I can't believe I'm doing this but I decided to take a full plunge into pursuing a career in Tech. My Goal is that within 8-12 month I'll be able to land a role in the Tech Industry as a software developer, front-end Dev or full stack. I began my programming journey about a month ago (April 10th) after a friend showed me a few programs he created. It peaked my interest and I decided to do the HTML/CSS course on freeCodeCamp. After finishing the basics courses for both I picked up the Headfirst HTML/CSS Book and breezed through that.
Bootcamp
After practicing building a few static websites, learning more about JS, and Python, I decided to enroll in a boot camp. I went through their admissions process and got accepted! The financial sum was a scary feat but I've saved enough to survive and pay my course. As well as I have an amazing support backing me. I finished their overview of software development course and their computer science overview course and greatly enjoyed it. I learned about Boolean logic, the internet, networking, hardware and software and I can say it's fascinating how all of that works. There's still lots for me to learn and I look forward to progressing.
Making a Decision
In the past two weeks, speaking to my relatives and supportive peoples around me, I've came to a calculated decision, that is, I'm going to pursue this with all I'm capable to. Limiting the amount of bills I have to pay, I've since sold my vehicle, paid my course, and put my two weeks in with my current job to increase the amount of time I have to study, network, and learn how to create projects along with creating projects and building my portfolio.
The past two weeks have been somewhat of a rollercoaster for me to conclude my decision. I'm preparing for the worst and hoping for the best, but I can't hold my punches. My grandma and grandpa put it into perspective that I am in a very good position to move forward and that they're happy to see me finally making a decision into something I'm passionate about. I can say that through hard work and determination throughout my life it has proven to earn me the privilege's in achieving my goals.
Advice and Critique Welcome
I'm open to any advice fellow new programmers have and proffesionals. In the coming weeks as I progress through my bootcamp, I'll be looking for a mentor as well as dedicated peers that we can mutually motivate one another and learn together. Good luck everyone on your journey's! As I'll be needing some too!
Youâve got this! Congratulations on taking the first step toward a career that youâre passionate about.
My absolute best piece of advice would be to keep doing what youâre doing. It sounds like youâve worked out a financial plan, study plan, and have gained a support circle- all of those things are necessary to prepare yourself the mental and emotional space to go through an accelerated program. With those in place, following your own internal motivation is going to be key, especially through the rough times. Knowing when to step away from code, when to give yourself patience as you learn, when to lean on a friend or community for support, and when to shower yourself with praises (even for the little things) comes next and takes practice.
Keeping my eye on my end goal, focusing my intention on success (because you can and will succeed in your goal), and âseeing myself thereâ were all things that helped me at the beginning of my journey, and Iâve since manifested more than I could imagine then. You deserve this, too, so allow yourself to fear the fear, but conquer it!
Thank you for the generous words! I appreciate your comment and advice! I honestly am scared of the emotional toll that'll inevitably occur during such a fast past program. I think I'm prepared for that haha. Once I get to that bridge I'll have to use what I'm equipped with to manage that crossing.
Thanks for sharing your journey as well. I commend you for working full time, raising two kids and attending what seems to be an even more accelerated course then the one I'm taking. It makes me hopeful to read your journey! Also reading that you joined the non-profit, Hack the Hood, reminds me of life goals that I'd like to achieve one day with a good friend of mine. One day we plan to open our own non-profit for our communities of color in our state. In our time's of growing up we didn't get to see that representation and our goal is to show the kids of the neighborhood we grew up in that there's tons of possibilities out there for us.
Your response left me a little emotional haha, I can honestly say it feels me with joy as well that someone took the time to respond to my long post about my goals and my journey. I am going to make my bootcamp what I want of it. We have I believe 2 live projects during the course but I'd like to create my own projects before I finish to have an outstanding portfolio. A question I have for you in regards to projects during bootcamp, is how did you find other projects or what were those projects and what advice would you give that can help me best succeed in creating a great portfolio by the end of my BootCamp?
Thatâs it- for the emotional toll, youâll deal with it when you get there! Donât let the fear of encountering a hard part deter you from the success on the other side.
Youâre so welcome, and thanks for the kind words. Itâs these same words shared with me at points in my journey that deeply helped me- Iâm grateful to be in a position to pass that energy on. Please pass it forward and create that non-profit youâre dreaming up- the kids need you and will thrive because of your inspiration. It starts with believing in you, and that you deserve the success you already see for your life.
So glad to pass that joy on! Itâs always so exciting to me to hear about the start of a journey, because I know firsthand how transformative it can be. Definitely take your learning in your own hands and create the bootcamp experience youâd like to have.
For your portfolio, Iâd suggest working on projects here in FCC- the content builds on itself in a way that will allow you to present your understanding of the core concept of each language youâd like to code in. You can also look for a junior engineering job description in the language you want to write in, toward the stack (full stack, front end, or back end) you intend to focus, and break it down. Looking at the major requirements and gaining and understanding of the type of engineer wanted for the role can help you to work backwards and display the skills desired in your portfolio. In my first portfolio, because I intended to go into front end development, I had a ton of small projects that just displayed a concept, and did it well. For each concept understood, I was able to intelligently talk about both my project and how to solve problems through it, which helped in interviews. Hope that helps you to start thinking about your portfolio!
Most self taught developers, including myself who landed a job, did it through the help of their network. We knew people at the company, or had friends who knew someone at the companies we were applying to.
That helped us land interviews and then show them our technical skills.
Networking is a huge deal.
It can mean the difference between spending months trying to get interviews versus landing interviews pretty quickly.
I would suggest watching Leon Noelâs video on how to land a job
I would also watch Danny Thompsonâs video on how to use linkedin to help you land a job.
I think itâs a very brave decision and I respect your courage. Quitting a job is a big step and itâs not something that everyone can do.
Pros of Quitting Job:
You have more time to practice programming skills and get better at it.
You can focus more on learning new things instead of doing boring tasks at work.
You learn how to manage your time better with less distractions from office work or other things that come up in life outside of programming (work, family appointments/holidays, etc).
Itâs very wonderful , your grandparents is with you in your dreams , donât afraid about failing , hard work is the key , you could Master at one Language , in your situation , JavaScript , itâs very valuable to be very good in one Language than to be average in many languages , take a look at this article
Html 5 , Css5 and JavaScript in the beginning , take a lot of projects , good luck
Thanks for the welcome! I've heard nothing but positive accounts about the community and I'm happy to be a part! Thank you for sharing these sources, as I progress through this, learning how to actually land a role is going to be vital. These sources definitely help.
I'm very fortunate to even be in a position that allows me to do that. I also had to swallow a lot of pride as well. It'll be worth it however long it takes. I agree that it'll free up a lot of time to let me do projects, I just need to make sure I maintain a good discipline throughout it. Thank you!
you know, it's funny because they said something really close to the same thing. Not to be afraid of failing and if you do its okay. They came here as refugees about 40 some years ago and all my life growing up they always told me, "you have to fight for your life", even though I may not be in a drastic situation as they were they remind me it still applies. Thanks for sharing that resource as well!
congrats on your decision and hopefully it will turn out exactly as you hope! having a good support system is critical. i am a research scientist by trade and have spent the last 10years in cancer research. i quit my job in Sept 21 and have been self teaching full time since then. I am focused on front end and feel pretty good about JS/React/Redux and learned Python3 as well during that time. Iâm building one more full stack app before I put the finishing touches on my portfolio and begin apply for jobs
I did consider a bootcamp but decided against it for two reasons: I am a very disciplined student and secondly, my partner is a developer/designer who could help direct my learning path since he has been in tech for 12 years. best of of luck!
Thanks for you reply, I hope it works out too. 10 years in cancer research?! Thatâs amazing, may I ask why the career change for yourself? Iâm ignorant of the subject, but wouldnât that path be fulfilling?
First of all I want to congratulate you for taking this first and difficult step. Also, I want to mention, that reading your comment, I noticed immediately that all your steps are well-tought-out. Congratulations on that too! Because mostly when somebody fails becoming self-employed, the person fails because she did the step more because she was unhappy with her current job, than because of her motivation of creating her own project and getting self-employed. In his/her cased it would have been better just to look for an other job.
Last but not least I want to wish you good luck and all the best for your future and that you always keep believing in your project. And I want to reminder you, that in the beginning you will have to work for many hours.
Your courage and determination is so inspiring. I have no doubt that you are going to become a very successful software developer. Thank you for sharing a part of your journey with us.
I wish I was able to articulate my words better of how much this made my day today. It has been a rough week in that Iâm on my 3rd month of learning programming. Thank you for you words.
Good thing that you thought this through. A couple of years ago, I quit my job to go into another field of work and failed, because I did not plan things out.
Do you have enough money put aside or is there family and/or friends that can help you if need be? Can you afford not to be earning anything? How much risk are you willing to take? Also, learning to program is like learning your first second language: you really cannot tell the speed in which you will learn the thing; you have to keep that in mind so as not to frustrate you.
