I got a job - thanks FCC

Hi everyone,

Happy to announce I got a job working as a front end react/redux dev. I’ve received so much help from you all over the last while and I’d like to thank you all for your support.

If anyone has any questions about my job hunting process, my FCC progress, advice, opinions etc I would be happy to share.

Good luck to everyone in their journey and again, THANK YOU :tada::tada:!

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Well done bro congrats
how did the process look like and what did you need for the job also how was your javascript because I am still on algorithms which are not easy but im ready a book to help me other wise people share more about the experince and how it went. Did you complete the front end track aleady and gain your certificate ?? …

Please share in the thread - experiences, advice, mistakes, etc. - that is if you can pull yourself away from your new jet setting lifestyle. :wink:

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Congratulations! I’m just wondering, did you finish the entire freecodecamp course, or a certification?

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Hi @giordifungula, @ksjazzguitar.

The process:

I applied to a bunch of jobs on indeed and got a few interviews. One company stood out in particular in that I really liked the conversation I had with the employer at the first interview. I ended up doing a total of 3 interviews with this company before receiving my offer. The first was the most casual, just a chat about what I was working on at that time (the employer had already looked at my Github profile before the interview). The second interview was a technical question which I had to whiteboard and then write code for. The third and final interview was mostly informal and more of a chat about the company, the work we do, etc.

What I needed for the job:

This is kind of hard to answer. I think my strongest asset was having all of my projects on Github. This gave my employer the opportunity to really gauge my knowledge. I think it is important to remember that you do NOT need to have EVERY single skill listed on a job posting. For instance, I had absolutely 0 redux experience when I was going through the interview process, but knew a good amount about React and thought I could always pick up Redux if and when necessary. If you think you may be a qualified candidate you should apply. Even if you don’t get the job it will be a good learning experience. I also have a university degree in an unrelated field (which I don’t think mattered very much).

Where I was at in the FCC curriculum when hired:

I have the front end certification. Did all the algorithms too (I agree these are difficult when you are first starting but when you are close to “job ready” they become much easier). I did most of the react projects (didn’t make the game). I did the API projects for backend and made one of the full stack projects (voting app). However I built a lot of things on my own (which i consider to be “full stack” projects) and didn’t follow the curriculum too strictly. I would say that doing the “dynamic web application” projects are probably the most valuable learning opportunities on FCC. Once you understand enough about the front end and back end individually doing these full stack projects really shows you the full picture. I would prioritize doing these projects way above learning about D3 for example.

Advice:

  • Be patient, you’ll get really frustrated at times (For met it was webpack, lol :angry:)
  • There’s no real shortcut. You just have to spend a lot of time learning and making mistakes and being confused. Consider being hired a long term goal and try to enjoy the journey rather than stressing yourself out.
  • Push your knowledge on every project. This is something I started doing fairly early on and looking back I think it was really helpful. For example, my first full stack project i used create-react-app to handle everything. The next full stack project I did the webpack config myself. The next one I did more webpack customization and also wrote test cases with jest/enzyme etc etc. Pushing your boundaries with each project really forces your knowledge to grow
  • Have another hobby that you can use to recover mentally a bit. Exercise, baking, crafts, whatever it may be you do need some downtime from coding so you can refocus.

If you have any more specific questions let me know!

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No I definitely did not finish the FCC course. The only certification I have is the front-end one. I went off on my own and just built things that interested me. I built a web scraper in python to find concert dates, I built an email tool, etc etc. I think FCC is a great template but you can also build whatever you want and learn lots too (and you may be more interested in the project too!)

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Congratulations @Swoodend!!!
That’s such good news and thanks for sharing your experience. That’ll go along way in helping out guys like me.

Congratulations! That’s very motivating to hear :slight_smile:

Congrats, @Swoodend! I am new in the field of coding. Your story definitely sounds encouraging to me. i am wondering how much time you spent on learning coding before your job? BTW, where are you (country, state, etc)? Thank you.

Hi @waterism,

Thanks for the support. I probably at least 2.5 years learning. I know some campers like to quit their job and focus all of their time and effort on coding and hopefully get a job faster but that path was not for me. I took things at my own pace and also worked a full time job while learning. I am from Canada

Good luck with your learning going forward.

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your welcome!

Was a pleasure, Really! :3

Thank you for your prompt response, @Swoodend!! I am also on a full time job. Like you, learning coding by quitting my job is not an option for me as I have family to support. 2.5 years sounds too long for me. I feel regret for not starting learning earlier. It is nice to learn that you are also in Canada. I am in Waterloo/Kitchener area in Ontario! Nice to know you!

What aspects of FCC stand out in particular prepared you for the whiteboard interview and the coding interview? Also from Canada, so your journey is very encouraging!

Hi @urbanware,

as I mentioned I got hired as a react dev, so I would say by far and away the most helpful section for me was the react section. After I wrote a few react apps everything I wrote afterwards (the full stack projects etc) I always used react. To be honest I couldn’t imagine writing a html/jQuery front end any more. React, to me, just makes everything so modular and easy to manage.

That being said, I also applied to other jobs that were not react positions and my react knowledge wouldn’t be as useful in those interviews. So overall, I think the #1 thing you can do to prepare is just spend a lot of time learning about everything. There’s no real shortcut or secret, you just need to learn a lot and it takes time. That may be a boring answer but I think it is true. Good luck!

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Thanks for the reply!

Yeah I’m mixing things up a bit with some edx.org and coursera.org courses but I didn’t want to stray too far.

Cheers

Did you complete a training or did you do all your coding skill development through Free Code Camp?

Any advice regarding job posting that requires 2+ years experience? I don’t know if I really have to have such experience to be able to apply.

Thanks, man!

Kent G.

Hi @kentgomez28,

Most of my learning occurred through FCC (specifically doing the projects). I did use some other resources too. At the very very start I used codecademy. I think it was helpful for for just drilling the syntax of javascript, python etc into my head (imo, codecademy doesn’t really expose you to “real-world” problems and roadblocks like FCC does because it doesn’t require developing a large scale app like the FCC projects do, though this may have changed as i haven’t visited the site in years). Coursera also offers free courses if you ever want to learn about data structures and algorithms, the famed harvard course CS50 is on there too and it is really interesting.

In terms of jobs that require 2+ years of experience — IMO, if they are willing to hire someone with 2 years experience they are basically saying they are willing to hire a “junior dev” so I would definitely apply to those positions. Even if you don’t know every single technology that they list in the job requirements if you are reasonably confident that you could learn them and you have a a few things they are looking for already you should apply. For instance I applied without having any redux experience and got the job despite my employer using both react and redux.

Hi, have you heard of https://www.watchandcode.com ? It’s a free video course on Javascript that is really helpful in understanding Javascript. I also completed the Javascript course on Codecademy first as I found it more helpful than the courses here on fcc.

Congratulations, More money to your account. I tap into your testimony

Congratulations…