Should I learn how to program?

The internet is full of articles talking about whether or not you should learn coding, or development, or programming, etc. I'm a recent bootcamp graduate (March 2019) and I've just started a job as a web developer. In this article I will break down my top reasons for and against learning how to program.

Reasons for

There’s really only two: advance your career or begin a new one

1. It's good to become familiar, and it's a growing industry. Knowing just a little bit about programming may help you in your career. There are a large number of available positions currently and upcoming. You can work in any industry if you know how to code. Plus, it’s great for career advancement and it opens the door to many new opportunities. 
2. You want to see if getting a developer job is right for you. Want to know what it is like as a developer? As a developer, you write code, everyday. If you want to try it out, start by following some tutorials online. It’s a great way to ‘try before you buy’. If you find that you enjoy learning and writing code, then it may be right for you. 

Reasons Against

If your interested, try it out, but don’t kid yourself, it’s tough

1. It's hard. It's logic based and requires a lot of time to just become familiar, and a lot more time to become proficient. I'm sure you're well aware that a lot of people have computer science degrees that take 4 years to acquire. Those classes are hard and they're not for everyone. I'm sure you also heard about coding bootcamps or development bootcamps ,which are also difficult. They sure take a lot less time than 4 years, (anywhere from 3 months to 6 months) but they are extremely intense and they're really only scratching the surface. You're not guaranteed a job after going through one of those. I went through a coding bootcamp myself and while I enjoyed it, I also had a lot of difficulties and frustration. I watched a lot of my classmates drop out just after a couple of months.
2. If you don't love continuous learning then you probably don't want to get into development. In other positions, such as accounting, legal, project management, and even carpentry, you can leave the workforce for 10 years and come back to it,and your skills will still be relevant. But you can't leave development for 10 years and still have relevant skills. Yes, you will still know how to program, but all of the languages and frameworks will have changed. Even some of the language syntax will have changed. This illustrates how much you continually need to learn.
3. You don't have enough patience and don't enjoy solving logic problems. You don't handle failure well. Programming is about learning, and learning is about failure. Much of programming is trying to figure out WHY things don’t work, It may be better for you to learn about how the internet, networking, and servers work.
4. If you never use your programming skills then you're not going to retain them. Think back to your high school math classes, like calculus or even pre-calculus. Do you remember any of the formulas or even the basics of it? I'm sure there's some math nerds out there that do, but I am definitely not a math nerd, and I don't remember any of it. What I'm saying here is that it while it may be great for you to learn a few things, you'll probably forget them in a couple of years- and honestly it may not help you at all in the short-term or long-term since everything will change and you won't remember it anyhow.

Still thinking about it? Try it out.

It's harder than you think. 

Are you thinking about becoming a developer? Try coding every day for 30 days. You're going to feel frustrated and learn a little bit, but if you have trouble coding every single day or find that you just don't have the interest after a couple of weeks of programming, then development is probably not for you, and that's okay. 

If you make it to the end of 30 days that I would suggest trying to build a project without using a tutorial. You will quickly find how difficult that is, and that's okay, you can use references. That's what programming is. But you also find frustration. Coding is about working through problems difficult problems and learning to make something at the end of the day.

If you really want to learn how to program, don’t give up, it’s a long journey to learn how to program, and it will take time. The goal is to enjoy the journey. 

I wrote this article to give back! Read more about my bootcamp experiences at www.santamariacode.com