Being a programmer is not an easy profession. It requires constant learning with a focus on both old and new technologies. The beginner path is easy for new learners because of countless online resources.

The real challenge begins when beginners start working on commercial projects and are at the stage of gravitating toward intermediate skill. They stumble and lose confidence in the process. After all, the goal is to become a production-level coder or at least become job ready. It can also become challenging to find suitable learning aids.

According to Dreyfus model of skill acquisition, one needs to go through different steps of skill acquisition. With no rule of reference, it can easily be assumed that one needs at least 1000 hours of programming practice before one leaves the novice stage. The other levels of skill acquisitions (competent, proficient and expert) requires more investment in terms of time and dedication.

In today’s article, we will focus on how one can continue one’s learning path after one has graduated from the beginner stage.

It doesn’t matter in which technology you are interested. The new approach will help you move forward with confidence, and make you job ready! AlisonPKD from New Zealand recently started a job as a junior developer by using the following methods of improving his skills.

Watch Products Coded Live

The meaning of “learning to code” becomes different when the handheld honeymoon stage is over. Most of the time, beginners don’t have any idea what they are going to encounter going forward. And this is where we introduce the first way to tackle the transition.

Watching live product development can help you transition smoother and help intermediate coders manage their expectations accordingly. Most of the time, it is the expectation to succeed early that hampers the growth rather than the real competence.

Livecoding is a community with coders from 194 countries, 266 programming languages, and 21,000 projects being developed live. The users are professional engineers, computer science students, and hobby coders. As a learner, it is a good idea to check out the projects in your favorite programming language or framework using the project discovery tool. Using the broadcaster discovery tool, the learner can also discover new users and collaborate on projects together. The website explores all the major programming languages and provides a medium in which you can communicate with like-minded programmers. Now the real question is, how does the website helps you to reach your potential, like in the case of the young programmer Inkblotty from Denver, CO in the United States.

How To Be A Programming Superhero After Crossing Beginner Stage

As we have already mentioned, beginners find it hard to transition to the intermediate stage and keep motivated during this stage. So if you are a beginner evolving to the intermediate stage, you might want to take advantage of Livecoding and propel yourself toward true mastery.

Why wait? Let’s go through the points already.

1. Start Broadcasting

No doubt, the first thing is to get used to broadcasting. Broadcasting live projects is a huge step towards gaining confidence and interacting with the community. If you have never broadcasted before, the first few streams will be more of an experiment rather than real learning. Once you are comfortable broadcasting your projects, you will find it easier to handle broadcasting and learning simultaneously.

2. Get Feedback From the Community

Feedback is important for learning. The feedback loop starts early but it slowly loses its importance. Lack of community or peer support is just one of the many reasons that can cause an absence of feedback. By broadcasting your projects, you are in a position to receive hands-on feedback from the engineers who love helping new talent. Furthermore, as an intermediate, you can provide feedback to beginners and assist them in improving their coding skills.

3. Follow Engineers Who Broadcast Your Field of Interest

Love a broadcaster? Follow his/her channel to support him/her. Livecoding is all about building a community around your programming needs. With over 266 programming languages, it is important that you choose your path carefully and learn from the broadcasters who you find amazing!

4. Create A Profile Page

Learning is important but so is exposure. Livecoding provides a nifty profile page to list your achievements. The profile page can easily act as a landing page for the client who might just be looking for a candidate like you!

5. Discover Projects and Study Them

What’s better than learning from a project developed using your favorite language or framework? You can go through the whole archive of projects coded on Livecoding and learn from them. All you need to do is use the project discovery tool to your advantage.

Rinse and Repeat

The key to becoming an effective learner is to study other projects, get proper feedback from the community, help beginners, and sharpen your basics. If you stick to the path, you are bound to learn and improve yourself as a programmer.

So what do you think about the learning path? Comment below and let us know.