So I’ve really, really been busting my butt these past 2 months. In 2 months, I learned the C# programming language, then HTML and CSS and I started to fool around a lot with desktop apps. I also signed up here and I learned jQuery and Bootstrap. Ive done the tribute page, I made a portfolio (which I havent submitted yet), I submitted the Twitch.TV API app, and Ive done I think around 260 of the challenges. I also am now learning JavaScript and Im flying through it since the C# is still fresh in my mind. Even though they are different, they have a ton of similarity. Last but definitely not least, I learned ASP.NET MVC, SQL, LINQ, and Entity Framework; this stuff was pretty tough but I love it. I really enjoy backend and working with databases. This is literally the most I’ve ever crammed into my poor little brain in my entire life. I’ve spent literally 12-18 hours a day at times coding. Last night I and the night before I only slept 3 hours. But the key is… by choice. I do enjoy it that much. I want to make killer websites and apps for people.
But I’m starting to get lost. To be honest, I don’t enjoy the algorithms and games and challenges… What I do enjoy is being creative, solving problems in the context of applications, and creating real products that serve a purpose. I am aware that often algorithms may need to be made in the process, but the amount of frustration I’ve had with the challenges system seems to cause my career more harm than good. For example, It took me DAYS to finish the “Profile Lookup” challenge. It was so bad, that I actually created the entire Twitch.TV API in less time than I spent trying to get past that challenge. Interestingly, while I’ve reached frustrations when programming applications like my desktop apps in C#, I’ve never been quite so frustrated as I have on this site with some of the challenges.
But the thing is, sometimes my solutions work in my own browser or compiler, but the challenge still says there’s something wrong. I really do feel like the challenges are doing more harm than good a lot. Which is funny because some are painfully easy and very straightforward, where others I simply don’t understand. It’s not that I can’t program what’s needed, it’s that I literally don’t understand what the challenge is asking.
Anyway, to get to the point, I’m feeling kinda lost. How do I get from screwing around with challenges and making simple projects to doing this for a living? I honestly don’t know anybody I can go an say “Hey I’ve made a twitch page, wikipedia viewer, and tribute page, let me make you an awesome website!” and then get a job out of it. Those of you who do this professionally, please explain how exactly you bridged this gap? Should I just start making web pages for no apparent reason for practice??
I went on the FCC GitHub but it seems to be just people posting issues with the site itself. If anyone wants to pair code with me please drop me a line.