EP48 – Top 3 reasons why you’ll fail to succeed as a coder and how to overcome them

Coders Campus Podcast

In this episode we'll talk about 3 common issues I see that beginner programmers struggling with most when starting the journey of learning to code.

1. Impostor Syndrome
2. The overwhelming number of choices
3. Thinking that struggling is a bad thing (and then quitting because of it)

Show Transcript

0:09
Welcome to the coders campus Podcast, where you'll learn how to code from one of the best teachers in the industry. Whether you're an absolute beginner or a seasoned pro, the coders campus podcast will teach you what you need to know, to master the art of programming.

0:24
And now, your host, Trevor Page.

0:28
All right, so fellow coder, welcome back to joining me on my morning walks. Once again, it's a bit rainy out today at least really cloudy. Hopefully, I don't get rained on but yeah, today I want to talk about a couple of subjects related to sort of some common issues that I have seen in my days teaching people how to code, right. So, you know, these issues may not affect you directly. They might not affect you right now, but they will later or they may have affected you in the past. Who knows, right? So these are just very common things that I see from pretty much any old programmer who's you know, come through my doors, so to speak. The first one is really the most common one, which is this concept of imposter syndrome. So this imposter syndrome will will sort of plague you, if you will,

1:20
in two aspects, in my opinion, the first area the first time, the first aspect where this imposter syndrome will affect you, is when you're getting close to that important miles milestone of being, you know, quote unquote, job ready. So if you are coming to the conclusion of your degree, so if you are getting a degree or a diploma, through college and you are almost ready to graduate, you're you might start to feel this and it comes up in the in the form of like, I don't think I'm really ready for a job, I don't feel ready for a job, why would anyone hire me? Right? Or if I was hired, I'm probably just gonna fail at my job, I'm probably just gonna get fired. Because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right? So it's this negative mindset around someone who, you know, potentially has gone through years of a college program and who, you know, for all intents and purposes, should be well versed and well qualified for an entry level or junior position as a programmer, right? So why are you having these feelings, okay, that's the first instance where this whole thing comes up.

2:37
The second instance, where you might

2:41
experience this imposter syndrome is while you are taking a course with other people, so if you are directly in contact with other students, or if you're directly in contact with you know, peers, or some small group of people that you are learning with, as you are, you know, experiencing the journey of learning how to code, you may compare yourself to others. So you may look at

3:11
the the star in your, you know, the star player, if you will, the star coder in your classroom. So you may look to them and say, Oh, look at how well they are doing compared to how I am doing, you know, they have completed all these assignments or something, or they don't seem to struggle at all with any of these concepts. And it just seems like everything comes so naturally to them. And for me, I'm struggling, right, every concept, every new concept, every new assignments, every new, you know, small thing that I learned is this gigantic struggle in order for me to move forward. Right. But the main thing is, you might look at other people. And like I said, you compare yourself to other people. So this is so common. This is something that I again, I've been teaching this stuff now for over nine years.

4:03
I see it all the time, I experienced it myself, when I was sort of, you know, getting started. It actually didn't hit me until a bit later in my career. It wasn't until I was hired, as an intermediate level developer, that I really started to feel this sort of imposter syndrome. So thankfully, with my throughout my university career, if you will. And my

4:28
first job where I was a sort of a junior level coder, it didn't really, I didn't really think of it. I never really compared myself much to other people. And so I was I was lucky in that regard. It didn't really affect me. But I got a job as an intermediate developer. And I had had a pretty much exactly one year of experience, one year of on the job, real world experience. And that is you know, to go from, you know, one year of

5:00
experience to an intermediate level developer, it's that's kind of like the soonest that you can make it happen. That's sort of the earliest in your career that you can make that move. So

5:12
I started to think well, am I really cut out to be an intermediate developer? So that's where that sort of, you know, ramped up for me, I believed clearly that I was good enough to be a junior developer, I believed with, you know, all my mind that I was cut out to be a junior developer.

5:32
But yeah, that one little step up that one pay, raise that new title, if you will, threw me for a bit of a loop. And I started to feel like, Oh, am I worth it? Am I good enough? Am I you know, am I gonna get fired, you know, so that's sort of where it kicked in for me. So it, you know, your mileage may vary, you can experience this at any point in your career. And I'm sure there are people who don't experience it until they are hired as like a senior level developer or something. So the most important takeaway here is probably a few things. But one, don't compare yourself to other people. It, it literally does you absolutely no good whatsoever, there's no advantage to it.

6:15
It's full of disadvantages, right? You are, you know, only most likely going to feel not great about yourself. Because if you are literally not the number one person

6:27
in your class, or in your social group, or in your company, or whatever, right? If you're not literally the number one person, you're probably going to have some sort of negative feelings about comparing yourself and even then, even if you're the number one person at your company, there's always someone else in the world that you can, that you will consider to be better than you. Right. And this is obviously not just about programming, this is any, any field any person and this is a human psychology thing. This is just how human beings function. And it's unfortunate, because it literally does you no good to compare yourself. Okay, so the other people that you are perhaps comparing yourself to, they are in a completely different situation from you, they have potentially advantages that you don't have, they potentially have more time on their hands, they have more money to back them, they have less stress they have like, who knows, right? Or maybe they were just blessed with a big brain who knows, like this is it's possible it's not. But that's not in your control, you can't control how well or not well, other people do on their journey. And if you can't control it, it's there's no, you are absolutely just wasting your time. And really, it's self sabotage, you're just sabotaging yourself and your potential progress and your potential success by comparing yourself to others. So I don't know, you probably have heard this, you know, talk before from someone about how it's useless to compare yourself to others. But anyway, human psychology, it's hard to suppress it, it's easy for me to say, Oh, just don't do it. But all I can say what I can say is, if you do do it, you're very normal. It's you're just like, so many other students that I had that I've taught, okay. So my best advice is, obviously, try not to do that. Try not to compare yourself to others. But if you do start to feel like Oh, look at these people who I'm around who are so much smarter than me, try to reframe it in terms of a positive, right? So the negative would be look at these people are smarter than me, I'm never going to make it, I'm never gonna be as good as them. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? That's the negative way to think about it. to flip it around, you can say, Oh, look at this person, who is further along in the timeline than I am in terms of learning. Right, they probably just been doing it longer than you have, right in terms of hours practiced. So they're further along than I am. So now I can reach out to them and say, Hey, I'm struggling with XYZ concept. Can you help me out? Right. So use it as an advantage, use it as a way and a means to further yourself in your education.

9:12
And that's, that's literally what I do whenever the other analogy I use is,

9:17
I never want to be the smartest person in a room. Right? If I'm the smartest person in the room, it feels good for your ego. Like oh, look at me, everyone's asking me questions, and I'm able to answer all these questions. And, and you know, this is it feels great. I must be this important person. But really, there's no benefit for that person. If you were the smartest person in the room, you're not getting anything out of it other than stroking your own ego, right? Everyone else has been at benefiting and growing, whereas you probably are not. Right. So think of it like that think they are the smartest person in the room in that case in this hypothetical situation, and you are then able to leverage their knowledge and make yourself better while

10:00
They are just stroking their ego. So you never want to be the smartest person in the room, I've been there before. It's not helpful, it doesn't really, you don't grow, everyone else does. So that's the whole comparing yourself to other people and that imposter syndrome. Now, in terms of in terms of the other side of the fence of the imposter syndrome that strikes when you sort of hit a milestone or something, like I said, you get hired for your first job, or you get promoted, something like that.

10:30
You know, basically what I did was he just asked a lot of questions. Right? If you feel like you're, you should know, something that you don't ask, ask someone who you deem further along on the timeline than you are someone like someone senior to you. And just say, like, Hey, is it is it expected that I know this stuff. And if it is, then you can say, cool, I can go out and learn it, right? It's there's always a path forward, there's always a way that you can fill the gaps in your knowledge.

11:00
And I don't know that this might be a common misconception, that programmers who are like senior level programmers or something, they know it all, they're able to do it all, it is absolutely effortless for them. And they never struggle. And they can just, you know, Sprint, from the start of a project all the way to the end and laugh the whole way and feel great. Like, it's, that's just not, that's not the real world. That's not what Like I said, I have fought I have 14 years of experience coding. I'm still googling stuff, I'm still going to stack overflow myself, I'm still asking other people questions, I still get stuck, I still struggle, you know, it's, it's just part of the process. It's part of software development, okay, as a human being, I cannot know it all. Okay, now me teaching this stuff is, is a bit of a hack for me. Because when you teach something, there's just no better way to learn something than to teach it. So me being a teacher of this stuff really helped me to understand everything at a far deeper level. So, you know, that's one little hack is, Hey, can you try to teach the stuff that you've learned to someone else who is earlier on the timeline than you are? Right? If you are further along in the timeline than someone else's, and they are looking to you, and they're saying, Oh, my God, look at this person, I'm never gonna be as good as they are. Than, hey, there you go. That's the reverse imposter syndrome, if you will. So lovers that try to be the teacher for them, because it's only going to help you in terms of

12:36
where you are right now. So, yeah, once you get

12:42
on the job, just know that

12:47
no programmer knows at all. Okay, every programmer has had to learn it has had to struggle has had to has hit a point where they're like, Oh, I don't understand this, I need to go and learn it myself. Every programmer does that. So you are never expected to know it all. And you are very much expected to be able to teach it to yourself. So that's really in my opinion, there's, well, there's a few things. But in my opinion, that's what separates a senior programmer from like a junior one is a senior programmer can go off on their own, get to a point where they're stuck. And they're like, Oh, I don't understand something. And then they're able to go off and teach themselves with very little help from others. The thing that they're stuck on, they can teach it to themselves, whether it's a framework, or you know, a bug, or they're just able to figure it out on their own, and then make progress eventually. Right, that's what makes a senior programmer, a senior programmer, very little supervision. Junior programmers are not expected to behave like that Junior programmers. If this is your first job. As a coder, you are not going to be expected to be able to figure it out all on your own, you're going to be expected to ask for help. So if you're, you know, they're even intermediate level programmers, same thing, you are not expected to do it all. on your own, you're going to be expected to ask for help sometimes not as frequently as a junior level, but you're still not really expected to do it all independently without ever asking for help. That's just not reasonable. Okay.

14:11
So, long story short, imposter syndrome, more or less, everyone has it at some point. So don't feel don't panic, if you have it. The best way forward, is just to educate yourself. Ask for help. And know that everyone else is probably been exactly where you are before. Okay? You're not. It's not that you are not good enough. It is not that you are not cut out to do this. It is just part of the process. It is expected. So expect yourself to suffer from this at some point. Now, another thing I want to chat about something that is along this same

14:54
topic, area of topic, what what's the word I'm looking for anyway, in this realm

15:00
Discussion?

15:02
There is a related thing that I see.

15:06
And and it's related to this question. The question is, why do you, I would say most people fail at trying to become a coder. Why is it that there are so many people who start the journey, but so few who actually finish the journey? Okay, now there's, there's, you know, with anything in life, there's going to be a drop off, if you will, there's going to be, you know, the people at the start, or the rather, the people at the end are going to be fewer than the people at the start. Right? That's just bound to happen with anything. Right? If there's a race, there's 1000 people in a race or a marathon, there's gonna be some people who don't finish due to, you know, who knows, you know, they just, they physically tap out, they can't do it, or they get, I don't know, injured or something along the way, and they have to pull out of the race, there's just going to be fewer people that finish, then that started, right, that's natural. That's just sort of how the law of numbers works. But when it comes to coding,

16:06
the difference between the people who start and the people who finish is kind of ridiculously vast.

16:14
I've mentioned this before, but I'll say it really quickly, in my first year, computer science classes,

16:22
the room was filled with like, you know, is a 500 or 400 person lecture hall, right? every seat was filled, it was, you know, not an open seat in the house standing room only, if you will,

16:33
you know, it was packed with people first year, second year, that number was cut by 10x. So from whatever 400 went to 40.

16:45
And I was like, wow, what the heck happened here, like,

16:51
I experienced it myself with some of the peers. In my group, I had, you know, become friends with people in my, you know, first year classes. And they really, really, really struggled through the whole process. And by year two, they switched majors, right? They switched to I've said this before they switch to, I don't know, accounting or economics or

17:17
I don't know, English literature or math, potentially, or, you know, they said, you know what computer science is not for me, I'm going to switch out. But the rate at which that happened was alarming. Right. And then to a lesser extent, the same thing happens for year three, and then your four, right, so we're 500 people start, maybe 20 finish. And that is a ridiculous, delta. That's a ridiculous difference. So and the same thing happens in to an even greater degree, outside of that physical classroom. When you think about people who say, Oh, I want to learn how to code and they buy a course online or something, when they start a course, the people, if you counted the number of people with a mindset of, hey, maybe I should try coating. You know, that sounds like it's a great career, I'd like to give it a shot and see what happens.

18:08
The number of people out there in the world who start that process, versus the number of people who actually even just finished that one course, let's just focus on that one. course, not even the finish line of I'm now a coder, and I can do it professionally and get paid to do this. Just that one course. The drop off rate, again, is is somewhat similar to what you see in first year, second year, which is

18:34
95%. Don't complete the course.

18:39
Right? Now, there's a whole bunch of different factors. Maybe the person just didn't like the instructor or, you know, blah, blah, blah, but usually, it's Oh, my God, this freaks me out, I can't do this. I'm not cut out for this. I'm gonna bail. And, you know, maybe I'll never do this again, or try this again. Or maybe I'll try it again in like, I don't know, a year or two.

18:59
Right? What happens there? Why is it that so many people,

19:06
I don't, again, I use the word fail, you don't really actually fail unless you completely give up and never try again. But that that definitely there is a percentage of people who who fit that criteria of failure. They start, and they never, ever finish. Why? Why is there such a disparity there with with respect to programming?

19:28
Well, in my opinion,

19:32
there's the obvious, which is, like I've said, learning how to code is hard. There's a lot to know, there's a lot of paths that you can take. So the first problem is this.

19:45
There's just so many choices to make at the beginning. Which language Am I going to choose? Which framework Should I pursue for those languages? Which is it macro is a PC should I be a developer or should I do DevOps or should I do automated QA

20:00
Should I do some sort of infra infrastructure stuff? Or should I be,

20:05
you know, move towards this title or that tie, there's just so many different options in so many different languages and so much choice. It's paralyzing. Okay, the overwhelm that someone can feel just stepping into this realm for the first time, is paralyzing.

20:23
And there's a pie chart that I like to there's a common explanation for this. I forget the term, I forget what it's actually called this concept. But it's something that

20:36
I learned about when I started to teach people how to code.

20:39
And this pie chart is essentially the majority of the pie chart. So I don't know, it's something like, you know, 95%, you picture a pie chart, but 95% of it with one category. And that one category is stuff that you don't know that you don't know. Okay, you know, stop me if you've heard this before. But

21:02
again, stuff that you don't know that you don't know. All right, that makes up the majority of everyone's brain matter, right? There is so much that you don't know that you don't know. For example, I don't know, I can think about a couple of things off the top of my head, like plumbing. I am not a plumber, I am sure there are tons of subjects relating to plumbing. And I don't know pipes, that I don't know that I don't know. I like if I if someone if I were to sit down with a plumber and have like a one day of

21:35
tutelage, if you will, under a plumber.

21:38
There will be tons of stuff. I was like, Oh, cool. I didn't know that. I didn't know that was a thing. I didn't know that it was important to I don't know, use this kind of tape on this kind. I don't know, you know, this is there's, there's just so much stuff that you don't know that you don't know. So when you start the journey, knowing nothing about coding whatsoever, and you step into this world, there is obviously us a ton of stuff that you don't know that you don't know. But what happens is, it will transition very quickly from stuff that you didn't know that you didn't know, into stuff that you now know, that you don't know.

22:16
And that's where the overwhelm happens.

22:20
So if you were to jump into the world of learning how to code and then you learn, oh, my god, there's something called a server side language and a client side language. And then on the server side language side, there's like 15 different languages, I can learn on the client side, there's this thing called JavaScript. And then within JavaScript, there's a thing called Angular, and then there's a thing called react. And then there's thing called view. And then there's a thing called this and that and Mongo and, and and my SQL and relational databases and, and you know, you know, front end and back end and like, it's like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, like it's, there's just an information overload.

22:55
And this leads to, that's the first great separator, if you will, the first

23:03
area, the first point where people throw up their hands and say, Okay, I'm out. I can't do this.

23:10
Right. That's the first great separator between those who succeed and those who fail

23:18
is just literally stepping from the world of I don't know what I don't know, into. I know what I don't know. Right. And obviously, that I don't want to see obviously, the third part of that is the stuff that you know, that you know,

23:30
right? So there's stuff I don't know that I don't know, I now know, that I don't know. And that I know that I know. Right? So that the those you know, goes from a huge part of the pie chart to the smallest part of the pie chart, respectively. So

23:48
yeah, that's the first great separator of people who fail versus people who don't. Now,

23:56
the next part is,

23:59
is people who get in their own heads. And I've talked about this before. But for example, one of the super common things that I hear from students is,

24:09
you know, they start to struggle with learning how to code because you're going to everyone's going to struggle, that's just gonna happen, it's inevitable, that you are going to hit a point where you're struggling. This is where I say you need to reframe that struggle and make it yourself realize that if you are struggling, it means you are learning that is a good thing. If you were struggling, it means that you are learning you are currently in the process of learning something new. If you feel that struggle, so a lot of students will think oh, no, I'm struggling, therefore, I must be, you know, I must not be intelligent. I must I must not be cut out for this. Therefore, I should quit. Right? And it's just like why it to me is just crazy. But it's because the way I think of it is whenever I'm struggling, I'm in the process of learning something new, which is a good thing. I like that. When I am struggling. I enjoy that process because I look at it and I say I'm about to level myself.

25:01
Okay, so struggling is a good thing that's, you know, sure, Fine, whatever. Hopefully that is a little tidbit that you can have a light bulb and say, Oh, cool. I will reframe that in my own mind next time when I'm struggling to learn some programming concept. But sorry, getting back to my point. My point was, I hear this a lot from students, they start to struggle, and then they start to make excuses as to why they are not cut out to be a programmer. The first part is they're struggling and yes, you need to reframe and realize that that's a good thing. But they'll say something like, Oh, you know what, I'm not good at math. I was never good at math. Therefore, I can't be a coder. You know, why did I Why did I even think I could be a coder, I'm not good at math. This is silly. I'm just gonna quit.

25:44
And it's frustrating to me, because, I mean, I was okay at math. I did I did decently well, in high school, I got obliterated in university, doing the, like calculus and stuff, like I got obliterated, I had a, I had so much change my major

26:04
because of that, so I fell victim to my own, the great divide, I had to slightly tweak my major. I forget the the old major Title I switched to just be computer science, right? I forget if it was like engineering, or I don't know what the title was. But

26:20
I switched to just computer science, because the other, you know, degree that I would have attained required me to do level two calculus. And I just was like, Nope, I am not cut out for this. So the point the point is,

26:36
I'm not great at math. But I have succeeded immensely as a programmer.

26:44
How could that be possible? Also, a lot of my friends who are very successful in their career as a coder, never were good at math. A good example I've talked about before, is Nathan, my good friend, Nathan, was an English literature major. Literally, I always say that, what is the opposite of computer science, English literature, you know, he did it, he got a job, he's now being paid. He's an intermediate coder at the point of this recording, well, on his way to be a senior programmer, I would, I would say, he's doing better now than I was at his point in a timeline of learning.

27:21
So he's on track to be a better me, he's on track to be a more successful version of me, he probably doesn't realize that because he's probably struggling with imposter syndrome and all that stuff that I was struggling with at his point, but he's on the path, he's gonna be a superstar.

27:38
But he's not good at math. He graduated with an English literature degree, he was all about, you know, writing stories and analyzing the great, you know, written word. And anyway,

27:49
so people know, they don't understand where I guess it's like, they make excuses for themselves, or they listen to, I don't know where this this knowledge or this common thing comes from this whole, you have to be good at math to be to be good at programming. I don't know where that comes from. I'll tell you what you need to be good at, in terms of the stuff that I teach, you know, full stack, web development, web app development, whatever you want to call it.

28:16
You need to know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide.

28:22
And that's it.

28:25
grade school level stuff. Do you know how to add two numbers together three numbers together? Do you know how to subtract and divide and add or sorry and multiply? I can't even say the four things. So that's pretty much all I've ever had to do. I've never had to do a cosine or

28:43
derivative or any of these crazy weird, like, I've never had to do a mathematical proof.

28:50
My job No, like, that's just not. I don't know where that comes from.

28:56
Maybe if you're doing like video game development, that's the only thing I can think of. If you're doing like video game development, then maybe there's like areas where you need to know some math or something. But even then you can look it up. Google it. There's this amazing thing called Google. Anyway.

29:13
So the whole I need to be good at math to be a good programmer thing is just one of the common misconceptions about you know how to be a good a good coder. Okay? You don't even have to let me say this. You don't even have to be a good coder. I have worked. what's the what's what's the politically politically correct or gentle term for someone who is not a good programmer?

29:39
I guess we'll just say that. I have worked with many people who did not excel at coding. Let's say it that way. I've worked with many an individual from many walks of life, who I can tell. It's like, what are you doing here, man? Like why are you pursuing this as a career but moreover,

30:00
How do you even still have a job? Right? So it just goes to show there's so many, there's so many desperate companies out there that look to get as much help as they possibly can get, because there's such a huge shortage of programmers, that they're willing to hire people who don't, you know, like I said, excel in the world of programming.

30:22
So,

30:24
again, not only do you not have to be good at math, you don't even have to be good at programming to get a job as a programmer. So anyway, I'm being, you know, I'm being silly here. The people who I work with who are not who did not excel in programming was not, in my opinion, because they were dumb or something. It's just because they didn't really care. You know, they didn't really

30:46
didn't really like programming. It's like, they didn't want to be a coder. But it was just a job. And they just did it, they clock in and clock out, and so be it. And hey, I can't judge I'm sure you know, we've all been there before. We were just doing a job to you know, pay some bills. So they just weren't incentivized, to learn any more or to get any better. I just like it, I just like learning. I love learning. I love teaching in general, right? Because teaching is the best way to learn. So really, I just love to learn. And that's what sort of guides my has guided my entire professional career is just this huge desire to learn. If you have that trait, if you're always curious and have this huge desire to learn, it will treat you and serve you very well in your professional life, in my opinion, so anyway, know, you don't have to be good at math, to be a coder, you don't have to be a physicist or something to be a good coder. You don't have to be a,

31:41
you know, an artistically talented person. To be a coder, you don't have to be a creative thinker. To be a coder, you don't have to be an analytical thinker, to be a coder. Right? coding is learned. And I know it is learned because I had to learn it myself. I started I started very, very early, right? Again, if you're trying to compare yourself to me back to that topic of comparing yourself to others, I started learning when I was 10. You just can't. If you are in your 30s right now considering becoming a coder. Yeah, I have decades of a head start on you. Does that mean you should throw your hands up and give up and say I'm not going to make it? No, of course not. It doesn't take decades to become good at coding at all right? In my opinion, it could take six months in a good coding boot camp. You know, Hint, Hint, nudge nudge. And, you know, another year or two of on the job experience before you can be, you know, a good useful coder, who can be a productive member of an organization. Right? So no, it doesn't take decades, it takes, you know, to be at the point where you're feeling pretty comfortable, confident and being able to mostly work on your own without any outside help. A couple years. Okay, this is not, yeah, it doesn't take decades. So anyway, that was a distraction. Don't compare yourself to me, or don't compare yourself to others, everyone's different.

33:03
The point is, all of this stuff is the noise that's going to get in the way of you achieving your ultimate goal.

33:11
And I see this happen so often with my students, they fall victim to all these different aspects

33:21
of

33:23
struggling with coding with learning to code, they fall victim to all this stuff, and they quietly go, whatever disappear into the good night or whatever that that that, you know, saying is

33:37
I should know, I don't, I'm clearly not firing on all cylinders this morning. So they, they just fade away and and never to be heard from or seen again. And it's heartbreaking to me because they had this goal and this, this desire and this, hopefully this big purpose to this, you know, to become a programmer and get a job and start a really successful career and make a ton of money and have fulfillment and enjoyment from their from their work. Like I said, it feels like I cheat. I'm cheating at life because I enjoy Monday mornings. I look forward to Monday mornings.

34:12
I'm a little bit sad when it's the weekend because I just I like the work that I do. And it feels unfair because there's so many people out there who hate Monday mornings, right? So it's this incredible experience is this incredible way to live your life to achieve this this level of

34:34
of I don't know the word is peace, inner peace, I guess when you in terms of your professional life anyway. It's just so rewarding and amazing. And it's sad when someone doesn't get there. Right? And it's especially sad when someone doesn't get there because they have fallen victim to this these poisonous mindsets. Okay, so that my best advice for you is to

35:00
Know and acknowledge, in advance that this is hard to do, you are going to struggle, you are going to hit a wall, where you're going to feel like you want to quit. And that there is never going to be a day that will ever come in the future where you are going to understand whatever concept it is that you're stuck on. Okay? Everyone gets stuck in a different place. You know, if it's if it's just the concept, the fundamental concepts of coding and like a loop versus a method versus or whatever, or if it's, you know, something more advanced like Java, eight streams, or lambdas, or, you know, whatever the The topic is, or AWS, or who knows, right, wherever it is, you're gonna get stuck, you're going to something along the way is going to make you throw your hands up in the air and say, I don't know if I can do this, guys.

35:58
This is hard, right? And yeah, exactly. That's going to happen, expect it. And

36:06
don't quit at that point. Because every other human being on planet earth who has gone through the same journey that you're on right now has also hit that point.

36:17
The difference between

36:19
the people who succeed and the people who fail. I've already said it are the people who just actually give up and stop.

36:29
There is a solution

36:31
to where you are currently stuck on there is a solution a way to get you past that point. Okay, there are, again, I've said this before, if it's just an online course you're doing Yeah, your chances of success are so low, like you're, unless you're an experienced programmer already, I should, I should preface it by that. If you're already a senior level coder working in the real world, online courses are great, because you already have the tools

36:56
in your tool belt to get past those areas where you might get stuck. Right CEO of a coders, even intermediate level coders, they can get there, they can figure it out, they can get unstuck. They know how to do it, because they've done it before.

37:10
They've made it past that sort of great divide, if you will. So for you, if you are a junior level coder, or if you are just starting this journey, you now need to figure out and understand that there are tools available for you to get unstuck. Okay, I've talked about it already, you probably getting tired of hearing this, the most effective way, in my opinion to go from potentially where you are now to success is a good coding bootcamp. Okay, it's not online courses. Like I said, online courses are much better for someone who is experienced already. For someone who has not yet experienced who hasn't had their first job, who has maybe been in the in the field and working for less than a year, maybe two years, I don't know.

37:58
online courses are not going to cut it. They're just going to amplify this feeling of Oh my god, I can't do this. Oh, my God, I don't understand this. What is this guy talking about? What is this girl talking about? Look at how well all these other people are doing. Look at all the people who've completed this and I haven't Oh my god, oh my god, I can't do this. I'm going to quit. Right? That's just going to amplify all that stuff. You need mentorship, you need someone who has made it to the point that you want to be right, finding someone who's already achieved sorry for the noise. Someone who's already achieved the goal that you want to achieve. You find that person and you ask them questions, you get help you, you use them as a mentor, right?

38:41
So long as that person is good at teaching, right? You have to have someone who's able to walk you through the concepts and if they can't walk you through the concepts then that might not be helpful. But

38:50
hey, if they're a good teacher, and they're a good mentor, then great that is going to

38:55
greatly increase your chances of success.

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So

39:01
obviously that can be achieved through a boot camp. I welcome you. If you know nothing about coding, you can get started with a free course, we'll get you into the free course. It's a free four week course that prepares you for the boot camp to help give you the opportunity to dip your toes in the waters of coding to see if it's right for you. But in the important part of that is it also comes with a Slack channel. So you can reach out to me specifically and and ask for help if you need it.

39:33
So that really helps you need someone to guide you. You need someone to give you the advice. You can't just get an online course with no help. Okay, you need someone to help you. So yeah, start that free course if you have no background in coding whatsoever. If you're already comfortable with the basics, if you already know what a loop is what an if statement is if else you know what a variable is a data type a data structure. You know what a list is a map is

40:00
This set is all that stuff. If all those words that I just said, you know, aren't making you nod your head, like you understand and you're not panicking, then yeah, apply for the bootcamp, right? You can go to coderscampus.com/bootcamp and click on the Apply button.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The post EP48 – Top 3 reasons why you’ll fail to succeed as a coder and how to overcome them appeared first on Coders Campus.