Reddit reviews SQL Queries for Mere Mortals: A Hands-On Guide to Data Manipulation in SQL (2nd Edition)

I've been a web developer for two years and can tell you what I learned over time that led to me getting an internship at a software company. I didn't major in computer science but I did eventually go to a bootcamp.

I'll note that I'm not a huge fan of that flowchart, because it's backwards. You need to be familiar with what all those tools can accomplish, but I don't think anybody is capable of holding expert-level competence in so many areas at the same time. The key is getting to the point where you know or can figure out what tool will be required for any given task. For example, I don't really know much about Websockets, but I know that I'd probably need them if I wanted to build a chat application.

Anyway, here's my learning track in terms of programming

Pre-2011: Excel formulas

First programming I ever did for a bunch of random things, and at this time I didn't realize I wanted to be in software development yet.

2011-2013: SQL

Started with the DBA where I was working sending me a Word document with some common queries I could run in a SQL client so I could answer other people's questions and same him time. Over time I learned how to change the queries and then write my own. This book helped: https://www.amazon.com/SQL-Queries-Mere-Mortals-Hands/dp/0321444434/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1494701750&sr=8-2&keywords=sql+queries+for+mere+mortals

2013-2014: Java, shell scripting, other unix/linux related things

Took a programming class using Java and a shell scripting class in a local university's online program. Used these books:

https://www.amazon.com/Java-Introduction-Problem-Solving-Programming/dp/0132162709/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1494701761&sr=8-14&keywords=introduction+to+programming+with+java
https://www.amazon.com/Unix-Shell-Programming-Stephen-Kochan/dp/0672324903/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1494701778&sr=8-6&keywords=unix+programming

I think Java is a very good first object oriented language to learn, even though most bootcamps want to do either Ruby or Javascript. Ruby (and Rails) have a little too much syntax sugar and other shortcuts that make it hard for a beginner to understand, and JavaScript is just plain weird (along with its ecosystem, which requires knowing a little history of the language and why it is the way it is).

2015: Ruby, Rails, a little JS. Attended a bootcamp and got my first job.

2016: ReactJS, actually understanding JS

2017: More JS, and now learning Elixir and the Phoenix framework.



As I mentioned before, these languages and frameworks are just tools. The way I've learned has been to do projects, figure out what tools would be necessary to accomplish all the functionality, and then slowly make progress on learning how to use those tools, eg, copy/pasting, modifying code other people have written, and then finally taking the training wheels off.

I picked this up a few months ago and have been learning tons -

http://www.amazon.com/SQL-Queries-Mere-Mortals-Hands/dp/0321444434