How I Learned to Code in 4 Months & Got a Job! (No CS Degree, No Bootcamp)

Summary

In this inspiring narrative, the speaker shares their journey from being in debt and stuck in dead-end jobs to becoming a self-taught programmer within four months. They detail their learning process using FreeCodeCamp, overcoming challenges, and eventually landing a job in the tech industry without formal education. The story highlights the importance of persistence, problem-solving, and the power of learning by doing, ultimately leading to a remote job with a significant salary increase and benefits.

Takeaways

• 🎓 Dropped out of college, worked dead-end jobs, and felt stuck before deciding to learn coding.
• 💻 Learned coding basics from FreeCodeCamp, starting with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• 🧠 Used the 'Learning How to Learn' course to improve study techniques and productivity.
• 📅 Followed a strict daily schedule to maximize learning efficiency, using Pomodoro technique.
• 🖥️ Built front-end projects through FreeCodeCamp and learned by following tutorials on YouTube and watchandcode.com.
• 🌐 Created a full-stack project with guidance from a mentor, using tools like Jira and GitHub.
• 📚 Supplemented learning with Udemy courses on React and Node.js.
• 💼 Sought job opportunities by contacting hiring managers directly, offering to work for free initially.
• 📈 Received multiple job offers and secured a remote job with a starting salary of $50,000, which increased after the probationary period.
• 🔧 Emphasizes the importance of problem-solving and persistence in learning to code and advancing in a tech career.

Q & A

Why did the speaker drop out of college and end up in debt?

The speaker dropped out of college and ended up in debt due to a lack of skills and career direction, which led to working in dead-end sales jobs.

What was the speaker's initial motivation for learning to code?

The speaker was motivated by the desire for career mobility and the high earning potential in the tech industry, as well as the ability to build something from scratch.

What online resource did the speaker use to start learning web development?

The speaker used FreeCodeCamp to start learning about web development, including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Why did the speaker choose JavaScript as their first programming language?

The speaker chose JavaScript because they wanted to build web apps, and it is widely used by major companies with a high demand in the job market.

What was the speaker's realization after completing tutorials on FreeCodeCamp?

The speaker realized that they knew how to code to solve logic problems but didn't know how to program, which involves using code to build something useful.

What drastic step did the speaker take to focus on learning to code?

The speaker quit their job and moved to Korea to minimize expenses, deciding to learn coding full time.

How did the speaker improve their learning process?

The speaker improved their learning process by adopting the Pomodoro technique for focused study sessions and creating a dedicated space for learning by joining a coworking space.

What was the speaker's approach to learning front-end projects on FreeCodeCamp?

The speaker watched a YouTube channel by Stephen, who streamed himself building projects, and also used watchandcode.com to follow along and understand the concepts better.

Why did the speaker decide to build a full-stack project?

The speaker wanted to prove to themselves that they were a real developer and not just someone who could solve coding problems, so they decided to build a full-stack project to learn about databases, servers, and APIs.

How did the speaker prepare for job applications after learning to code?

The speaker defined the type of job they wanted, researched jobs on specific websites, contacted hiring managers and developers directly, and offered to work for free to get a foot in the door.

What was the outcome of the speaker's job search after learning to code?

The speaker received three legitimate job offers, chose a company with the best learning opportunity and compensation, and started with a salary of $50,000 a year, which increased to $65,000 after the probationary period.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Self-Taught Coding Journey to a Tech Career

The speaker shares their personal story of transitioning from a sales job with no clear career path to a career in tech. They detail their initial struggles with debt and job dissatisfaction, which led them to learn coding on their own without formal education or bootcamps. The speaker discovered web development through FreeCodeCamp, learned the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and realized the importance of not just coding but programming to build useful applications. They also discuss the significance of problem-solving and the decision to study full time by moving to Korea to reduce expenses.

05:02

🛠 Building Projects and Breaking into the Tech Industry

The speaker describes the challenges and strategies they used to advance their coding skills and break into the tech industry. They talk about the importance of building projects for practical experience, using resources like YouTube and watchandcode.com to learn by doing. The speaker emphasizes the value of learning project management and version control through tools like Jira and GitHub while building a Pinterest clone as a full-stack project. They also discuss the process of job hunting, including identifying the right job opportunities, networking directly with hiring managers, and leveraging their project portfolio to secure interviews and job offers. The speaker concludes with their first job offer, salary negotiations, and the benefits of working remotely, highlighting the importance of persistence and problem-solving in their tech career.

Keywords

💡Coding

Coding is the process of writing instructions in a programming language to create software or applications. In the video's context, it is the primary skill the narrator learned to change their career path. The narrator mentions learning to code within four months, emphasizing the transformative power of acquiring coding skills.

💡Debt

Debt refers to an amount of money borrowed by one party from another, with an obligation to repay it. In the video, the narrator was in debt before learning to code, which signifies the financial struggles they faced and the motivation to seek a higher-paying job in the tech industry.

💡Job Mobility

Job mobility is the ability to move from one job to another or to progress within a current job. The narrator sought a career with more job mobility, indicating a desire for long-term stability and growth opportunities, which they believed the tech industry could offer.

💡Tech Industry

The tech industry encompasses companies and organizations involved in the development, production, and distribution of technological products and services. The video's theme revolves around the narrator's journey into this industry, highlighting its potential for high-paying careers and personal growth.

💡FreeCodeCamp

FreeCodeCamp is a non-profit organization that consists of an interactive learning web platform used to study coding. The narrator used FreeCodeCamp to learn the basics of web development, which is central to their self-education journey.

💡JavaScript

JavaScript is a high-level, interpreted programming language commonly used for enhancing web pages with interactive elements. The narrator chose to learn JavaScript to build web apps, noting its demand in the job market and its use by major companies.

💡Pomodoros

Pomodoros refers to the Pomodoro Technique, a time management method that involves breaking work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. The narrator adopted this technique to improve their study efficiency during their full-time learning phase.

💡Coworking Space

A coworking space is a shared work environment where freelancers, independent professionals, or remote workers can work. The narrator joined a coworking space to create a dedicated learning environment, emphasizing the importance of focused study conditions.

💡Full Stack Developer

A full stack developer is a programmer who is familiar with both front-end and back-end development, capable of building and maintaining a web application's client-side and server-side components. The narrator's goal was to become a full stack developer by learning to build projects with a front end, database, and server.

💡Remote Work

Remote work refers to employees working from locations outside of a traditional commute-based office. The narrator's job search focused on remote positions, reflecting a preference for flexibility and the growing trend of remote employment in the tech industry.

💡Imposter Syndrome

Imposter syndrome is a psychological pattern where individuals doubt their accomplishments and fear being exposed as a 'fraud'. The narrator felt like an imposter before building their first full stack project, which is a common sentiment among those new to a field.

💡GitHub

GitHub is a web-based hosting service for version control using Git. It is a platform where developers can share and collaborate on code. The narrator used GitHub to manage their projects, which is a common practice in the tech industry for collaborative coding and version control.

💡Jira

Jira is a project management tool used for planning, tracking, and managing tasks within a software development team. The narrator used Jira to organize their project requirements and manage their development process, simulating a real-world work environment.

Highlights

The speaker dropped out of college, was in debt, and hated their job, which motivated them to learn coding.

They learned to code within four months without a computer science degree or a coding bootcamp.

The speaker chose JavaScript for web development due to its demand and use by major companies.

They started learning through FreeCodeCamp, a platform for web development education.

The speaker realized the difference between coding to solve logic problems and programming to build useful applications.

They quit their job and moved to Korea to minimize expenses and focus on full-time learning.

Learning to learn effectively was a turning point, with techniques like Pomodoros and a dedicated learning space.

A structured daily routine was established for focused learning sessions.

Front-end projects were a challenging phase, but the speaker overcame it by learning from online resources.

Building a full-stack project with guidance from a mentor was a pivotal step in becoming a programmer.

Using project management tools like Jira and version control with GitHub was crucial for simulating real-world development.

The speaker learned important programming concepts like DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) and debugging.

Supplementing learning with Udemy courses on React and Node expanded their skill set.

Completing a full-stack web app made the speaker feel like a real programmer.

The speaker strategically job-hunted by defining their ideal job and reaching out to hiring managers.

Offering to work for free initially was a strategy to get a foot in the door and prove their worth.

After interviews, the speaker received job offers with a salary and benefits, validating their self-taught skills.

The speaker emphasizes that in the tech industry, problem-solving skills and persistence are more valued than credentials.

The speaker has been working in tech for over a decade, highlighting the long-term success of their learning journey.

Transcripts

I dropped out of college, was in debt, working 60 hours a week,

hated my job, and most importantly, I felt stuck.

This is the story of how I learned how to code within four months, and I got a job.

I did it with no computer science degree or a coding BootCamp

I am going to explain exactly what I learned, how I got a job, and how much that job paid.

Let's go.

Before I got into tech, I was working a lot of dead end sales jobs,

because I dropped out of community college and I didn't really have any other skills.

I didn't like the idea of always having to hop from job to job If I didn't like something.

I wanted something with a little bit more career mobility long term.

I didn't even really know what coding was.

I just knew that the tech industry was, let's say, a great environment for

$180 grand now

$200 ish

$250,000

$400,000 annually

growth... Yeah.

By the way, I'm not knocking sales.

I think sales is a really important skill to learn.

I just needed a change, and it really just wasn't for me long term.

And I wanted to gain the ability to build something of my own.

The idea of building something from zero to one seemed like a superpower to me.

Day one,

I just went on Google and I typed in how to code.

That's when I found a site called FreeCodeCamp, and I started to learn about web development.

I quickly learned about HTML, CSS,

and I learned about my first real programming language called JavaScript.

There's a bunch of different programming languages that you could learn,

but I personally chose JavaScript because I wanted to build web apps.

Even major companies like Uber and Airbnb use it, and there's a massive demand for it in the job market.

By using FreeCodeCamp, I started to learn the basics of coding.

I learned things like variables, loops, objects, and functions.

But even after doing the tutorials, I didn't really feel like I could apply to anything.

And I still didn't even know how to do something as basic as building a website.

And I realized that I learned how to code, not exactly how to program.

I was writing code to solve logic problems, but I didn't know how to program,

which is using the code to build something useful.

At this point, though, already I was starting to love the journey.

I really liked problem solving, and I could see myself doing something like this long term.

So I did what any sane person would do and I quit my job and I moved to Korea to minimize my expenses.

And I decided to learn full time.

Learning full time was a lot harder than I thought.

I've actually never studied anything this complicated or tough before,

and I was quickly starting to realize that I didn't really know how to study at this pace.

I would sit in front of my computer and hours and hours would go by.

That was when I went online, I typed in how to learn.

And I found a course called "Learning how to Learn" by Barbara Oakley.

This course was life changing.

My two main takeaways were one, it taught me how to learn in space segments, A technique called Pomodoros.

And the course taught me that I needed to create a dedicated space for learning.

So I joined a Coworking space, so I could focus better.

Now, armed with new knowledge, I got back to studying. And it worked.

Here's what a normal day looked like.

08:00 a.m wake up.

8:30, Head to the train station.

09:00 a.m. Arrive at the coworking space.

9:15, Coffee Journaling reviewing the curriculum.

9:30 to 12:30, I would have my first study session,

where I did 30 minutes increments of Pomodoros.

From 12:30 to 1:30, I would eat lunch and take a small break, then back to studying.

From 02:00 p.m to 6:30, it was more 30 minutes increments of Pomodoros until I was ready to head out.

From 6:30 to 7:30, I would gym three times a week,

And then 8:30 to 9:00, I would eat dinner with my grandma, then help her clean.

This was my schedule for six days a week, no exceptions.

The next part of FreeCodeCamp was a lot more challenging.

Front end projects.

They essentially give you a list of projects that you have to build using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

To me, this felt like a massive jump because I never actually built anything before.

I felt stuck at this stage until I found a YouTube channel of this guy named Stephen

who would stream himself building these projects line by line.

By copying him and recreating what he was doing,

I was able to use that experience and build the next couple of projects on my own.

I also found a great resource called watchandcode.com, where you watch and code.

By following along once again and modeling others, the concepts really started to take hold,

and I was really starting to understand what I was doing, not just solving a math problem.

In exactly one month, I ended up earning my FreeCodeCamp Front End Developer certificate.

I was learning a lot, but I never actually built anything full stack before.

Something with a front end or an interface, the thing that you see within the browser.

A database where all the information lives, essentially,

and a server which handles and manipulates all the data in the back end

by taking in requests from the front end.

So I still felt like an imposter and not a real developer.

You're not an intellectual. You're a fake and a fraud.

So to become a programmer, I decided to build my first full stack project.

Remember Stephen with a YouTube channel?

I reached out to him to get his assistance to help me build my first full stack web app,

we decided to meet three times a week.

Here's what we did.

We picked one major overarching project which will teach me the basics of CRUD,

which is Create, read, update and delete.

These are the foundations for any web application.

I decided to clone Pinterest.

I honestly don't think I would have gotten a job without this next part, so pay attention.

I asked Stephen to treat me like a real junior developer working at a company.

We implemented a project management tool called Jira.

We used Jira to compartmentalize the entire project and write the requirements of exactly what I'd be building.

This taught me how to estimate my work and plan how to build an entire web app from zero to launch.

We also set the project up on GitHub, which is a version control application.

This taught me how to develop different branches for when I was working on certain features,

and I could learn how to control different versions of the code.

Most tech companies use some version of the two applications

because being a developer isn't just about knowing how to code.

It's about knowing how to work collaboratively with other people as well.

Stephen grilled me on our pair of programming sessions.

He was very strict about me keeping the deadlines and the estimates that I originally wrote out for myself.

He would constantly question why I was doing what I was doing.

And he even taught me the concept of DRY, just Don't Repeat Yourself,

or essentially just making reusable code.

I had to learn how to build by Googling for answers and using sites like Stack Overflow.

And he would leave me a lot of comments on things that I needed to change.

So I learned how to debug my code on my own.

This made me feel like I was a real developer.

at this time, I supplemented my learning journey with Udemy courses on React and Node

because these were the two frameworks that I chose to build my Pinterest clone.

As a result of building my first full stack project, I ended up learning how to do things like

how to design a database, build APIs, set up Auth, and eventually push the app to a cloud server.

These are all things I would have never learned by just doing tutorials.

And in around two months, I finished my first full-stack web app.

I remember when I finished the app, I felt like a real programmer.

That's when reality set in and I realized I'm still broke.

I haven't made a single penny in over a couple of months, and I still needed to find a job.

It was time to see if everything that I learned was actually worth anything.

First, I defined the job that I wanted.

I wanted to be remote. And most importantly, I wanted to work for a small to medium sized company,

because I hate working in a corporate environment.

I found all the jobs that fit my parameters on sites like weworkremotly.com and remoteok.io

And instead of just applying to these jobs,

I found the contact information of the hiring managers and developers who worked at the company,

and I messaged them to introduce myself.

I explained exactly what I had learned up until this point,what I was looking for.

I even included the link to my GitHub so they could see the projects that I had built.

Most importantly, I included an offer that I know that they couldn't refuse.

I offered to work for free.

And I understand guys, not everyone can afford to do this, but I had originally estimated

that this was going to take me around four months anyways.

And I had another month of time that I could essentially dedicate to learning.

I knew all I had to do was get my foot into a company,I could essentially learn there

and then prove my worth over time to leverage that into a real job long term.

Overall, I found around 22 jobs I thought fit the parameters of what I was looking for.

I got around six responses. From those responses, I got four interviews.

And out of the four interviews, I ended up getting three legitimate job offers.

Even though I had offered to work for free, after the technical interviews,

the employers thought that I had enough skills at that point where I was worth hiring for a full time job.

I ended up choosing the company with the best opportunity to learn,

and that also happened to have the best compensation package as well.

My first salary was

$50,000 a year,

and then after my probationary period, I was making $65,000 a year.

My benefits kicked in like health and dental.

But the biggest perk for me was that I got to work remotely the entire time as long as I worked the US time zone.

I'm not saying that you'll be an expert developer if you follow this plan.

I'm just sharing what I did to learn just enough to land me a job,

as most of the progress that I've had as a developer all came on the job.

No luck here, just focused effort.

Now, I've been working in tech for over a decade,

and let me be the first to tell you that nobody cares about your credentials.

Learning how to code was mainly two things

learning how to solve problems, and two, persisting until you find the answer that you're looking for.

If you're interested in seeing us learn more cool stuff, make sure to subscribe to the channel.

And also, if you want to see me apply these principles to something other than coding,

like something artistic, click on this video.

Where we're going to put it?

Here?