How to Choose a Tech Course, From Someone Who Taught Himself

I taught myself to code. In 2016 I came across one of MIT's free programming courses and worked through it out of curiosity, with no grand plan behind it. That decision quietly rearranged my life. When someone asks me how to choose a tech course, then, I'm answering from experience. I got lost in that maze myself and found my way out eventually.

Start With What You Enjoy

Most advice opens with what is in demand. I think that's backwards, because demand shifts every couple of years and a field that is hot when you enrol may have cooled by the time you finish. What carried me through the boring, frustrating middle stretch was simpler. I genuinely liked taking a messy problem and building a small system that tidied it up. My first real projects were spreadsheets that grew far beyond what any spreadsheet should do.

Before comparing syllabuses, it is worth asking yourself what kind of problem you enjoy chewing on. If you like giving chaos some order, backend and data work will feel like home. If you care how a thing looks in someone's hand, lean towards the front end. People who pick a field they have no appetite for tend to quit in week three.

Try the Free Version First

I started with a free course and a good deal of stubbornness. That MIT material taught me more in a few months than I thought possible, and it cost nothing. Later I studied IT at Kabarak University, which gave the self-teaching some shape, but the foundation was free.

Paying for a course is fine once you know you'll finish one. If you can't get through a free course on a subject you claim to love, an expensive one is unlikely to change that. It will simply cost more to quit.

Judge It by What You'll Build

Look past the topic list and ask what you will have made by the end. A few small projects you actually finished are worth far more than a certificate with nothing behind it. In all my years doing this work, nobody has asked to see a certificate of mine. Clients want to see projects, and so do employers. Accreditation does matter in some fields, sometimes a great deal. For a working developer, though, it sits well below a portfolio of things that work.

Keep a Pace You Can Manage

The best course is the one you're still doing two months later. An hour on most days will outrun a heroic ten-hour weekend that never happens again. Pick a format that suits the life you actually have, because the disciplined version of yourself you're expecting next month seldom turns up.

Whatever you choose, the specific tools will age. The languages and frameworks I use today aren't the ones I started with. What lasted was the habit of teaching myself, and of staying comfortable while confused until things click. A course that builds that habit has done its job, whatever the subject on the tin. I'd start with something you're curious about and keep it cheap until you're sure.