How I became a Web Developer, got a Google-Udacity Scholarship & landed my first Software Developer Job in one year while working and taking care of my baby
Hello, my name is Nelson Sandoval I’m a self-taught web developer. if you are reading this, I thank you for doing it, I know your time is important and reading useful material is fundamental to achieve your goals.
Why is important to share your experiences?
During the journey to become a web developer, it is common to struggle and have doubts about ourselves and our capacity to code and solve any kind of challenge, building an app or solving an algorithm. Many times you feel just ready to give up. Specially if you have to work and take care of a family.
So it’s important to share specially when you achieve your goals, in my case, there were several stories that kept and keep me motivated to go on despite the long hours without sleeping or frustration when I was getting stuck.
I hope my story can inspire you to continue towards your goal to become a developer. Many valuable persons’ stories that I’ll mention later have helped me during this process.
My formula of success towards my goal is divided in 4 stages: The idea, The drive, the journey and the reward.
1. The idea
Like many people, I was always feeling attracted by technology and being part of the tech evolving era not just as a consumer. It is not difficult to connect the dots and realised that we are living a world where everything depends on internet and web technologies, desktop and mobile apps. So I saw the potential of this field. According to the Just released Developer stack overflow survey results for 2018, more or less 60% of developers work in the Web stack, which means that, there is plenty of demand for web developers, Front-end, Back-end and/or Full-stack.
The idea was clear, becoming a web developer would open me the doors to change my life and do something that I could enjoy doing and make a living.
2. The drive
Any idea need to have a drive, a motivation, something that does not allow you to give up. In my case I wanted and needed a change in my life, as a technical advisor in a call centre, I had worked the last 6 years in customer service, I can not complaint about my previous Job, I was abled to pay the bills all these years. I just got tired , talking to angry people on the phone can be frustrating so imagine doing it for more than 6 years.
3. The journey
This stage where the idea and your drive or motivation take place, it’s the showtime.
I had studied Electronics and communications Engineering so I had taken C++ lessons during 1 semester 10 years ago, but I never dived deeper into programming and after 10 years working in different things except for programming, I was practically starting from scratch.
On march 2017 I found out about freeCodeCamp a community that helps you learn to code founded by Quincy Larson. I liked the idea of building a portfolio as the best way to show what I can do in order to get a Job in web development, at the end of the day when a company interview you, even if you have a Bachelor and/or master degree in computer sciences, you need a way to prove them that you indeed know and have the skills to code and build things, something that a college degree will not give you. So please do not be discouraged if you don’t have a fancy master degree or even if you studied something different from computer sciences like my case or even if you did not go to college, out there are many companies willing to hire passionate and really skilled hungry people of success as long as you can prove them that you have the skills. A perfect way to stand out from the crowd is building things even if you are not following a curriculum like FreeCodeCamp, you can build your own apps. The demand for skilled people is growing and really far away of ending, in the coming years Job offers for developers will be increasing.
FreeCodeCamp is perfect to build a portfolio, however, in order to succeed and accomplish the challenges, I needed to search and learn from several resources in order to complete the curriculum. As you can see in the next picture, technologies are so many and are evolving constantly. Having guidance and a clear roadmap where to start and the path you can follow is key to avoid wasting time. I decided to start the Frontend developer path. I recommend you to look the Web Developer Roadmap-2018 repository from Kamran Ahmed in Github for further info and guidance.
const whereToStart = ‘freeCodeCamp’, howToStart = ‘building a portfolio’;
Almost all my learning has being free, next resources were key during my journey.
Free Options that worked for me
I personally recommend youtube channels, you will find free video tutorials that teach you building web apps and even deploying them. You will save a lot of time and you will keep yourself updated.
Some of the great youtube channels that I found along the way that really helped to get the job done are:
Other free options
Udacity Courses
Complete Udacity catalog in web development
Books
In my opinion Kyle Simpson’s book series is one of the best book series I have found about Javascript, these books go deeper into the Javascript language, however, you need to have the basics in order to take advantage of these books.
Paid Options that worked for me
If you can afford it, I recommend strongly Udemy, you will find many courses, some even for free and if they are not free, there are several offers and from time to time you will find courses from 10 to 13 euros or dollars.
The courses that worth my money and got me to learn a lot were:
The Complete JavaScript Course: Build a Real-World Project
How to organise your time while working and taking care of a family
The key, my wife, having her support in difficult times was fundamental.
During the mornings I used to wake up at 9 o’clock to start taking care of my 11 month baby, feed him, change his cloth, playing with him, etc. It was really difficult to read or code something on mornings, so I rarely was abled to do something on mornings.
During the afternoons I had to work, so it was also impossible to code either on afternoons.
Nights were my best friends, after dinner and talking to my wife about our days, I had finally time to start, so I had to be self-disciplined in order to succeed and complete my goals, I started at 11 PM until 2, sometimes until 4 AM, depending how much time I could stand awake. On weekends I used to take advantage of mornings. During the afternoon I usually used to spend time with my family and nights were my old friends once more time, I followed this program as strict as I could for almost a year with small periods of relaxing during summer holidays.
During this process I was solving scripting algorithms and building Basic, Intermediate and Advanced Web Apps following the freeCodeCamp curriculum for the Front-end development program.
Job hunting and professional growth it’s more than just technical or hard skills.
Before telling you how I got the job is fundamental to mention that coding and creative skills are the main tools as developer but are not the only ones. Along my journey I learnt other skills that are as important as these and that can be the reason why you shine and get the Job among the crowd.
These skills are known as soft skills an according to this LinkedIn article, the soft skills in demand from companies are:
1. Leadership
2. Communication
3. Collaboration
4. Time Management
Many of you have these skills because of your character as human beings, your education, your experiences in past jobs. For example if you worked into sales, you learn how to communicate, you learn how to sell yourself in an interview, etc. So even if you never went to college, it doesn’t mean you can’t get the Job, what determine your success is you and how much you want this and the other skills you have developed as human being.
The importance of networking
Last year, I read this article written by Gwendolyn Faraday, I thank her for written this article, it opened my eyes and made me realised that even if you are a programming genius, if nobody knows you, it would be difficult to find an opportunity, so I started following her advise and decided to attend to code events, I found out Meetup, an app to assist you and notify you about events where you can meet people that have interest in common, I was looking for a group that has interest in coding, so I found a JavaScript group in my City. Interesting meetings where code talks and networking take place.
One important thing is that networking can open you doors for opportunities that you won’t find even online. Normally small, medium or even big companies would prefer to interview people that was suggested or recommended by people from their own network before looking for strangers online. This kind of recruitment give them the idea that if the people that mentioned your name is someone they know and trust, the chances that you resemble them are bigger. However, don’t get me wrong, that you have the opportunity to have an interview doesn’t mean you have the Job, you still have to prove them that you worth to be hired among other candidates.
I recommend these social media. They were built to help you create a networking, they really work.
- Meetups
4. The rewards
Google-Udacity Developer Challenge
The first great reward to my efforts was an scholarship given by Google and Udacity to learn to build progressive web apps. Something relative new but that seems to have a great future in the years coming, so getting into this relative new technology, will give you an advantage when companies start demanding for this skill.
Besides Progressive Web apps, you can apply for the Android Developer Program. Learn more about Udacity scholarships and how to apply.
Thanks to the freeCodeCamp community via its facebook group and the free Udacity courses I had taken before, I knew about this great opportunity. Thank you Udacity and Google for this great opportunity.
When I applied in September last year, I had built 7 web apps following the freeCodeCamp curriculum and solved the basic, intermediate and advanced scripting algorithms. The idea of investing many hours on nights building these apps and solving the scripting challenges were starting to bring it first reward. I was proudly chosen between thousands of candidates.
I started on November last year and on February thanks to my dedication and full commitment I was chosen for second phase, I hope to end before summer.
FreeCodeCamp Front-end Development Certification.
My second reward came this January, I had completed all the Web Apps along with the 38 basic and intermediate scripting algorithms and I was rewarded with a certification, however, the most important thing here is the big picture, I was abled to build real web apps, with real code from my own, I earned more than just a certification. I finally go it, I was a real developer, not because a paper says, it was because I had a portfolio with apps created by me to prove it and even more important I was self-confidence on develop any new challenge by my own as I had did during almost a year.
My dream come true, my first Software Developer Job.
After going to several meetups I eventually met people that got to know me, saw my work and my passion for coding, they realised about my intention to work as a professional developer. I learnt about a few Job opportunities, one in particular was for an entry level, the great opportunity where I could apply without work experience in software development except from my portfolio and my passion for coding. Again I was developing communication and collaboration skills.
The portfolio I had built online in Github and all the knowledge I got during this whole year thanks to the courses, books, scripting challenges, helped me to show my work and shine in the interview and technical test which I had to perform in order to get the Job. Is important to mention that despite my preparation mainly as a frontend developer, I will start as a software developer trainee in the backend with Java and occasionally in the frontend with my knowledge in Javascript. As I said before, the company was looking for an entry level software developer so they were looking for people with the necessary skills and passion and self motivation to be trained and start working as an entry level software developer.
Conclusion
As a developer, it doesn’t matter the programming language you learn, the important thing is to learn the basics, once you learn the basics, it’s not difficult to adapt to another programming language or change framework, specially if you work in the frontend, where frameworks change often.
During your journey you will feel tired, frustrated and probably willing to give up. However, don’t do it. You don’t need to be a genius, you just need to have discipline, passion and be hungry of success in achieving your goals. If you really want it go for it.
Finally I want to mention that even if I got the job, my journey goes on, I have a lot of things to learn and I feel excited about it. I love learning new things and new challenges. At the end of the day, it’s important to set goals in the short, medium and long term to keep your working life interesting so you can keep self motivated and performing well in any kind of Job.
I hope this story can help you and motivate you. I want to thank the next people, their stories kept me fighting and awake in the nights when I wanted to quit.
The 4 stages of success. Author: Christopher D. Connors
How I Landed My First Job as a Web Developer. Author: Gwendolyn Faraday
My journey to becoming a web developer from scratch without a CS degree (and what I learned from it). Author: Sergei Garcia
How I convinced an employer to take a chance on me and pay me to learn to code. Author: Rick West
How I got a second degree and earned 5 developer certifications in just one year, while working and raising two kids. Author: Beau Carnes
Please share this story, many people out there willing to give up their dreams need to learn that good things can happen all what it needs is dedication and passion.
