Got an email with a job offer this morning. Feels unreal.
I’m 29 and I have an MA in English (qualified teacher). During my studies I took on what I assumed was a temporary sales job to make ends meet, but I actually ended up working in a couple of telemarketing companies for a total of 4 years. The latter of those was a digital marketing company, and while working there I started to get the ever-increasing feeling that I should be doing work on the production side instead of sales, which I was doing OK in, but not great.
At this point I had my MA in my back pocket, but I had to be honest to myself and acknowledge that I didn’t really have a lot of passion for teaching either, especially compared to the burning desire to start learning how to code.
So what I did was I put some money aside and just straight up quit my job in October 2016, and started learning from the comfort of my flat. First I learned Java through a free online university course, but – I shit you not – a drunk software company CEO at a bar told me I should be learning something a bit more modern like JavaScript frameworks instead. So that’s what I started doing.
I found FCC, enrolled in some Udemy courses, completed some free tutorials, and in all did a lot of Googling on stuff. Then last Thursday I saw an ad for open positions at a local IT company, and decided to throw them an email. I got a reply 15 minutes later with an invitation to a job interview the next day. I went in, basically was completely honest about what I do and don’t know, and today they sent the mail informing me they are gonna give me a shot.
I am extremely enthusiastic, although also a bit terrified, because I’m gonna be working with a whole bunch of technologies I am not familiar with (like React Native, Python/Django and god knows what else). Luckily I fancy myself a fast learner, so it should be fine, and I’m happy to dive into the deep end.
Thanks to FCC for providing an amazing, well-structured, easy-to-use curriculum that doesn’t let you off the hook too easy. I am nowhere near having completed the entire thing, but it’s definitely been paramount to getting me to where I am now.
The takeaway: listen to the drunk guy at the bar.