How I Got Started as a Web Developer and What You Can Learn from My Journey
For those who want to start a career as a web developer, I am excited for you and wish you the best! I will go back to my first years learning programming in high school up to my second job and tell you what my journey looks like so far. At the end I provide some ideas I believe will help you as an aspiring developer. I urge you to find what interests you and dive in with everything you’ve got.
High School
It was not until my Junior Year of High School that I learned the basics of programming using Java. I had a hard time with this language, but I was excited with the idea of being able to build out my own game. Many developers start out motivated in this way.
College
I was interested in an animation degree but since there was no major for this at the school and I enjoyed the programming class I decided to try the software route. I started as a Computer Science major learning C++ but heard from fellow students and one of my introductory classes that people with a software engineering degree usually still earn a large amount of money while leaving out some of the science, math, and hardware type classes. For me this sounded like a much better direction to take.
Many of my classes were based around web development. The artistic satisfaction from creating front-end client-facing applications became key motivating factor. I had many classes that covered a wide range of topics but did not offer me in-depth details on them. I learned how to create forms, elicit software requirements, make user centered designs, manage teams, and more but primarily at the conceptual level. This is how college often is and you must continue to dive into the details of the specialization you are seeking.
For my specialization, I was interested in the web framework React due to some encouragement from a good friend who had started his career in it. In addition, I started listening to podcasts such as Simple Programmer and some books by the same author, “The Complete Software Developers Career Guide”, and “Soft Skills: The Software Developers Life Manual.” Several of these resources mentioned alternative ways to start a career in web development. One such way was through code camps.
NuCamp
NuCamp is a coding bootcamp with several options to get you going. I took their Full Stack and Mobile Development course where I had remote meetings with some excellent teachers and took on my own project-based work. There I got more experience with React, React Native, NodeJS, and other web development skills. The projects I made were some of the best work I had done. I had some great resources for creating a resume through a few meetings with a mentor and career mentors at the college. While it was difficult to complete NuCamp at the same time as college I found it was manageable. It was a motivational tool for accelerating building my skills and portfolio in MERN technologies.
Experience
My first job was part time as a Web Development tutor with the college. The great thing about this job was that I was able to go back over the material from previous classes and teach students one-on-one. This job was one advantage of being a college student. It was not enough to count as an internship.
I was feeling pretty antsy at this point to get an internship that would provide me sufficient hours. I applied to around a hundred jobs through LinkedIn, handshake, and other tools. I found handshake to be the most responsive and beginner friendly. I interviewed with several places many of which were volunteer based. As a parent with one child I felt pretty nervous about taking one of these on. I still had a chance to be a tutor for the next semester. Near the start I got interviewed and accepted as a frontend web developer for a startup called HireMySub. I believe what helped me most here was my knowledge of react and ability to communicate as a human being. This is where I currently work and it is exactly what I was looking for.
Future
I am considering once I am to move on from here to apply to Disney as a developer and see if I can use that to fund going to school for animation and my wife as a culinary artist.
Take Aways
The path is not easy. I grew up with lots of voices saying software is the way of the future. While the job opportunities are rising, that does not mean you do not need to put your whole soul into making your career work. Learning programming languages and related skills is a daunting task with a requirement to always be learning to succeed.
There are many ways to become a developer. You have to balance between funding, experience, and knowing what you want. Some people want the full college background and support. It may take you time to realize what you really want to study.
Keep learning and keep applying. I kept learning by taking a coding bootcamp, tutoring, and using volunteer positions. Apply as much as you can whilst you are learning so you can get experience behind you quickly. You will learn most from direct experience and be able to tell from there if it is right for you.
Choose your own path. Some people may think it is silly that I did college and a code camp. Yes, it was expensive. I felt for me the knowledge I would gain from both was important. I also have not given up my intial desire to be an animator and while perhaps I could had trusted my desire to start off with, it is okay for you to make a career change later on. I will not give up web development as I love making websites but I am too passionate about art and learning to stop there if my circumstances allow it.
Mentioned Resources
Affordable Coding Bootcamps for Software Development | Nucamp