Background:
I started Mosh’s front end development and have finished html/css, JS, TS, React, Git, and Docker. Then I went for backend, finished node and am working on SQL right now.
I’ve even started learning wordpress and how to design custom plugins / themes. The job market is crazy for a developer with no formal experience and I realize i might be a person it takes 2 years to get a job, and i’m okay with that it’s a journey not a sprint. I’m very happy with my progress so far.
I’ve built my own portfolio, have taken some small freelance gigs, tailored my resume and linkedin (continuous process). I’ve been applying for jobs for six months and have yet to really have even 1 coding interview (have had a few screening interviews) after probably over 100 applications for entry level jobs.
Expectations:
To get a full time coding job I need to stand out and to do that continue coding, building projects, and learning new skills. I plan to finish SQL, then do mosh’s data structures and design patterns, next js, and the unit testing courses too. I know I need to work on my own projects in-between so I have my own projects to showcase what I’ve learned and apply them so i don’t forget.
I code in the day, read coding books in the evening, lately I’ve gotten a lot out of Twitch of professional developers commenting on current trends and how to learn / stand out. I’m currently building a front end app for the node js course on my own, and a quote form for a client.
Advice:
I would like to hear the advice of any seasoned programmers I know there are no shortcuts, but based on my journey what might be some good considerations, things that worked for you, things to avoid, or general discussion regarding my progress.
Hi,
I read you are very ambitious and patient. These, for sure, will help you a lot in pursuing your goal.
Your journey looks a bit like mine. I was jobless for like 2 years before I got my entry level developer job. I was learning and coding every day. Just my focus was on the .NET stack.
Probably not yet that seasoned dev but I am a dev for one and half year now. I shall give you a little testimony on my own experience of baby dev. lol.
There are a few things I can advise you:
First
Do something (You won’t get better drinking Piña colada all day sunbathing)
Don’t overdo (avoid any mental state of guilt forcing you to do something cause that is crazy)
Then don’t be too perfectionist. It is the golden way to analysis paralysis. Accept to make dirty apps some times and learn from that. It is way better than trying to showcase a perfect image. You’ll get better and better. Your unperfect application is an occasion to improve.
People for whom I work do not expect me to work overtime in my free time. They expect me to learn on the job facing situations.
I’ve never wasted as much time as when I worried about the clock ticking. Remember Mosh baby steps? Clever advice.
There are so many subjects I would love to learn but life also taught me you should rest.
I intensively work with SQL SERVER on daily basis and C# quite often. Unlike when I had almost all days to work on my skills, my personal projects are drastically slowed down. I miss those days for the sole pleasure to do my own projects as I wish.
The first thing I learned was that green fields projects are actually pretty much a walk in a park compared to maintain a software that have above a decade or 2 of age and which met dozens of developers.
It is easy to understand your code. But I admit I now understand the fact of forgetting a code I wrote like 2 months ago. However code from other devs, who are likely more experienced than you are is a bit tough. Nonetheless, you learn from it. I meet real world scenario for features I was taught rather in theory and scraped the surface. They are happy with me because they told junior devs who know that much of design patterns is not so common. I don’t know all the GOF patterns to be honest and I honestly told how much I know in the interview. I designed a few parts of one project I worked on using patterns to solve some problems they had. To be honest I see that the code is not always “clean” yet it work.
I did read many devs counter argument on that clean code thing. In truth time is budgeted and you have no time to do perfect. I regularly come up with asking for a few hours on regular basis to improve what I did or found but there are other priorities. If I were my own boss I would take the time to clean that. I am a strong believer in clean code (though I am certainly not belonging to its best practitioners [yet]). Make sense to me that a mess will likely have a snowball effect. Instead I had to write a documentation and a fellow dev will take over the job while he makes that part of the application evolve.
Get better with asynchronous programming. This is one of the things I was taught but not enough.
Cherish this time and take the most of it.
I wish you good luck with your professional project.
Thanks a lot for sharing your journey, it helps a lot to know not everyone gets a job after 6 months and that even years of learning can be well worth it. I plan on keeping at it and persevering cause that seems like the most important skill of any programmer. One baby step at a time
Hi, I see you are very passionate about becoming full stack. I am full stack, and would love to share some mistakes i made on my journey.
Choose frontend or backend at the beginning. Don’t do many things at once. If you want to start with frontend, define a road map and select too many tools and framework. For example Choosing react and angular for frontend is a very bad idea for beginners.
Focus on mastery. Master the tools you choose perfectly well by trying new projects. Do not be distracted by other tools.
There 3 courses every software developer should master. Data Structures and algorithms, design pattern and code refractoring.
Go for jobs that match your current skill, you will never be skillful enough. You continue learning while working.
If you follow this, at some point you will need just a couple of days to master a framework.
It can be challenging to land the first Job. But my recommendation is to specialize in one thing first. Of course, it is good to know some topics that are from other things, but do try to know everything.
It is better to know one thing than not to know a lot—and practice, practice, and practice. I can tell you that when you think you know something, suddenly you get into a project that makes you the humblest person in the room. Every project is different, and some can be very complex.
I appreciate the advice, there is definitely a push to know everything from job postings but I can see the trap in that. I’ve decided to continue learning new things however really get going on data structures and fundamentals for javascript my chosen language.
I am seeking freelance work so will continue learning wordpress, PHP, and SQL as it may become my primary income. However I’m going to balance my time between them to make sure fundamentals stays a priority.
Honestly taking mosh’s data structures course was a bit challenging at first cause the java, but i’ve got enough of an idea of how to work around it without having to take a 2 month digression to learn java.
