In the beginning

In the beginning… there was a computer. I remember it distinctly. The first home PC that we owned. A brand spanking new 286 MHz. The thing couldn’t have had more than 8 mb RAM, and maybe a 512 mb hard drive. It ran Windows 3.1, and I loved it. I explored on it, I learned DOS commands on it, and I became hooked on technology. I was 8.

Fast forward 20 years, and you will find me today. I am still hooked on technology. I took the long road to get where I am today, but I am again in a technical field. I work tech support for an environmental software company. The web app that we host and support is written in VB6 and classic ASP, and hits a SQL database. When I started doing tech support a year ago, I couldn’t write “hello world” in any programming language. But fortunately, my desk sat in the middle of our programming department, and I was given the tools and encouragement to start learning.

I started with learning some SQL, as a large part of my job deals with data management. I have become relatively comfortable with writing SQL statements, and can pull whatever data I need out of most of my databases.

I got a taste of VB6 when I went in and made some code changes to an internal legacy app. When I was finished, and my changes were successful, I was hungry for more. I started asking around for some VB6 books. All the developers told me not to waste my time learning VB6, but instead to move up to .NET. So I picked up a VB.net book, and I got started. Shortly thereafter I found out that C# was going to the direction the company was taking in future projects, and I have decided to put my focus there.

Teaching yourself something is an interesting journey. There are many challenges to overcome. Having no real background in coding, I am not used to thinking like a developer. I can’t just look at code and see what it is doing. Not yet anyways. In an ideal world, I would start out back in school. Unfortunately, time, money, and family says that will be a long slow journey (which I am taking). So here are a few tips if you’re like me, and trying to teach yourself a difficult subject like software development.

1. Pick a subject, and learn it. There are lots of really cool technologies out there to explore, but if you try to explore them all at once, you will not learn any of them. Get a base language down first, then explore. It is said once you can think like a developer, you can learn most new languages in a week or two.

2. Books, books, and more books. Find a book or two that really work for you, and read them, and do them, and read them again, until you get it. There are different kinds of books for different styles of learning. My favorite right now is Head First C# from O’Reilly. It uses lots of different styles to really pound it all in.

3. Get involved in the community. Go to user group meetings, geek/nerd dinners, code camps, and other events. Even if you don’t understand what they are talking about, you will later get it, and have that “A-Ha” moment when it clicks. Plus, networking is a very important skill in the software biz.

4. Set aside some time to learn. I have a lot going on between work and family. Personally, I block out an hour and a half each night just to focus learning. It helps knowing it is scheduled, as my mind is prepared when I go into that block of time, and I am ready to absorb what I am learning.

5. Take advantage of every resource you can. There are hundreds of thousands of programmers/developers on Twitter, often with some really great things to say. Check out websites and forums like Stack Overflow. Use Google (or Bing) to try and figure it out. Be persistent.

6. Finally, reward yourself. When you finally get your mind wrapped around something difficult, have a bowl of ice cream, or whatever your reward of choice is. It will keep you motivated to keep on keeping on.

Oh, and have fun… that’s what life is all about anyways.

Talk to you next time,

Jesse