The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Software Engineer, from scratch.

Software Engineers remain among the most sought-after professionals. At the same time, programming is one of the most accessible skills to learn—all you need is a computer and an internet connection. As a developer, you will draw a decent salary (especially if you work on your subsidiary abilities, such as interview, presentation, and negotiation skills). The career also opens possibilities for travel—in terms of both business travel and relocation.

This article will guide you through the process of getting started down this path, from square one, to foot-in-the-door, to comfortably positioned for a career in tech.

Wait, but what about AI?

So far, AI has largely made working in tech easier, particularly for developers. Although the hiring market has its ups and downs, companies are still looking for devs.

As it stands, it’s best to think of AI as a powerful tool that can only boost you in your journey towards becoming a developer, if you learn how to use it well.

So don’t worry about AI taking your job—read on.

1. Clarify the goal.

It’s important to demystify the journey for yourself as much as possible by clarifying the ultimate goal: become an employed software engineer. Keeping your goal in mind will also help keep you focused, and stop you from going on too many side-quests.

Achieving this particular goal is the hard part. Afterwards, you’ll be in a good position to continue your growth in whatever other direction you then desire—either continuing to progress towards being a senior developer, or pivoting to an adjacent position such as project manager (where you will be at an advantage due to your technical knowledge); or perhaps even starting your own business.

2. Know what the 'must-haves' are to achieve the goal.

To get employed as a software engineer, you will need four things:

1. some technical skills—you don’t have to be a wizard when you find your first job. Being a rookie is fine, as long as you have something to offer.
2. some kind of qualification or accreditation.
3. a CV and matching LinkedIn profile.
4. persistence.

Of course, these aren't the only things you'll need. As with almost all jobs, you'll need to be able to learn, adapt, manage your time, cooperate, communicate, etc. Hopefully that doesn't come as too much of a surprise ;)

Of those four ingredients for employment in software development, I put technical skills first for a reason. The great thing about software development is that the smartest companies know that having technical skills is the thing that really matters for a developer, compared to a formal education or a strong CV game.

note: That's why companies like Google are known for hiring people who have never even been to university. Personally, the most talented developer I know has never had any formal programming education, but due to the value he brings to the table, it matters not one bit to the company he works for. And, now that he’s racked up some experience, his CV looks quite healthy anyway.

However, when companies don’t know you, qualifications and a CV are important for getting your foot in the door. If you can get a job without them, great, but planning to get those boxes ticked is the most direct way to appeal to companies as a potential employee.

3. Start learning.

Get online and start learning to program.

YouTube is your first port-of-call. Search up simple videos that explain what programming is, and how the tech industry works. Find out a bit about what different types of programming there are, so you can get a flavour for what kind of programmer you might want to be.

• i.e. if you’re a more visual person, you might be well-suited to Front End Development, using HTML, JavaScript and CSS to structure and style websites. Or, perhaps you’re a more logical and mathematical person, who might be better-suited to Data Analytics or Back End Development. If you’re not sure yet, it doesn’t matter—start somewhere. What you learn will still be useful if you decide to switch later.

If you don’t already have a ChatGPT or Grok account, now is the time to make one. It will be your new best friend on your programming journey. Ask it lots of questions, and to adjust the simplicity of its answers to your current learning level.

• For example, if you’re looking into Front End Development, you will come across the term ‘React’ at some point, which is not exactly a coding language. You’ll wonder, ‘what is React?’. ChatGPT can explain that to you in simple terms, better than most humans could.

Once you’re ready to start programming yourself, I would consider starting with a service like Codecademy.

• Codecademy is a website that teaches you how to write code, from the very basics. They have a free tier, and then you can pay a fairly reasonable fee for access to more learning modules.
• You can move around on Codecademy’s different courses and get a feel for different languages and types of programming if you like. But you’ll eventually need to pick a language to go deeper on.
• If you’re not really sure, you can ask ChatGPT for advice. Perhaps go with one of the more popular and employable coding languages, and one that is also beginner-friendly. JavaScript or Java are fine options.

After using Codecademy for a while, you will have some basic knowledge of how to write code. You can now go back to YouTube and search for some slightly more complex guided coding tutorials.

• Traversy Media and Programming with Mosh are some well-known channels which produce such videos.
• At this point you’ll probably want to download an IDE (a computer app which developers use to write their code), so that you can program along with these tutorials, and build your very first apps.
• You’ll also want to create a GitHub account—kind of like the Instagram or Pinterest for developers, but instead of photos, people post their code (and also save their code history—so it has a practical purpose as well). Trust me, a GitHub account will be very useful for your goal of getting employed, and the sooner you have one, the better.

After doing tutorials on YouTube for a while, I recommend to get a paid subscription to PluralSight (or, alternatively, Udemy).

• These services offer the same thing as YouTube, but are dedicated platforms, with top-of-the-line tutorials. Coding along and thereby building a couple of small projects will be a big step forward. Those projects can later be shown in job interviews, and are concrete proof that you can make something—including to yourself. …which should not be taken lightly. For many of us, those early days of trying to get your skills off the ground can be confusing and frustrating.
• Don’t worry if things still seem intimidating at this point—you’re making progress, even if it doesn’t feel like it.

4. Get accredited.

You will want to start this as soon as possible, preferably at the same time as you are doing the previous step.

Find the most reputable institution that's in your budget—a university, a technical college, a boot camp, some kind of accredited online coding program. Something.

All of the options I mentioned are useful for learning technical skills, yes, but I actually think that learning by yourself is very important, which is why I listed it separately, in a prior step. You cannot wait for other people to give you permission to learn, especially in a world with such abundant self-paced online resources. More than learning technical skills, the main uses of participation in accredited learning programs, I believe, are as follows:

• Meeting other people who are on the same journey, with whom you can compete, collaborate, and together, inspire each other on.
• You might be lucky and have a good mentor or teacher, even one that takes an interest in helping you.
• You might get opportunities to work with others in a structured way, which is very useful. Contrary to the stereotype of the lone, late-night programmer, software development is a highly collaborative profession.
• You will build stuff, which will further increase your confidence, as well as broaden your portfolio (to later show in job applications).
• You might get introductions to companies and institutions. Those could lead to internships, jobs opportunities, and experience.
• You will get something to put on your CV and LinkedIn.

Which accreditation to pursue?

• If you have time and money, university is the one that is most certain to lead to employment—even, ironically, when in some cases universities actually teach you less than other accreditation options.
• Boot camps are very intense, but they don’t last long, and can also be very valuable for finding a job. Some boot camps have partnerships with companies, allowing graduates to get full-time jobs only months after first starting to program. I’ve personally known people who got their careers up-and-running very fast through participating in a boot camp.
• So, the answer: choose the accreditation program which matches your budget of time and money, and then keep doing more accreditations until you find employment (which, remember, is your goal).

5. Make a CV and a LinkedIn page.

In order to get a job, you will need to apply to jobs. To apply to jobs, you will need a CV, and probably a LinkedIn page as well.

I don’t want to give too much CV-building advice. There’s countless resources online for that. I would only suggest, keep it relatively short, and cut the irrelevant stuff that tech companies will be uninterested in. If, for example, you have a philosophy degree or worked as a hotel manager, you might include those as they suggest good qualities such as analytical thinking and responsibility. But, if you worked for a year as an Uber driver, consider excluding that. No disrespect at all to Uber drivers, but a CV is a cultivated self-presentation to potential employers in specific fields. They don't need your life story, they need to know why they should hire you for this job over the next guy.

I have found almost all my software engineering jobs through LinkedIn. A LinkedIn profile is an avatar of your professional self, so take a bit of time to deck it out. Get a professional photo taken. Find and add any contacts you have on LinkedIn. Add any of your past skills and awards to your page, as well as your newfound coding skills. Use LinkedIn’s free month of Premium and do a few coding courses on their education platform, which will land you some certificates that you can directly display on your profile. Having a good LinkedIn profile is underrated.

The main challenge with your CV/LinkedIn is that they are needed for applying for jobs, but before you’ve had a (relevant) job, there's not much to include on them. This is where the accreditation comes in handy, as it is something to include. Furthermore, many accreditation programs will allow you the chance to build an app as part of a team, sometimes for an external company, which is kind of like an unpaid job or internship. It’s a good start CV-wise, and could be a leg-up into the professional world.

With software, unpaid relevant work is never really unpaid: the payment is the advancements in terms of learning and experience you make, the positive reference from your manager, and the entry on your CV.

6. Get applying. And don't stop.

There’s no real time that is too early to start applying to work at companies. Even if you have no experience, the worst thing that can happen when you apply to a company is that they say no. Work for free, if you have to. The thing you need is experience and new skills—as I mentioned, think of those as the payment. Trust me, it will be worth it.

When applying for jobs, LinkedIn has been my first port-of-call. Stay open to other channels as well though, because there are a lot of them (and the usefulness of a given platform may depend on your location).

Something you need to know when starting with job applications is that, even for more experienced developers, the vast majority of applications are rejected. So don’t fear rejection. It may hurt, but you will get used to it, because you will receive so many that eventually you will just get bored of it. Similarly, unless you have a rare talent for interviewing, get used to the experience of having a bad interview. It’s similar to a comedian bombing onstage—happens to all, including the very best. It’s not a big deal, just try to use it as a chance to learn how to do a tiny bit better in the next one.

Keep going. Keep applying. Keep refining your approach, the way you present yourself, your CV and your LinkedIn. If you feel like things are just not coming together, aim lower. Approach a company, explain your situation, and offer to work for a while part-time for free. Remember, you are building skills and building a profile. One small win, one small project, one small internship—they all put you in a better position, slightly more likely to be able to progress. It’s hard work. But remember, this is the hard part. Be the person who can do hard things. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

Following these steps, eventually, you will land a job as a software developer.

You did it – now what?

You may feel a bit out of your depth at first, but this is where your real education begins.

In software engineering, as with many jobs, formal education is great, but many of the most important skills can only be learned on the job. If you commit to this first job, knowing you will be far from perfect, but just keep showing up, over time you will watch yourself improving. You will gradually understand more, know what to do in more situations, participate in successful projects, create working software that companies actually use to run their business. Your managers will also see you improving, slowly-but-surely.

And, one day, you will suddenly realise: you are a software developer, and you have skills that make you valuable to people. That's when the real work begins ;)