The New Year offers everyone the opportunity for a fresh start and brings new beginnings, energy and enthusiasm. If you harness that potential effectively then you can set yourself up for an exciting and productive twelve months.
But we know just how hard it can be to channel those best intentions and January is also a month of false starts, broken resolutions and missed opportunities.
That’s why we’ve created the 14 Day Empowerment Challenge, an interactive and encouraging set of tasks to help you capitalise on that positive mindframe and leverage your New Year energy into a New, More Empowered You!
The Alison Learner Community
When it comes to self-improvement, going at it alone can be extremely difficult. Add to that the pressures and expectations that come with New Year resolutions and it’s easy to understand why many people fall short of the goals they set for themselves at the beginning of the year.
We believe that one of the most important aspects of our free, learner-focused model is the global community of Learners that has built up around the Alison platform. Through Alison’s social media channels, and also through student-led community groups, an organic support network of Learners has emerged.
Our 14 Day Empowerment Challenge leverages that community spirit and mutual encouragement to help you stay focused and succeed in your New Year resolutions for a more empowered and successful year!
How the 14 Day Empowerment Challenge works
This January, we’re challenging our Learners to undertake a 14 day journey of upskilling and self-improvement. For two weeks, Learners will complete a daily task that will build towards their self-empowerment and help them achieve their goals of promotions, dream jobs and new careers.
The challenges include a variety of exciting and rewarding tasks such as taking the Alison Workplace Personality Test, gaining transferable skills, developing their emotional intelligence and learning how to create a job-securing CV.
To be automatically entered into the challenge, Learners just need to:
Visit the Challenge page on our website. (Learners who sign into Alison or create a new profile during the campaign will also be entered into the challenge if they complete a course.)
Pledge your commitment to a new Empowered You by completing the daily tasks set out in the 14 Day Empowerment Challenge.
Complete as many Certificate and Diploma courses as you can between 25 January and 7 February 2022.
The Alison Learner who completed the most courses will win a year’s worth of FREE Alison Certificates.
The winner will be chosen and contacted by the Alison HQ Team between 8 and 11 February 2022 via the email address associated with the person’s Alison account.
And the winner is…
The Learner who completes the most courses at the end of the challenge will win a year’s worth of free Alison Certificates and Diplomas. This unprecedented prize will allow the winner to build on the energy and enthusiasm they’ve generated during the campaign and make 2022 the year their dreams come true!
January is National Creativity Month, and while you’ve probably seen poets, screenwriters, painters, and other artists celebrated on social media, too often, programmers are left out of the spotlight.
It makes sense. People still see programming as sitting in front of a monitor, clacking away at a keyboard all day. Many don’t even realize that creativity is actually one of the cornerstones of development — but what’s more creative than using cutting-edge technology to solve problems and hopefully make the world a better place?
Creative coding is gaining popularity as art projects built with tools like p5.js become more mainstream. But, you don’t need to be an artist to be a creative programmer. There are several steps you can take to help showcase your creativity in your everyday work.
1. Develop your foundation
First, you’ll want to diversify your programming knowledge (and toolkit). Experimenting with different programming languages will help you learn new methods and processes that’ll help you breathe new life into your projects.
You’ll also learn more about the various programming paradigms (e.g., functional and object-oriented) and their respective principles and approaches, providing you with multiple perspectives to approach your problem-solving.
Kenny Lin, Codecademy’s Domain Manager, explains how learning new languages helps develop his creativity:
“Learning different programming languages has made me creative in that I think about problems differently. I’m most comfortable with JavaScript, so when I was learning Python, I noticed that these two languages have very different approaches to solving the same problem. I think it comes from understanding that different programming languages are essentially different tools with different trade-offs.”
When you explore new tools and trends in your industry and see how other developers are using them, chances are, you’ll find some great inspiration.
2. Learn from other developers
Creatives often learn from the old masters. Painters study Picasso. Writers study Shakespeare. Programmers study other, more advanced programmers.
Take a look through online communities like the Codecademy Forums and Stack Overflow — see what other developers are working on. Try to find someone who’s building a project similar to yours and extrapolate from their solutions.
Or, you could take a direct approach and ask a more senior developer for a couple rounds of code reviews. Their feedback could provide new avenues for you to explore or problem points you hadn’t considered.
Plus, you could even put your heads together and build a group project! That way, you can learn from a more experienced programmer first-hand as you create something incredible bit-by-bit. Two minds are sometimes better than one, and the brainpower in collaborative coding is far more than the sum of its parts.
3. Maintain a beginner’s mindset
As your coding skills have progressed, you might’ve developed a list of helpful code snippets that you plug into different projects. That’s great, and it’s a habit that’ll save you loads of time throughout your career, but it also means you’re probably not trying to find new ways to achieve those same functions.
Similarly, as you become more proficient, you might spend less time brainstorming different ideas when you’re faced with a problem. It happens to all of us. Once you’ve found a solution that works, why wouldn’t you keep using it? (If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, amirite?)
Still, while helpful, this habit often curtails creativity. That’s why the “beginner’s mindset” is so important. You can’t learn and grow if you think you already know everything.
Before starting your next project, take a little extra time to think of alternative solutions. Try to come up with at least three. Even if you end up going with the first one, exploring new workarounds will help you flex your creative muscles. Kenny, who we heard from above, explains how before building a project, he takes a moment to ask himself a few questions:
“The big one is — what problem am I trying to solve? For me, this question then branches into something like: Is there something that I’ve encountered that could be made easier through an app or a script? Or it could be that my ‘problem’ is I want to practice writing code in a language or framework I’m rusty in. Maybe I want to try out a new language or framework. But in all cases, I think back to ‘what is the problem I’m trying to solve?'”
4. Find exciting side projects
You know what they say about all work and no play.
It’s easy to try to achieve your goals as quickly as possible, but churning out project after project to flesh out your portfolio is a great way to burn yourself out. Give yourself a little room to play. Believe it or not, fun and creativity actually play a huge role in your education.
Try stepping away from your career path for a moment and find something that inspires you — something you’re excited about. It doesn’t even have to be work-related.
Andrew, one of our learners from Scotland, built this cool data science project based on RuneScape (a popular MMORPG) while working through our Data Analyst career path. His project exemplifies how we can apply code to our other interests — whether it’s gaming, art, or even music.
If you’re having trouble coming up with a side project, why not add your own spin to one that you build in your coursework? Take Robert, another of our learners, as an example. While creating a Blackjack game, he added a little twist by using six decks instead of one. As he explains in our forums, this helped sharpen his problem-solving ability as he figured out different ways to implement this added functionality.
Need help coming up with ideas? Check out these learner projects for more inspiration.
5. Look outside of tech
At the end of the day, creativity is a muscle. It gets stronger the more you use it, no matter the context.
That’s why it can be helpful for you to explore other creative outlets.
Pick up a paintbrush. Spit a freestyle. Step away from your code to give yourself a chance to come back to it later with fresh eyes. Take it from Kenny:
“When I was first learning how to code, I kept trying to abstract this knowledge to other areas. One that kept coming up was actually cooking and thinking about how different actions, like chopping veggies, can be a function that I call over and over again — and pulling together these different functions to make a dish is like building an app. It’s such an eclectic mix of things that I draw inspiration from, and I think that’s the same for everyone.”
It’s like playing video games. How many times have you rage-quit after a difficult level or boss, just to breeze through it when you came back later?
Stepping away from your code gives your brain time to process information and make new connections. As Kenny explains:
“Sometimes in programming, the best thing to do after hitting a wall is to step away and take a break. This comes after trying on my own to figure out a solution, searching online, bugging colleagues. But after some time doing something non-programming related, I come back to the problem with a fresh perspective, or I might’ve been inspired during my break and eager to try out something I thought up.”
The short answer: Not much. But, as a Software Engineer, will you need to solve complicated technical problems with code? Yes. Will you work with numbers? Yes. Will you use logic to write code? Yes.
If you look at a list of required coursework for a degree in software engineering, you’ll typically see Calculus I-III, Differential Equations, Discrete Mathematics, Linear Algebra, and other advanced math classes. So where does this leave you if you want to work in software engineering, but you don’t have the math background?
Well, it actually depends on what type of software engineering you want to do. Are you interested in creating programming languages? What about libraries and frameworks? Or is designing interactive websites more your thing? Each of these areas will require a different set of skills, and varying levels of math, to do them well.
To better understand the relationship between math and software development, let’s first take a look at what a Software Engineer does.
What do Software Engineers do?
The majority of Software Engineers work on either web or business applications. They could work on the front-end, the part of the application you see and interact with; the back-end, the part of the application that runs on a server; or they could work on both sides of the application as a Full-Stack Developer.
Depending on the type of stack a company uses, a Software Engineer will need to know a handful of programming languages. For Front-End Developers, that’d be HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. There are a number of languages that Back-End Developers could be required to know, including Java, Python, Ruby, PHP, C#, or one of the many other languages used on the server-side. If they’re going to interact with databases, Back-End Developers also need to know SQL, and there are a number of technologies they’ll use, like Jenkins and Kubernetes.
These Software Engineers — the ones who design websites — have to know how to use programming languages, libraries, and frameworks, but they’re not necessarily using math very often, if at all.
There’s another group of Software Engineers that create new programming languages, libraries, frameworks, and other technologies for developers to use. These are the engineers who rely on their advanced math skills to do their jobs.
So if you want to work on websites, what math do you actually need?
While the programming languages we listed above have their roots in mathematics, none of them require you to know math to become good at using them. In other words, you can absolutely write code without math.
Roy, one of our forum moderators, put it this way in a forum post:
Programming isn’t about math but about expression. Some input to the expression results in something out. Will there be math involved? That only depends upon what the program or script is expected to do. It could have nothing to do with math, but position in a list, or node in the DOM.
But, keep in mind that you’ll still need to have basic math skills to work as a Software Engineer. Here are some tasks that would require math skills:
Ballparking estimations about system loads
Analyzing an A/B split test
Determining the probability of a recurring event
Understanding the basics of Big O Notation, so you know the complexity of the code you write and how to optimize it for performance
Using logic to understand conditional logic in your code
How can math help you as a Software Engineer?
Even though you won’t need to know advanced math for most software engineering projects, any math courses you’ve taken or any other exposure to mathematics you’ve had won’t go wasted. This is because you develop a skill that allows you to approach complicated problems using logic when you take a math course. And it’s this way of thinking that will be really useful to you as a Software Engineer.
Interestingly, there are many other activities that you might do on a regular basis that can contribute to your skills as a Software Engineer. Solving puzzles, playing a musical instrument, and playing video games all require some level of problem solving or logic that you’ll see in your software engineering problems. Even philosophy involves logic and proof, which can lead to a programmer developing a unique approach to coding.
Here’s some more advice from Roy:
If math is not your strength, perhaps history is. Gloss over math and look at the history of numbers. Studying along this line will be a road tour through all the fundamental questions that arose through history and how math was employed to help answer them. One should not be surprised by how much is learned about math in the process. Now apply that knowledge to application development.
We’ve talked about the software engineering jobs that don’t need advanced math, but which ones do?
If math is one of your strengths and you want to use those skills on the job, here are some software engineering fields that you can consider:
Math plays a unique role in each of these fields. In game development, for example, you’d need to represent 3D objects in a 2D environment, which requires in-depth knowledge of geometry. You also have to create a virtual world that acts like the real world, so you need to know physics. In machine learning, knowing advanced math and statistics will allow you to create new models or even new types of models that can change the future.
How to learn more math to use as a Software Engineer
Are you relieved to know that you don’t have to be a math expert — or even good at math — to become a Software Engineer? If so, a lot of people are in the same boat as you. In fact, a large percentage of working Software Engineers don’t have a college degree and didn’t take one math class after high school!
But remember: Knowing the basics of math is beneficial. And the more you learn, the better and more efficient you’ll be at solving problems for various programming tasks. So if you’re ready to learn something new or improve your existing math skills, check out our math courses. You might be interested in our probability courses or linear algebra courses, and if data science is your thing, check out our Fundamental Math for Data Science Skill Path.
Now, scientists report that ocean bioluminescence can be so intense and massive in scale that satellites orbiting five hundred miles high can see glowing mats of microorganisms as they materialize in the seas. Last month in the journal Scientific Reports, eight investigators told of finding a luminous patch south of Java in 2019 that grew to be larger than the combined areas of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
“It was an epiphany,” said Steven D. Miller, lead author on the bioluminescence study and a specialist in satellite observations at Colorado State University. When a hidden wonder of nature comes to light, he added, “it captures your imagination.”
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word epiphany in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.
If you want a better idea of how epiphany can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
Pluto was the ninth planet of the solar system until 2006, when the International Astronomical Union knocked it down to “dwarf planet” status because a similarly-sized body, Eris, had been discovered orbiting the sun.
Do you think Pluto should still be considered a planet? Should Eris be one, too? What if we find another big object in the distant solar system?
And what is a planet, anyway? Should planets be defined by their size? Their roundness? What they orbit?
Is it possible that we do not yet know enough about the solar system to define a planet at all?
In “Is Pluto a Planet?,” Kenneth Chang digs into the lively debate between astrophysicists and planetary scientists:
Who doesn’t love Pluto? It shares a name with the Roman god of the underworld and a Disney dog.
But is it a planet?
This debate about the icy world that used to be the ninth planet of the solar system is as much linguistics as science, and it is not a question with simple answers.
But it is a fascinating story about an ancient word with shifting meanings, humanity’s evolving views of its place in the cosmos and the process of scientific discovery, which like all human endeavors, can be messy and contentious.
In the interactive article, the author continues, explaining each side of the issue:
Using Pluto as an arbitrary cutoff for planethood made sense only for the sake of sentimentality, and that did not appeal to astronomers on either side of this issue.
But there really are only two scientifically reasonable possibilities: the current definition that embodies the idea that planets are the big things that orbit the sun, and the other idea that planets should be anything that is big enough to be round and thus to undergo interesting geologic processes.
Perhaps the best answer is that it depends.
There are two opposing views, and in contrast to evolution and climate change, the different scientific views are both reasonable and scientifically valid.
For astrophysicists, planets are like the detritus left over from the formation of much, much larger structures, like the clumping of dark matter and the collapsing of gas clouds into galaxies.
In our solar system, for example, the sun accounts for more than 99.8 percent of the mass.
For the astrophysicists, planets are essentially the solar system’s equivalent of continents: the few big pieces, decided upon somewhat arbitrarily by historical convention.
Why are Europe and Asia separate continents when they are solidly connected? Why is Australia a continent and not just a big island? How much larger would Greenland need to be to be called a continent? Yes, it turns out that Australia sits on its own tectonic plate, and Greenland is part of the North American plate, but that only became clear in the 1960s, centuries after people started using the word “continent.” Geologists, at least, do not feel the need to vote on a definition of “continent.”
Hal Levison, an astrophysicist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. points out a problem with using roundness as the defining quality of a planet: How round is round enough?
No matter how one devises a definition of roundness, “there will be two objects, almost identical to one another, one that will be slightly just epsilon — bigger than the other,” Dr. Levison said. “And one of them will be a planet, and the other one won’t.”
Planetary scientists, not surprisingly, have a decidedly planet-centric view of the universe. All of the really interesting stuff, they say, happens on planets.
“Planets are engines of complexity,” said Phil Metzger, a planetary scientist at the University of Central Florida and the lead author of a newly published paper in the journal Icarus that argues for a more inclusive definition of “planet.”
“When you get a body of a certain size, then these geological and chemical and even biological processes begin,” he said. “And you have this emerging, this flowering of complexity. And that’s really what the useful definition of a planet has always been.”
That complexity, Dr. Metzger argued, does not depend on the orbit, such as whether the body originally orbited the sun and was then captured as a moon, which is what occurred with Triton, Neptune’s largest moon.
In that sense, they are using the word “planet” in the way “river” is used. There is not an infinite number of rivers on Earth, but rivers are also not a countable quantity. What’s the dividing line between a stream and a river? If a river sometimes dries up, is it still a river? And scientists who study rivers do not worry about particulars like this.
Perhaps the International Astronomical Union should have just left “planet” undefined.
Do you think Pluto should be considered a planet? Why or why not?
The author asks: “Should a planet be defined by what it is — some specification of size or composition or shape? Or should it be defined by what it does — that it goes around the sun?” Based on the arguments presented in the article, what do you think?
The author suggests that we may not yet know enough to define what a planet is or isn’t at all. Do you think having a working definition of a planet is valuable? Why or why not?
In your lifetime, can you think of a time when the scientific consensus about something has changed? How did people react? How do you think changes in scientific opinion should be communicated to the public?
Why do you think this topic inspires such passionate debate among both scientists and nonscientists? How much does it matter to you?
Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
The number of children and teenagers killed by gunfire has sharply risen during the coronavirus pandemic. From the end of 2019 to the end of 2020, gun-related deaths of children 14 and younger rose by roughly 50 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In this lesson, you will learn what statistics reveal about the rise in gun violence and what local governments, anti-violence activists and parents think should be done. Then, you will share you reactions and what you think should happen in your community, and across the country, to address gun violence.
Note to teachers: This lesson deals with gun violence and death. Please read the entire lesson and featured article to make sure it is appropriate for your students.
Warm-Up
Part 1: Journal
What thoughts, feelings or memories come up when you think about gun violence?
Do you think about active shooter drills and the danger of school shootings? Do you think about gun violence in your community? Have you had any experience with gun violence?
Spend several minutes responding to these questions in your journal.
Part 2: Graph Analysis
Next, take a look at this interactive graph from the C.D.C. On the left side, find the “Options” box. Under “Cause of Death,” select “Firearm-related injury” and under “Indicator,” select “Age” and choose all ages.
Once you have set up your graph, respond to the following questions:
What do you notice about the rates of firearm-related deaths from 2019 to 2021?
What questions do you have?
How does this graph relate to you and your community?
1. The article begins with Kendall Munson’s experience with gun violence. What is your reaction to her story? Why do you think Jack Healy, the writer, chose to start the article that way?
2. In what ways do researchers believe the rise in the number of children and teenagers killed by gunfire is connected to the coronavirus pandemic?
3. The article includes statistics about gun-related violence from the C.D.C. and the Gun Violence Archive. How do you feel reading those statistics? Are you surprised? Concerned? What more do you want to know about those numbers?
4. According to the article, what are some of the ways that children and teenagers are coming into contact with guns?
5. How do some people feel about race and class affecting whose stories about gun violence are covered and cared about? What do you think? Have you observed this discrepancy in your own community or in what you see covered in the news or social media?
6. Why do anti-violence activists believe a sense of helplessness and anger has taken root as gun violence continues to increase during the pandemic? Have you ever felt these emotions when considering violence in your community or country? Why or why not?
7. What do you think about the actions being taken by different city governments, police departments and activists to stop gun-related deaths? Do you think any of the actions cited in the article have a chance at making significant change? Why or why not?
Going Further
Option 1: Respond to the article and share your opinions.
Return to your journal and write about the following questions:
What is your reaction to the article? How did you feel hearing the stories of families and communities that have been affected by gun-related deaths? Does the article remind you of anything in your own life? Or in something that you have seen or read?
What changes would you like to see to address the gun-related deaths of children and teenagers? What changes could be made in your community? What would you like to see done on a federal level?
What questions do you have about the rise of gun-related deaths among children and teenagers in the United States?
Next, if you are in a classroom context, discuss your thoughts with classmates using a Big Paper discussion. (If you’re learning remotely, here is a guide for having a virtual Big Paper conversation.) On a large piece of paper, write down some of your reactions to the article, as well as your thoughts about what should be done to address gun violence. You can connect to other students’ comments and questions by drawing lines or including “@” tags.
When you have finished, debrief the activity by engaging in a small group or class discussion about what you have learned from your silent conversations.
Option 2: Consider school shootings and the wider context of gun violence.
What is your reaction to this student’s editorial essay? How do you feel knowing that, while school shootings have decreased during the pandemic, American children are dying by gunfire more than ever before? What thoughts or questions does this discrepancy raise for you?
Want more Lessons of the Day? You can find them all here.
adjective: given to haughty disregard of a serious matter
noun: a gallant or courtly gentleman
_________
The word cavalier has appeared in 65 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Jan. 10 in “‘People Need to Be Reminded About Flu’” by Paula Span:
Jillian Gibson hasn’t gotten a flu shot in some 25 years.
“I don’t get the flu, and I’ve been exposed over and over,” said Ms. Gibson, 75, a mostly retired office manager for a medical practice in Beverly Hills.
… People like Ms. Gibson make physicians like Dr. William Schaffner very uneasy, especially this year. “The preoccupation with Covid and a certain vaccine fatigue mean that people need to be reminded about flu,” said Dr. Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
Americans tend to sound cavalier about flu; falsely comparing Covid-19 to flu was a way of dismissing the new virus as no big deal. But deaths from influenza range from 12,000 nationally in an unusually mild year to 60,000 or more in a virulent one. An estimated 75 to 80 percent of flu-related deaths occur in people over 65, principally from pneumonia.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word cavalier in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.
If you want a better idea of how cavalier can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
Each Wednesday we shine a spotlight on five student activities that support a broad range of learners. In this week’s roundup of accessible activities, we invite students to investigate where spices come from, share a story about a moment of generosity, choose a word to set the tone of their life in 2022, look at the winners of our Coming of Age contest, and watch a short film about a colorful character in New York City.
Note: To learn more about this new weekly feature, read our introductory post. Please share your thoughts in the comments section or by emailing us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.
1. Learn about the origin of spices.
In this Lesson of the Day, students journey to Zanzibar to explore where some common spices come from. Then, they will conduct research on one of their favorite spices and make an infographic.
2. Reflect on generosity.
This Student Opinion asks students to reflect on a moment when someone they know did something kind for them or for someone else. After reading a story about an act of generosity, they can share their own story in the comments section.
3. What is your word of the year?
In this Picture Prompt, students will share a word to set the tone of their life in 2022. Then, they can read what different New York Times readers picked as their words of the year.
4. React to a winner of our 2021 Coming of Age Contest.
In this activity, students will browse the winning videos, comics, poems, songs, GIFs and more from our Coming of Age Contest. Then, we invite them to post a comment and reflect on what they saw, read and listened to. Let these teenagers know you heard what they had to say.
5. Watch a film and think about the interesting people who make up your community.
In this Film Club, students watch a 15-minute film about “Birding Bob,” who has led bird walks in New York City’s parks for over 25 years. Then, they will think about the unique and interesting people who make up their community. They can even consider writing a profile about that person for our first-ever Profile Contest.
If you’re considering switching careers and breaking into tech (or a new role within tech), now’s a great time to do so.
The past two years have revolutionized the economic landscape. The rise of remote and hybrid work, along with more corporate commitments to DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), have lowered unnecessary barriers to entry for many career paths. Plus, large-scale resignations over the past year have created a ton of job openings. And as a result, companies are shaking up hiring criteria and reevaluating their benefits packages to attract talent.
In other words, the current job market is quite promising for job-seekers. Not only is it easier for you to launch your new career no matter where you live, but you likely have more job postings to sift through than you would’ve a few years ago. And hey, you might even be in a better position to negotiate more money.
But it’s not just about the money. This is also an opportunity to find something you’re passionate about — something meaningful. In the video below, Pablo, one of our learners from Tampa, FL, explains how he discovered his passion for experimentation and innovation in his new career as a QA Engineer.
But, before you start applying for jobs, there are a few steps you may want to take to give you some structure and help you stand apart from the competition.
Then, you’ll move on to skill-building — diving into various programming languages, libraries, and frameworks, as you put them all together to build projects and portfolios.
In this step, you’ll want to be selective about the languages you learn and the projects you build. Data-driven and automated hiring processes have made recruiters more particular than ever, with 99% of Fortune500 companies reporting using ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems). To make it past these systems, your resume and portfolio should closely align with the competencies outlined in the job description.
2. Find a mentor
Wherever you are in your career, it always helps to have a resource you can turn to when you have questions or need guidance — whether you need big picture direction or feedback on a cover letter. That’s where mentors come in.
Ideally, your mentor should be someone whose career path is similar to the one you have in mind (but that’s not essential if they have a perspective you value). They should be someone who can tell you when you might need to brush up on a specific coding language, give you tips on how to present your work, or even suggest companies or roles you may not have considered.
Say you’ve just built your first web app and want to see how your code holds up in the eyes of a professional. Not only could your mentor help evaluate your work, but they might also share tips for improvements and optimizations to include before featuring it in your portfolio.
But how do you find one?
Start by thinking about people you’re already connected to. If you know any developers or IT professionals personally, reach out to them and see if they’d be open to chatting through some questions you have about your career path. Most people love talking about themselves and will be flattered that you reached out.
If there’s no one in your immediate network who comes to mind, take a look through social media. Maybe you already follow a few developers or Product Managers on LinkedIn or Twitter? Reach out to them and try to schedule a time to talk. If you cast a wide net, you may be pleasantly surprised to see that plenty of people out there are willing to devote a bit of time to pay it forward. (Remember: They were once new to the industry, too!)
It doesn’t have to be a long conversation — 15-30 minutes should suffice. You just need enough time to establish common ground. You can tell them why you admire their career path and/or their work, ask questions about their background and experience, and see if they have any advice for you. Then, if all goes well and they seem open to the idea, you can ask if it’s okay if you reach out again in the future with one-off questions. Oh, and make sure to send them a quick thank you email or text message after the initial call.
You could also attend a local meetup, like one of our Chapters. Developers of all experience levels join our Chapters to support and learn from each other. Some even build group projects together, like in the video below.
In an ideal world, once your skills are up to par, your mentor might even leverage their own connections to help you find a job — which brings us to our next point.
3. Build a network
You know what they say: “It’s not what you know…”
While cliche, the idiom often holds true — who you know really matters! CNBC reports that up to 80% of jobs are filled through personal and professional connections. That doesn’t mean your skills aren’t relevant or that you should flood Elon Musk’s LinkedIn DM until you land a data science gig at Tesla, but it’s a good idea to start brushing some elbows (metaphorically, of course).
Aside from our Chapters, tech conferences like Datanova and Web Summit are a great place to connect with other devs. Even if those connections don’t turn into job opportunities, meeting professionals of varied backgrounds (including career-switchers like you) will help reinforce your self-confidence.
Even if you’re not quite ready to start networking face-to-face, you can still meet and connect with other developers in online communities like the Codecademy Forums and Stack Exchange. Or, sign up for a local hackathon! Hackathons are a great place to meet other devs, showcase your projects, and find inspiration.
4. Develop a personal brand
This might sound daunting, but hear us out.
When interviewing candidates, recruiters and hiring managers are looking for more than just a set of skills. They’re looking for a valuable addition to their team — someone who will support and reinforce the company’s culture.
Developing a personal brand allows you to give prospective employers a glimpse of your personality. Plus, as others come across and engage with your brand, you’ll gain both credibility and visibility, potentially leading to more professional opportunities.
So, what do we mean by “brand”?
It really just boils down to having some online presence that you can direct prospective employers to. By the time you start applying to jobs, you should (at least) have a LinkedIn and personal website or portfolio to showcase your work. With these, you’ll already have a solid foundation for your personal brand, but to expand it, you could also share your projects on GitHub and Stack Overflow.
Or, you could try creating content around your area of expertise. This could involve building projects with new or niche tools that are gaining popularity. Then, you could copy your projects into workspaces, share the links on your website, and write blog posts telling the story behind them, including the problems they were designed to solve and how you found your solutions.
Note that you don’t have to be an expert to start creating content — you just have to be interesting (which you are!). What unique perspectives do you have to offer?
If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas, why not write about your transition to a new career? Sharing your insights could help other people who are embarking on their own career journeys, and it’ll also allow you to illustrate how your past experience and soft skills tie into your future role.
Next steps: Where you go from here
Read through our blog and forums to learn more about the different careers in tech.
Sign up for a programming course to start building your skills. Or, jump right into a career path to learn everything you’ll need to know all at once and start building projects to feature in your portfolio.
Reach out to other learners in our forums or Chapters to find a mentor.
Check out our Career Center for tips from tech recruiters and interview prep resources.Browse through our Learner Stories to find people (just like you) who found new purpose and meaning after changing careers.
Starting a new job isn’t the only time to set new professional goals. The beginning of a new year, re-entering the workforce after a long break, or even just a work anniversary, are also good times to think about growing your skills and advancing your career. Professional development is a great way to support your career path, but the cost can add up quickly — especially when you factor in registration and enrollment fees, along with any travel expenses.
Luckily, most employers today have a dedicated budget for professional development, and they’re happy to cover the full cost or at least part of it, especially if you can show how the opportunity will benefit the company — not just you.
So how can you get your employer to pay for your professional development? In short: You just ask! That said, there are a few ways to make your case more effectively.
What is professional development?
Let’s say your manager needs help on a big project and you’re ready to take on a new challenge in your current position. The problem is, you don’t have some of the skills needed to step in and help out. Plus, your manager won’t even consider you for it since you lack this specific experience.
Instead of giving up on the idea, you do your research and find a webinar series that’ll teach you exactly what you need to know. The series will also teach you other relevant skills to your position that you can use later on. So not only is it a great investment for the short term, but it’s also beneficial in the long term.
This webinar is a good example of professional development and how it can benefit both you and your team. Professional development can also look like a conference, online courses, a professional certification, participation in professional organizations, and even on-the-job opportunities like learning a new skill from a senior co-worker.
Your participation in any of these can give you the knowledge you need to take your career to the next level and open new doors.
Is professional development worth the investment?
When it comes to professional development, both you and your employer will need to determine if the opportunity is worth the price tag before you make the commitment. Keep in mind that you’ll approach this question from a different perspective than your manager.
From a business perspective, your manager will need to prove why investing in your professional development is financially worth it for the company and your team. They’ll also need to consider how much time during your workday you’ll need to set aside (if any). This is important because while you’re taking a class or attending a conference, you won’t be performing your other responsibilities. So your manager will think about your request as both a financial and a time investment.
From an individual perspective, a question to ask yourself is if the time commitment is worth it for you. Will there be coursework to complete outside of class? How much time do you need to dedicate to practicing your new skill in order to master it? While some managers set aside a number of hours for you to spend on professional development each month, not every manager is in the position to do this. So you might be looking at a scenario where you’ll need to complete assignments and practice your new skills outside the work day. Ask yourself if this is something you’re willing to do.
As far as paying for your own professional development, either in full or partially, the right opportunity can be extremely beneficial. Aside from learning something new that translates to your current job or could lead to an upcoming promotion, the networking that happens during professional development events could take you to a whole new level in your career. If you have the means, you can think about paying for your professional development as investing in your future career-self.
How to approach your employer about a professional development opportunity
Once you’ve researched opportunities and settled on the professional development experience you want to pursue, you’re ready to have the money talk with your manager. Maybe you’ve casually talked about this with your manager already, but we suggest that you send your request in an email. This makes your request official, and it’s the respectful way to go about asking your company to invest in your learning.
There are a few key pieces of information you’ll want to include in your email. First, write a brief explanation telling your manager why you want to do this. Maybe the benefits are obvious to you, but you’ll still want to state your reasoning with specific examples of how the company and your team will benefit from this experience. Will you learn to code more efficiently and therefore improve the overall team efficiency? Will your new skills mean the team doesn’t need to pay for an expensive contractor? Will it help the team reduce turnaround times? Don’t underestimate the impact of pointing out the cost-saving benefits.
Next, you can explain what you hope to accomplish during this professional development opportunity. Will it help you take on more responsibility? Will you have the chance to meet potential future clients for the company? Will it help you advance to a managerial position? Employers like when employees have a long-term vision of their future with the company, and they’re often willing to invest in that.
Lastly, you’ll want to dive into the financial details. Along with the cost of the professional development experience, make sure you include per diem and travel expenses, if they’re relevant.
Email asking your employer to pay for professional development example
Here’s an example of an email asking for an employer to pay for professional development (via a Codecademy subscription — naturally). Depending on your relationship with your manager, this can be altered to be more or less formal.
Hi Sally,
I’m following up on our discussion from a few days ago where I expressed my interest in improving my coding skills so I can become a more efficient programmer and qualify to be a team lead at a future date. To maximize my value to the team — and the company as a whole, I found a few professional development courses that I’m interested in taking.
After researching the skills needed to perform as a team lead and taking an honest look at where I need to improve the most, I’ve narrowed my preferences to these courses, which are available at Codecademy:
As you suggested, I plan to take advantage of Pinnacle Tech’s professional development fund and have 12 hours of my time covered each month for the next six months to work on coursework. I’ll also be working through the material on my own time.
I can gain full access to these courses and all necessary materials for $39.99 a month. However, it’d be cost-effective for me to get a full-year subscription, which costs $19.99 per month. I’d like to request that Pinnacle Tech pays for my first year of courses, which would be $239.88.
I genuinely believe these courses will help me become a more efficient coder and better support our team and Pinnacle Tech.
Thank you for your consideration and ongoing support. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Speak soon,
Sydney
Even though it can be awkward to ask your employer to pay for something, it might surprise you just how easy it is to get funds to cover the cost of professional development. In most cases, you just need to take the first step — put yourself out there and ask for support. Your willingness to learn new skills and your initiative to seek out the opportunity won’t go unnoticed.
