Where to start to become an IT specialist if you are far from IT

This article will show you what steps to take, where to start, and how to build your training to become an IT professional if you are far from IT.

Decide on your specialization

First of all, you need to decide why you are going into IT. Do you like to make websites, create programs for operating systems, think through design or test? This solution will be a starting point in the learning process.

Depending on your choice, you will be able to define your training program, prepare a plan and choose your first sources: books, websites or online courses.

Learn English

If you don’t have enough language skills to read fluently, you should start there. English will not only be necessary for communication, you will have to read a lot and search the Internet in English. It can be either technical documentation or an answer to StackOverflow, or just an interesting thematic article on Medium.

Learn to Google

This is the second most important skill, after knowledge of a foreign language, which is vital in learning. It is important to learn how to form requests correctly and to screen out unnecessary information on the issue page.

Learn the basic concepts

First, learn how bits differ from bytes, learn the basic terms and concepts of computer science, and learn about conditions, cycles, and interruptions. How the processor works, why a web server is needed, and what the ascii is all about, to start delving into the area you’re interested in.

Data structures and algorithms

Data structures and algorithms are fundamental to development and IT concepts. You will not be told about them properly in applied programming courses, so study these things yourself.

To begin with, sort out the terms stack, tree, queue, hash. For understanding of algorithms it is not necessary to burrow into graph theory, but at least to understand quicksort – should be your purpose.

OOP

Familiarizing yourself with the concept of object-oriented programming will be useful regardless of which language you have chosen and how you intend to apply it. OOP is one of the most popular development styles, so you need not only to know the definitions of basic concepts (inheritance, encapsulation, polymorphism) but also understand how they work and be able to implement them in program code.

Databases

If you have confidently mastered the syntax of the programming language you are interested in, you should learn how it works with different types of databases, and at the same time learn about the types of databases and their differences.

Even if your language usually does not interact directly with the database (e.g. JavaScript), you need to know what’s going on in this area of development: you’ll better understand how the program as a whole works.

So how do you become an IT consultant?

You can always learn and change professions at any age. It is only important to remember that this is a very long and complicated process. And the later you take it, the harder it will be for you.

To become an IT student, you need to tune yourself to a long process of learning the basics and continuous self-learning throughout your career. Reserve patience, because between the beginning of training and the first job can take many months or even years.