From Tutorial to Real-World: Making the Leap in Tech Projects
Moving from Imitation to Creation
By MAXX Potential
- Posted:
- Apprenticeship
Search for “Java tutorial for beginners” online, and discover a large number of results, allowing searchers to scroll through pages and pages claiming to teach you everything a beginner needs to know about Java. Some ask for fifteen minutes to teach an aspiring technologist all about Java. As a building block, tutorials give technologists more control over their learning, and these step-by-step guides remove the guesswork and hands-on problem-solving that ongoing technical projects tend to demand.
Now, search for a “how to problem solve in Java,” and the search results are fewer – some videos hit on coding mindset but most lean into more beginner tutorials. Some of these options might help an aspiring developer, but most won’t offer the hands-on experience required to help technologists expand their problem solving.
A tutorial provides step-by-step instructions, but industry work rarely comes with an instruction book. In real roles, technologists often receive vague requirements, must clarify expectations, and deliver results in fast-paced environments. That’s why at MAXX Potential, we encourage technologists to push beyond tutorials and demonstrate how they can problem-solve, adapt, and take ownership of their projects.
What Tutorials Don’t Teach
Tutorials cannot teach project workflow, legacy code challenges, team collaboration, client dynamics, or real-time problem solving. They miss the complexity of tight timelines, moving parts, expectant stakeholders, and differently skilled teammates. Often, an assignment will come with a vague focus that will require more in-depth conversations with the stakeholders to gain full context, outline the process, and understand the success measurements.
A tutorial cannot prepare technologists for the collaborative environment of most technical projects nor the level of organization required to efficiently work together. Since many tutorials walk the participant through the entire process, they miss the opportunity for the participant to flex and grow their debugging and problem solving skills. Tutorials are valuable for building fundamentals, but real growth comes from tackling unexpected challenges.
Shift from Copying to Building
Breaking out of the mimicking mindset that tutorials foster takes one question once you’ve completed the original tutorial, “what’s my next step?”
This question asks the aspiring technologist to explore their own curiosity beyond what they’ve done in the tutorial. Their answers to “what’s my next step” could offer the opportunity to build out that project in a meaningful way that both challenges their current skills and solves the problem. It means off-roading from the tutorial and forging a path that will require thoughtful online searches with a bit of trial and error.
When an aspiring technologist ventures beyond the mapped out tutorial, they tap into their own initiative, curiosity, and perseverance for pushing that original project further. Sometimes that means experimenting with small tweaks, other times it means reimagining the project altogether. In some cases, a technologist might use a tutorial as their foundation for solving a problem in their own life like these passion project examples.
Embrace Real-World Workflows
A stereotype persists that technical jobs are solitary, and while that can be the case in some situations, it is rarer than most might realize. Most technologists work within teams, answer to clients, and interact with other departments. Being able to work within a team workflow in a collaborative environment will make you a stand-out contributor.
To go beyond a tutorial, look for opportunities to build a project with other aspiring technologists or contribute to an open source community project. Knowing how to interact with a workflow with version control and issue tracking can build your documentation skills while keeping track of your project. These experiences also give you a taste of real-world collaboration, where communication and adaptability matter as much as technical ability.
The Leap Gets Easier the More You Do It
As you learn to problem solve and expand your tutorial knowledge into building blocks you can use for other projects, your confidence will grow. Part of learning is to take time to think about what you’ve learned. This reflection can be key to helping you further develop your skills and determining on how you best learn. Who knows, maybe you’ll even create your own tutorials to help others expand their technical knowledge.
You don’t need to know everything before you start, and you can figure it out as you go. It’s completely normal to feel unsure and overwhelmed when you step into the idea of expanding a tutorial, but every small success builds momentum and more confidence. You’ve got this.
You can learn more about hiring MAXX Potential for your team’s project here or discover how to join the team as an Apprentice here.
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