Learning to code isn't always an easy task, but it's something worth persisting through. Here's some advice on when you're feeling stuck and need a fresh start.
- Try your best to have a positive attitude while learning. It greatly enhances your ability to maintain information and work through difficult pieces of the curriculum. Take a break if you are getting really frustrated.
- Look for opportunities to help and teach other people going through this process. You'll maintain what you're teaching much faster and will often have 'ah hah' moments mid sentence.
- Play with your code. The assignments are great, but just spinning up a little index.html and app.js/create-react-app to play with new concepts in without the pressures of getting something done was some of the most fun I had.
- Try to keep the negative self talk to a minimum. I would often say I suck at something in jest – and while that can be funny, it's just not helpful. You're learning something new, you're going to suck at it at first, and that's awesome. Also, no one cares if you suck at it. We just care you're working on it with a future goal in mind. We see what your code will be in in two weeks / months / years.
- Learn to love to read documentation. I'm not a big reader, but I can plow through 20 pages of documentation in an afternoon now because I've seen the benefits. Also, that's what developers do. At first you may find yourself reading the same paragraph 10x's before it makes sense. That's good, do more of that. (also I found reading documentation at night in bed is a great way to put yourself to sleep.)
- Do yourself a favor and reach out for help if you've done the above items and are still stuck.
- Be nice to people and try to approach every situation with a healthy dose of understanding. You can't just be a killer coder, you've got to try and be a nice human people want to work with too.
- Network. Network. Network.
Learning to code can be challenging, especially when you're on your own. V School is here to help. You will have full-time mentors, move forward when you master each lesson, gain experience working on real-life projects, and graduate when you land a job.
Schedule a time to talk with us and get started on building a career in tech.
