When I first learned how to code, I was in high school trying to build a website to showcase my amateur photography. I remember sitting in my mom’s office during one of my days off school, googling like a fiend while I tried to figure out how to get all my photographs lined up evenly on the page. Incidentally, one of her colleagues passed by me, noticed what I was up to, and later convinced my mom to buy me the first book she once used to teach herself the basics of web development.
I ended up going through the book for fun and a year later went to college at Boston University, I decided to continue to explore web development by taking an introductory course. At this point, I was not a computer science major or minor, because well, I didn’t even know what it was. After completing the course, I decided to take more computer science courses and considered a minor, without really knowing what that meant.
I thought in order for me to learn web development skills I needed to be a computer science minor or major, however, through trial and error, I figured out a computer science minor wasn’t for me. Thankfully, I didn’t let failing a computer science course and changing my minor, stop me from building websites and apps outside the classroom. Through clubs and hackathons, I discovered and learned technical skill-sets that best fit my interests.
When the time came around for looking for jobs in marketing, my resume stood out from the crowd. I was one of the few students in my class that could talk tech and write code, which helped me land a job before my senior year had even started.
Alright enough about me, let’s talk about you.
If you were like me and you’re thinking about learning how to code, I strongly recommend it. You don’t need to be an engineer or a computer science major to develop your technical skill-set. If you want to be in marketing or advance your marketing career, start with a simple course on Codeacademy and see how you like it.
If you are thinking about pursuing a computer science major or minor, don’t be afraid to give it a try. I ended up dropping my computer science minor and failing a course, and yet I still ended up getting a great job right out of college.
If you’re nervous about getting started, try attending a beginner-friendly hackathon or using The Bit to find a peer to learn programming skills with you. The mentors and peers you will find in those communities will help get you on the right path to success.
Check out The Bit, learn to code with friends.
