First and foremost thank you to Quincy and his team of developers here at FreeCodeCamp!
Second to those who have come to this section of the forum grasping for hope/change you.can.do.it!
A little about me 9 months ago I had to leave my job working/performing and traveling on cruise ships to help my family. 7 months ago I began coding here at FreeCodeCamp working through the challenges and building projects.
I was not the best or prettiest coder, but I worked. I worked through the courses, and sought knowledge elsewhere to teach myself the craft of code. I was never the smartest in school in fact I was the class clown but I knew that I wanted to break into tech. So I worked my butt off.
Two weeks ago I submitted my first set of applications. Last Week I had my first Interview for a Front End Developer Job. Today, I got that Developer Job. I’m beyond ecstatic, I worked so hard and now I have something to show for it. I start in a few weeks and you better believe i’ll be teaching myself more and more!
Here are a few tips I have for anyone new, or someone whose going through FCC and thinking about abandoning it.
#1. Stop and Smell the Roses!
It’s easy to chug along during the first few hours of FCC, that part is amazing! It gives you a great Confidence Boost! But if you move too quickly, you can miss a few key parts that should be retained. So when you finish a section make sure you understand what you’ve done. Copy and Paste is easy. (I copied and pasted its okay!) Comprehension takes a bit more effort.
#2. You will hit a wall, but remember “Hulk Smash”!
Walls are plentiful but there are hints if you look in the right places. This is one of the beauties of FreeCodeCamp. They won’t give you all the answers, you’ll have to really work to get through it which will mimic what you have to do in a real world scenario. It might seem like the wall is too big, or impenetrable but always remember there’s going to be a way around it, if not through it!
#3. APPLY YOURSELF
This doesn’t mean what you probably think it means. Apply for jobs! I waited too long to apply to jobs because of a big case of Imposter Syndrome. My first interview - I got the job, I’m not trying to brag (maybe a little) but it shows me that I could have began applying to jobs much earlier! Build projects build a portfolio and begin applying! GET AFTER IT. The worst that’s going to happen is they will say they’re looking for someone with more experience, which you’ll get as you build more projects. I followed up with a few of the applications as I was waiting to hear back and I got emails back saying they were looking for people with more experience. I thanked them for their time and moved on. Rejection Happens learn from it and move on!
#4. Code Every Day!
This is my last one and its simple - try to find time to code everyday, FCC taught me this and it will help you immensely! CODE EVERY DAY!
Anyways I wrote a wall of text! But really thank you FCC thank you FCC Community. Flourish, Code, Create.
TL:DR got a job thanks to Quincy, Free Code Camp, and FCC community!
Great post, #3 is prob my issue and just need to apply. Can’t remember how many have commented i can already get, at least, a junior dev position … if i only i applied!
This was one of the biggest obstacles I had to overcome - Imposter Syndrome is real and i’ve heard it stick around for a long time. I just hit a point where I couldn’t justify not applying. APPLY! You never know what will happen, thus the beauty of life.
Congratulations on breaking into tech! Your story really resonates with me.
I’d never seen a line of code prior to 2013. When I finally took the plunge and learned to code, I also had a bad case of impostor syndrome. Much to my surprise, I got the very first tech job I applied for, and I still work there as a web developer (and love it).
The moral of the story for anyone reading this is, don’t sell yourself short! You may think you still don’t have what it takes, but go out and apply for those jobs. You may surprise yourself, and start a great new career in the process.
So you’ve been coding for a few years now it seems like, how is the level of imposter syndrome? does it go away? if yes how long does it stick around for?
from what i’ve read and just get the impression of, impostor syndrome never goes away as long as you’re stretching yourself and not just sticking with the familiar.
Yes! It does go away. In my particular job, the learning curve was fairly steep. It took about 1.5 years before I really started to feel good about my performance. Luckily, the management at my company is aware of the learning curve and has a very good onboarding program. A lot of companies seem to view your first year on the job basically as an extension of your training, which is really nice.
I both agree and disagree with that. While I do feel like an actual contributing member of the team at work now, there will always be more for me to learn, and things that I could get better at. I try to view those things as opportunities or challenges, rather than shortcomings. That tends to help with impostor syndrome.
I will add something onto this: Sometimes…you gotta take a breather, especially if it’s starting to hinder your progress/process.
For example, i was slogging through the algorithms challenges and finished them all in about 2-3 days (maybe 2-3 hours a section or so) and honestly algorithms are just not my “thing”, I understand the usefulness of them and they are important to learn…but it’s just not something I particularly enjoy.
So I noticed towards the end I was getting sloppy and just trying to “get through”, which is not ideal. I took a step back and took a breather and came back to them later on and they felt much more “clear” and I was able to do them “well” instead of just getting them “done”. So sometimes it’s good to take a step back! ha. (but not for too long lol)
This is so awesome to read… and what a kick in the butt. It took you 8 months to apply…Ive had imposter syndrome for a good 20 years now OMGAWD! lol But really its cause just when I think okay, Ive got this…something else comes up that all the cool kids in dev are doing and Im like okay, lemme learn that first…then the cool kids are on to something else. Ive been in a perpetual state of trying to play catch up by either trying to learn, or taking a break from it all for years at a time and focusing on something else entirely.
But…I keep coming back to dev…its what Ive always loved and Im cheating myself by notgoing for it. Im going through the Get Job ready guide…but determined now to make dev my career focus…not sales or real estate or all the other stuff I keep doing to distract myself to do instead cause Im scared I wont be as good as everyone else.
Anyway!!! Thanks so much for your post…brag away about landing a job after your first interview…I love it. Thats awesome!!!
I think when it comes to Imposter Syndrome…it’s gonna happen regardless but it’s 100x worse when you try to “compare” to other people (Which im guilty of).
Like I see these people on StackOverflow and im like “wow…im so dumb”, but I have to remember those people have been doing stuff for YEARS.
I haven’t actually completed and of the certificates i got to the Advanced Algorithms for Javascript and took time to really delve into HTML CSS and more JS. I felt i was writing a lot of code without a full understanding of them.
So i took a lot of time to go over the basic fundamentals and really dive into them gaining a deep understanding of the languages, so i could better understand libraries and frameworks like bootstrap for css or jQuery or Angular for Javascript.
Yeah, i had a few projects on the side - making websites for friends and a mild stint in freelance but other than that all the projects i created were the ones assigned by FCC.
