How to find mentors in this field?

Career Advice
1

I started freecode camp this month. And so far so good but I know I can not learn on my own alone without good mentorship. But I am not in a university or college that I could be surrounded with likeminded people who I can learn from. A youtuber who got a job into programming in less than 6 months said finding a mentor who kept him accountable really made a huge difference. So I wonder any suggestions in finding a mentor so I can actually transition to from learning the basics, making my own projects to actually finding a job.

I appreaciate any input on this and interest in replying. Thank you so much.

1 Like
2

Private tutoring is expensive. A mentor is not a tutor.

You should not expect to get a job in six months. Your competition is people with four year degrees.

2 Likes
3

Hey,
maybe you can learn on your own. Having a mentor is a good way to learn, but a lot of us including me started without a mentor, and I can say that it has a very huge effect in your journey. You start your way with small projects and follow the instructions, then you make your own first project and you get some things wrong, and you learn a lot on the way.

Since you’ve started freeCodeCamp, that means you know what you want to learn here and that’s the important part. The forum here can guide you when you’re facing challenges, give you feedback on your projects and support you throughout the process.
Good luck on your journey!

2 Likes
4

Thank you so much! I appreciate your feedback. Makes me feel good i am on the right track.

2 Likes
5

Whew! This is a sobering but realistic expection. Thank you for your response

1 Like
6
  • For you it may take 3 months → 12+ months, depends on how much efforts you put into this journey
  • Learning is just 10% job done and 90% pending task/s is building loads of projects of various complexities
  • I would suggest do check book summary “12 week year book summary”, which will surely help you in the journey
7
  • I had faced exactly same problem in 2021 - 2022, it was so hard to find like minded people
  • But now FCC is on Discord, you may find like minded & motivated people, who can help each other in achieving goal
  • I didn’t have Discord that time to find like minded team as forum messages gets lost quite easily
  • What helped me is when I started building projects from Frontend Mentor website, they have great community just like FCC with lots of senior people who gives you constant feedback
  • I would suggest try both places to find like minded people
  • Have daily updates to each other, have weekly goals and stick together till each of the team members gets the job / internship

All the very best

8

3 months is an irresponsible expectation to set

1 Like
9

HI @canopymaker !

Congrats! That is where I started back in 2020 :+1:

While you might not be at a university, you do have resources available to you.
There are tons of discord communities, slack groups, etc that have tons of developers of all stages all learning and growing together. I would suggest starting with the freeCodeCamp forum and discord and go from there.

There is a lot of context missing from that youtuber story. When did they get their job? Did they get it during the height of hiring tons of devs during the pandemic? How much programming experience did they have prior? Did they have skills in other areas like math or engineering that made the transition to programming smoother? Did they already have a preexisting network of tech friends they could tap into to get leads for a job?

The reason why I ask all of those questions is because context does matter. Lots of people hear these stories of those getting jobs quickly and think it can be easily duplicated. But for most people it won’t be.

Some people get jobs very quickly because they are ridiculously good at networking and had opportunities presented to them. Others just happen to be at the right time right place. Others were already connected in the tech field and had friends help them get the job.

A most realistic timeline will be close to 2 years of learning, building projects and networking before you get that first job.

As someone who is self taught and has worked in multiple dev roles at this point, I can tell you having time to build a good foundation in the fundamentals and building projects on your own is key to being successful on your first job. So take your time with learning and growing because it will be a huge help :+1:

I think you can get accountability from being involved with communities and learning in public. A lot of people will participate in 100 days of code and post about it in discord communities or twitter to help keep them accountable. Others will publicly post about a project they will build this year to force them go through with their plan.

But the main thing is to just stay plugged into a community like fcc. Because things will get tough and you will have times where you wont’ want to code. That is normal and happens to all of us. But if you are plugged into a good community you can share those thoughts of doubt and the community will help you through it. :+1:

Going through the self taught journey is not easy but 100% doable when you are plugged into a good community and you take the time to engage and learn from the community. That is where you will learn tips for learning in general, tips for building projects on your own and tips for the job hunt.

Hope that helps

1 Like
10

it’s just an example, if you search YT there are plenty of videos who have claimed as well

Search “how i become a web developer in 3 months” in YT

That’s why I have emphasized " * For you it may take 3 months → 12+ months, depends on how much efforts you put into this journey"

11

Those videos make irresponsible claims that do not represent the typical experience of self taught developers. We should not repeat those claims here, imho.

Instead of repeating unlikely expectations, we need to be clear that self taught developers should be expected to put in an equivalent amount of effort as their competition on the job market - people with 4 year degrees from universities. People should come into this with their eyes wide open to the fact that typically this is a process that takes years despite the clickbait of influencers trying to get money and clicks.

It is absolutely not a question of putting enough effort in to make this a 3 month task. For nearly all learners, a three month timeline is simply not possible and it’s not appropriate for us to suggest otherwise.

1 Like
12

My intention was exactly opposite; to discourage new learners to simply believe any random claims on YT, instead put sincere efforts and follow their own speed without breaking down and losing motivation on the way

13

Ok, so let’s not pretend those 3 month claims are realistic options for nearly any learners then?

14

I think everything @JeremyLT said is right.
I think 3 months/6 months is ridiculous. Finding a mentor is not that easy, because mentoring is like a job, and no one will do it for free. Is time consuming.
I can tell you that I was lucky enough to have a mentor because it was my partner, otherwise, I would have been alone. Also, I found help in this forum as well (there are lots of experienced people willing to help).
It took me around 2 years (counting the times I gave up and started again) to learn and find a job!
Sometimes you need to pause and think if whatever you are seeing is to good to be real. People go to uni for at least 4 years and then they start job hunting, some of them struggle and it takes them a long time to find a job. Does it make sense that you can achieve this in just a few months?
I would suggest you to learn freeCodeCamp curriculum in order, and if there is something you don’t understand, ask in the forum (I did this back then). You can also ask ChatGPT to explain you concepts you are struggling with.

2 Likes
15

Hey campers!
I think everyone here agrees that 3 to 9 isn’t a timeframe one should expect to become a skilled developer or to reach a professional level in the field.
The videos where people make such claims are mostly for views. They are gonna tell you how they did it one 3 or 4 months and make you somehow feel like you can become a guru in one year. I’m saying this because I’ve been there in the very beginning of my journey.
I think when we are trying to learn something, especially if it’s our passion and something we love, then the time shouldn’t matter. We should fix our mindset first before stepping into something.

1 Like
16

re-read few times please

17

you can as well ask all the YT video makers who claimed that they learnt in 3 months and we can continue our debate here

In 3 months one can learn basic HTML and CSS to build static websites to be employable

So 3 months or x months is pretty generic based on what all things one can learn and be employable

18

Yeah, we don’t need to support those unrealistic timelines here. Setting people up for failure is not what we’re here for. HTML and CSS alone isn’t enough to get a full development job. Site builders and AI can do work that only involves HTML and CSS ok enough that it’s not reliable employment these days.

We should let our learners know that the typical learner will take years (plural) to be job ready. Those unrealistic timelines just do a disserve to people and set them up for unsafe expectations if they expect to be making money fast.

1 Like
19

it’s enough to get job here in India, which country are you from ? Did you check JD available in Indian websites ?

Instead of trying to learn tons of things till one gets internship / job; let’s start applying once milestones are reached

  1. HTML & CSS ( + projects ) → start applying
  2. JS Frontend & framework ( + projects ) → start applying
  3. JS Backend & framework ( + projects ) → start applying

Once a person starts getting consistent stream of money each month, s/he gets more motivation to reach higher goal

IMO no need to wait for 12+ months to start applying and lose motivation in between

20

I’m from state Maharashtra ( in India ) and recently state government has asked all the schools across state to have their own website ( atleast 1 static page )

Now school teachers don’t know how to buy domain, host or build it. There are plenty of jobs atleast here in India

With tons of employment and poverty, young graduates can start getting some money and continue their journey to learn and make big in USA like other Indians in silicon valley