Landed my first job (full stack web dev)

Career Advice
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Hi there just wanted to drop some quick info. First I’ve been webdev for only 4 months (internship), I’m 26 (before that, I was building roads or cutting trees) and I started studied programming 3 years ago.

I’ve forced myself to find an internship in a application development company that I luckily found (my colleagues mostly found job in IT or static webpage like you do) .

From what I can tell, it’s 2 totally different world. I pass 5/6 of my front-end development time building js controller class. I dived in framework like Angular/Vuejs for my front-end. Everything I do is dynamically rendered depending data given by our server api from ajax call. So the front-end part I have to do, it is more about dealing with user input, making api call, dealing with its response, informing user of what’s going on (animated loader when ajax is made) then let’s say writing some static DOM element.

This I super fun man like really fun. I still can’t believe I’m doing that. If you feel bored with static page. I would recommend you to dived in like you said Angular, react…

Companies sure has there senior developers but if you can study in your free time some fresh technologies, you can get their interest. Senior dev are already working minimum 40 hours a week. That mean they have less time studying brand new technologies that might become obsolete in near future.

But if you take the odds. It can pay for sure. That’s how I got my job I think. I’ve built a intern program in Angular2 and I’ve gotten their interest with that new technology.

For my part, I’d say it definitely worth the extra time playing around with those framework. It gotten me a full stack dev job (I also have to do lot of back-end).

I started with that Angular course. I dunno why but I love that teacher, Mosh Hamedani. So I’d recommend it.

Just to make it clear, I’ve done manual work all my life and beside that, all my free time was/and still is invested in skateboarding. So I’m nowhere near a scholar or first class student. I just don’t give a damn. But with interest in applications development, I still landed a good job, 40k at start with 100%! payment of any university courses and 80% dental care insurance.

I’ve yet to get my first paycheck. In fact today is my first day out of internship! But hell, I anticipate the feeling of being paid to code aha.

So basically, I suggest you to dive in! Has a skater that pass all his time hanging in the street outside that has only done manual work for all its life, I’m telling you it’s possible.

Get some interest, and start coding!

Feel free to ask anything.

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Congratulations! I hope that you’ll stay part of our community: mentoring now coders and sharing your perspective with us.

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Awesome! And congrats! :smiley: I’m inspired yo!

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Thanks for sharing! I love hearing about devs from so many different backgrounds and study paths. Good on you for sticking with what you love and making something out of it.

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Hi @maxeber! Congrats for your new job! Your story is really inspiring. Thanks for sharing. It’s like fuel for me.

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That’s why I wanted to share. I’m so glad it can motivated you guys.

I wanted to share you a nice thing that my boss told me in a conversation with the owner of the company as my first day out of internship today.

He said something that goes in the line of : “Sure you have some skill but most importantly, I decided to hire you because I’ve asked everybody in the company if they liked you and wanted to work with you… Here we don’t necessarily want the best coders, we want nice coders that can build up the best team.”

At least where I work, we interact with each other often, makes joke, some play guitar. Like the boss comes in with food at unexpected time (well that often that it isn’t unexpected anymore), brings wine and bread,… With that good vibe going, they really don’t want an arrogant coder even if he’s the best.

I think that’s a key point that can be overlooked. I dunno if that can help anyone, anyway. Thanks for letting me know it did help you guys.

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You inspired me, I used to skate and work manual labor for next to no pay… Getting paid to code and plus 100% payment of university courses!! that is fantastic man! Congrats!

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very inspiring. You started working on coding skills from 3 years.
can you brief us the journey, like how u started what courses u worked.

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Thanks for sharing this with us. You are in first stages of living in the dream! Congratulations you made it. :slight_smile:

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Congrats! Well done.

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thanks for sharing and congratulations. please I have question
if I want to create software, should I pay for creating it? such as I pay for using software which enable me to create softwares or applications?

and please I have the same question for creating websites?
I hope you achieve all dreams and many thanks in advance

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I really don’t think you need to pay for anything for since there’s free tools to build applications or website all around. I’d suggest you to start one free coding course to get enlightened. If your on FCC forum, you probably did try some of their exercises?

@CaptainSteele I totally get that aha.
@TrentonThompson Thanks for that!

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thanks so much for reply

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@manjulam83 Sure I can tell you a bit my path.

First of, I’ve started learning c++. I remember coding array of characters methods which replicated how the string library work so I could understand how string manipulation was done. Built couple little console applications that handle huge input/output from user and from files/binary files.

Then I’ve got big interest in my first javascript/jquery course. Loved building my first js application using ajax call to get my data. I think it’s one of the best moment to see that json object in the console.

After playing with js canvas and building a memory game, I’ve had to build a php e-commerce from scratch with user login, basket and fake payment. That’s where I learned bootstrap and that code can get really messy if you’re not following some architectural conventions/patterns… Aha ouch…

I jumped back in C# building a team project. I took care of all the front-end since everyone despised xaml. Our application had to handle user interaction with items in list of list of list of list of items. The xaml went messy rapidly. That’s were I’ve learned to divided front-end code with templates for each individual items so the code makes sense.

Then I’ve jumped back in js with the course I’ve linked in the first post. Ahh I really enjoyed my time when learning Angular.

After that I’ve had a team project built with Aurelia. Basically the same thing as Angular. Super fun time there too!

That’s about when I ended up in internship building my first real Angular app. Took a deep dived with Observable object since I’ve had to deal with ajax call on each user interaction. Dealt with loading spinner when there’s a request, dealt with success/error response. Built the back-end api with php Slim framework. I think I’ve learned alooooot there.

Finally, I had to work on a huge 10 years old php script that was built for a specific client back then and to rebuild it with good pattern using the company’s newer tool (dependency Injection container, router, their own pdo wrapped database connector object) and to adapt it so it works with all their clients.

That was super scary and really not fun at first. I mean, I had a good understanding and most importantly a huge interest with new front-end technology as Angular. And to throw me in those old php scrip… Ouch I wasn’t prepared for that aha. The messy front-end written with php smarty mixed with javascript… Arggg, even the senior dev had trouble understanding the code.

Recently got my head out of the back-end, it’s clean and readable, works with all clients. Wrote all the front-end using Vue.js so it is super clean, human readable (if you saw the difference, 2 different world).

And that’s about where I am at the moment!

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Good on ya!.
I’m in same boat, not too bright, been a hammerhand most of my life, or truck driver. Been studying this stuff off and on. Gonna take it serious now, since I’m out of work anyway. So great to hear your good news.
Cheers
Tomas

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Cool man keep it up, me too it was kinda on and off.

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Congratulations! What an inspiration to us all!!

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Congratulations!! I have worked in the restaurant/labor industry my whole life and made the transition. Best of luck to you!!

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That was inspiring !!1

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Inspiration.

You inspire me. Thank you for your post.

  • P & L , Max
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