Got my first job as a developer

Career Advice
1

Got my first developer job!

For the past two weeks I’ve been working as a Frontend developer and I’d like to talk about how I got there since it might be helpful for someone.

I began by taking cs50 on EDx (https://www.edx.org/es/course/introduction-computer-science-harvardx-cs50x). This course is amazing because it´s inttoductory yet challenging, and I think it shows you the right aproach to programming.

On May I started freecodecamp’s frontend cert. and finished it in August. I realized that I learned the most in chellanges, thats why I think that it is very important to give your best when solving them. After getting the frontend dev. certificate I made my portfolio (https://manuelbasanta.github.io/), which is mostly challenges I made during FCC. Thats another reason to take your challenges very seriously!

React and Angular seem to be really important tools on the market so I started the data certificate right after that. If Quincy happens to read this I’d like to tell him that to have the data course complete would be really awsome and of course I also would like to say thanks, this is an increadible website.

I don’t have much else to say other than repeat what I said before: Solve the challenges as good as you can, it’s solving them when you learn the most.

Hope this was helpful, thanks!

41 Likes
2

Mucho congrats, Manuel!

Completely agree with you. I’m patiently and diligently struggling through the first of many FCC projects (the Tribute page). Build, tweak, break, refill coffee, read, search, tweak, break, more coffee, ask for help in FCC Forum!!!, repeat cycle (maybe switch to drinking water)

small sidebar –
For those who would like it, here’s the link to English-language edX site and course that you suggested.

Best wishes as you begin your FE journey! Hopefully I’m only 5-6 months behind you!!

  • Janice
2 Likes
3

Congratulations! Nice portfolio site!

1 Like
4

That’s a gorgeous portfolio!

I’m curious about how you built it - am i right in thinking you dynamically change what is visible with Javascript capturing button clicks and re-writing your CSS? It feels really nice!

2 Likes
5

jquery fadeIn and fadeOut of the different hidden divs.

2 Likes
6

I used Jquery’s .animate() and .fadeIn() changing the background-color and hidding/showing. Also used this stylesheet https://github.com/daneden/animate.css to make the buttons animation

3 Likes
7

Hola Manuel!

Congrats! Your projects are all very neat. Did you get a work in Spain? I would be interested in asking you a few questions if you don’t mind :).

1 Like
8

Congrats man! Well deserved :slight_smile:

1 Like
9

I got my job in Argentina, if you are still interested please ask away.

10

Ahh cool. No worries. For your name I thought you were in Spain. My questions were about European job market so I guess I can only tell you Congratulations! and thanks :D.

11

Congrats on the job and great portfolio!

How did you manage to finish the Front End Cert so quickly? May to August in only 3-4 months!

1 Like
12

Lots of free time, didn’t have a job he

2 Likes
13

Dude, your portfolio is gorgeous.
I love the simplicity.

You definitely deserved the job man!
Stoked to see people on here that are benefiting from this site.
Very encouraging.

1 Like
14

Well done - you do have a good quality portfolio and an eye for design. You’ll do well :slight_smile:

1 Like
15

:open_mouth:
3 months of coding, man, that is some hardcore commitment. Congrats on your achievement.
Loved your portfolio page (isn’t the color too bright?? :slight_smile: )

1 Like
16

What resources did you use? I mean what books or courses.
The portfolio looks great!

1 Like
17

Hello Manu!

First of all, congratulations. I’m really happy about your new job, you!

Second thing, omg, your portfolio is so amazing, and i mean, really. Maybe it’s just too appealing to me, since i like that style; you know minimalism and all that. But, the Tic Tac Toe game for example, it’s so good!

I want to give a little bit of context about myself, and my situation:

My main interest is probably back-end development; it feels so good to being able to retrieve data from the database and make websites so dynamic and functional. As well as some programming challenges, it’s really fun (and also frustrating, but in the best way).

But even so, i’m constantly afraid of having to accept my weakness, which is front-end, or even just making good-looking sites, specially with CSS, since i really love JavaScript. So, i want to get out of my comfort zone and start creating good-looking sites. I don’t want to be a UI/UX designer, but i do want to feel like creating a static website for a friend (i have many talented friends: writers, musicians and i think they deserve a website!) or non-profits and feel good about it. But just right now, the sole act of thinking about that really makes me feel anxious.

That’s why i would like to ask you for some advices in order to improve my front-end skills, and eventually being able to clone your site (not copy it and saying it was my idea, but for learning purposes). What technologies did you use? But that’s quite unimportant. Most importantly, how did you practice?

Thank you so much for this post, and congratulations tocayo!

1 Like
18

Well done, lad.

It’s really inspiring to see how dedication and persistence can yield expected results and that’s not common for every profession. I’m a beginner myself and stories like yours give me strength and motivation to push my brain to the limit and just grasp everything thrown at me.

Btw, your portfolio is amazing and more importantly UNIQUE! Personally i did not like colour choice, but hey, that’s just a matter of taste. Keep up the good work and i wish you very best in your new career.

Nic, out.

1 Like
19

Hi Manu,
Thanks a lot for your kind words!
As I said, I had no experience on programming but I’m a design student. I believe that is very helpful when creating the looks of a site. When creating a site, or anything at all for that matter, I think it’s very important to have a look at what was created before, if you want to create a portfolio, well look at portfolios, what do you like about them? what would you change? and build on top of what has already been build.
My personal recommendation is to keep it simple and focus on the details, thats what I enjoy the most when looking at sites.
Good luck!

1 Like
20

Thanks axon!
My resources were cs50 on edx, freecodecamp, a bit of codecademy and lots and lots of stackoverflow.