My First Blog Post

I'm still very new to this, but I wouldn't say that I'm brand new.

A few years ago, after going back and forth deciding what I wanted to do as a career, I got really interested in learning more about software development. Working overnight full-time was tough and I was at the top of the ladder at my current job. I couldn't really be promoted into anything and raises weren't guaranteed, especially since COVID-19 took a toll on everything.

I started my B.S. Software Development degree in March 2021. Before that, I bought a few books on Python and spent time reading through those since all of the articles and Reddit posts I found said that Python was the easiest to learn. I also spent a lot of time going through "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python" by Al Sweigart. It's a very good resource to go through and I did learn a lot from it. Plus it's free. I also bought a Raspberry Pi 3 and tried finding some beginner projects to do (I think I ended up hosting a Factorio server on it for a while).

I don't think that I really started to learn much until I started my degree. I didn't know anything about object-oriented programming, data structures, or even things like git and IDEs. I only knew the very bare fundamentals like data types and for loops. If I could go back, I'd pick something with more structure than trying to "DIY" it by reading a lot of different books and getting stuck in Tutorial Hell. Some recommendations that I would give now are JetBrains Academy,MOOC.fi by the University of Helsinki, or freeCodeCamp. Basically anything that has a set learning path instead of reading about concepts with no context at all.

I hope by blogging I can accomplish a few things: I'd like to gain more confidence in this field and learn more myself, and I would also like to help those starting out who are unsure or just beginning in this journey. There's a lot to learn and it's important to me that I help those that I can. I'll do my best to update this with some regularity, covering beginning topics and hopefully leading up to things that I have yet to learn myself at this moment.

Thanks for reading. Until next time.