Learning Programming for Freelancers – What’s the Point?
Having an online presence is part of day-to-day business for most freelancers. Most freelancers are regularly online – whether it’s with their own website or on social media. But beyond that the world of bits and bytes is usually a distant and unknown cosmos. We spoke with Dr Julia Freudenberg, Head of the non-profit Hacker School from Hamburg, about how programming skills can enrich freelancers’ business in every industry.
Why is Programming Knowledge Also Worthwhile for Non-IT People?
exali: Here’s a somewhat daring thesis to get you started: Programming is only for IT people. What do you think?
Dr Julia Freudenberg:
Programming as a daily, professional activity is certainly more for IT people. But the knowledge of programming, the knowledge of how coding works at all is something that everyone should have a bit of these days. We live in a world that is becoming increasingly technical and digital. That’s why we start early at the Hacker School and give children and young people from the age of 11 the opportunity to discover programming in a playful way. We also advocate lifelong learning. It’s never too late to embark on your IT adventure.
exali: Why isn't it enough for freelancers to just have a basic idea of how things work when passively consuming social media, apps etc. or posting something online occasionally?
Dr Julia Freudenberg:
That could be enough. I always find it difficult to lump everyone together. Taking a closer look at programming can make more sense for some than for others. The important question to ask here is: What do I really want to understand? For example: How do the algorithms that control certain things on the web work when I put something online? How does an app actually work and what happens to the data that I enter there? Of course I can ignore all that. But I recommend you don’t just ignore it and instead gain some knowledge about how programming works. When you learn more about it you also get an understanding of a different error culture that can help all of us. Programming is in effect always about fixing bugs and finding errors that are causing the program to stumble. Understanding that making mistakes is part of the process and can even be a good thing is an important insight for people in any profession.
exali: What use is programming knowledge to me as a freelancer if I don’t work directly in the IT sector?
Dr Julia Freudenberg:
In principle, the same applies here. We are all on the internet every day, use cell phones and tablets with various apps as a matter of course and are networked in our everyday lives. Just knowing how it all works can also be worthwhile for someone who doesn’t work with it all the time, but is also part of this digital world. And ultimately it’s also just fun to learn some coding. Whether it’s a small website or a mini-game - there is a colourful, creative world waiting for you.
How Can Freelancers Acquire this Programming Knowledge?
exali: Freelancers in particular are already quite busy. How can they gain IT skills on top of this workload?
Dr Julia Freudenberg:
I would refer them to our GIRLS Hacker School - at least the women. Once a month we offer weekend courses here for everyone between the ages of 11 and 99. The courses take place online and last 2x4 hours. They’re fun too, so you can think of them as relaxing leisure time. At the end, each participant codes their own small project and learns IT basics. And afterwards there’s always time for a Sunday coffee in the sun. There are also lots of other ways to acquire IT knowledge in a compact way. Don’t think of it as an extra workload, but as a way to broaden your horizons.
Anyone Can Learn Programming
exali: People often have a lot of inhibitions about dealing with IT. Do children approach this differently than adults?
Dr Julia Freudenberg:
Children are certainly more willing to engage in new experiences. But it all depends. We still see that boys are often more confident with the whole topic than girls. This is of course due to our society and the prejudice that IT is more for boys. Which is nonsense of course. That’s why we created the GIRLS Hacker School and specifically invite mothers to break down this barrier. In our experience, girls are initially rather reserved, express a lack of interest in programming and are willing to leave the field to their male classmates. But after the course it looks completely different. Their interest is suddenly aroused, and the girls realise they can do it just as well, if not better. This creates a whole new kind of energy.
exali: What can adults do to find IT more accessible?
Dr Julia Freudenberg:
Just be interested in it and lose your fear. Programming is a lot of fun, very creative and doesn’t hurt. Just because you weren’t the very best at math in the past doesn’t mean you have to think you can’t learn it. Programming is much more about puzzles than math. It involves a lot of collaboration and communication, which are important social skills. There is also a wide range of offers for adults to gain knowledge and skills in the field of IT. Just try it out!
Even real IT professionals sometimes make hair-raising mistakes. In our article A Real-Life exali Damage Event - Loss of Data on Your own Hard Drive we give you a lesson on data security.
After many years of experience in business, Dr Julia Freudenberg became Head of the non-profit Hacker School in 2017. The vision of the award-winning organisation is to get young people - especially girls and socio-economically disadvantaged young people - enthusiastic about programming. Aa a strong networker, she works on close cooperation between the Hacker School and companies as well as voluntary and full-time initiatives in the IT sector. And as a member of the “Advisory Board for the Young Digital Economy”, she advises the Ministry of Economics, does voluntary work and is the happy mother of two children.
Vivien Gebhardt is an online editor at exali. She creates content on topics that are of interest to self-employed people, freelancers and entrepreneurs. Her specialties are risks in e-commerce, legal topics and claims that have happened to exali insured freelancers.
She has been a freelance copywriter herself since 2021 and therefore knows from experience what the target group is concerned about.
