my first developer role

I have finally landed a developer role and after sharing the news with some friends, I got questions about what I had done to land the role. Below I go into detail about my journey, covering most of the courses that I have completed along with the reasons why. The process seemed extremely mystifying to me when I was starting out, hopefully, this helps demystify the whole process.

Content

1. Is coding for me?
2. Coding is for me, now what?
3. I think I have a decent grasp on CS fundamentals, what kind of developer do I want to be?
4. What should I learn and how?
5. Networking and applying for roles

Is coding for me?

There were a few misconceptions I had when I was looking to start learning how to code, namely having to be a maths wiz, however, most courses don't require any sort of prerequisite knowledge. I stumbled across a Python course and decided to just do it without much thinking. Personally, I think this course was a great starting point as it required no prerequisite knowledge, and I found the Python syntax (the way the code is written) was beginner friendly as it is written quite similarly to English.

Coding is for me, now what?

After watching YouTube videos, reading blogs, and posts on r/cscareerquestions about people who have made the transition into tech, one learning resource that kept coming up frequently was Harvards CS50 Introduction to Computer Science. This really changed the game for me. I was walked through fundamental computer science concepts at a very beginner-friendly way, which I think served me well in my later courses.

Additionally, the programming language issued in the course is C, which I think is a lot more difficult to grasp than languages like JavaScript and Python. But again, because of this, I found my transition into the languages that I am now using a lot easier because I started with C. [HIGHLY RECOMMEND].

3. I think I have a decent grasp on computer science fundamentals, what kind of developer/engineer do I want to be?

Software engineering/ developing is the most loaded term ever, I spent most of my time trying to decide what kind of developer I wanted to be, I had no idea how to choose between front-end dev, back-end dev, mobile dev, game dev, devOps…the list goes on (if none of this makes sense to you, don't worry).

Most of the articles that I have read tell people to start here- find out what type of developer they want to be and learn the appropriate skills. I had a look at a list of different types of developers and eliminated the ones that I knew I did not want to become. From there, I had a look at the job requirements for as many entry-level ‘software' related jobs I could find in my local area, identifying which technologies/coding languages were sought after the most.

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Python were popping up time and time again. These are used in Web Development, and as I have come across numerous articles that stated Web Development to be the easiest point of entry into tech, I decided to take that route.

This is a table I made on notion, noting the job title, tech stack, and specific requirements along with the link to the job post (feel free to drop me a message if you want the table to us for yourself).

4. Deciding on what to learn and how to learn it.

Whilst there are a lot of free resources online, I felt that I would benefit a lot more if I bought a Udemy course, especially since I enjoyed the Python one so much. As I decided on the Web Development route, I looked for related courses, sorted by popularity, and started a Web Developer Bootcamp after having compared it with job descriptions for web dev roles.

Halfway through the course, I ended up getting really stuck at one section, and after rewatching all the lectures 3 times, I decided that should supplement this course with another Web Development Bootcamp. The contents are very similar and I wouldn't recommend doing both, I would probably just do the second (Dr Yu's course).

Again, towards the middle of this course when the JavaScript was picking up, I felt as though I wasn't fully understanding what was going on. I then put the other two courses on pause and started a Complete JavaScript Course. An absolute gem if you want a solid understanding in JavaScript in my opinion. The instructor explains things very well, often coming back to them in future lectures, and his use of diagrams in his lectures to help you visualise how systems/concepts work was really helpful [HIGHLY RECOMMEND].

5. Networking and Applying for Roles

Another commonly given advice is to apply for jobs before youre ready. Since I knew no one in the industry that I could turn to for advice etc, I thought that I could use the application process as a way of networking (sort of). I decided to start applying for jobs a lot earlier than when I thought I was ready and tried to use the interviews as a way of getting feedback on what I was doing. This way, I could ask employers exactly what they thought about the technologies/languages that I was learning, and what to learn next. The reasoning behind this was that:

• Worst case scenario: I get practical advice from someone hiring in the industry, which is invaluable.
• Best case scenario: I land a job.

I tried to continue this process of applying for roles, asking what to improve/ learn, improving/ learning and then applying for jobs until it worked.