I am 21 years old living in the United States. I have no college degree and I have been teaching myself web development for a year and a half. I can honestly say that I was starting to doubt that the “self-taught” route would get me a job. I applied for jobs all over the US. I lost count of the amount of companies and internships that I applied to.
I am currently a Jr. Front End Web Developer for a pretty awesome company. It took me about 5 months to land a job. I couldn’t have gotten this job without FreeCodeCamp.
My best advice to anyone taking the route I took is to NOT give up. Never stop learning. Perfect your resume and your cover letters. Update your portfolio site with new projects regularly. Keep applying. Dabble in freelancing or create sites for non-profits. Network with developers in your community. Just keep on truckin!
Persistence is key. You can do this.
Thank you to all of you that helped me along the way! I claim to be “self-taught”, but is that even really a thing? Self-motivated is a better title. I wouldn’t be here without the support of those around me and those within the FCC community. This is only the beginning of a long career for myself. I am very excited and humbled to be where I am at.
I am looking forward to my future as a software developer!
Awesome work, @purpledrumsticks! I couldn’t agree more - persistence is key!
Congratulations on your new front end development job. With your attitude, you will learn a lot over the coming months, and progress quickly. Thanks for being such an inspiration to us all!
Congrats @purpledrumsticks! Thank you for sharing your advice and your experience! I definitely believe in the “self-taught” route more thanks to developers like you who show the rest of us that it is indeed possible as long as you’re willing to put in the time and effort!
@purpledrumsticks Wow, very inspiring! I am also a 21 year old living in United States with no college degree. I’ve recently completed FCC which took me about 2 years and I’ve been applying to jobs this past week. Within the last week I’ve applied to about 100 jobs and so far almost no responses and 4 rejection emails. I’ve been almost beginning to doubt myself, but your post gave me some hope. Thanks for sharing!
Great work man! Thanks for the insight as well. Doubt is a constant in learning and seems to grow as the learning becomes more difficult. I think working on projects you care about and trying to find enjoyment in the process is the best way to stay persistent. Hopefully I am right, ha.