I guess I will start from the beginning.
I started FreeCodeCamp July 11 2015. I worked in my free time to get done what I could being a stay at home dad. I found my self doing FCC as a stay at home dad because of a personal situation.
So, one day I am browsing the FCC reddit and see an ad for volunteer project managers. I write in a quick applacation and a month or so later hear from Michael and get the PM gig.
From there I am managing projects and working on the balance of my certifications. September 28 2016 I have my 3rd certificate.
After a week I begin looking.
I dont look on Monster, Indeed all the places a gap in employment history will get you tossed out. I go to AngelList and Craigslist.
My strategy is: finding a job is a good, but taking ANY webwork that pays $10/hr or better would be okay and build a portfolio.
I put out 10 resumes. Then bullet pointed my resume and rewrote it mentioning dollar figures of my accomplishments. My resume is 1.3 pages long.
I submitted 10 of them. Of those 10 I had 3 callbacks. One for an RV Shareing service. One for a local candy company. And one from a web development firm.
I interviewed at the web dev firm.
Noteable things about the interview.
*They offered beer and I accepted.
*I moved the conversation away from behavioral interview patterns.
*I used a marketing pitch instead. (I reccomend the book how to sell anything).
The day after I went to a hackathon and won 2nd place overall.
I got the job offer and started in 4 days. October 31 2016.
I work about 9 hours a day and commute 1.5 total most days. I am an hour and a half early every day.
I work hard and continue to learn as much as I can in my off time. I figure in 3 more months I will be reasonably quick.
I started this journey at 30 and I am now 32. I still work on the PM team of FCC and I am 6 months out from getting my hours for my ACP from PMI.
I have the privilege of working with some very talented developers on the non-profit teams. The one thing successful people do in this profession is work hard and stick with it.