Choosing a language or framework
Having a structured source of information early is important in any career. I made sure to find a schedule and road map to use as a reference.
Before putting money and time into it, pick a random language and give a programming tutorial a try. Any language works. Write some code and imagine doing that for a living. Most people prefer careers with more communication, it's different with developers you will often spend the afternoon in the company of Nerds.
Don’t choose a language only based on what you or a friend likes. Look at the job market and see the available positions. The language becomes just a medium of expression with experience but at first, knowing your way around it helps a lot.
In my case I started with C, then JavaScript. I wouldn’t start with math or algorithms because I never loved math. To me, programming is a creative profession, not a purely logical one. Developers' work is closer to that of a writer or a painter than that of a scientist. I would advise you to learn a language and start creating things with it. Whether it’s an API or a UI or a simple script that automates a task. You will learn more than doing leetcode problems.
Having an end goal in mind as you learn gives you an incentive to understand things. Whenever you see a term that you don’t understand, look it up. Whenever an algorithm or data structure is mentioned — see how it works.
At first, it’s better to focus on one niche area because it allows you to maximize knowledge. This can be JavaScript and React or Java and Spring or C# and ASP.NET. And make sure you learn the basics first
But after you become comfortable with the one language — branch your knowledge. Even the simplest applications are made of multiple components. Understanding the different areas of the stack will be valuable to you no matter where you go.
The industry seems to be moving in a direction that favors people with broad knowledge so you don’t want to be specialized in only one area. But you don’t want to be a generalist either since complex problems require proficiency.
The best place to be is somewhere in the middle. Strong knowledge of one technology and a good understanding of many others.
“I’m no DevOps but I know enough to set up my own CI pipeline and write a CloudFormation configuration. I’m no database guru but I can design a schema and create the indexes that I need... “
Having broad knowledge will give you more autonomy as an engineer
