My thoughts on getting started in IT - Part I

Some people have already come to talk to me about starting in IT and career transitions. Much because of the experience I had making a career change a few years ago.

There are some frequently asked questions they usually ask and I’ll leave my opinions here based on my experience. If you have other suggestions, you can leave them here in the comments, which will certainly help someone.

❓ Should I get an IT degree?

➡ I recommend it. Although it’s not essential for many job openings, academic experience makes a difference. But don’t consider this a differentiator. However, many job openings require it, so it’s good to be aware. And considering that today an internship is an easier entry point than starting as a Junior with zero experience, it’s a path to consider.

❓ Which programming language should I start with?

➡ Anything not too complex so as not to scare you at first and to be able to get the basics (Python or JS), and then move on to others according to the following plans. What matters is to become familiar with programming logic, have contact with control structures, algorithms and data structures. After that it’s easier for you to adapt to language changes;

❓ Should every programmer know C?

➡ No. I don’t know C in depth. But if I need to, I’ll learn. And it’s this openness to learning that we should have once we get the basics down.

❓ What should be my second language?

➡ It’s always good to have notions of JavaScript to understand the front-end and some other back-end language (Java, Python, C#). But I also recommend getting into databases, especially SQL because it’s widely used and has many details, some very small, that make a big difference. Not at a DBA level, but understanding the interactions of an application with a database, as happens in a CRUD for example.

❓ I can’t afford to pay for a degree or a course, now what?

➡ There’s the Free Brazilian University on github that has a computer science course, so to speak, for free. Besides several free courses out there like Gustavo Guanabara’s at Curso em Vídeo and coming to something more niche in my network Jose Santos who has a YouTube channel with a complete programming course with C#. But it’s not about C#, regardless of the language, he covers fundamental programming concepts.

❓ Do I need a state-of-the-art setup to study programming?

➡ I started with a crappy notebook. A setup full of Christmas lights is a luxury. It’s worth investing in better things when you have money for it.

❓ How do I know the path I should follow for the technology I chose?

➡ There’s a very good website called Roadmap containing intuitive paths for various technologies. But you can also search on Google, for example: “backend roadmap”.

❓ What to do in the face of so much information on the internet?

➡ Learning to research and corroborate information is always the best choice. Unfortunately, only experience teaches us to filter many things we see out there. And getting off social networks a bit helps.

❓ Do you have any tips for those who are just starting?

➡ Patience, discipline to study, don’t skip the steps of algorithm bases, data structures, git and things like that, don’t fall for social network hype and try to connect with experienced people willing to help. Having good people advising makes a big difference and I didn’t have that at my start.

Cheers!