Recently plenty of young professionals had this thought: When is the best time to learn to code? The answer may seem very clear. We’re told that for a child to succeed and be happy, they must enjoy what they spend most of their after-school hours doing. Since childhood is such an impressionable time of life, many people continue to ask themselves this question well into adulthood.
This is a tricky question!
There are so many different factors involved in answering it. We know that young children can start learning to code at a very early age and still can grow up being career coders or software engineers. However, children don’t align with the typical view of what a software engineer looks like.
For example, if you asked someone to describe a software engineer, they would probably paint a picture of someone in front of a computer screen all day long. From this image, coding may be an occupation for boys rather than girls because most people who are seen coding are men.
This is no secret to the tech community, and there has been a push for more women to enter this field. This means that it’s essential for young girls to know that they can be software.
engineers. The number of females in this industry appears to decrease with age, and we want to change that trend.
It’s hard work
On the other hand, software engineering is also a very challenging program to get through. It’s tough if you are focusing on it and being in school or having a job. Some students who begin their undergraduate education studying computer science have expressed concerns that they may not complete their degrees because of all the additional stressors they have to deal with.
However, for people who are not in school, the opportunity cost of spending all their time studying software engineering could lead them down a very different path. They might even feel like they didn’t try hard enough and regret dropping out of school because their career prospects would decrease if they could not get at least a bachelor’s degree.
For adults who already have a job, whether in a different field or within the tech industry, the question of when is the best time to learn to code becomes even more complex. It can take anywhere from 40-60 hours per week, depending on where you live and what language you are learning, and how much free time you have to practice on your own.
When opportunity presents itself
It would help if you had this much time to become fluent enough in the programming language you are learning so that you’ll be able to take advantage of it when an opportunity does arise. There is plenty of information out there for you to upskill yourself, for instance api projects for beginners will give you a good idea. However, if you do not devote enough hours studying software engineering, you may fail in getting a job in this field. There is no doubt that this field is expanding, with more than 200 new computer science jobs posted online every day.
This makes it necessary for everyone to go past when is the best time to learn to code and instead ask themselves if now is the right time for them. If you want to become a software engineer, then the sooner, the better! The longer you wait, the more likely other people who have a head start on you will be chosen for a job because they have been studying software engineering in their free time.
