Just two more days until the $100 off sale at Pluralsight. $199 for a year of full access… killer deal.
If you are NOT in a tech role, but have always wanted to learn, I would definitely recommend dropping $199 and having a full twelve months to learn, and play, and dabble. I can’t think of a better way to learn about this stuff with the depth and breadth that Pluralsight offers. Here are seven courses that are “beginner” or “intro to” to get you started in various parts of the tech world:
Learning to Program – Part 1: Getting Started (by Scott Allen)
This 3 hour 12 minute course walks you through the basics and fundamentals of programming. It is introductory, so don’t worry that you won’t understand a thing. Scott’s table of contents shows you learn about a lot of the things you’ll need to know for just about any language. I’m bookmarked this to watch with my ten year old son, who wants to become a developer.
Introduction to SQL (by Jon Flanders)
3 hours and 2 minutes of one of the most powerful aspects of development. SQL is how you access databases… and it makes your web and app experience rich and dynamic. I’m not going to say I was a great programmer, but of all of the things I did, I LOVED database design and SQL. Funny story: in a job interview, when I was still in college, the interviewer asked what I knew about SQL. My response was “Not much, but how hard could it be? All you need to know is FROM, WHERE, SELECT, and a few other things.” He turned out to be one of the smartest software engineers I’ve ever known, and amazingly, I got the job.
Introduction to Maya 2017 (by Justin Marshall and Eddie Russell)
Maya is a 3D animation environment “that enables video professionals who work with animation film, television programs, visual effects, and video games to create highly professional three-dimensional (3D) cinematic animations.” That sounds freaking awesome. Maybe programming ain’t your thing but graphics is? From the course description: “This course is designed for new Maya users, so the goal is not to weigh you down with a lot of technical information. Instead, its goal is to help you form some really good habits and workflows, allowing you to see the entire start-to-finish pipeline for this project…”
Introduction to Web Development (by Nina Zakharenko and Brian Holt)
I cut me teeth on web development. You can too. This course is from 2015, and things changed, but the basics and fundamentals are always good to learn. The course is a whopping 11 hours (yikes!) … if you are serious about learning web development, buckle up and get learning. Oh yeah, who will you learn from? Nina and Brian, at the time their bios were up, were Reddit developers. Wowzers. Learning from developers of one of the hottest and most popular websites in the history of websites.
Introduction to CSS for Designers (by Susan Simkins)
CSS is freaking awesome. How old am I? When I moved away from programming, CSS was just starting to make waves. I didn’t quite learn it, but I understood it was super duper powerful. You can probably make an entire career out of just becoming expert in CSS. Or, if you do any kind of web development, understanding the basics of CSS will help you. This 1 hour 48 minute course should be a great primer.
An Introduction to Design (by Jason Roberts)
Design is underestimated. Software developers aren’t necessarily good at it, but they need to understand it. I tell my graphics-oriented friends they should look at UX (which is design for the user experience) as a career option. I was talking to a recruiter last year who said they could not find one single UX designer in all of Utah. They were all working. This is a hot, hot field. The course is about design in general, but I get excited about UX 1 hour 53 minutes.
Beginning Data Visualization with R (by Matthew Renze)
Have you ever heard the phrase “big data?” I think the potential career choices for people who go there are mega-huge. Here’s how I put it: I have a website with 13+ years of data. I know there are rich insights I should be getting from that data. But, I don’t know what questions to ask. I don’t know what I should learn from my data. I feel like I am MISSING OUT. If I had a big data person (or a data scientist), I might do things differently. I might grow my business and help my users more effectively. YOU could be that person. Just about every company out there has data and they are not using it in a way that can best help their users. R is a programming language, and data visualization can help managers and leaders make informed decisions. This three hour course will get you started in the right direction.
Seriously, $199 for full access to those, and THOUSANDS more? What are you waiting for? Save $100 before the sale ends (on June 19th).
Of course, you can watch my 32-and-growing professional development and soft skills courses here.
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