Hi, I’ve been playing around with Processing for a little while and just finished “Learning Processing” by Shiffman.
It’s been a wonderful introduction to programming, but I’ve run into a bit of a roadblock with regard to how this would help me find work.
I feel silly for asking, but will following the tutorials here help me toward that goal?
Thanks for everything,
Michael 
Hey there! That’s a great question.
What kind of work do you want to do? Are you looking to work specifically with Processing, or are you looking for a general software engineering role?
I do think that the tutorials on Happy Coding take somebody from learning the fundamentals of coding, all the way to learning skills that would help them land a software engineering role. For example I just wrote a series of coding interview tutorials:
But it really depends on what kind of role you’re trying to land. Can you give me some more info about your background and your goals?
Thank you so much, Kevin.
My apologies for the confusion, I’ll be happy to elaborate.
I’d be open to just about any role I can get in tech down the road. As of now, I’m still learning the basics.
So yes, I was thinking in terms of an actual role as a Software Engineer, rather than working specifically with Processing…
With that in mind, and regarding Processing specifically:
It’s been a blessing to say the least.
I’ve tried learning programming other ways, but it never stuck. I didn’t want to do simple drills that only printed to the console. Back when I was first starting out, as sappy as it sounds, I envisioned programming to be more colorful, bright and creative…so I tried places like CodeCademy for instance, and I could never stick with it.
Then, while surfing YouTube, I lucked across Processing.
Through Processing, I’ve been learning the basics of Programming by drawing some stuff and it’s exactly how I’ve always wanted to learn Programming. It’s been bright, fun and colorful!
The problem was, I didn’t know how to make the pivot from learning the basics of programming through Processing, to eventually landing a real-world, software engineering role.
A lot of nebulous hope, but no real practical steps that might take me from A to Z.
And then I happened upon Happy Coding and thus, the link (between learning with Processing and a path into the workplace) I’ve been searching for all these years was found.
Again, thank you for this place, Kevin, and I look forward to continuing my practice and learning here.
Oh wow, thank you for saying all of that. I’ve been thinking lately about why I do this, and it’s really nice to get a reminder about what it’s all about.
Keep me posted as you continue your learning journey!