Beginner Advice For An Electrical Engineer On How To Become A Programmer


On one of my last YouTube videos I got a comment/question that I thought some of you on my mailing list might find interesting.

The comment was: Nice animation man, have a like and a comment. I come from an Electric Engineer background, ¿what would you recommend me to learn so I can be further involved in proyects? ¿What does an EE usually lack? (I am quoting them directly, so forgive the spelling)

My response was as follows:


I have trained several electrical engineers into programmers. All together I can think of 3 off the top of my head and they all made the transition pretty seamlessly.

As for what to learn: Pick a stack (language/framework) and then pick a small hobby project like a personal website and start hacking on it. Go full script kiddy for your first project, like copy and paste away.

As far as specific stacks go with both the EEs I trained up it was JavaScript. Other languages like Python and C are amazing but complicated and you need to figure out how to compile them and a bunch of other little things that slow you down at first. JavaScript/html you can write with a text editor and then run in the browser crazy quick. Then once you get used to the basics go back and re-examine what stack would do the trick.

That is pretty much what the EEs I trained up did... then they got a job in a fast paced startup working with me and learned a lot more that way.

I hope that helps. Also feel free to hop in the Discord if you have any questions and throw them out there. We have a pretty good community of hackers there.


Do you agree or disagree? What would your advice have been?

~Cheers

PS: If you are interested in engaging my services as a Web Application Architect check out my Group Coaching Program or 1 on 1 Consulting at schematical.com and check out my FREE eBook 20 Things You Can DoTo Save Money On Your Amazon Web Services Bill Today