Over the past few years, software jobs have exploded with more opportunities and higher pay than ever before. I’ve had several friends and family members ask me how they can get started in this as a first, second, or third career. Now, jobs in software aren’t for everyone, but if it fits with you then it can be a very rewarding career.
Hi, my name is Brian and I’ve worked as a software developer for over 20 years. The goal of this channel is to help you build the knowledge you need to get a job in the software industry and also to help you get better at your job if you already have one (or want a better one).
Make sure to subscribe if that is something that you would find helpful. I’ll be covering lots of topics from beginner to a little more advanced.
What are the basic tools you need?
You need a computer. You can technically do a little coding on a modern phone, but you really need a Windows, Mac, or Linux machine. The specs don’t really matter for now. Just anything from the past 5-10 years will probably work just fine.
Applications
I would start with Visual Studio Code. That one tool will provide you with a place to write code and a large list of extensions that can help you save your code changes to GIT and even run your code locally with DOCKER. Visual Studio Code is cross-platform and works on all operating systems and even in the browser for some things.
I’ll provide links to all these tools in the description for you.
The next tool I would install is GitHub. GitHub is a free service for you to store your code other than your computer. If something bad happens to your computer, your code will be safe. You can also share code from GitHub and this makes it a valuable resource when applying and interviewing for a new job as you can show some of your work to potential employers.
You can also keep some code private that you may not want the world to see. I’ll make plenty more videos on GitHub (check the description if you’re watching this in the future), but for now, just download and install GitHub Desktop (link in description). This is the easiest way to get started without having to learn and memorize git commands for the command line.