Ask HN: What advice would you give a tester who wants to become a coder?

[impostervt]

I've been hit up a few times by testers from previous jobs, asking for advice about how to get into coding. They don't usually have a coding background, but they're young and smart and I think they could do well. They're usually interested in being front end developers.

Since they're already full-time professionals, I've generally pointed them towards Udemy. I like how their classes are structured - usually bite size portions so you can do a few a day.

However, I worry that they may need some extra push to get them going. I was wondering if there was something else I could say to help them along?

[gus_massa]

I'm not sure if this idea is helpful, but if they can learn to write small PR to fix the problems, to learn the basic skills like using git and writing good comit messages and a little of the language.

But as Joel says in https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/12/25/getting-things-don... they must still be very good in their job to keep the management happy.