Joyce Akiko chose a formal education before she knew what she really wanted to do. She graduated with a Psychology degree feeling stuck in a narrow range of career options. She went back to school for another two years and earned a graduate degree in Human Resources and quickly felt the same way she did right after undergrad. Restless, underutilized, and frustrated with her job options. She ended up teaching herself how to code.

Eventually, she was building websites for her friends and then for customers. Finally, she turned website development into a full-time freelance job and then later went into a career as a product director.

How did she do it?

If there was anything she couldn’t do, she learned how to do it. She found what she liked and stuck to it, never stopped learning, put what she learned into action, and built projects to solidify her skills.

Key Takeaways From Self-Taught Developers

In these stories, you’ll notice that there are a few common themes. These are principles that many of them put into practice in order for them to reach their goal.

Be resourceful

Recognize that just about everything you want to learn can be found online. A key to being a great developer is having the ability to solve problems and finding the answers on your own. Like Anton, he pulled off finding resources online and teaching himself without spending a dime! Take advantage of those free educational resources.

Never stop learning

The process of learning never leaves the world of a developer’s environment. A desire to learn is an asset that will fuel you throughout your life. There’s always something we can learn that will improve how we lead our lives and do our work. It’s also important that we engage, discuss, and experiment with the knowledge that we obtain. Like Amit, he learned by implementing, read open-source projects to learn and started a blog to get a deeper understanding of what he learned.

Build a Strong Foundation

Building a strong foundation in programming and problem-solving skills will distinguish the good from the great. The foundation of these skills, plus the concepts of programming, will enable you to tackle any problem or language that comes your way. Like Victor, he started to focus on the process not the end result and built a strong foundation in programming.

Set goals and stick to them

You must have a goal. It’s easy to let your learning drag on and on if you don’t have any external pressure pushing you. You need to create that pressure. You have to constantly have something to motivate you. Like Austin, once you have a goal, create a plan of attack and get after it and watch all the progress you’ll make.

Network

Networking can be very important to your success, you never know what can come from the people around you — most people in tech are very willing to help. Like Jason, meet as many professionals as you can. Attend Meetups, message random people on LinkedIn, visit a tech campus and approach every employee you see. Even set goals to meet a certain number of new people each week. Bring a notepad, ask questions and write down responses. These people are already where you want to be or on the same path as you — learn from them.

Be persistent

If all programmers gave up when things got difficult, there would be no programmers in the world. If you give up easily in the face of problems, you will never be successful. Like Lexis, when she finally got to the job application process, she got rejected many times. However, she stuck with it and ultimately she had her choice of three really great engineering offers — one from a FAANG company, one from a startup, and one from the company she was already working for.

Believe in yourself

Believe that you can do what you set your mind to. Believe that you can succeed. Believe that you can learn the skills necessary to become anything you want to be. Believe in yourself and you can accomplish anything. Like Nnenna, she believed in herself through all the adversity, the stress, and anxiety, through putting a degree on hold, working at a tanning salon, quitting and setting her sights on programming. She made it by believing in herself.

Take action and never stop coding

When you start to learn the basics of programming and get the foundation you need, use what you learn and build some projects. Don’t get too caught up in learning everything you can all at once, put your new knowledge to work. The best way to learn is by practicing yourself. Like Joyce, she put what she learned to action and built many projects to solidify her skills.

What Should You Do Now?

Learn from these developers. Let their stories of success motivate you and prove to you that this too can be you. Are you able to apply any of their strategies to your own life? Did any of these stories spark an idea to try for yourself? If so, leave a comment below!