Congratulations, you graduated your online coding course! What now…?
You just graduated from an online coding course!
How do you feel? Excited, nervous, anticipatory?
But wait… did that really just happen?
I mean, there was no ceremony… no funny hats… not really any pomp at all. In fact, I didn’t even meet any of my fellow students. Did I imagine this entire thing? Does anyone else even code? Is it just me who devoted every spare hour I had and more over the last 9 months (YMMV) to learning how to put together seemingly random words and punctuation to somehow make web applications and the like?
Oh phew, you too? Thank goodness, I was worried for a moment there.
This past Monday November 5th at 4pm GMT I jumped on Zoom with an instructor at Flatiron School for my final project assessment. 1 hour later I had passed it and about 30 minutes after that I had been formally congratulated on my graduation from the Full-stack Web Developer course.
I had a sip of my cold tea.
My fiancé hugged me, I called my mum and I spent the evening relaxing with Netflix. The very next day I was searching through the curriculum for anything I wasn’t sure about and panicking about what I should next.
Now, I don’t know about you but I’ve graduated a couple of times before and usually, you get considerably more time to freak out about being released from the safe confines of school or university. This time though, there’s a good chance that you went in with a pretty specific goal. Some people learn to code online just to get a few new skills but I’d say most of us are probably looking to change our lives in some way and often that means changing career.
I started 2018 as a touring circus musician.
I intend to end 2018 with not just a code-related job, but one that also fits my lifestyle and allows me to catch up on some of this time I’ve spent away from family and friends all these years.
So as I approached my self-imposed anticipated graduation date, I was considering what the imminent future would look like. This is what I came up with:
Basic Maintenance
I have a love-hate relationship with CodeWars but am currently completing one kata in each of my preferred languages per day. It’s great for keeping your functional code-fu on point.
Remember, this world of code to which you and I recently received the key, is changing every second. There will always be something new to learn and we will truly be students for life. If you think about it too hard it can be overwhelming but if you change your viewing angle, it all seems incredibly exciting!
Keeping it Green
Those green squares on Github ain’t gonna paint themselves. The fact of the matter is that Github is one of the first places potential employers are going to investigate your work and literal commitment. They want to know if you actually code or if you just talk about it. Of course, we don’t need a Github presence to code, but you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise with the importance that is placed on it especially for those of us who have little or no production experience yet. It doesn’t have to be the next Facebook, but if you are working on a specific skill, why not make a basic demo or add it to an existing project and push it up. Doin’ it for the green. So to speak.
Portfolio Projects
Some of my friends have barely anything public on Github but have amazing coding careers. The common denominator is that they can all show some top work with real clients. In my short experience thus far, it’s not too hard to find someone who wants a website. Last night I went to a small party and I left with two projects, one for a coffee shop and one for a band.
Top Tip: your charges are your decision but even if you’re offering mates rates for the initial work, do make sure that your client can give you an idea of their budget for hosting services, maintenance and the other fun stuff that they might not think of at first.
Don’t be a Twit, Tweet.
Are you a Social Media sweetheart? Then you’ve got a headstart here. It would be fair to say that SM is not my forte. I did, for a while, get in the groove of Instagramming once every day or two. It was quite surprising how swiftly you acquire followers if you post regularly. My ‘specialism’ was photos of my ‘office’ setup du jour which was usually in random locations, often with a glass of wine. I mean tea.
Twitter seems harder to break into unless you’ve already had a presence on there for a while. The coding community is huge on Twitter and initially, it can feel like you have nothing to add. It’s time to shake that feeling. Did you learn something cool today? Let the people know! Did you read an amusing article? Share it! (hint, hint)
Quality over quantity, however, as I learned recently, you don’t need to be on every SM channel. But the ones you choose, keep it up and keep it quality because the world is watching, not just your mum but also your next client or employer.
Monies!
Okay, here’s the real talk. Whether you just finished paying tuition or you worked through every non-working hour on free online resources (or both), I imagine you’re pretty keen on finally getting paid to code, right?!
Me too! But hold it there, what is your current situation? Quite aside from learning an entirely new skill set, this year has been an intense one and I am sure that yours has had some rollercoasters too. It can be tempting to go out there guns blazing straight away. A quick look on LinkedIn Jobs can get the mind racing on all the cool things you can apply to. But my two cents, take a step back. What do you really need?
Let’s make a wishlist. Here’s mine:
- stable, with enough hours to help me resuscitate my bank account
- flexibility to work around upcoming necessary travel
- not so many hours that I cannot continue to develop my skills at home or build my portfolio
- a company who understand where I am in my development and actively want to help me continue to learn and improve
- possibility for remote work
- awesome office environment with board games and puppies
At the moment I’d say that’s also the order of importance however in a few months I know that will have changed and my priority will be finding a company who will actively help me to extend my skills and have a clear dedication to continuing professional development.
I was given some interesting advice recently:
“Don’t just say yes to the first person who will hire you. Find a company that will treat you right. Some places will teach you one thing and keep you there with no contining development in other areas. Some companies believe that it is cheaper to hire a Junior Dev and train them once instead of hiring a Senior Dev from elsewhere.”
And I imagine that might be true from the accountant’s point of view but I’m sure we can all find some flaws in that thinking. It’s also quite unfair to us as new developers. Maybe at the time, we’d be happy to sell our souls to anyone offering us a paid gig but when you’re ready for a change, if you’re trained to do just one thing in one specific company’s ways, you might run into some issues getting your next role.
One solution
I’ve had my eye on a Technical Coaching fellowship with my school since day one and I’m currently at the final interview stage. If offered the role, it will fulfil each of my current priorities perfectly; I will get to consolidate my own skills by helping other budding developers debug their code, encourage my bank account into a healthier place and work remotely, whilst also giving me time to build up my portfolio and prepare to apply for my next step after the 4-month fellowship.
It seems like the perfect plan! If I am not successful, I will bring forward my job search and up my hours in my current job (of course, only enough to survive, need to keep coding as much as possible!)
Enough about me! What is YOUR perfect plan?
What does your wishlist look like? How do you anticipate it changing over the next few months? Years? Decades? When you have it down, take a deep breath, and go find your perfect plan for right now! We can come back and revise any time you like.
In a few years, who knows, maybe an office with board games and puppies can be my top priority. Let us know in the comments what your top priorities might look like now and in the future!
