What to Expect

We won’t teach you how to code. We’ll teach you how to teach yourself and nudge you in the right direction. You have to do it yourself if you want to have any chance of succeeding in a real job. Even if you pay us a lot of money to be your full-time code teacher, if you don’t learn how to learn on your own you don’t have a chance in this industry.

That being said, you will have all the support needed to go from beginner to advanced. You’ll never be alone. If you get lost or stuck during your journey, you’ll always find help in our Discord community. The things we can help you with are: a clear pathway, feedback on your journey, organization and community.

Community

Learning how to code, you’ll spend hour upon hour by yourself, in front of your computer, banging your head against the wall, solving problems. Chances are you’ll feel lonely and isolated at times. It makes a difference connecting with people that are going through the same. You’re not alone! We’re here to help. Join us on Discord and if the link isn’t working add me and send me a personal message at pablocappuccino#4729. No message will be left unanswered.

Clear Pathway

It’s very important to have clear stepping stones and benchmarks as references for your work. It’s easy to feel lost in the sea of information and possibilities the web gives us. You need to give your brain a rest by laying out a pathway that will be in the back of your mind throughout your journey. Decision fatigue is exhausting and frustrating. It can undermine your progress and ultimately lead to failure.

At the C# Academy you can find a roadmap with all the steps necessary to become a full stack web developer. It’s not necessarily linear and the lines between the stages are blurry. You’ll be constantly revisiting the previous items on the checklist, at any given time during your progress. Here's the roadmap (you need to be logged in to see it).

You can also tweak it and lay it out as you wish, but whatever you do, I recommend you have a list of clear steps easily accessible and if possible memorized.

Feedback

As we progress through our road map, you’ll be building projects, a portfolio, a resume and preparing for interviews. We’ll give you feedback on all of those. Each of our projects have a list of requirements, but there are always details in the design, implementation and code style that are open to your own individuality. We encourage you try things on your own and we’ll only suggest corrections that are considered bad practice.

Organisation

You need to do some housekeeping before starting. I’m sure there are messy disorganised high achievers in this world. But in my experience, creating the right environment, organising your life and your priorities and removing the clutter (mental and physical) will improve your chances of becoming a successful programmer. Here are some things to consider:

Gear

Get a good machine. I started with a 2014 Dell. I quickly realised I needed something better and bought a 128GB 2019 Mac. About a year later I realised having Windows made things way easier for .Net development and I bought a 500GB 2020 Mac to have more space for a virtual machine. Two years later a bought a powerful HP/Windows machine so I could use the full potential of Microsoft’s tools for .NET developers. I’m not rich, I just worked hard and saved the money to buy it. It’s part of my “I’ll do whatever it takes” mentality.

A slow machine can be a nightmare. You can absolutely achieve your goal with a bad computer, but again, your life will be much easier if you get the latest computer. Or something close, second hand. You DON’T NEED Windows to become a .NET developer. Having a Windows machine does make things easier at first, but not only it’s not necessary, but using a different operating system will also teach you important skills such as using the command line and troubleshooting the .NET environment, which will ultimately make you a better developer.

Also, I highly recommend getting an extra screen. It doesn’t need to be fancy. You just need to be able to connect it to your computer. Watching a tutorial having to close your video every time you need to code will waste a ton of your time. Here’s a picture of my setup when I started. I got this screen from a friend that didn’t use it anymore. Please get one for yourself, it can be second hand, it just needs to work. If it’s a large screen, even better.

Time

You have to carve out time in your life if you want to learn how to code. I admit it was easier for me because I worked from 11am so I would just wake up at 4am every day and code as much as I could.

If you can do it first thing in the morning, it will be better. If you can’t, do it as soon as you can. If you leave it to bed time, while not impossible, it will be really hard to focus and retain new knowledge.

You will have to say NO to requests for your time. I've sacrificed relationships because I wasn’t willing to give up my morning to spend time with them. My morning is sacred, it’s coding time and I would only sacrifice it for something extraordinarily serious, otherwise I would be coding. Find what your sacred time is and protect it fiercely.

Also, track your time. I’m a geek, so I track every hour of my day. You don’t need to go that far, but I suggest you track at least your coding hours. I always aimed for 28hs of programming per week. Even though I almost never achieved it, I never coded less than 20hs a week, in part due to the big goal. Start recording your results today and lay them out on a spreadsheet. Try to beat your daily, weekly and monthly records.

Notes

You need to take notes. Don’t worry about taking notes about theory, unless that’s how you comprehend things. Instead, take notes about the steps you’re taking to complete a project and about errors you encountered and how you solved them. Notes should be practical and useful. You will need those in the feature.

A combination of my notes and previous projects saves me many hours of head-banging. I use RoamResearch. I think it’s superior to anything I’ve ever used, but Evernote, Google Docs and even your computer’s notepad will do. Keep your notes organized.

One Thing At A Time

I have a wandering mind, extreme curiosity and several areas of interest. If I don’t keep a tight leash on my mind, I jump around to the point I don’t get anything done. I can’t stress enough the importance of doing one thing at a time.

Don’t work on 10 projects. One at a time! Actually, to be honest, I always work on two things, so If I get bored or stuck I can always jump to the other to make me feel better. But still, one of them has to be your main goal.

I know so many clever students who have been learning for a long time and have nothing to show for. No portfolio, no projects, nothing. And doing too many things is one of the reasons.

The same applies to your daily life. Don’t cram 20 tasks into your daily schedule. Do one or two big things a day and consider yourself successful for that day. My thing was always coding. If I did my four hours, I won the day. You can have a study goal and parallel goal such as running an important errand or something. But keep it achievable. You want to win your days.

Mindset

I read a lot. I attribute a lot of my success in my programming journey to the scope and depth that reading has given me. Actually, I don’t read, I listen. Books and podcasts. They are absolutely life-changing.

If you don’t have some form of input in your life, you’re missing out. In our days technology gives access to curated information easily accessible at any time. Indirect mentorship through podcasts, audiobooks, youtube channels. Yet some of us think that we don’t need it, we know it all.

There are a few exceptions out there, but the vast majority of high achievers, the people who run things in this world, are avid readers. If you don’t like it, start liking it. It will pay off. I promise.

There are many books I could recommend but to keep it simple, the most important are:

Atomic Habits by James Clear – It will help you to get your habits in order. Backed by many amazing anecdotes and scientific studies, if you listen to it over and over, trust me, you’ll be a better person.

Grit by Angela Duckworth – This book will demonstrate, also with science and anecdotes, that you should forget about the word talent. Most folks who achieve great success are the ones that SHOW UP CONSISTENTLY and do the hard work.

What Happens From Here

Once you finish reading this page, join us on Discord and introduce yourself. If the link doesn’t work, add me via my nickname: pablocappuccino#4729. You can use this website merely as a reference and to get project ideas here and there, or you can follow the roadmap. If you choose to follow the pathway, you can also choose to register so you can track your progress on our dashboard, participate in our Leaderboard and get your code reviewed. By updating your profile with your LinkedIn and Github, the links will be available in the leaderboard for everyone to see, include potential recruiters.

We also offer 1-on-1 mentorship and detailed explanations of our projects (including all the challenges) in our Membership Area Subscribing to the VIP Membership doesn't affect your progress in The C# Academy. Everything here is free and will always be free.

Final Word

If you want instant rewards, or if you believe you’ll start earning six figures doing something that doesn’t require a lot of effort, this isn’t for you. If you can’t stand the long hours of hard work, or if you don’t like getting stuck and taking days, sometimes weeks to fix a problem, you might not have the grit, or be passionate enough about coding to make this happen. Maybe this isn’t for you and that’s fine. It might sound harsh but that’s the reality of what it takes to become a programmer (and I would guess, to be good at anything for that matter).

Most people who start learning to code quit in less than 6 months. If you stick to it, imagine that in 2 years it’s highly likely you’ve got many interviews and got at least close to a job. Five years training consistently? You’ll probably not only be employed but also making very good money. Now imagine ten years consistently building stuff. I would say it’s impossible you’re not hired and earning great money.

I’ll let Will Smith do the final talk, enjoy: