Why we should all be learning to code – and 5 websites to help you do it!

Photo by Alexandru Acea on Unsplash

Pretty much every organisation on this planet, business or non-profit, large or small, has a website. Increasing numbers of individuals have web presences through social media profiles. 

So what does it mean that most of us have zero idea about the technology underpinning this situation? 

Back in 2016, when I was building my business, I learned some basic coding because I wanted to build a website with minimal financial commitment (i.e. not paying a professional developer and avoiding Squarespace, Wix et al). I had no prior experience with code and no understanding of how computers, the internet, apps etc work. (Disclaimer: I still don't understand that much, but at least now I know what it is that I don't know...)

I took beginner courses in HTML and CSS (the building blocks of your basic web page) and this enabled me to create the website I wanted for a fraction of the cost of hiring a developer and for considerably less than the price of a pre-packaged site. This was very basic work as coding and web development go but it opened my eyes to the advantages of knowing even just the very basics. Previously I'd worked for a company that had outsourced the management of their website to a freelance who was intermittently available to update things; no one at the company itself understood what went on 'behind the scenes' at the website and so no changes or improvements could be made in-house; everything had to be handed over to the freelance. Looking back, with a bare minimum of training, I or another member of staff could have brought some of that work in-house and moreover would have been equipped to communicate more effectively with the web developer when necessary. 

Learning to code isn't about building websites or apps from scratch or understanding the intricacies of computers – that's for people who want to go the whole 'developer' hog. But it's on the school curriculum now, so it's something the generations below us will simply take for granted. Beginning to understand code as opposed to simply using the internet etc is the difference between being driven around by your parents and actually getting into the driver's seat, putting your feet on the pedals and turning the key. It's empowering, it's the key to understanding some of the major forces behind the way we live now and it makes you more employable or more flexible in your own business.

If you're serious about becoming a full-time developer then starting salaries and long-term job prospects are strong; this is a relatively future-proofed industry that's growing rapidly and hiring to fuel that growth. It now makes just as much sense for a new graduate with no clue about what they want to be doing to go into a tech job as it does to become a lawyer or a banker – more sense, really, if that graduate wants to have the opportunity to move abroad, go freelance, work for exciting start-ups... And it’s definitely not a job just for basement geeks – you could be working with small business owners, graphic designers, branding agencies, or for some of the world’s largest and most influential corporations in their international offices.

Anyway, as you can tell I'm pretty evangelical about the career possibilities for those who can code! So I've listed below 5 resources to help you get started. As I mentioned, I started by learning HTML and CSS basics (see below Glossary) but depending on what you want to get out of this you may start elsewhere. Several of these sites offer 'career path' programmes so you can see which courses are best for which objectives. 

Codeacademy: Popular site offering a large number of free beginners' courses on a range of languages. 

Code foundations 

Learn HTML 

Make a website 

The Khan Academy: this non-profit educational platform provides high-quality free courses.

Learn HTML & CSS

Udacity: This is the platform I predominantly used; it's quite career-focused with a combination of free programmes, and paid-for 'nanodegrees' which can link graduates directly to employers. Their free 'Intro to HTML and CSS' course is the first component of a Front End Web Developer nanodegree and the perfect way to gain fundamental skills whilst testing the 'do-I-want-to-take-this-professional' waters. 

Lynda: This is the learning platform for LinkedIn and whilst it's a subscription-based set-up new users can get their first month for free. It has a vast database of video courses, ranging from broad subjects like 'HTML Essentials' to very niche topics, and you can find them organised into programmes such as 'Become a Front-End Web Developer'. (Incidentally, I used Lynda.com to improve my Adobe Creative Suite skills as well as for coding.)

Udemy: If you want to dive in headfirst, online learning platform Udemy has over 2,000 coding classes, including 35 hours of lectures on 'The Complete Web Developer in 2020: from Zero to Mastery' programme, currently on sale for £12.99. https://www.udemy.com/course/the-complete-web-developer-zero-to-mastery/

These are all good places to start so it's really just a case of finding which platform appeals to you! 

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A basic glossary of terms (written by me, very much still a beginner!):

Code: Basically sets of instructions that computers follow to produce whatever it is you have designed, kind of like the text in a recipe, if the cook takes the place of the computer. Code comes in lots of different languages that have been created specifically to handle different jobs, but the 'basic' languages have lots in common with each other so once you've learned one you'll find it easier to tackle others. 

HTML: This is the code that builds the structure of a web page, e.g. laying out that 'this section is a header' and 'this section is an image'

CSS: This is the code that styles the web page, e.g. 'the background colour of this section should be light blue' and 'all the headers should use such-and-such a font'

Front-End Web Developer: These are the guys who take care of how websites look and feel (as opposed to Back-End Developers, who manage the server-side of things.) I came across a helpful analogy: 

Web developer (also 'Full Stack Web Developer'): House builder. 

Front-End web developer: House decorator. 

Back-End web developer: Bricklayer. 

Javascript, Ruby, Python, etc: These are other coding languages, like HTML and CSS, which take care of other areas. e.g. Javascript is the code that handles interactive elements, such as when a button changes colour because you've clicked on it. 

Squarespace, Wix etc: These are companies that offer template websites for a monthly or annual fee. They're pretty easy to use and you can choose from a range of styles. The Career Girl is currently hosted on Squarespace, because at the time of launch I didn't have time to build the site myself, nor the knowledge without further study to include the features I wanted. However, I'm already finding aspects of Squarespace a bit limiting... That's the downside of using pre-built websites, you have to work within someone else's framework.

Why now is the time to consider a career pivot

Photo by Alexas Fotos from Pexels

Five years ago, in the early autumn of 2015, I was sat with my boyfriend in a park, trying to work out what the hell I was meant to be doing with my life. I was in a job I'd started just a year previously but that wasn't working out and I felt like my career had stalled. I'd been looking at going back to university – boggling at the cost of doing an MBA – when my boyfriend finally asked 'what would you do right now if you could do anything at all?' Straight away I answered: 'I would try setting up my own sewing pattern company.' Bearing in mind that at this time I was the Business Development Manager for a small arts publisher, this was quite the leap, and based purely on my rampant sewing obsession. But when I realised there was no hard and fast reason why I couldn't give this a go, everything clicked into place. By Christmas I had left my publishing job and started training as a pattern drafter. I had pivoted.

Whilst I had always known that my chances of finding a job I loved and then staying in it for the rest of my working life were low, I hadn't anticipated changing tack quite so early on. But nowadays this sort of seismic career shift is becoming the norm. Most entrepreneurs didn't launch businesses straight out of school; in many cases they spent a few years (or many) doing completely different jobs – something very evident in our self-employed Career Girls. Harriet of online fabric shop Sew Me Sunshine was a nurse before health issues forced her to take a break and reassess. Hayat Rachi went from a nightmare job in financial recruitment to founding her own lingerie brand, fuelled by anger from her previous role. Jodie of Paws and Pause was simply driven by 'a huge desire to do something new and exciting', after years of wanting to be her own boss. There are many reasons people pivot: they no longer feel satisfied or inspired by their work; their industry is changing and their path along with it; they have found a passion elsewhere and want to pursue it – or, as is happening to so many people right now, they lose their job entirely. What all successful pivots have in common is the person's willingness to be bold with their choices, to work hard to earn their place in a totally new area, and their ability to recognise the transferable value in the skills and experiences they've already gained. As author Tony Parsons wrote in GQ, 'A career pivot is never a gamble. It is always an investment.'

In the world right now, it has never been more important to consider your own capacity for pivoting. The knowledge that you're not limited to one kind of role or industry is empowering in the face of huge job uncertainties. The key steps to preparing for a pivot are:

1. Know what excites you (for me back in 2015, I was spending all my spare time thinking about clothes design, sewing and fabrics...)

2. Know what your transferable skills are (the communication, project management and quality control skills I developed working in publishing are vital for the production of a successful sewing pattern.) These skills are the anchor that you pivot around – the one foot you have to keep on the ground when holding the netball. You are changing direction; not going back to square one. 

3. Know what training/education you need to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be (when I quit publishing I knew how to sew – but I didn't know how to draft patterns. I spent several months taking courses and practising whilst supporting myself with freelance dressmaking and freelance publishing work.)

It's worthwhile to work through these points even if you're feeling pretty stable and secure in your current role. If you're tempted by an alternate industry, a side hustle can be an excellent way to expand your skills and experience and test the waters in a new role (check out our post on managing a side hustle). If you're serious about making the pivot, planning is key. Jodie of Paws and Pause states that: 'It took about a year of planning, researching, testing ideas and refining our business model. We attended lots of free workshops for business start ups including UntLtd and ECHO and got ourselves 2 mentors which helped with planning the financials. I then was able to go part time in my current job at the time, which was a huge help and gave me some financial stability.'

Getting familiar with your own curiosities, passions and skills – in other words laying the groundwork for a career pivot – is going to be fundamental in the future, because chances are none of us will stay in the same industry for our entire working lives. And if you're unsure how to go about taking those first steps towards pivoting, we've advice from those who've been there. Harriet says 'Don't be frightened to take the leap, otherwise you will only look back and think what if. The worst thing that could happen is that it doesn't work out and you go back to what you were doing before as you will still have that skill set.' And Jodie advises, 'Reach out to people in the line of work you're thinking of changing to; we did this with other dog businesses and found that people were generally very open to meeting up with us and giving us some insight into the business side of it. Enjoy a change and know what you don't want in your new career, be brave and have good people around you to support you! YOU CAN DO IT!'

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You might also be interested in:

10 Career Planning Questions to Ask Yourself

What do transferable skills look like in 2020?

Inspirational books for managers

When I typed ‘manager’ into the search bar of several stock image websites, the top row of photos that appeared on my screen were all, exclusively, of besuited white men. But hey, we all know that that’s not what a manager has to look like, and women are ever increasingly filling these roles, bringing our strength, skills and insight to bear for our teams. Just as there’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ portrait of a manager, there's no one-size-fits-all manual for becoming a manager. And as I'm sure many of us know from first-hand experience, adept people management isn’t always a trait found in those in management roles! But being a skilled manager means you'll be rewarded with getting the best out of your team, and of yourself. So whether you're aiming for a promotion to a management role, or you're already taking care of a team – we've pulled together some inspirational and insightful reads to help you hone that management mindset! 

The Little Black Book for Managers by John Cross, Rafael Gomez and Kevin Money

This is a classic for all kinds of managers: 'The authors have listed a whole host of situations most managers face, based on thousands of personal experiences, and have mapped out how to deal with each situation. The book contains specific examples of words and phrases that can be used as well as illustrations and exercises to analyse your current performance. It is short on waffle and high on practical wisdom. It is designed to be dipped in and out of – reached for whenever a situation arises. This is a practical support tool for managers at all levels, from shop-floor supervisor to main board director.'

The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You by Julia Zhuo

The first time tech exec Julie Zhuo was asked to lead a team she was just 25, and she was suddenly thrust into the potentially terrifying position of managing her co-workers with minimal guidance and training. This book is the one she wishes she'd had to help her through, offering practical advice on dealing with imposter syndrome, seeking help, offering critical feedback and managing people more experienced than you. 

The Rules of Work by Richard Templar

This was the book my husband bought and read when he was recently given a whole team to manage for the first time in his career – it posits that there are 'Rules' being followed by the most successful people and that if we can just learn these 'Rules' ourselves, we're setting ourselves on the path to promotion, respect and better futures. It handles topics such as goal-setting, integrity, diplomacy and dealing with opposition.

Radical Candor - How to Get What You Want by Saying What You Mean by Kim Scott

Kim Scott has been an executive at both Google and Apple, and worked with a team at the latter to develop a class on being a good boss. She's brought her expertise to bear in this book (interestingly in the States subtitled: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity), arguing that we need to both Care Personally and Challenge Directly to fulfil our responsibilities as leaders (and basically not become evil bosses along the way).

Google’s Re:Work – Managers

Google's online Work resource features myriad articles on all aspects of working life, including an extensive section for managers, with practical exercises and tips.

Dare to Lead by Brené Brown

'Leadership is not about titles, status and power over people. Leaders are people who hold themselves accountable for recognising the potential in people and ideas, and developing that potential. This is a book for everyone who is ready to choose courage over comfort, make a difference and lead.

When we dare to lead, we don't pretend to have the right answers; we stay curious and ask the right questions. We don't see power as finite and hoard it; we know that power becomes infinite when we share it and work to align authority and accountability. We don't avoid difficult conversations and situations; we lean into the vulnerability that’s necessary to do good work.'

Her Way to the Top: Smashing the Glass Ceiling - by Hira Ali

Coach Hira Ali quizzed hundreds of women as part of her research for her book, revealing the internal and external obstacles that lie across a woman's path to the top. Obstacles she explores include FOMO, Imposter Syndrome, perfectionism and sexual harassment, and she offers concrete solutions for moving past these roadblocks. 

'Written by a successful career woman for the benefit of career women around the world, Her Way to the Top demonstrates that women are all in this together, and together they can make a difference for each other.'

Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead - by Sheryl Sandberg

Lean In is such an iconic book that its very title has become embedded in our work culture. Sheryl Sandberg – Facebook COO and one of Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women in Business – draws on her own experience of working in some of the world's most successful businesses and looks at what women can do to help themselves, and make the small changes in their life that can effect change on a more universal scale.

How to Own the Room: Women and the Art of Brilliant Speaking - by Viv Groskop

Being a manager will almost inevitably entail speaking before a group – possibly just your immediate team, possibly the whole company. Comedian Viv Groskop takes examples of inspiring women including Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey to examine what it really takes to make your audience sit up and listen, and how we can overcome society's tendency to shut women down by owning our voices, and ultimately the room.