By Rachel Lee – Dec 4 2018. Additional reporting by Kenneth Koh.
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Coding is for everyone – not just Computer Science majors or tech professionals.
The world is becoming more and more digitalised. It is no surprise then, that the ability to write code and program software has become a valuable skill.
The jobs market shows it. Coding is what programmers and developers do and that programming skills are in high demand these days. Computer science graduates in Singapore can look forward to strong starting salaries and near-guaranteed employment.
Programming is interesting and meaningful – and you don’t have to be a computer science major, or an IT professional to reap its many benefits! It will be something that you will want to take up – even if it does not seem to be related to your studies or career right now.
It’s time you took up a coding course or two, especially if that’s something you’ve not considered before.
If you’re exploring possibilities, here are 3 reasons coding is for everyone:
I. You can create products with what you’ve learnt.
If you’ve always wanted to develop your own games or start your own website, learning how to code during the semester brea (for students) or evenings and weekends (for working individuals) will help you with doing just that.
This is particularly relevant to those of you whose majors in university may seem awfully theoretical and who are aching to simply create something you can call your own.
Even rudimentary knowledge of coding can allow you to create a functional product that other players might enjoy. Take a look at and have some fun with the text game embedded below. If the game does not start automatically, click on the right-facing arrow button to begin.
Although a more comprehensive knowledge of Python will certainly help with formulating a more complex game with greater options, basic understanding is all you need to create a game like the one shown above.
II. It teaches you about problem-solving.
Everybody in this country should learn to programme a computer, because it teaches you how to think.
– Steve Jobs
You might be familiar with this quote by Steve Jobs, and you may even have wondered if not being able to code means you don’t know how to think.
What it simply means is that coding trains the individual to solve problems in a systematic way. Instead of looking at a problem and jumping straight at it, iterating and testing solutions until one finally works, good programmers first understand and analyse a problem, break it down into smaller parts and then work towards a solution for each of these smaller parts.
If you’ve always found yourself to be a somewhat haphazard problem-solver or think you could benefit from learning how to solve problems more methodically, consider taking up a coding course or two to help you with that.
III. You never know when your coding skills might come in handy.
From creating newsletters to simple data analysis, what you learn in the basics of coding today might help you do your job better tomorrow.
While a few hours of Python class are certainly not going to make you a career data scientist, they could help you communicate with the data scientist(s) in the company. This could make collating and presenting data for your marketing campaigns or your financial reports a simpler task, and could ease the difficulties of inter-departmental communication as well.
So it doesn’t matter if you don’t think you have the aptitude to become a full-time programmer, or if you’re simply not interested in becoming one—learning the basics of coding can be useful for your career, even if you don’t manage to progress to the advanced levels.
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This article was originally published on Think by Upcode Academy. Upcode Academy is a leading training school of programming and coding skills. Find out more about their popular training courses here.
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