From Fashion Designer to Developer
I am often asked by people and friends how I became a developer and which coding courses I took. That’s why I decided to write this article to describe my journey and recommend the materials I used and the meetups I attended.
Here is a list of coding courses which I followed
- The best place to start with zero knowledge about coding is Codecademy. I did these courses there: Learn HTML, Learn CSS, Introduction To JavaScript, Make a Website, Learn Responsive Design, Introduction to jQuery
- After Codecademy I did this Web Development Course at udemy.com. In this course, you will build few apps from scratch and will get more familiar with HTML, CSS, javascript, and node.js by building travel blog app and many more. You also get a feeling how is it to work with dev environment and how things work in real life ;)
- Next step is to practise javascript more and my favourite website for that is Codewars.com Here you get a solid basic understanding of the language by practicing solving coding problems, which appear very often in job interviews. Don’t worry if you realise you cannot solve any of the tasks when you start; it is very normal and lots of people give up at this point. My tip here is to try to solve the problem, Google a lot, ask for help on the internet or at the coding meetups (see the bottom of the article for a list of great meetups). My second tip is to filter katas list by choosing: Difficulty level: 8kyu, Sort by: popularity, Language: javascript.
- Now is the perfect time to learn javascript frameworks which help a lot in writing clean and easy to read the code. My favourite is React.js. There are plenty of jobs are with React.js and well paid too. I did the Modern React and Redux course at udemy. It will give you the basics of react and redux in a very well explained way.
- After finishing all of these courses you should still practice javascript by doing some other online tutorials at egghead.io, FrontEnd masters, codeschool, freeCodeCamp and many more.
- Now you more then ready to start looking for FrontEnd Developer job ;) and I can help you if you want to choose a good company to work for.
Questions which I faced since I have started my path to become a software developer and changed my career
Is it hard to learn code and get a first job
It isn’t, if you have time and you want to learn. It might be hard on the beginning that’s why I will recommend you going to tech Meetups (like CodeBar.io and many more) to meet other people who also are learning. You will get lots of help from senior developers who also attend; they are happy to
explain everything to you. You also get more motivation to do things, which makes it so much easier.
Finding the first job as a junior developer might be hard at the beginning but don’t worry is not that bad there are plenty companies out there which are looking for juniors. It might take you as little as one month. In my case, 6 months after starting my path from scratch, I already landed my first job. It was not the best one, but at least I got some experience on what it actually meant to be working as a coder, plus more familiarity also with management tools like Jira.
After my first part-time job it was so easy to find full-time work. But I have lots of friends which got their first dev job on a full time basis.
What are the advantages of being a developer
Definitely awesome community which is very helpful and nice. The work environment is great too. There are lots of companies which provide mentorship programs for junior developers, a badge for self-development like coding courses, tech conferences and more. Lots of jobs also offer you some on-field training, so you will always have opportunities to land a very well paid job that also lets you learn, everywhere in the world.
Work is fun too if you love solving the problems as much as I do, building a pretty website and build new things.
How much you get paid
In London, the average salary for a junior developer is between £25K-£40K and depends on many factors like your knowledge, experience, attitude (if you’re enthusiastic, passionate and eager to learn new things, it’s more likely that you negotiate a higher rate). Based on my experience, if you choose a big financial corporation you can make at least £30K as a junior developer.
Which tech Meetups I attended -> The best meetups for developers in London
One of the best ways to learn and dive into the programming world is to go to meetups. Not only do they provide you with a chance to learn, it’s also a great way to meet some like-minded people. Here are some meetups which I like the most:
- Codebar.io
- Codecademy
- West London Coders
- Women in Tech
- Founders & Coders -they also have free 3 months full time coding courses
- React.London
- Reactivate
My advice for anyone who wants to learn coding
It takes a bit of time and your determination to start with but in the end when you finally get your first job it is the best thing ever!
I had a full-time job when have I started to learn to code, so I studied every day after work around 2h–3h during the evenings and whole weekends.
On Saturday I went to Codecademy meetups where I met lots of great and super helpful people.
During the week I also went to tech meetups, the most frequent being Codebar.
I think the best way to be motivated to learn and do lots of online courses is to go to tech meetups where you are surrounded by people who are doing exactly the same things as you. It is much easier to keep going, to spend whole free time studying, and to not give up. Also, forget for a while about going out and concentrate on what is important for you. It it is such a great feeling when you finally get a job and your dreams come true ;)
