Feeling a Little Discouraged Today

1

I realize I’m probably not as close to getting a job now as I thought I would be, and I’m feeling discouraged, especially since I live in a less-than-encouraging household, and working at a minimum wage job. I even can’t see a therapist to talk about stuff like this because I don’t even have real health insurance or reliable transportation to get there.

I just feel stuck in my situation and like I’m never going to get out. I’ve been at this for quite some time (almost 3 years), and am not getting much of anywhere. My CSS is still piss poor, and my projects look unprofessional.

I just want to change my life.

3 Likes
2

Have you tried applying for internship positions? You can’t find a new job if you’re not looking for one.

In the meantime, concentrate on MASTERING HTML and CSS. Just do LOTS of practice, pick a site, any site, and recreate it using HTML/CSS/graphics. Done? Then rinse and repeat. Pick another site…

Make your goal to be confident you can recreate any site layout that you see out there. Worry about JS, jQuery later. You can introduce small JS/jQuery snippets when you have a working layout. – that way, you’re more likely to appreciate what it can do.

Can you post a link to your projects?

6 Likes
3

mels065.github.io/portfolio

4

HTML and CSS design is all about the little details.

A few quick comments on your page.

change border-radius to px values instead of %. It will look better.
Remove the black borders around your image and figure tags.
Try using different fonts for your page. They’re free at google fonts. Experiment and play with it.
Play with color combinations. Use this for inspiration https://color.adobe.com/
Instead of using pure black colors, try varaious kinds of dark gray. See which ones appeal to you.
Play with font sizes, and appropriate margins between your images and text.
Try centering your hero text vertically.
Fix the too large fonts on your menu.
Done?
Now try reducing your browser width (to simulate a mobile phone) and fix any new issues to come up.

You need to have an eye for details!

Read topics about design, colors, usability, user interface… making websites isn’t all about coding.

4 Likes
5

I mean, would it be better just to focus on the back-end? I kind of dislike designing and would rather work just with programming (JS, etc.). I’m more of a left-brain person than a right-brain.

Or maybe not even web development at all, but something else entirely.

1 Like
6

Sorry, maybe I misunderstood you when you said

My CSS is still piss poor, and my projects look unprofessional.

If you like the backend better, then sure, concentrate on that. Do lots of practice coding. But you still need to apply for jobs. Better start that early while continuing your study.

7

I’m sorry, I might have misunderstood you as well. Do you mean that I should just focus solely on the back-end (and apply to jobs), or continue working on CSS? I mean, if all I was focusing on was improving the CSS for my portfolio, that would be alright since it would be the only styling I would have to worry about.

I don’t think you misunderstood me, though. I’m just coming to this epiphany that maybe I’d be better just developing than designing, since I enjoy that more and always get frustrated whenever I work with CSS and styling in general

Who knows? I’m actually going to be starting with a cohort next week working with front-end stuff, and maybe working with other people will help me to like CSS? I guess we’ll see.

8

Find small features/elements of a website that you think look good and open Chrome or Firefox developer tools and look at the stylesheet. See how they went about making them and the css properties they used. Recreate and customize them and try to change it a bit and play around with how the css is made. You’ll learn a lot like this.

1 Like
9

EDIT: I realize that I probably went off on the handle here.

10

Bro… stop it. I’m 29. Right now I’m a school bus driver part time. I have a wife that stays home and a 3 year old son. We literally have a dollar after bills are paid. Someone just did a hit and run on my car. Harvey made it so my check never came this month, and i just blew my life savings on something that probably wont work.

Im going to be frank here. You sound soft as hell. You are saying you want it so bad but really you don’t. If you did, none of this stuff would matter.

It sounds like you are worried what other people may think of you. Your failures, you misssteps etc. And letting that affect how you think of yourself.

Listen. Other people are going to worry about your failures. They’ll snicker behind your back. Give you nonchalant assed responses. Let them worry. If you are also worried about your own failures. You have already lost. So fuck them.

Do projects until your fingers bleed. Emerse yourself. Build a portfolio that makes people really say “wow”. Until then. Keep eating shit and bagging groceries. Nobody will remember it.You have to want more than just to make it. Want to be the best at it.

I hope this helps. God Bless.

22 Likes
11

Keep working at it. If you work at it, you will get better.

If you prefer backend work to frontend design, then definitely focus of that.

In addition to Owel’s excellent comments on your portfolio, I’d also add that it just seems a little too simple. Maybe dated is a better word. It’s using a lot of basic formatting that has been around for 20 years so it just looks like something out of the past. I would recommend looking at some other portfolio pages to get some ideas. What you have works and looks clean, it just doesn’t grab the viewer.

Have you joined any clubs or done any meetups? That is a great way to meet people in your area who are doing something similar. They can be a great way to get advice and feedback. You can get some experience working with others on projects. And you might make a connection that gets you a job.

It’s easy to be patient and wait for a real web development job when you’re already working a real career and you can still feel like an adult, but when you’ve never even had that experience, …

Well, everyone has to start somewhere. And I wouldn’t say “to be patient and wait for a real web development job”. I’d say, “use this time to build skills and get ready for when that job presents itself.” If you wait on the corner long enough, the bus will come. You don’t know what the schedule is, but it will be there. If I can switch metaphors, opportunity will eventually knock and now is the time to get ready. If you aren’t ready when it knocks, then you’re just going to have to wait for the next opportunity.

it just always feels like you’re in the “When will my life begin?” phase, …

Most people feel that way. I’m 48 and I feel that way everyday. I think when you’re a kid, you look at adults and think that they have it all figured out. When you become and adult you feel like everyone else has it figured out and you’re just faking it. Lately I’ve been realizing that everyone is faking it. Maybe a few people have charmed lives and the personality that allows them to feel confident and in control. But there are far more of us than there are of them. The trick (I think) isn’t to try to fool yourself, but just accept it and do your best.

Life is what happens while you’re making other plans. Your life is happening right now. The most important day in your life is today. Enjoy it - you won’t get it back. And what are you going to do today to make your life better? Not tomorrow, not yesterday, but today.

7 Likes
12

You have a link to a twitter account with no tweets. I would not bother if you don’t use twitter.

13

I mean, I appreciate it, but I’m not always like this. I’m just having an off day today and just needed to vent for a bit.

I put in work everyday whenever I have time available. This is something I want and I’ll do everything to get it.

14

Are you saying I need a more active Twitter account, or should I just not include the link to Twitter?

15

One or the other…
PS. I like your calculator. You have fixed some of the problems most people have with theirs. :+1:

16

If you like back-end, go through the node and MongoDb challenges. There is work out there for making APIs.
I heard about this at one of my local JS meetups: https://swagger.io/
It is for making APIs.

EDIT: I see you have done some of these. You should host these on www.glitch.com

17

I want to apologize for my earlier post. I feel embarrassed for posting it

The truth is, I’m probably not applying for enough jobs. I feel like that may be what separates me from someone who’s only been here for a few months and gets a job. I might have more knowledge and experience than them, but if I’m not putting myself out there, I won’t get anywhere.

And I definitely need to improve my CSS. I’ll follow the advice of some people on here, look at some attractive looking sites, and replicate their CSS.

Thank you everyone for your help

2 Likes
18

Don’t apologize. I’m sure there are plenty that feel the same way.

Yeah, you gotta apply. I would say work hard to make yourself as ready as possible. But you also need to create opportunities. The more times you apply, the better the odds.

If I can repeat one of my favorite jokes (the clean version) …

Two guys are walking down the road. A beautiful girl walks by and the first guy asks her, “Hey baby, wanna have sex?” She slaps him and stomps away. They continue walking and the second guy asks the first guy, “Man, you say that to every woman you meet? You must get slapped a lot.” The first guy shrugs his soldiers and replies, “Yeah, but every now and then I get sex.”

A big part of sales is learning to deal with rejection. You are a salesman selling yourself. Wear rejection as a badge of honor. People that aren’t getting rejected aren’t trying hard enough. Try to get rejected from at least one job a day. Eventually the law of averages will catch up to you.

2 Likes
19

One guy here posted he got 2 job offers and finally found a job… after applying for 3 years, 700 jobs…
That’s a response rate 0.28%. That’s persistence and hard work.
So don’t give up.

4 Likes
20

But what I am not getting is that if the demand for these jobs are so high why do so many people have such a time getting these jobs?

I read there are only 140,000 webdev jobs in the whole country and only 7000 openings per year.

2 Likes