Don't rush it, learning to program is a process and you need to learn to enjoy it

Nowadays, with the countless programming languages and technologies out there, it's natural to want to learn more than one at the same time. But the results won't show up in 6 months or 1 year.

If you follow every post on LinkedIn, for example, it's very easy to feel dumb and outdated, since a large chunk of people seem to be experts in several languages, multiple databases, endless design patterns, and so on. Are they really, though?

If you're just starting out or in the first years of your career, I'd suggest focusing on one specialty and gradually learning the ecosystem around that language.

Example: I'm starting out in web programming and want to work with PHP.

What I think is effective is getting to know a good part of the language, mastering a few things, and learning its ecosystem, namely:

• Control structures and loops
• Forms
• Arrays (to me, this is the key part of PHP)
• Object orientation: mainly abstraction, inheritance, and encapsulation
• Variables and Constants
• Error handling
• Sessions and Cookies
• File management
• Cache
• Databases (DBMS): MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL
• HTTP Requests
• Dependency management

Once you feel confident, consider learning a Framework, studying design patterns, and applying code quality and testing tools.

With that foundation well built, learning another language will be a lot smoother.

Don't think the job market is all that hyped-up wonder, everything running on microservices, hexagonal architecture, 100% test coverage, working at the beach with your feet in the sand, laptop and colorful beanbags, star treatment, and a high salary. There are plenty of companies running a legacy monolith, earning a lot of money, and paying good salaries to maintain, improve, and optimize the project.

Keep learning, take courses, read books, but REAL experience only comes from actually working in the market, that's where things get tough, NEVER compare yourself.

So, take it easy, everything happens in its own time, things will happen naturally, it's a process.