How to learn Coding in the era of AI
I am sharing a summary from an HR/Careers conference in Applied Software Engineering. People are complaining of forgetting the code they learnt at uni, or on online courses. They learnt it, and now it's' gone. So the fastest way to learn coding today is not to sit through dozens of online courses on Udemy, Coursera, or edX and hope the knowledge sticks. If you have tried that route, ask yourself honestly: how much of it do you remember three months later? Most of it is gone. That approach feels productive in the moment only. Instead, the smartest path is to start with Python and study code that already exists inside industry case studies. You see exactly how it is applied in real-world cases. Then Open GitHub, and upload a full project. First, actually work with the code e.g. maybe you need to combine the code of 5-10 courses together . Change the data slightly,. Then upload your version to GitHub with a clean, nicely written README file and well-presented code (comments etc). Do not panic about volume. You only need to upload 1 machine learning project and 1 optimisation project over the course of 8 -12 months. Takes time if you are absolute beginner. That is enough to make you extremely attractive to employers : internships and junior jobs. This is better than MSc degrees because they are filled with exams and homework , whose solutions circulate around and you copy-paste and employers know it. Every time you upload a project, write a LinkedIn post about it if you aren't shy . So, take ten or twenty courses from the Classroom, as many as you need, and combine what you learn from them into a single coherent project or more. If you are ambitious, try to publish your work as a paper. Even better. Shows prestige. Nobody does these simple things and everyone goes to do MSc , which is fine ofcourse if you have the money. That is the whole strategy. HR managers almost never see this level of discipline from candidates. Most CVs simply list "I completed 5 courses on Udemy" or "I finished 10 courses on edX," but they never remember what they did there. They have the certificate but in the interview they say they forgot.