In the insanely competitive world of finance and technology, it is absolutely essential to make yourself stand out to employers with your skills. As reported on LinkedIn, some of the top skills that employers value on a potential employee’s profile are programming languages. Knowing how to communicate with your computer has never been more valuable.
These languages include Ruby on Rails, Python, Javascript, C++, Java, and many more. Languages such as Python and C++ are popular amongst employers that need back-end programmers for web development, while languages such as JavaScript and Ruby on Rails are desired by employers that need front-end programmers for web design. Both are very useful skills that can help you stand out against the competition.
In the past, I thought that these skills are reserved for computer science majors with some sort of extensive training specific to the different applications of programming. However, with many resources available online, it is now easier than ever to begin learning how to code, without the need for an extensive education. I have made thorough use of Codecademy by going through their HTML/CSS program for front-end web design, as well as Ruby and JavaScript. Codecademy is designed to guide you step-by-step through the basics, until you end each course with a small program. Along with courses, there is also a community filled with experts and beginners alike to refer to for help. Other online sources include code.org, Code School, Khan Academy, and several others. The best part about these sources is their incredibly reasonable price tag of zero dollars and zero cents. With sites like these, it is almost a tragedy to not use them to their full extent. Though some of these sites offer paid services with personalized help and courses, the majority of their content is free and available for use whenever and wherever. It costs nothing but time to add more value to your resumé, and expand your interests and skills.
There are many other benefits to learning how to code besides standing out to employers. From my experiences, coding has proven to expand and sharpen my mind and thought process. The main challenge in learning how to code, other than actually coding, is being able to think outside the box while remaining in the box at the same time. By that, I mean being able to take very simple words and strict syntax, and arrange them into lines of code to do various things. Any programmer can make a small calculator or a small role-playing story, but it is up to the individual to make it unique and interesting. That’s where thinking outside the box becomes necessary. Contrary to popular belief, coding does require intense critical thinking and a ton of creativity.
To me, I think there is another very unique aspect of coding that I haven’t mentioned before. It is the ability to create anything and make it so personalized that whatever you create is a reflection of yourself. There are thousands of ways to arrange lines of code to create the same thing; it is how those lines are created and arranged that varies from programmer to programmer, and makes each program unique.
