Success Story - 7 Years as a Self Taught Developer

I originally shared this story as a comment on Reddit, in reply to many developers worrying and wondering about the feasibility of actually becoming a successful self taught developer. Sadly, there was a fair bit of negativity and pessimism in the thread, especially with what was at the time a rougher job market. So I decided to share my story. Today, I open my inbox to none other than Quincy Larson asking me if it would be okay to share my story, and so here I am to share my story with the community.

I’m a self taught developer, currently making a 6 figure salary remotely as a UI Team Lead, about 7 years into my career. Was it hard? Hell yeah. I put in hard work and effort to get here. Is it worth it? Beyond a doubt.

I’ve worked bottom of the line jobs. I’ve done fast food, retail, call centers, hell I’ve taken care of people and wiped their behinds. I’ve been in very thankless jobs where every single minute of my day was micro managed. I’ve had to rely on food stamps to feed my family. I know what it’s like, and it sucks.

So it makes me a bit sad when I come on to these threads and see every response to the idea of teaching yourself being negative. I work from home, and hangout in my pajamas. I get to see and spend time with my family through the day, eat lunch and play with my kids.

I taught myself using free, online resources. I focused on making things, I’d get a curiosity, and I’d build it. DnD character sheets, name generators, simple games, and yeah some good old WordPress sites. I’d copy code from examples, line by line, tweaking each piece and trying to understand how it fit the whole.

And yes, my first developer pay 7 years ago was $16/hr at a small time WordPress company based out of a lady’s garage. It wasn’t fabulous, but it was a step up from wiping feces from the back of a 70 year old lady. I took what I learned there, and started freelancing in my spare time.

I did that for a while, going from small time web company, to freelancing, to trying out selling my own WordPress sites, back to small time web companies, bouncing around. Then, I got into Angular and a mobile framework called Ionic, and started building little projects. Then, I started a diet and noticed there wasn’t any tools I liked on the play store for that diet, so I went “oh I’ve got a shiny new skill set, I can do this!”

This led me to creating my diet app, which actually did fairly well and now I’ve got over 20,000 users. But this is what my latch key moment was for really breaking in as a developer. I had a small time app that was well reviewed and used. More than just an example of what I could do, I had real results.

My app started simply as a macro nutrient calculator with a friendly UI to remove the need for people to do the math for themselves. That’s all, but it was being used and people liked it. My application responses damn near tripled. I’ve worked at top level companies like HP, and now I’m leading my own team and mentoring junior developers. And my app brings me some decent spending money.

It’s achievable. It’s doable. It’s hard. It’s a long process and doesn’t start glamorous. But I did it with kids, working, and living on a budget. It’s possible.

Anyone that really wants to do this but is afraid they can’t do it, feel free to PM me or reply. I’m happy to answer any questions.

P.S. Quincy, you’re awesome man. You and those who care selflessly like you are a total inspiration. And for all you learning developers – stick with it. This site works. I have used it not just to get started, but continuing to learn and hone my skills. I come back to it. You can do it too.

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Hey Adair,

very inspiring story, great work!

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This is such an inspiring story!
Communities like Freecodecamp, Tech Twitter have helped developers so much!

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Hi Adair, Thanks for your inspiring story. I see myself in a lot of it and I hope my story evolves to your current, successful chapter. I appreciate your lesson that learning takes a long time but dedication and perseverance will get you there. Congratulations on your app and your achievements!

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That’s an awesome story! Congrats on making to where you are today :slight_smile:

It reminds me quite a bit of my own story although I’m a couple years behind you. As tough as it was to get that first job and get my career to what I’d consider a stable place, it was absolutely worth it!

Congrats again, and thanks for sharing!

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It’s encouraging to read succesful stories like yours. I’m in a really dark place in my life and your story motivates me to keep going.

Thank you for sharing!

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Congrats! Thank you for sharing. I have a similar background! I have so many good vibes from this post. Excited!

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Excelente, felicidades, justamente soy una persona interesada en aprender a desarrollar y decidĂ­ tomar el curso con freecodecamp para dar mis primeros pasos como desarrollador. Creo que eres una persona admirable y un ejemplo a seguir.
Gracias también al Quincy por este bella iniciativa, espero poder aportar los conocimientos adquiridos para ayudar a que otras personas cumplan sus sueños de volverse desarrolladores.

Thank you so much for sharing.
It is such a big inspiration to us who are just starting

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Great inspiring story man really!

I was really feeling demotivated at the moment and thankfully I decided look for stories like these on the forum. Your story has inspired me to persevere, for that I thank you.

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Thank you for sharing. It is not easy to open yourself up like that to strangers.
Personally, I really needed to read this…it’s almost 2am…I would rather watch Netflix
or some fun YouTube videos but I just took a break from doing some of the challenges.
My first day on the forum. My 1st story read. My 1st reply. Thank you for reminding us that things can change for the better! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:
PS I rarely respond to anything.

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Wow, if you could do it, I can as well.

Only question, how to keep up with resilience? Or how to keep up that drive to keep on learning even on bad days?

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An amazing story, it is on time because I graduated last year from high school and I m self taught.
it really inspiring me to keep working hard.
Thank you :yellow_heart:

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I have always been inspired developers stories.
I’m a self taught programmer myslf although I’m also a cs student, I feel like am too anxious to see results it has 1year into programming no job. But i beleive am still young to be complaining of not having one yet. Am just not secured with this sector in my country (nigeria ) and it really difficult to get a remote job also. Just felt i trow it out maybe i might get some connection.

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Thanks for sharing your story. :slight_smile:

This site works.
And I agree 100 %.

this is such an inspiration for me. this kind of story made a bad day manageable for me

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Your story is so cool! Thanks for sharing! Ive loved coding since I was a teenager but I never considered myself “good enough” to take it seriously and now, many years later, I am diving in and trying to show myself I can do this for a career.

One question though, do you feel that WordPress was an important thing to learn? I have never used WordPress (even though I know its insanely popular) because you have to pay to use their services and I can’t do that at the moment. I know there are videos on youtube, udemy, etc that can show you but I haven’t really bothered with it so far.

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Your story is so cool! Thanks for sharing! Inspiring.

I really needed this and am more motivated than ever because i always get discouraged thinking maybe am doing this for nothing yet am very passionate about writing code.
:heart: :heart: :heart: :heart:

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