis
Hi Travis, very thoughtful info. regards.
Thanks for sharing your suggestions 😊
Great insights. Can you please make a video about how to recognise true developers from the fake ones please? So far I had bad experiences with 4 so called senior developers (the experts) working on a project and halfway through the project they got stuck and I had to stop the contract. I lost a lot of money because of my bad judgement and trusting them at the beginning. I am so disappointed people who get into this field for the sake of money. I started to realise how big this problem is……
My man, we all learn these skills for the money, that is our main motivator, nothing wrong with that.
did you properly vet them? Better if you know somebody who's bona fide senior then have that person to hire others for you.
Get references and vet them
Make experts vet them. Not HR managers
Asking questions often helps you in a long run. At university used to ask a lot of questions, but others was laughing at me. They though that they understand what I am asking about, but they didn't. As a result used to ace exams, when they failed.
very imformative video. Thanks man😊
Great advice. ❤️
You know exactly what I am facing. I started with Linux last year, October. Now I am looking at grep +regex, sed, and awk. Bash, terraform, and python. I still want reactJs for apps but this will be for a personal project. You definitely know how I feel. I feel frustrated cause employers won't give me a shot in London. Rather than become angry and quit, I get better at topics I think I need to be strong at and learn new ones associated with the current skills I already have.
Good advice , thanks
love the vibe. been trying to self teach on and off foe the past 8 yrs.. Can't seem to focus. Can you how you actually studied? like taking notes, memorizing etc
Thanks for sharing that.
To the point. perfect video.
thanks for al of your tips
Great video. I am a self-taught developer too
starting now and also 34 hoping to be as good as you!
Anyone ever tell you you sound like Mitch Hedberg? Just a touch of “cool” in your speech rhythm. Great video, btw. Subscribed and Liked.
Ha just looked him up. Very funny!
I started learning how to code at 34 too. It's been 3 years and the next one I'll start looking for a job. I could've started a long time ago. I worked on 2 full stack projects on my own: a mobile app which is currently in the Play Store and a website for my company, they don't use it but I learned a lot building it. I did both backends with Node and MongoDB. Since I want to be a backend developer I'm rebuilding the APIs with Java and Spring Boot and with a SQL database. I want to wait one more year because my current job has nothing to do with programming, but it's very important and it was very hard for me to get hired in the first place. Next year I'll be able to take a 2 year no paid leave. If I want, if programming it's not my thing or anything really bad happens on my journey, I'll be able to come back. Anyway, you have no idea how much of an inspiration you are to me, Travis. I'll keep learning. Sorry for such a long comment. I needed to say it. Thank you very much for everything. Kind regards. 👏👏👏👏
It will be a hard time at first since the early day of switching career. But you are joining a new game, don't give up and persistence are the key. Programming is a good career choice and helpful profession because it make you to think, and train your mind, you need to be a problem solver, so keep up what you doing and also finding your own chance of job oppurtunity. I have been through these hard time and I understand the feeling, but that's life. Wish you all the best for your future endeavour.
You are awesome.
Great video 📹
Travis, what do you think about going for software testing/QA as a way to get your foot in the door while you continue to study programming? I've been studying for a while but I hate my current job and want to leave quick. I feel like I'd enjoy the exposure to development that I would get from this position while I continue to learn.
Hey, Travis. Just subscribed. I really hope you read this. Do you think it would be too late for someone in his early 40s to start learning to code and eventually becoming a developer?
I got my first real coding job at 44. It's been a long, slow road for me. It'll happen sooner or later if you don't quit
#2 👏 very honest
We're all YES men in the beginning, but with experience, we gain confidence- and the perpetual YES goes away. This is a CRITICALLY important video btw. You Brainiac.
i am lacking discipline ... what do i do
Great tips, I can relate to your story. We both started at the same age, and we are both self-taught, but I need 7 more years to catch up to you :P. I would add, be a sponge. You can extract something positive from every challenge you face at the start, so don't get frustrated. It's like punching a wall; maybe you don't break it, but it will be weaker for the next time you face it. Truly inspiring, thank you for the tips.
pseudocoding makes everything more approachable
I am a mid level developer, what is your suggestion for a good source to receive passive income. I have not received any project work on upwork and all other sources that I tried.
What about maths Travis?
Travis the code trailer
BEautiful
But what exactly is reading documentation? I keep on hearing people say that but all they say is to read documentation. Is that like code? Is that like certain things that teach you about stuff? Where do you find this documentation? No one has ever really explained it. They just assume you know what documentation means
Ok so let's say your going for a job as a backend developer, and that company uses Nest JS for their backend, the team of developers need to know how to use that framework, how else could they??? So they go and read the Nest JS documentation on how to create routes, dtos, services, tests, endpoints, structure etc etc. Let's say you make an amazing framework in the morning that's valuable to other developers, it might have a few functions that take a few parameters...you know it inside out because you made it, but if it's not documented/explained well enough for others it might be useless to them, that's where documentation comes in.
Open api/swagger is one standard, look them up.
Or try some free api to make free api calls
Or try read some documentation on AWS or GCP. Services like Stripe are famous for great documentation as well as great services..
@@lardosian But again, what IS documentation?? You literally did it again, "Read the Nest JS Documentation" What does that mean? Read a syllabus? A google link? A literal document that coworkers wrote about it? The "How to guide" on it? I don't know WHAT documentation is.
I see you liked my comment about not knowing what documentation is... but didn't actually explain what it is?
Here is the problem with saying No. In IT you have middlemen or project managers who already said Yes to the client. If you tell them No then don't want to embarrass themselves with the client so they become difficult or they choose not to use you if you are a freelancer. The right thing to do is really tell the middleman or project manager to speak to the client yourself, but then eliminate the middleman and make their job. That makes them defensive and you can make them an enemy or you can do their job and make them even more lazy.
A standup is not the place for lengthy discussions, though.
True
What are the top 10 KZhead channels for learning programming?
How much css to learn to become front end developer , css seems so vast , it never finished , can you please make a video on that ??
do you think coding will be face out in 5 years?
The cocky developers also probably known as a gamer.😅
What's a documentation?
Thanks for all the tips, really appreciate it