This was how I got started in the industry. I won't center this on myself, but I'd give you this advice... Start building shit. Build anything. Build games, b

This was how I got started in the industry. I won't center this on myself, but I'd give you this advice... Start building shit. Build anything. Build games, build websites, build console apps that compute large sums of numbers. Make yourself code daily, and commit to micro-projects, even if you never list them on your portfolio. Try to focus on learning one strong object-oriented language and then one strong functional language. Learn to appreciate both styles for what they are without being dogmatic about one or the other. Don't just memorize design patterns, build mini-apps that implement them, and then do the research to understand why people recommend them. Pair programming is great, but don't do until you've done much of the above. Right now is about freshness. It's about putting on your favorite music and tinkering. Tinker a lot. Download someone else's program, and debug it. Debugging will teach you more than most care to admit. Read anything you can get your hands on related to programming languages. Read blog posts about new features to languages and why experts love or hate them. As you get into libraries that help you to accomplish your goals, go to their source control page (if they are open source), and read the issues and suggestions. Read the rebuttals from the maintainers as to why they won't accept suggestions. Books I'd Recommend: -Code Complete -Pragmatic Programmer -Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (Not about code, but will help immensely).