A description of my journey when teaching myself to program and lessons learned accordingly. The transition period was 9 months for me between quitting and taking my first software job. I share my stories in more detail on my blog: nerdneha.tumblr.com/post/105875049220/notable-blog-posts

1. Teaching myself to code
Neha Batra @nerdneha
April 2015

2. We’re from all over, you’re not alone
Energy Consultant
Software Engineer
Floored, Inc.
Textile Designer
Front-end Web
Developer
Photoshelter
Materials Science
Software Engineer
Venmo
Community Organizer
Content Intelligence
Research Engineer
Tumblr
History & Sales
Marketing
Developer
Avaaz
Economics, Teaching
Software Engineer,
Cofounder, Teacher
Telegraph Academy
Physics
Data Engineer
Rent the Runway
Operations Research &
Math
Data Science
Mimi Hearing
Technologies GmbH

3. How I taught myself how to code
Energy Consulting
Recurse Center
1st Soft Eng Job
Full-stack Engineer at Floored, Inc.
2 years
3 months
9 months
11 months

4. How I taught myself how to code
Energy Consulting
1st Soft Eng Job
Full-stack Engineer at Floored, Inc.
(the professional version that gives you ZER0 context)
(this looks WAYYY TOO EASY)
Recurse Center
3 months
9 months
2 years
11 months

5. How I taught myself how to code
Energy Consulting
1st Soft Eng Job1st Soft Eng Job
Full-stack Engineer at Floored, Inc.Intro to Logic + Intro to CS [scheme]
(9th grade via IMACS)
AP Comp Sci A (11th grade)
Intro to Python (MIT, not reqd.)
Got Mechanical Eng degree
Recurse Center
3 months
9 months
2 years
11 months

6. How I taught myself how to code
Energy Consulting
1st Soft Eng Job1st Soft Eng Job
Recurse Center
6 months:
Quit 1st job
Applied to Recurse Center 2x (rejected)
Used MOOCs/meetups to learn
First hello world website
Got into RC on 3rd try
3 months
9 months
2 years
11 months
Full-stack Engineer at Floored, Inc.

7. How I taught myself how to code
Energy Consulting
Recurse Center
1st Soft Eng Job1st Soft Eng Job
3 months
9 months
2 years
11 months
Full-stack Engineer at Floored, Inc.6 months:
Quit 1st job
Applied to Recurse Center 2x (rejected)
Used MOOCs/meetups to learn
First hello world website
Got into RC on 3rd try

8. How I taught myself how to code
Specific Resources:
- Codecademy JavaScript
- Girl Develop It: Android Course (small fee, several in-person classes)
- Udacity - CS101 - Intro to Programming
(quit job)
- Coursera course on Scala
- Udacity - Algorithms
- MongoDB - Intro to MongoDB
- Heroku tutorial on hello world
- Vim tutorial
- Github tutorial
(recurse center)
(this is detailed in a blog post if you want more info: nerdneha.tumblr.com)

9. How I taught myself how to code
Energy Consulting
1st Soft Eng Job1st Soft Eng Job
Recurse Center
1.5 months:
Applied like everywhere
Emailed like everyone
Blogged
made a shitty website
Got an internship!!
3 months
9 months
2 years
Full-stack Engineer at Floored, Inc.
11 months

10. Lessons Learned
1. Forward progress is key
2. Follow your curiosity
3. It takes initiative
4. It’s not you, it’s hard
5. Open source your journey

11. 1. Forward progress is key
I thought once I took a class or two,
then things would be….
I thought at least putting “hello world”
on a website would be….
It was NOT...
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

12. 1. Forward progress is key
For me, was a lot of this….
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

13. 1. Forward progress is key
● do what keeps you motivated
● stop what makes you unhappy
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

14. 1. Forward progress is key
Specific Resources:
- Codecademy JavaScript
- Girl Develop It: Android Course (small fee, several in-person classes)
- Udacity - CS101 - Intro to Programming
(quit job)
- Coursera course on Scala
- Udacity - Algorithms
- MongoDB - Intro to MongoDB
- Heroku tutorial on hello world
- Vim tutorial
- Github tutorial
(recurse center)
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

15. 1. Forward progress is key
Specific Resources:
- Codecademy JavaScript
- Girl Develop It: Android Course (small fee, several in-person classes)
- Udacity - CS101 - Intro to Programming
(quit job)
- Coursera course on Scala
- Udacity - Algorithms
- MongoDB - Intro to MongoDB
- Heroku tutorial on hello world
- Vim tutorial
- Github tutorial
(recurse center)
not my style
not my style
not my style
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

16. 1. Forward progress is key
Specific Resources:
- Codecademy JavaScript
- Girl Develop It: Android Course (small fee, several in-person classes)
- Udacity - CS101 - Intro to Programming
(quit job)
- Coursera course on Scala
- Udacity - Algorithms
- MongoDB - Intro to MongoDB
- Heroku tutorial on hello world
- Vim tutorial
- Github tutorial
(recurse center)
not my style
not my style
not my style
now we’re talking
(I didn’t finish any of them!)
(You don’t have to!!!)
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

17. 1. Forward progress is key
● do what keeps you motivated
● stop what makes you unhappy
I also:
● kept network of positive friends
● got programmer friends to spend time with me/my code
● met others going through my struggle
● figured out my motivating environment (cafes)
● allowed myself days off
● celebrated everything obnoxiouslyForward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

18. 2. Follow your curiosity
● scratch the itch
● break to explore a new topic
● rabbit holes are okay! always something to learn
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey
explore the depth, think of it as an investment for the
future

19. 3. It takes initiative
● temptation: learn first, ask after
● fear: wasting others’ time
● skewed reality: “this is a stupid question”
RESULT: you shoot yourself down before you give
yourself a chance to learn
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

20. advice:
● let others help you
● pair up (pair programming ftw!!)
● get your code reviewed
● coding schools/programs are great environment
● go to meetups!! many meetups have office hours
3. It takes initiative
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

21. advice:
● let others help you
● pair up (pair programming ftw!!)
● get your code reviewed
● coding schools/programs are great environment
● go to meetups!! many meetups have office hours
3. It takes initiative
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey
see what I did there? let others HELP YOU. nothing
better than being asked a question you know the
answer to. everyone wins!!

22. my mental strategies:
● allow yourself 6 month “stupid questions allowed” period
● only way to learn is to ask
3. It takes initiative
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey
if someone gives you shit, it’s a reflection on them,
not you.
don’t let them make you feel bad for asking! you’re
taking charge. do what you gotta do.

23. just making first “hello world” -- 2 learning curves??
o python
o vim
4. It’s not you, it’s hard
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

24. just making first “hello world” -- 5 learning curves?!?!
o python
o vim
o bottle framework
o html
4. It’s not you, it’s hard
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

25. just making first “hello world” -- so many learning curves!!
o python
o vim
o bottle framework
o html
o github
o heroku
o domain
4. It’s not you, it’s hard
7 LEARNING CURVES?!?!
not to mention algorithms, context
changes, translating brainwaves,
googling for forever...
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

26. 4. It’s not you, it’s hard
● so many learning curves!!
● people forget how hard it was
● reflect to help you realize that you can make that
progress
● read/learn about imposter syndrome
o if you feel like you’re the dumbest one in the room
and don’t belong, you’re not alone!!!
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

27. 4. It’s not you, it’s hard
● so many learning curves!!
● people forget how hard it was
● reflect to help you realize that you can make that
progress
● read/learn about imposter syndrome
o if you feel like you’re the dumbest one in the room
and don’t belong, you’re not alone!!!
my personal phrase to help me through this:
“you’re not stupid, you just don’t know it yet”
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

28. 5. Open source your journey
Make yourself unique. Own your individuality. Have an
opinion
● website
● github
● blog
● twitter
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

29. 5. Open source your journey
Make yourself unique. Own your individuality. Have an
opinion
● website
● github
● blog
● twitter
www.nehalita.com
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

30. 5. Open source your journey
Make yourself unique. Own your individuality. Have an
opinion
● website
● github
● blog
● twitter
nerdneha.tumblr.com
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

31. 5. Open source your journey
Make yourself unique. Own your individuality. Have an
opinion
● website
● github
● blog
● twitter
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

32. Blog ideas:
● cool things you learned from event
● clarify existing instructions
● show how you did something differently
● explain a concept in your own words
● talk about what is SO COOL
● talk about what frustrates you
● make random lists
o my specialty: compile advice and blog it
● reblog/retweet someone else’s awesome
5. Open source your journey
Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey

33. Lessons Learned
1. Forward progress is key
2. Follow your curiosity
3. It takes initiative
4. It’s not you, it’s hard
5. Open source your journey

34. Go kick some ass
@nerdneha