Information and Information Technology is the future, no doubt on that. If you are thinking to enter this space, congratulations!. IT not only helps to build tools that help a great number of people but also help to shape your imagination. Without talking much about the importance of IT and how IT can help you achieve your dreams, let me start with an immediate challenge you might have faced “Where should I start?”. Many people give up their interest because they can’t figure out what to learn or in which domain of IT to start with. Assuming you are a complete beginner and don’t know much about IT, let me break things into smaller chunks.
Major facets of Information Technology:
- Development (Computer Engineer, Software Engineer, Web Developer, App developer etc)
- Designing (Web designer, Graphics designer etc)
- Network Engineer (Network Administrator, IT security specialist etc)
- Data scientist
I will focus on Development and designing as this is the most popular choices among new IT aspirants.
Development: Everything you use over the Internet are developed by someone. Websites, Apps, Software and all. This is done with code. Developers write programs that make these products and features. Code or computer program are written in different languages which is called programming language. Software, website, apps are final products but there are various aspects attached with it. Like the design and layout, functionality, data and interactions, security, hosting, maintenance and many other things. Different tasks need different set of skills. You can start with one skill and can quickly toggle between others after getting a certain level of expertise.
Here are a few basic things you need to know before deciding where to start:
- BACKEND DEVELOPMENT: The back-end, or the “server-side”, is basically how the site works, updates, and changes. This refers to everything the user can’t see in the browser, like databases and servers.
- FRONTEND DEVELOPMENT: The front-end is everything involved with what the user sees. They deal with DESIGNING aspects of the software.
- FULL STACK DEVELOPER: A full-stack developer is a web developer or engineer who works with both the front and back ends of a website or application—meaning they can tackle projects that involve databases, building user-facing websites, or even work with clients during the planning phase of projects.
ALWAYS start with these two languages if you want to get into the IT space (design and development). These two are vital for any of the 3 routes you go. Also, they are fairly easy to learn and will make a good glimpse of where you are moving (in the coding journey) and make various things familiar. They are like an appetizer. These are :
- HTML: HTML provides the structure of the page. Learn HTML https://www.learn-html.org/
- CSS: CSS is the language for describing the presentation of Web pages, including colours, layout, and fonts. Learn CSS: https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-css
What to learn in 2020: List of most popular and promising languages/skills to learn in 2020
1. Flutter:
This is the SDK (Software development kit) developed by Google. In flutter, you write programs in DART programming language. Dart is not as popular as other programming language and is new in the game but the fact that Google is being it ensures it’s bright future. Since this is a new language, it is developed by eliminating many of the drawbacks of older languages and made more human-readable. The advantage of flutter is, you can build an android and iOS app in one codebase. This means you don’t have to write two different programs for those two platforms which make this an awesome tool to start with. Flutter is used to create mobile apps but the web app development is also coming very soon which will make it further popular. One code and many platforms! this is what developers want and this is what flutter is giving.
Flutter is relatively easy to learn. With consistent learning, you will be able to build a basic app within a few months and can start creating advanced apps after one year. The demand for flutter developers is in the rise and this is the perfect time to start learning.
WHERE TO START: Learn Flutter (FREE)
2. PHP
This beast is never out of fashion. Many top websites like Facebook, Wikipedia, Yahoo is built with this language. Popular CMS (CMS are tools that are used to create websites and manage contents) like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla is also built with WordPress. WordPress alone is behind (34%) of the websites running. These websites and CMS users will be needing PHP programmers now and often. So learning this skill will guarantee you a job within a couple of months. You can also build your own web app, WordPress plugin, theme and build a business around them.
WHERE TO START: Learn PHP (FREE)
3. Javascript
This is a swiss knife of codes. You can do frontend and backend development with JS and this is evolving at a great pace. With various tools, JS can be used to create mobile applications too. As always, knowledge of HTML and CSS is required. (The front-end is everything involved with what the user sees) design and development, backend (The back-end, or the “server-side”, is basically how the site works, updates, and changes. This refers to everything the user can’t see in the browser, like databases and servers)
WHERE TO START: Learn Javascript (FREE)
4. PYTHON
Python has a simple syntax that makes it suitable for learning programming as a first language. It is fairly easy to learn as the syntax is in human-readable form (means you can fairly guess what the syntax will do so making it easy to use and remember.) Also, there is a large community of developers who write in Python. So, there are tons of resources, instructions and support forums on the internet of you are stuck anywhere while learning or while building things with python.
5. Java/ .NET / C#
No doubt, they are the top programming languages that can be used to create anything imaginable (reasonable imagination!). How ever, legacy languages like JAVA and .NET are notorious for being tough to learn. Yes, they are. So, if you are 100% sure that you will stick with coding and make this as a career, go with this option. For the first few weeks, you will feel like you are lost and chances are that you will quit. But hey! if you learn consistently, you can be a decent programmer in a year or two.
Where to start: Sololearn has an Impressive course and is beginner-friendly. You can learn everything from scratch. Learn JAVA at Sololearn (FREE), Learn C#, Learn.NET.
If you are complete beginner, it is advisable to go with Python, PHP and other languages and switch to JAVA , C# after you are familiar with coding.