In this episode we'll talk about 3 common issues I see that beginner programmers struggling with most when starting the journey of learning to code.

1. Impostor Syndrome


2. The overwhelming number of choices


3. Thinking that struggling is a bad thing (and then quitting because of it)

Show Transcript

0:09

Welcome to the coders campus Podcast, where you'll learn how to code from one of the best teachers in the industry. Whether you're an absolute beginner or a seasoned pro, the coders campus podcast will teach you what you need to know, to master the art of programming.

0:24

And now, your host, Trevor Page.

0:28

All right, so fellow coder, welcome back to joining me on my morning walks. Once again, it's a bit rainy out today at least really cloudy. Hopefully, I don't get rained on but yeah, today I want to talk about a couple of subjects related to sort of some common issues that I have seen in my days teaching people how to code, right. So, you know, these issues may not affect you directly. They might not affect you right now, but they will later or they may have affected you in the past. Who knows, right? So these are just very common things that I see from pretty much any old programmer who's you know, come through my doors, so to speak. The first one is really the most common one, which is this concept of imposter syndrome. So this imposter syndrome will will sort of plague you, if you will,

1:20

in two aspects, in my opinion, the first area the first time, the first aspect where this imposter syndrome will affect you, is when you're getting close to that important miles milestone of being, you know, quote unquote, job ready. So if you are coming to the conclusion of your degree, so if you are getting a degree or a diploma, through college and you are almost ready to graduate, you're you might start to feel this and it comes up in the in the form of like, I don't think I'm really ready for a job, I don't feel ready for a job, why would anyone hire me? Right? Or if I was hired, I'm probably just gonna fail at my job, I'm probably just gonna get fired. Because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right? So it's this negative mindset around someone who, you know, potentially has gone through years of a college program and who, you know, for all intents and purposes, should be well versed and well qualified for an entry level or junior position as a programmer, right? So why are you having these feelings, okay, that's the first instance where this whole thing comes up.

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The second instance, where you might

2:41

experience this imposter syndrome is while you are taking a course with other people, so if you are directly in contact with other students, or if you're directly in contact with you know, peers, or some small group of people that you are learning with, as you are, you know, experiencing the journey of learning how to code, you may compare yourself to others. So you may look at

3:11

the the star in your, you know, the star player, if you will, the star coder in your classroom. So you may look to them and say, Oh, look at how well they are doing compared to how I am doing, you know, they have completed all these assignments or something, or they don't seem to struggle at all with any of these concepts. And it just seems like everything comes so naturally to them. And for me, I'm struggling, right, every concept, every new concept, every new assignments, every new, you know, small thing that I learned is this gigantic struggle in order for me to move forward. Right. But the main thing is, you might look at other people. And like I said, you compare yourself to other people. So this is so common. This is something that I again, I've been teaching this stuff now for over nine years.

4:03

I see it all the time, I experienced it myself, when I was sort of, you know, getting started. It actually didn't hit me until a bit later in my career. It wasn't until I was hired, as an intermediate level developer, that I really started to feel this sort of imposter syndrome. So thankfully, with my throughout my university career, if you will. And my

4:28

first job where I was a sort of a junior level coder, it didn't really, I didn't really think of it. I never really compared myself much to other people. And so I was I was lucky in that regard. It didn't really affect me. But I got a job as an intermediate developer. And I had had a pretty much exactly one year of experience, one year of on the job, real world experience. And that is you know, to go from, you know, one year of

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experience to an intermediate level developer, it's that's kind of like the soonest that you can make it happen. That's sort of the earliest in your career that you can make that move. So

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I started to think well, am I really cut out to be an intermediate developer? So that's where that sort of, you know, ramped up for me, I believed clearly that I was good enough to be a junior developer, I believed with, you know, all my mind that I was cut out to be a junior developer.

5:32

But yeah, that one little step up that one pay, raise that new title, if you will, threw me for a bit of a loop. And I started to feel like, Oh, am I worth it? Am I good enough? Am I you know, am I gonna get fired, you know, so that's sort of where it kicked in for me. So it, you know, your mileage may vary, you can experience this at any point in your career. And I'm sure there are people who don't experience it until they are hired as like a senior level developer or something. So the most important takeaway here is probably a few things. But one, don't compare yourself to other people. It, it literally does you absolutely no good whatsoever, there's no advantage to it.

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It's full of disadvantages, right? You are, you know, only most likely going to feel not great about yourself. Because if you are literally not the number one person

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in your class, or in your social group, or in your company, or whatever, right? If you're not literally the number one person, you're probably going to have some sort of negative feelings about comparing yourself and even then, even if you're the number one person at your company, there's always someone else in the world that you can, that you will consider to be better than you. Right. And this is obviously not just about programming, this is any, any field any person and this is a human psychology thing. This is just how human beings function. And it's unfortunate, because it literally does you no good to compare yourself. Okay, so the other people that you are perhaps comparing yourself to, they are in a completely different situation from you, they have potentially advantages that you don't have, they potentially have more time on their hands, they have more money to back them, they have less stress they have like, who knows, right? Or maybe they were just blessed with a big brain who knows, like this is it's possible it's not. But that's not in your control, you can't control how well or not well, other people do on their journey. And if you can't control it, it's there's no, you are absolutely just wasting your time. And really, it's self sabotage, you're just sabotaging yourself and your potential progress and your potential success by comparing yourself to others. So I don't know, you probably have heard this, you know, talk before from someone about how it's useless to compare yourself to others. But anyway, human psychology, it's hard to suppress it, it's easy for me to say, Oh, just don't do it. But all I can say what I can say is, if you do do it, you're very normal. It's you're just like, so many other students that I had that I've taught, okay. So my best advice is, obviously, try not to do that. Try not to compare yourself to others. But if you do start to feel like Oh, look at these people who I'm around who are so much smarter than me, try to reframe it in terms of a positive, right? So the negative would be look at these people are smarter than me, I'm never going to make it, I'm never gonna be as good as them. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? That's the negative way to think about it. to flip it around, you can say, Oh, look at this person, who is further along in the timeline than I am in terms of learning. Right, they probably just been doing it longer than you have, right in terms of hours practiced. So they're further along than I am. So now I can reach out to them and say, Hey, I'm struggling with XYZ concept. Can you help me out? Right. So use it as an advantage, use it as a way and a means to further yourself in your education.

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And that's, that's literally what I do whenever the other analogy I use is,

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I never want to be the smartest person in a room. Right? If I'm the smartest person in the room, it feels good for your ego. Like oh, look at me, everyone's asking me questions, and I'm able to answer all these questions. And, and you know, this is it feels great. I must be this important person. But really, there's no benefit for that person. If you were the smartest person in the room, you're not getting anything out of it other than stroking your own ego, right? Everyone else has been at benefiting and growing, whereas you probably are not. Right. So think of it like that think they are the smartest person in the room in that case in this hypothetical situation, and you are then able to leverage their knowledge and make yourself better while

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They are just stroking their ego. So you never want to be the smartest person in the room, I've been there before. It