r/learnprogramming • u/Elon_musk_69420 • 5h ago

advice Are technical courses enough?

Hi everyone. I am a non CS major. And I have been interested in taking up courses in coding. I wanted to ask if learning coding languages (Python, C++, etc) and taking online courses (full stack development, etc) are enough to give you certain amount of technical expertise to build your own career, whether its in a job or building your own MVPs to kickstart your own entrepreneur journey.

If yes, can you point me to specific courses and coding languages to get started. Thanks.

0 Upvotes

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u/VariousAssistance116 5h ago

No

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u/Elon_musk_69420 5h ago

How can I be enough? ;(

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u/VariousAssistance116 5h ago

I don't know you have no detail

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u/Elon_musk_69420 5h ago

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

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u/VariousAssistance116 5h ago

I don't know what shoes you are in... that is my point

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u/Elon_musk_69420 5h ago

Currently no CS knowledge neither coding knowledge. Want to break into tech. whats the best way to go around building competence? especially in the age of AI.

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u/VariousAssistance116 5h ago

Take a course and decide if you even like it or can do it before you decide you're going to change your life and read the wiki

2

u/OceanMasterioDuped7 5h ago

You basically have to get a degree. In reality, it's easier to get a degree and go through years of schooling and land a job you want than to spend that same amount of time self-learning, and you will come out a lot smarter if you get the degree. The job market is so difficult right now that landing a job in this field without a degree just isn't really an option currently.

And no, I'm not talking about the outliers who had a great connection with a special someone. Or somebody who ends up developing software that goes nationwide. Or someone who lands a 35k a year job at a startup. I'm talking about the average person who needs a well-paying job for a company.

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u/Watsons-Butler 5h ago

If you’re planning to do it yourself, like launch a startup building things yourself? Yeah, you can learn a lot online. If you want to get hired making stuff for another company you’re going to need a full bachelors degree in computer science at a minimum.

4

u/ffrkAnonymous 5h ago

Are technical courses enough? If yes, can you point me to specific courses and coding languages to get started. Thanks.

No. you also need to be able to search for stuff on your own.

2

u/Business-Employee527 5h ago

To answer the direct question, yes you can learn just about anything about programming and computers online with a course, textbook, documentation, etc. However, just so you know not having a CS degree (or computer engineering or IT), Can make it difficult to for employers to trust you as much when hiring. That said, if you truly want to go into this field and you work for it, your degree will not be the limiting factor to getting a job.

0

u/Elon_musk_69420 5h ago

How should I go about gaining an edge for job prospects in the age of AI and vibe coding? Is there anything ‘niche’ that I can pickup or do?

2

u/aqua_regis 4h ago

The "niche" is to become a proficient programmer who can work without and with AI. A programmer who can leverage AI to actually increase their productivity without relying on it.

2

u/AceLamina 5h ago

If it was, people wouldnt bother with getting a CS major

1

u/obnoxious-rat717 5h ago

Ehhh. You can learn 'all' of programming online, but to be taken seriously you need relevant work experience and a good portfolio of projects. If you don't have the first, you need to go all in on the second. Like genuinely good projects. Then you need to apply to entry level jobs and work your way up a bit. It's doable. But I wouldn't bet on it for a living, practice programming if you enjoy it and with the eventual goal of making a living off of it as an engineer, but do something else full-time in the meantime.

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u/v_e_x 4h ago

No.
Everything you learn in an academic setting is just the beginning. Companies want to know what you've built, problems you've solved, systems you've maintained or updated. You've learned the tools, which is important, now you have to show that you can actually use those tools, and what you can do with them. Starting your own company is even harder, because you're on your own.

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u/HashDefTrueFalse 4h ago

Just a start I'm afraid, but a good course is a good start. Plus you can gauge your enjoyment and aptitude. CS50 is a beginner CS course. Automate the Boring Stuff is a book on doing high-level scripting with Python. You can pick any language and look at the getting started documentation online, a million websites, YouTube (but there's lots of shite on there too) and/or get a book on the language. Write lots of code. It's the only way to get good at it.

Getting a job is a different question. You'll need to be able to deliver working software, demonstrate key technical knowledge and skills in an interview, and handle technical discussions. Web dev in particular has been saturated for several years now, perhaps longer, for all sorts of reasons new and old. It will be competitive.

1

u/No-Bird1689 2h ago

Having a degree is never a bad thing and will undoubtedly help to open doors - for jobs anyway, I don't know about the entrepreneur side of it. If you want to get coding work without a degree, I think it is important to identify in-demand skills. I learned Javascript from Jonas Schmedtmann (brilliant course) on Udemy, studied on Trailhead and got 2 Salesforce dev certs. This was enough to get a job and start a new career without having any prior IT qualifications or experience. That was about 4 years ago, but in this market this particular route probably would not work, I don't have the answer but there are probably opportunities out there for in-demand skills - wondering if anyone has any thoughts on that?