How I started Programing and Web Development

Arturo Filio Villa
Aug 27, 2017 · 5 min read

I started programing two years and a half ago. All started when my brother was playing games in his computer and I wondered if I could recreate or make the games myself in order for my brother to play. I didn’t know a thing about programing and so I started to learn javascript because that was the first programing language I saw in Code Academy. I got to the point that I had to create a simple program using if else statements, that emulated a rock paper scissors game and I felt really accomplished. After that I left it for a while.

A few months pass by and I try to pick it up again, and one my sister’s friends tells me he is doing programing for Uber in Mexico and wants to revolutionize the Tech Industry in Mexico with the creation of an application he was working on. He told me that Python is a good easy language to start yet a powerful one to use. So given the knowledge that he had in the programming realm, I followed his advice.

Few months later I took the ‘MIT edx.org CIS Python’ course. It is an excellent course and it teaches you the building blocks on how to program and think like a programmer. I never finished it because it is a bit tough for some one who doesn’t know any prior programing or Python. After I did a great deal of the course, I bought myself this book “Python Crash Course”. This is an excellent book to learn Python, I would recommend it to people who want learn some basic Python, prior to taking the MIT’s course, if they choose to go that route. After a few months dabbing with Python I wanted to create a game, yet Python doesn’t have a good frameworks to create games. Yes you have Pygame but it’s not really the best framework to build complex games.

Fast forward another few months and there I am, learning obj-c and Swift, in order to program iOS apps and games. I got interested to in web development too at the same time because a lot of people say that it is good to have a website for you to showcase your own projects. And so I began learning iOS and web development at the same time. I was learning all this after work and there was a point were I found myself learning barely of both. So I took the decision of learning only one thing and then move on to the other one. I chose web development and left iOS development on Pause.

This is were all things started for me. I started this course in Udemy, Colt Steele’s Full Stack Web Development Bootcamp. People often see courses in Udemy for the price of $50 and more but there is a way to get every course for a max of $10. I went to google and searched “Udemy Coupons” and used them to purchase all of my courses at that low price. So after a Month and a half, or two, I finished Colt Steele’s course, and this in in May 2017. I felt accomplished and ready to program something on my own. I didn’t know much about design or any frame works (Colt Steele’s Course is based on Javascript and the MEN ‘no Angular’ stack btw ), so I took a few Photoshop and Web development courses along with some React and Angular courses. I came up with this website arturofilio.herokuapp.com . This is my first portfolio website and it is static but it is responsive and has a decent design. After programing a bit with React I feel ready enough to start working as a web developer. For this I had to quit my job. I was working in Logistics after graduating from Finance and Economics, and I still felt more moved by Web development than by Finance, Economics or Logistics so it was logical for me to go to work in Web development full-time. I am currently living in Miami and Miami has a very small Tech Industry. It is made by a lot of self-taught and CIS developers. I, as someone who is self-taught and has no prior experience, started applying to companies but I didn’t get any luck hearing form them. Finally, I went to an event organized by a bootcamp school with a friend who was enrolled, to meet local Web Development companies. I met the Co-Founder of the company that I applied shortly after the event and started engaging with them.

Few weeks after that event I resigned my job, this company was being bombarded with work and naturally couldn’t attend to me 24/7, and for me as a recently unemployed immigrant ( Yes I am Mexican and I am on an OPT ), and with 6 months left to stay here in the US as a legal alien, started to grow worrisome. I asked the person that I was exchanging emails with that if he deemed as a good idea for me to go to a web development bootcamp since I had a lot of learning gaps due to being self taught and he said it could be beneficial, and so I did. I decided to enroll into a bootcamp and get better with all the technologies I taught myself. Some people may question my move and say “Why did you go to a bootcamp if you already knew? you could’ve just kept on learning on your own!” and I agree to a degree. There are certain circumstances where I would advice people to go to a bootcamp. First, can you afford it? because bootcamps are not cheap, and second and most importantly, do you have a time constraint or a rush, like I? I am exchanging the high cost of education that the bootcamp provides, for time. It is simply cost of opportunity and what value do you place on each. Fortunately I have some money saved and could attend the full-time bootcamp but as previously said, I don’t have that much time to get job-ready. And it is self explanatory why I took the bootcamp.

I do believe thought that all the information to learn programing is out there for free or for a price of two coffees. It will just take time and dedication if someone wants to be self taught. Unfortunately I have no time left in the US. So for those of you who want to become programers of any kind I do suggest to try learn for free for at least three months prior before you decide to take an expensive course.

Hopefully at the end of the bootcamp, I will be employed and be able to write and Update on this story.

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