So you heard that tech is the new oil, and you're probably googling the best way you can get started, the best programming language to start with, the easiest language you can pick up and more. Stop! Slow down.
Just because you've decided you get into tech, doesn't mean you are allowed to dive in heads first. To fully get yourself in the tech world you have to understand what the tech world itself is. The tech world is exciting, filled with so many fields, and so many skills, tools, events, and people... Overwhelming? Not for long.
Grab your exploration kit, and join me in helping you find the right place in this amazing world!
Rule 1: Don't start from a programming language
There isn't a good programming language, there is no right programming language. The first mistake many people make is rushing to Google, which programming language they can easily pick up and get started.
Well, a beginner should start from the easiest, then work their way up, right? wrong. Understand that programming languages are just tools, like a text editor, or a browser, a programming language it's one tiny part of an ecosystem in tech.
If you start with a language like Python, you're going to learn about variables, loops, conditional statements, OOP, functional programming and more. Okay cool, now what? You're required to build projects to get good, what kind of projects? you can build server-side web apps or manipulate data... But you might like building iOS apps.
In reality, yes Python is easy to pick up, but will it help you be an iOS developer? No.
Start with the Fields in Tech
Now that you cannot start with a language, how do I actually get started?
You're googling the wrong thing, instead of looking up what the best or easiest languages there are. Take your time to explore all of the fields that exist in tech, each field has an ecosystem and its set of tools, to mention a few:
Web Development
Front end
Back end
Dev-Ops
App Development
iOS
Android
MacOS
.NET/Windows
Database specialist
User Interface/Experience Designer
Project/Program Management
Product Management
Data Analyst
Data Science
AI/ML Engineering
Embedded System Engineers
Technical Writers/Documentation Engineers
People/Growth tech(HR, Developer Advocacy)
As mentioned earlier, tech is extremely wide, each of these fields has its own set of tools, programming language, work ethic, and community, so you can see as a beginner you have quite a lot of options to choose from.
To truly thrive in tech, you're going to do the very obvious thing, continuously, without little or no reward till you land a job or start your business. If you don't absolutely love what you are doing, you're guaranteed to quit.
So relax, take a cup of coffee or your favorite drink, and make research, research again, ponder on it, and research again before finally making the decision.
Integrate with the community
Now that you have found what you want to do, the community is very important. I understand not everyone knows how to socialize, I wrote an article about navigating your way as an introvert, you can check that out.
Create a Twitter account, and a LinkedIn account, and post whatever it is you learned there. It doesn't have to be good or the next ChatGPT, just post quotes, projects, resources, links anything you'd be surprised at the amount of recruiters lurking in the shadows.
Groups on Discord and Slack are amazing too, so talk to your peeps and make friends along the way, learning alone can get stale and it's also hard to keep yourself motivated. To truly thrive in tech, your people skills more be just as good as your technical skill.
Conclusion
That's it for this article, do you still need someone to talk to and ask questions about this tech of a thing? I know you do. I'd love to chat, I'm on Twitter if you want to talk!