Why everyone should learn to code

In this blog, we’ll talk about why everyone should learn to code. We won’t restrict our discussion to the financial aspect; we’ll also talk about other benefits of learning how to code, like problem-solving skills, an increase in confidence, and other soft skills.

Let’s dive in.

A general answer to the question “Why should we learn to code?” is to get a better job. Although this is true, it isn’t the only reason we should learn to code. In this blog, we’ll discuss several other reasons. Let’s divide the answer into the following four broad categories before we start discussing each of them.

• Increased job opportunities

• Better skills for any job

• Improved personal skills

• Ease of learning

Having some programming knowledge under our belt increases job opportunities. Additionally, it offers many other benefits, which we’ll discuss below.

If we have learned how to code, our resume is already better than many other candidates who don’t have this skill, regardless of what job we’re applying for. Programming is an important skill, and although anyone can learn to code, not everyone has the perseverance required to go through the process. Our ability to code shows we have the seriousness and diligence required to learn such skills. It also shows that we can complete the assigned tasks, no matter what it takes.

It is a straightforward deduction that if we have learned how to code, we can apply for jobs that involve programming and development. And there is a lot more that comes with this skill. Having learned programming, we can do freelance work and earn some extra money. We can also decide to freelance on a full-time basis. We can even create a start-up and establish our own business.

If we get a job with a company that allows remote work, we can work from the comfort of our own house, leaving behind the hassle of the daily commute to and from the workplace. This also opens up the opportunity to work for countries abroad or relocate to another country if that is what we want.

Programming is one of the most lucrative fields in the job market right now. It also has one of the top pay scales. Adding to this, it’s one of the most in-demand professions right now. Programming skills are required everywhere, be it a supermarket that requires a point-of-sale (POS) system for online payment, a drug store that uses a system for inventory management, or even an education institute that needs an online system for keeping track of attendance and grade records for the students and payment details for the employees. Programming has applications everywhere.

Just for an idea, we can take a look at the top four managerial posts above and their average salaries in 2022, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While the growth of AI, especially generative AIs like ChatGPT, has some people concerned about future job security, projections for programmers look good.

Programming is expected to maintain its rank as a high-paying and in-demand field for quite some time.

To learn how to program, developers complete multiple courses, each serving a different purpose—some topics directly related to programming, like the syntax of a code, and some indirectly linked to programming, like problem-solving. Let’s talk about some of these skills and how they are beneficial for any type of job.

People with programming knowledge are often more productive and effective. The reason is simple—they can leverage their skills to do tedious and laborious tasks with the help of a computer. They can write simple scripts and quickly get the required reports, calculations, etc.

If we work at a software company as a programmer, we are among the most valuable resources. If we’re working at any other company, we are among the tech-savvy people who know more about computers and programming. We can help our company with installations, maintenance, and software upgrades, just to name a few. More importantly, we can give them guidance about the software requirements for our company and help them decide on important features that the required software must have.

Programmers gain a lot of experience on their coding journey. Let’s also talk about some personal skills that come along with learning how to code.

While learning how to code, we have to solve many problems through coding. Most of the problems we need to solve during tests, exams, and programming competitions are new to us.

We require and acquire good problem-solving skills to perform well in these exams and competitions. These problems can be from any domain (numbers, strings, graphs, grids, games, etc.), and the technique required to solve these can also be from any category (recursion, greedy, dynamic programming, and more). In short, a good programmer also possesses good problem-solving skills.

The ability to problem solve is helpful in any job, and it’s also a good skill to have in our daily life.

Programming requires a good understanding of numbers and logic. Programmers are required to study boolean logic (0-1 logic) and apply it in their codes. In programming, control statements like condition statements (if-else, etc.) and loop statements (for, while, do-while, etc.) require a thorough understanding of logic concepts.

Apart from these, problem-solving skills also require programmers to apply certain types of logic when they are developing a solution to a given problem. We also have to test our programs, specifically the boundary cases, enabling us to apply the concepts of mathematics and logic we developed during the training.

Programmers often come up with a unique solution to a given problem, demonstrating their creative minds. This creativity is something that makes us stand out from the rest of the employees at our company.

Good programming skills are often a confidence booster. At the very least, it makes us confident that we can write programs to do some of the tasks that seem laborious and boring. We’ve seen lots of problems and puzzles and are not afraid of facing new ones.

During the learning cycle of programming, it’s common to face errors. Even the best programmers face some types of errors during the compilation or runtime phase of a program. As programmers, we are used to facing these scenarios. We succeed by trying again and again.

Every programmer knows that the journey to success is filled with chances of failure, and the end cannot be reached without showing resilience and perseverance and standing strong in the face of challenges.

We have talked a lot about how good it is to learn programming. We should also talk a bit about how easy it is to start learning to code. We will split this into two parts.

The theory of programming languages is not new. People have been teaching and learning how to code for several decades now. Experts have also worked on various pedagogies and teaching methodologies for teaching computer science-related courses, especially programming.

Moreover, all the basic programming languages follow the same fundamental principles. They all contain data types (to handle characters, numbers, integers, fractions, strings, etc.), control statements (loops for repetitive instructions and if-else for conditional statements), structures and classes, and object-oriented programming (for implementing complex systems with relative ease).

These topics are present in all the latest textbooks.

But why go through the hassle of reading bulky textbooks when we can learn all these concepts on our computer or even our mobile phone? These days, there are many online learning platforms, like Educative, where we can start learning how to code and then expand our expertise by learning more programming languages or growing specific skills like computer vision,  machine learning,  computer networks, or system design.

We can have a look at the following code tabs and run some of the “Hello, World!” code. “Hello, World!” refers to the first and the most basic piece of code that prints “Hello, World!”

Here, we can run the code on the Educative platform without the need for any installations. The output is also readily available. Feel free to run the code and play around in Python, JavaScript, Java, C#, C++, and Ruby.

Programmers, or those who have learned how to code, have a better chance of getting a job and performing well in their jobs (and even outside the office). Programming adds value to a variety of our skills, including our personal skills.

You can start your programming journey right now through the Computer Science Bootcamp at Educative. You can choose any of the following beginner-level courses to kick-start your programming career, or you can search Educative for your favorite programming language or development tool to upskill your expertise.