Few months ago I decided to switch my career into a field I was passionate about which was the technology field,I have been having such an amazing experience and I want to share few things I have learned along the way and hope it helps someone planning to make the decision such as the one I made..
Find a dev community and join
My biggest help in my journey so far is being in a community of like minds, people who had the passion I had,it gave me opportunities to reach out when stuck,the right atmosphere for growth.i joined the SHE CODE AFRICA community and I have not been the same,the community opened my eyes to the diverse opportunity that abound in the field of technology,I have been able to improve my skills through thier initiative and the number of event opportunities I have been open to through this community is life transforming..
Build as you learn
What is the aim of learning if you don't show your workings,I deployed my first project using GitHub and Vercel and I can't get over the feeling I had,it gave me a great sense of fulfillment and a great push to do more,so you did something?deploy it and let those in the field coach you on how to do it more properly.
Get a mentor
Mentoring has always been a great way to learn and be accountable, look for some one you look up to in regards to your field and learn from them,you can volunteer your assistance or even choose to be an intern but have some one to run to in regards to your chosen career path.
Follow those in the technology sector on social media
I can't count the number of times I got discouraged about writing codes,I come on Twitter and see a motivational quote from someone in the dev community who also went through same phase and how they got out of the phase,let your feed be inspiring and motivational,read on people who have grown to be successful and have built a solution that is helping humanity,it helps you stay focused..
Ask Questions
The technology sector is one community that are so helpful, they are always ready to share knowledge,I reach out to total strangers to ask questions about something I am working on and how to do it better and faster,so far the community has been so helpful,no one knows all so be open to learning and asking questions,when I started coding with VS Code I would start with tying out my HTML start tags but someone taught me that I can just click ! taband I can jump right to it immediately, someone knows an easier and faster way to do it so Ask..
Teach someone
Maybe it's just me but I learn more when I teach,find someone who just started and teach them what you know,it keeps your brain alive and fresh and it's the best avenue to refresh your memory.
Pick up challenges
What other way can one learn if not by practice and practice can be done by challenges,we have so many sites that offer coding challenges such as frontendmentor.io and codepen to mention quite a few,also coding games such as. Grasshopper and mimo they have helped me to stay focused, determined and commited.i pick up a challenge and see to it that I arrive at a particular result in a particular timeframe,this has not only improved my coding skills but my project management and time management skills.