I got a job after 8 to 9 months of really dedicated learning. I roll my eyes when I read stuff like get a developer job in 3 months…The sheer amount of content one must know for this kind of job is just too much to cover in such little time. Within 8 to 9 months of 8 to sometimes 10 hours a day of studying I was ready to be a Junior, was i prepared for the problems I face on a daily basis? Not at all, i learn on the fly and I have to improvise and create new solutions daily, I don’t think you are ever fully ready. I think you are ready to apply for jobs when you have touched a lot of things and things start to relate to each other but you cannot know everything, it’s impossible.
This past month I had to implement a payment system on a prestashop website, there’s no course for that you just have to use Google and learn on the spot. Or in another instance I had to change or rearrange the related products showing in a Woocommerce site, again, I never studied or learned how to do that, just to name a few but I face stuff like that daily.
Good insight into a real world job. One thing I wish to see more of is developers giving concrete examples of their daily tasks at work. I understand no two days are the same, but being specific on just a few of those things are valuable to those of us trying to understand the job as a whole. And I agree with you about how some developers get jobs in only three months or so. Honestly, good for them, but I personally would feel like a burden to the business because I would have such a minute foundation of knowledge. But to each their own; we all learn differently and some of us just got a little more luck.
Your story is so amazing! I’m also self-taught and I just started learning JS a month ago. My goal is finding a frontend developer job and I hope I can do it. My background has nothing to do with computer but I realized I always wanted to do web development and I believe it’s never too late to start
The most intellectually brilliant person in the world could have all the knowledge of something, but could also be the kind of person that few people want to work with (no offense intended but Bill Gates comes to mind there, as he was infamously difficult to work for/with when he was running Microsoft—and Steve Jobs was infamously difficult to work with as well, btw).
You kind of disproved your own point. Bill Gates and Steve jobs are two of the most successful people in software engineering history.
Have previous code background and started FCC as brush up or/and
Are Networking (Dev Meetups, code meetups, classes) or/and
Taking other classes or bootcamps concurrently or/and
Start applying sooner rather than later or/and
Were already in a technical field and transitioned to dev (ie: IT to dev)
Having said that, this isn’t a race. Concentrate on what is comfortable for you. You can apply sooner, but you will be more successful the more you know and practice. Check the job boards, there are few posts from folks learning what they should have done before they got the job that they didn’t have.
Yet even without working on people skills or having any to speak of he was able to massively succeed due primarily to brilliance, ambition and ability to capitalize on opportunity.
