Would listing freeCodeCamp certifications on a resume be a good idea for people starting at the very bottom of the coding career ladder? Has anyone done this before? What is everyone else’s thoughts?
I personally struggled with what to do on this…when I started out I put it on my resume, and have read of others who did too. I didnt get work, but that was a combination of factors, others did find jobs though.
Something I think FCC shows on a resume is self-drive to learn. It is not an easy course to complete…okay, let me back that up. Some people go through the course asap just to get the cert and feel that the certification is what will help them land a job. Nope, doesnt work that way.
Retaining what you learn, and having impressive projects and well written code in your github that backs up your ability to code…thats what helps. Having FCC listed says you picked up those awesome skills through self-driven learning, which is very desirable since the ability to pick up and learn new things on your own is insanely important.
Another thing, as FCC gets more visibility, the more value it will hold. Many people are wary of bootcamps, and especially online/free courses in comparison to a degree. Some of it because they know what they went through to get their degree and cant imagine anything else would produce a skilled dev, another is they have taken their chances on a bootcamp grad/online course dev and got burned. I firmly believe that what will turn that perception around is becoming aware of the good hardworking devs who got where they are because of these things.
For this reason, I tell EVERYONE about FCC. Its no longer on my resume because I want to keep it to one page, but it is listed in my LinkedIn under education. But…I do bring it up and speak really highly of it and its influence on where I am skillwise. Even at Microsoft, I told everyone…my manager, my mentor, my coworkers…and I got the hoodie, so people would always ask me what the logo meant and I got to talk about FCC some more 
Everyone was always very impressed and many would come back to me to say they checked it out and it seemed very interesting.
My hope is that it becomes widespread enough that seeing FCC on a resume will be a lot more than just some online course, but will signify a lot more and catch the interest of hiring managers to see it. Goodness knows, if I make it to the point of my career where Im looking at resumes and I see FCC on there, I’l give that person a closer look. Then again, y’all are fam so thats just how it goes 
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I’ve thought about this too quite a bit, and when you are just starting out it’s tempting to put it on there.
And that’s because you want there to be some form of representation for the hard work that goes into completing the FCC certs, so it makes sense.
Personally I opted to put it on my LinkedIn and portfolio, but left it off my resume. But I really don’t see how it could hurt you if you wanted to put it on there.
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To me (and my limited experience), it seems like a good thing to put until you have more projects, other employment, just other general experience to list. I like what cndragn said above, listing things like freeCodeCamp shows personal initiative. For myself, this isn’t my first career path, or even my second. Showing that I’ve learned all this on my own, being pushed forward by only myself has to count for something.
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They dont mean anything. Better to have a portfolio to show if you dont have a proper education.
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For the most part, it is not an official accreditation, so it really does not add a ton to your resume. However, I don’t think it is negative.
The thing with FCC is that they quantify the hours input, while people can be skeptical about the number, a number really does put in perspective the effort requires to complete the curriculum. It can be a talking point during interviews where an interviewer can look down and lead the conversation.
it is something you can leave off if you don’t have room in your resume.
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