Technology dominates a huge part of businesses and workplaces in every field. With the world getting online and more digitized every day, you cannot remain in a professional field without the knowledge of technology.
Technical literacy is how you make ends meet. Every job of every kind will require you to interact with technology in some ways. Be it a job or waiting tables to creating complex management systems for a company, you need to adapt to the digital world.
While not every job in this digital era requires coding, why does everybody suddenly want to start coding? From politicians to renowned world entrepreneurs, everybody is advising people to give it a go. Why?
It is because coding is not just a hobby that ‘geeks and nerds’ turn to have fun; it is now a critical career skill. Employers pay a premium amount for the work of employees with coding and programming skills. Whether you dream of a Silicon Valley-type career or something not remotely related to coding and computer science, coding can still boost you in your profession.
So, why is coding the new literacy? And is it right for you?
Let’s find out:
- You can land a software development job
Coding is fundamental if you ever want to become a developer of some sort. Web, software, and mobile application development are some of the highest-paying jobs in the world. The demand for skilled developers and designers continues to grow in every sector. And this trend will not settle down in the future.
Since companies are willing to hire novice but talented people and students to work with them, you can start earning even before you graduate. A great way to earn money while studying.
Check out what open positions we have at our Company: https://mandalatech.azurewebsites.net/careers/
- Doesn’t require university-level education:
Although it certainly helps to learn from professors and collaborate with your classmates on projects, you don’t have to go to college to learn to code. You can join coding boot camps to learn all the skills that employers look for; at a much much lower cost than attending college.
Companies only look for your skillset and your diligence when looking to hire you as a programmer. Once you get certified and have some impressive projects up your sleeves, companies will not seek your grades.
- Makes You Self-Sufficient:
Coding is not only important for working in highly technical specialist jobs. You can find practical ways to apply your coding knowledge to non-coding jobs.
If you are planning a startup, you don’t have to pay a premium to developers and designers to build a simple website or application for you. You can do it yourself if you have slight familiarity with coding.
It can be useful when you want to revamp your blog site without any expert help. You don’t have to consult a professional when you encounter technical problems; which you will in your life. If you work in customer service, you can answer the technical queries of your customers without having to ping your colleague.
Coding goes a long way in your professional field; more than you think.
- Improves Your Problem Solving Skills:
Coding is, in its most bare form, just assigning a computer a task based on the guidelines and ideas you created. Even the most complex systems are problem-solving logic when you break them down into smaller pieces.
Coding can teach you how to approach a problem logically. It allows you to break down the problem into smaller sections and figure out how they affect each other. This can help you prioritize what to focus on first. This methodical and logic-dependent approach to solving problems can be used in your day-to-day life.
Learning to code is sort of like an exercise for the left side of your brain.
- Improves Your Teamwork And Collaborative Skills:
Coding for most big projects is a joint effort. When multiple people with varied ideas and concepts come together and work in sync, the result is impressive. Working together, you need to be able to communicate your ideas, make others understand your approach to solving a problem, and understand why others are doing a certain task a certain way; in turn, your communication skills will improve highly.
Besides, coding also helps you see what is realistic in terms of a certain budget, timeline, and resources for a project. This ability to analyze a project and build a framework for the actual development process makes a valuable team leader.
- Leads To Freelancing:
Coding is a valuable skill to have. One of the most popular ways people earn money through coding is by freelancing. You can work independently for clients and companies across the world in your own time and schedule. Freelancers also charge impressively at an hourly rate.
There are many platforms you can sign up for. Showcase your skills and your best projects and you can have full control over how and where you work.
- Career Flexibility:
If you want to completely switch up the trajectory of your professional life and get into a new field, you should definitely consider learning to code. With how easy it is to learn to code and develop, and combine it with your expertise in the workplace, you will be flourishing in no time.
In other cases, you can aim for managerial and analytical jobs that do not directly involve coding but its applications in daily life. Analysts, advisors, and creative directors understand how to put the knowledge of coding to work to bring more profit to companies.
With this, you might want to start whipping out all your monitors and create a groundbreaking project; but before that, you should know whether or not it’s right for you.
Take this as an example. It’s helpful if you know how to perform surgery (in case you get trapped in a post-apocalyptic movie or whatever), but not everyone should perform surgery.
Just like that, if you are not serious about devoting yourself to learning new technology and frameworks every day, you are better off learning some other skills. With coding, there is much to learn every day. You need to be willing to work past the time when people usually give up; you need to understand the responsibility that comes with working with a team for a joint cause.
However, if you are serious about learning to code, there is no better way to boost yourself in your professional life. You will have so much more to offer that even if you don’t aim for a job relevant to coding, you will be seen as a learner, a detail-oriented person, and a problem solver.
So, get started, today!