I’ve researched the topic and I understand that the general advice is that it’s best to learn on your own. However, I’d like to see Lemmy’s recommendations regarding websites where you can book programming (Python/R) sessions with a personal tutor online, ideally if you have used the service yourself. I mostly need it to maintain my motivation and learn regularly instead of sporadically.

  • Kevo@lemmy.world
    2·
    1 month ago

    Sorry I can’t actually answer your question, but in my experience, it’s hard to learn actual programming in a classroom type setting. I got a 4 year degree from a state school in computer science, and I’ve been working as a software engineer since may of 2020 (and a student contractor for 2 years before that), and I think 90% of my experience was obtained on the job.

    That being said, I do think finding a tutorial online for the type of project you want to learn is a great starting point, provided you have the basic knowledge of programming concepts. If you don’t, I think w3schools is a great place to grab those. Private tutors or online classrooms are going to be expensive and the quality might not be guaranteed.

    What I think you really need / want is guided, hands-on learning. Most languages and frameworks are free to download and use, and there’s lots and lots of tutorials out there. A great basic one for full stack engineering is a making a To-Do List (django python back end, and either react or angular front end is a decently easy framework). It’ll teach you basic front-end, back-end, and database concepts, and then you can play around with it whoever you want. I’d recommend uploading it to your personal github repo eith a README file talking about how to run it locally, so you can send it to possible employers. That’s a big thing that a lot of companies ask for in the interview process.

    • SurpriZe@lemm.eeOP
      01·
      1 month ago

      Thanks a lot, great advice! Anything else you’d recommend apart from W3schools?

      • Kevo@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 month ago

        Also, if you’re looking for motivation, I totally get that. I normally don’t do personal projects, because it feels like work, and I like to keep that separate from free time. But I found it’s easier to find motivation when it’s something you enjoy. The project I’ve worked most on is a magic item shop generator for the D&D games I run since I always found coming up with prices and random items to be difficult. I haven’t turned it into a full web app yet, it’s just a script to print out a table with the PrettyTables python library, but I worked on that in the airport on my last vacation because I was enjoying it!

        • SurpriZe@lemm.eeOP
          11·
          1 month ago

          Thanks for sharing, but it seems I don’t have an idea of what I’d enjoy programming for yet. I’m looking to get into Data Science as a new career so it’s more complicated to learn it in a fun mode 🙂

  • RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
    42·
    1 month ago

    That’s the toolbox fallacy. “If only i had good running shoes I would be motivated to run.”.

    1. Youre swapping motivation for anxiety, guilt and frustration. Youre better off paying someone on fiver to shout at you.

    2. You won’t survive programming if you can’t get through this part. It doesn’t stop taking effort after you’ve learned the basics.

    3. The tutor won’t make it painless, or make it go faster really, and people just end up being agry at the tutor.

    You’re much better off joining a community/discord of people learning the same thing, or finding a project/thing you care for, and using common motivational tricks. With youtube/Twitch, it’s easier than ever to find people to help you.