A few months ago, I got reached out for help. When I read the contents of the message, I was merely surprised.

The Surprise

The message said, “Hi, I am XX, I really wish to start my coding journey. I really wish someone could guide me. I am willing to pay about 100$ if you can jump on a half hour call for the job!”

There are many reasons why this message was surprising.

• This was unlike other contract or freelance work, that I was used to doing. Over the time, I have worked with various tech and on various projects to provide solutions and keep learning. But I could also teach is something I discovered then.
• Being self taught myself, I have been active in many communities. In these years, I have had to ask for help and guidance from several people and even helped a lot of people to be a better dev! It was surprising that there are people willing to pay just for the guidance (not even teaching coding)
• At this point, there are so many resources out there on internet, that it's hard to believe that someone would need anything else to get started at this point!

The Call

After jumping on the call, I found out the person was a freshman just like me. He was having a hard time deciding what he wanted to do and how he could start out.
To prepare for the call, I jotted down each field that someone starting out would be interested. From game dev, to mobile dev, to devops, I wrote down everything that I had ever researched about on a paper, ready to present it all.
When we started out, we had a very friendly and casual conversation about our ideals and principles in life and we were about. This gave me a clearer idea about what he exactly wanted and made it easier for him to open up. I, then, opened up a list of roles and careers related to it.
We then went over each, and eliminated each depending upon things like learning curve, industrial requirements and more.

The Final Decision

After going through each option and discussing fallbacks and advantages of each. We decided that Web Development would be perfect to start with. I feel the best feeling for someone who's learning how to code is when they get the chance to make a project out of what they are learning. It was much easier to eliminate other options. For example, if you are a game dev, you also need to have a basic grasp on graphic designing which adds to the learning curve (speaking from experience). Or let's say, starting with something complicated such as web3 for a newbie did not seem like a good option.

Conclusion

Keep your ears, eyes and messages open for opportunities. Most of all don't be afraid to ask for help (even if you have to pay for it). In this big world of internet, where the endless tutorials can be overwhelming, you can always make your path easier by asking someone who has already done it.