If there’s one thing important in your career, it is to never stop learning. If you want to improve your coding skill set it first is important to determine two things:
- Your current skill level, are you an absolute beginner or do you just need a refresh?
- Your goals, what do you want to ultimately reach?
Based on the above mentioned questions you should adjust your choice regarding your best way to improve your coding skills. You will first need to estimate your current skillset. This does not have to be very accurate but is should be something like New – Beginner – Advanced – Expert. This helps you to select the right options.
What are your goals? This is very important to specify since it is easy to forget that coding is a means not a goal! What do you want your code to do? And what programming language gets you there? Think about what the code should do, what skills you and what software get you there.
If you have specified these two things for yourselves, read below, the 5 ways to improve your coding skills.
1. Get a formal degree
There are many different kinds of formal degrees one can pursue. Depending on your age, an obvious one is through college. College provides a multiple years full-time education that creates a highly sound basis for your coding skills. If you pursue an ICT career, college is a great choice. There’s also a wide range of degrees available among which computer science and artificial intelligence. Another possibility if you want pursue a formal degree to follow a certified course in the evening hours. This provides less dept but is a perfect option if you work during the day.
2. Resources such as books, YouTube and online coding courses
Especially if you’re a completer beginner it is very rewarding to watch some introductory courses via YouTube, read a book to become familiar with terminology or to follow a free online coding course, the last one YouTube also provides. These option are low cost in general and work best if you are either a beginner or just need some refreshing. For more advanced programmers, searches on specific topics might prove useful
3. Practice makes (more) perfect
Ultimately, coding is a skill. And a skill is not learned by reading and listening but by doing, putting in hours. This goes for everyone, from absolute beginner to hardened professional. For a beginner that recently finished a first course, a good tip is to just pick a project and to put in some creativity to improve your skills. One can find projects for every skills level on the internet, to get some inspiration. It requires dedication to pick and finish projects all by yourselve.
4. Engage With the Computer science community
There is a huge computer science community! And they communicate via … the computer! Jokes aside, for everyone that looks to improve their coding skill set, engagement with the computer science community is incredibly helpful. They communicate via forums such as Stackoverflow. People from all skill levels gather here to help each other out with problems and discuss on all kinds of topics related to Data & Computer science. If you want to improve your coding skills, Bookmark Stackoverflow into your list with favourite websites because during coding, it will be your best friend.
5. Sign up for a bootcamp
An effective but slightly unconventional way is to sign up for a coding bootcamp. Bootcamps are essentially online coding courses but they require more intensity and are generally completed in a short time frame. This makes it an ideal way to learn this new skill rapidly. The course is put together with care so that you are ensured of a quick learning path.
Be sure to have a look at all these options if they appeal to you. They are for all different skill levels and can be of great help if you are looking to improve your skill set!
Happy Coding!