Using AI at Work

Beyond the Headlines

You’ve seen enough AI headlines, you’ve even got your own set of LLM accounts that you make use of. But you’re not sure how to actually make this a useful part of your professional life. This is a software engineer’s recommendation on how to begin.

Learn Some Introductory Python

Python is not something you can learn in a week, but with AI you can actually bring ideas to life within hours as long as you have a cursory knowledge of the basics. Check out any of the free intro courses online and get started. Just familiarize yourself with variables, functions, and how to read basic code. That foundation will let you work with AI tools effectively instead. I always say that getting code to work 90% of the time is easy. LLMs have made that even easier. But the last 10%, fixing the issues that the machine doesn’t quite understand, requires some foundational knowledge.

Use GitHub Codespaces

One of the most common blockers for beginner coder is not the program logic, it’s the setup. GitHub Codespaces gives you a full development environment in your browser. No setup, no configuration headaches, just code. Check out my other blog post for a detailed walkthrough on getting started.

Try a Very Simple Exercise

Here’s a concrete first project: Upload a CSV file to your GitHub Codespace. Ask the built-in Copilot chat how to read a CSV file, and then write a new file with some changes to the CSV rows. Maybe you want to filter certain rows, add a new column, or calculate some totals. Start simple. The point isn’t to build something impressive—it’s to see how AI can help you go from “I have no idea how to do this” to “I just did it” in a matter of minutes. Feel free to email us if you run into errors.

Questions?

Reach out at hello@aspirecodingacademy.com. We’re happy to discuss all things software.