National Coding Week: Why we love to code.

This week is all about celebrating the art of coding! To celebrate National Coding Week we asked some of our developers what inspired their coding career and what advice they would give others thinking about a career in the digital industry.

Mike 

How did you get into coding? It was kind of an accidental culmination of a few things. There was a small amount of coding involved in my degree (Music Systems Engineering) but it definitely wasn’t a main focus, and then my first job out of university was for a studio requiring a part-time engineer and web developer so I basically taught myself on the job!

What do you love about your job? The process of taking a client’s vision and requirement and realising it in an efficient, well-designed, and user-friendly application is inherently satisfying to me.

What advice would you give others wanting to get into coding? Personally, I’ve always learnt by doing – whether that’s following basic tutorials or just by diving into a codebase and seeing what piece of code changes what functionality. Ultimately, you’re trying to achieve an end goal and the coding is a means to that end so don’t lose sight of that!

Owen

How did you get into coding? My first steps in coding were working through a coding in basic book on a Commodore 64. I studied Maths at University which lead to a position as a Data Analyst. When this department moved under the IT Department, I transitioned into Software Development.

What do you love about your job? I love solving problems and feeling useful. The power of changing one small thing in a process and the outcome being magnified.

What advice would you give to others wanting to get into coding? Read up on the theory but also learn by doing. Write a site, an app or a game. Coding languages are fairly easy to learn but what sets good coders apart is being able to understand and know how to apply programming principles, e.g. object-oriented design.

Jamie

How did you get into coding? It was mainly all about timing. I had got to the point in my systems administration role where the job was getting tedious and I wanted a new challenge. I got talking about this to the development manager and he mentioned that they were about to start looking for a new developer so why didn’t I take a pseudo coding test. I had zero experience in development but figured I had nothing to lose, took the test and a month later started my new job!

What do you love about your job? Mostly, it’s all about the challenges and discovering better ways to do something. I think most people find it strange, but I find it incredibly satisfying to take an idea, start shaping how it will work in my head, build it, and finally see it in action.

What advice would you give to others wanting to get into coding? I think a lot of people find the idea quite daunting, and to be fair, coding can be beast! But if you accept that the big picture may not entirely make sense and focus on daily challenges, you will be amazed at how quickly the big picture starts to come into focus.

Claudia

How did you get into coding?  I studied multimedia at University and completed a module on HTML and loved it! In my placement year I worked for the University and during this time I updated the website, making some significant improvements to the way it looked and how people used it. I knew then that my career was going to be in frontend development and I have never regretted my decision.

What do you love about your job? I love creating something that is visually appealing and it’s very satisfying to see that you have made someone’s life easier because a website that you have developed has helped them and their business. At Ridgeway I get the opportunity to work on lots of different types of projects and some high-profile brands which I love! 

What advice would you give others wanting to get into coding? Learn through doing, it’s the best way to learn! It’s a great career path that will keep on challenging you and a good coder is always in demand!

Joe

How did you get into coding? When I was in school, I was ahead of my class in Design Tech, so luckily for me, the teacher used to let us play around with creating the HTML code for the school website. Then from there, I just knew that it was the area I wanted pursue, because it amazed me how much you could achieve from practising code.

What do you love about your job? It’s great to work at Ridgeway, because for a growing agency we have an impressive client portfolio which I get to be a part of. And, if I’m honest, I do love to boast about working on large projects for clients that my family and friends have heard of – it’s all fun!

What advice would you give to others wanting to get into coding? My advice would be to just get stuck in and don’t wait for others to teach you, because there is so much to learn from code. The best thing you can do, is to download an editor and begin creating something that interests you. There are so many tutorials available on the internet for all different coding languages, so just find one that suits you and start coding.