Preparing your kids for the Future through Coding

With all the buzz around coding, there is bound to be certain hesitation surrounding this practice and its sustainability in the long-term. If you are an inquisitive parent who is on the search for a lucrative hobby (or career path!) for your child, coding must have popped-up on your radar.

Trust us, the popularity programming has gained is well-deserved.
 

But to know better about programming as an industry, we first need to clear all the haze surrounding this field with its numerous myths and the false claims revolving around it. Having a well-informed idea about the space will help you make the best & right choice.

Misconceptions about coding that need to be cleared once and for all

Coding should be learnt only after a specific age  

We have witnessed so many success stories in this field, ranging from little children to grown-up adults doing a career pivot.
Krish Mehra, a young entrepreneur from USA started coding at the age of eight and learned multiple programming languages - HTML, Java, Python, and Swift. When he was just ten years old, he created an app - Spiral Blast - that made it on the iOS App Store and made him famous. 

Back home, two 4th graders from MindChamp coding school made an easy-to-use news app! 
Ahaan Sareen and Avi Jain built the app, ‘Newsful’ which is now live on Google Play and available in more than 100 countries! The app was built in the short time span of just 2 months. All this at such a young age. What’s stopping you then?


 

Coding mostly consists of sitting in front of screens, typing

Actually sitting down to write code might take only half your time on the job. For the most part, developers have to spend time talking to clients, discussing strategies with the team, looking up documentation, copy/pasting other people’s code, or asking for help in different forums. 
 


The actual coding that’s taking place is not nearly to the extent you’d expect.
Also, as far as addressing the problem of being stuck in front of a screen all-day is concerned, most office jobs in this day and age require spending long hours in front of a screen. So, coding is no different in that regard.

 
You need to be intellectually gifted (especially in math)

The origins of this myth might lie in the fact that we often look up to the greatest coders in the world and notice their brilliance when it comes to the art of coding. But there is no entry barrier for coding as far as IQ is concerned. 
 
Yes, there is a lot to be learnt in the field and it might take you relatively more time than everyone else, but that shouldn’t be a hurdle in the long-term if you have the commitment and the perseverance to stick to it. 

Oh, and if you are worried about how much math is required for a coding job then we have good news for you! Most coding gigs require only basic arithmetic reasoning and the rest you will learn as you practice and get comfortable with the new schemas. 

Only people with Computer Science (CS) can get good coding jobs

Coding is a profession where your work many times will speak for itself. The more (major & minor) projects you have under your belt, and the stronger your portfolio becomes, better the opportunities you’ll be offered.

The coding boom is just a phase and will not last

First and foremost, coding has been around for decades and has grown to gargantuan lengths in our current times. There’s one thing that can be claimed with 100% surety and that’s that coding is here to stay.
 

But the people that usually feel that coding jobs will disappear are those who suspect that AI will take over. To counter this, I would like to bring back what I discussed in the 2nd point above, that there’s a reason so much of the developer’s time is spent in meetings and talking to clients. 


 
Coding requires a deeply human touch to be able to understand what the client wants and executing the same. Most clients aren’t well-versed with programming and its jargon, so they require someone who can understand their sentiments in simple English and execute the same while most importantly, reading between the lines.

Have you read? Busting Learning Myths
 

Opportunities in the field of Coding

Every concerned parent has one thing constantly on their mind when it comes to their kid’s future – what career path should they take?
Yes, coding is more than a fun hobby and can amount to professional and financial success given how vast the field is and the different programming roles and jobs it offers. 

Back-end developer

These are those software engineers who focus their time building website APIs that constitute the core of any web application. These help load the data on the servers and present the same to the final viewers/clients. 
As can be surmised from the above description, this profile is more technical and requires quite a bit of theoretical knowledge.
Languages commonly used – Java, C++, C, Python, PHP

Front-end developer

These jobs are more geared towards the actual client interactions on the website. They are the ones who help design the layouts, buttons, graphics, etc. of the website.
If you are able to master the elements of back-end and front-end developing, you’ll be qualifiable for a web full-stack engineering position. Full-stack engineers are obviously in higher demand due to the versatility of their work and knowledge.
Languages commonly used – JavaScript, HTML, CSS 

Game development

Game development is something that catches the eye of many youth coding enthusiasts. All of us have been exposed to games and it would be a dream job to be able to create a game of your own. But this industry has been notorious for the grueling work and low pay when compared to bigger tech companies. 

Also, they require expertise in a lot of different fields, ranging from physics, GPU performances, memory constraints, etc.
 

Languages commonly used – C#, Java, C++

Data scientists

There has been a massive influx of jobs in the field of database management which has led to a high demand for data engineers who construct sequential queries to arrange the cluttered and unorganized data into useful tidbits of information that can be efficiently utilized. 
 

Languages commonly used – SQL, Python, Scala

Machine learning & Deep learning

This has been a budding interest for anyone with a remote passion for programming. These are a form of artificial intelligence that are programmed to guess the user’s interaction. Amazon’s Alexa is a great example of this technology. Their use has been spreading exponentially.
 

Languages commonly used - Python, C++, JavaScript, Java

App development

Remember how we talked about the kids at MindChamp who developed their own app? Mobile usage has surpassed desktop usage and has thus become a massive market for companies to target. Every service is coming out with their own app these days, reflecting the market demand for the same.
 

Languages commonly used - JavaScript, C#, Swift

It would be a mistake to not use this opportunity to talk about all the non-computer programming related opportunities coding opens the doors to. Even if you or your child decides to step into the medical or bio-engineering field for example, you will be presented with better and more importantly, unique opportunities if you have coding on your resume. 

A combination of coding with some other technical knowledge will make you more desired in the job market as it will be a rare combination.
This is also extremely important if you have caught the entrepreneurial bug. All businesses are forced to be digital or have digital components in today’s age. Being digital automatically translates to writing code. An entrepreneur will have a better grasp of what’s going on in their business if they are well-versed with coding.

This should have given you a good enough idea of how deep the profession goes and how expansive its scope is. Coding is a safe bet and is a vital part of many different professions other than software engineering.

Also read: Famous Indian Personalities who turned their Hobbies into their Career

What has your experience been like with coding & programming? Please share in the comments.