Use these 3 tips before buying an online course

Do you want to finish what you start?

Do you have a bunch of Udemy courses you never finished? Don’t worry, I’m not judging. Software Developers buying Udemy courses they never finish has become a meme these days. If you want to avoid the wasted time, energy, and money that comes from this habit, it’s vital you pursue education goals with a well defined plan. In this article, I will give you three tips to help you start and finish your next online course.

Know what you want to do SPECIFICALLY

If I ask you,”What is your goal as an aspiring developer?”, will you respond with a purpose, specific technology (or technology stack) and a deadline? Or will you respond with,”I just want to build cool things.” Rarely have I heard/seen the former but the latter seems to be the typical response on LinkedIn. If you don’t have a clear and precise plan, you’re more prone to drive your educational experience in circles. Before you purchase an online course, I encourage you to answer these three questions:

• What is your purpose for learning?

• What technology/technology stack do you want to learn?

• What is your deadline?

Here’s an educational mission statement that will answer all three questions:

“I want to learn React and Firebase (technology stack) so I can pursue a job as junior developer (purpose) in the next 6-8 months (deadline).

When you define your goals like this, you gain focus and purpose. And if you do get tempted with “shiny object syndrome”, you can refocus yourself by remembering your original mission statement.

Find a niche and focus

If we recall our previous mission statement of learning React and Firebase, you might assume I’m suggesting you should learn both technologies at once. On the contrary! I advise aspiring devs to focus on one technology at a time.

Unfortunately, many aspiring developers are cursed with the gift of “ambition”. Perhaps you’ve seen the LinkedIn post from aspiring junior devs who are documenting their learning and they write something similar to this:

“Currently I studying AWS, Node.js, React, Databases, and Data structures and Algorithms”

When I see post like these, I wonder how in the world are they actually MASTERING any of these topics? Sure, you can study a bunch of things at once but actually mastering a bunch of subjects at once is highly unlikely in my opinion.

If you’re an overly ambitious developer trying to juggle various technologies at once, I encourage you to find an in demand technology you enjoy and focus on that for a bit.

I suppose some will find it extremely difficult to focus on one technology because they’re interested in so many topics. If this describes you, I encourage you to consider my advice to niche down as a seasonal prescription from a coach and not a permanent sentence from a judge. Just like an athlete who might use their off their season to work on a specific skill, you should also take time to focus and master a subject matter for a limited period of time.

Go public

Once you’ve decided an educational mission statement, I suggest you go public with your pursuits on your favorite social media platform. However, If you’re seeking employment, I highly encourage a platform like LinkedIn. When you go public, you tap into a “psychology hack”. In his book, “Influence”, Robert B. Cialdini says the following:

“Whenever one takes a stand that is visible to others, there arises a drive to maintain that stand in order to look like a consistent person.”

When you go public, you give yourself a psychological edge to stay focused because you naturally want to protect and build a reputation of someone whose committed to their work.