I will cheat a little because I’m not a developer per se, but I rather hold a multitasking position bringing together knowledge about Linux, SQL, Front-End and Back-End. But first things first.
I’m almost 30 and being a son of a small-time farmer and a waitress hasn’t exactly prepped me to succeed early on. I scored decently in high school and managed to get MA in History, but after the college it was down the hill form me. I did some odd jobs and eventually ended up working first in a warehouse and then in a factory as an unskilled laborer. I realized that things were deteriorating for me quickly and decided to rotate my live 180 degrees.
There is more to that change, but I deem it irrelevant to the topic, so I will cover only the FCC and post-FCC part. So nearing 28 years I started an FCC course. With passion of a virgin programmer and someone determined, I were coding like mad; spending 6-7 hours in a row just coding. It was tough sometimes, especially when it came to JS algorithms, but I managed to create a few projects which made me proud of myself. Being 3/4 into FCC (or was it earlier?), I started to doubt: Am I good at this? Or am I just an impostor?
After the initial breakdown I decided on a risky leap. I left my job and became unemployed for virtually 3-4 months. The second thing I did was to start applying for intern jobs and junior developer jobs. While my applications were being sent I trained like mad to polish my skills.
As expected, influx of aspiring junior front-end devs to the work market made it hard for me to get through, but eventually I was interviewed a couple of times. Of course I didn’t get those jobs but each time I learned a valuable lesson. Fed up with the current state of affairs I started my own IT business and suddenly, I got a call from UK based company offering me a contract as a support for their local dev branch.
I’m my own man now. Ranking high compared to other contractors and able to negotiate better salary. I also got in the process a lovely wife and a newborn son, so it’s a win-win situation in my books.
All of this wouldn’t be possible without the initial spark that FCC gave me, so thanks!
PS. Learning Java and Python now