Easy Money (Tips for Self-Taught Programmers)

Disclaimer

These tips were made mostly for self-taught devs looking for their very first job. While I believe that nearly everyone has the potential to learn how to code, use your own judgment whether it is a true fit for you. Not all of our experiences will be the same but hopefully my tips will be of some help.

Learning Tips

1. Take it one day at a time but stay consistent.
2. Set an achievable goal for yourself. For example, finishing a 40 hour JavaScript course within 2 months.
3. Do not compare yourself to others, especially in regards to learning speed. We all have different circumstances and varying amounts of free time.
4. If you start to feel mental fatigue, take some time off. Take as much as you need depending on your situation and come back stronger.
5. Find a community that can assist with your studies and perhaps even offer their motivational support. Twitter, FreeCodeCamp, etc. You can begin networking as well to help your job search soon after. (Personally, I should’ve joined Twitter as soon as I started learning. The dev community there is awesome!)
6. Don’t move to a new topic if you didn’t understand more than half of the previous one.
7. If a topic is not sticking — find another educational source to bolster your learning. For example, I took 2 Node.js courses from 2 different instructors.
8. Build some original projects (not found on most tutorials) of your own to comprehend concepts and how things connect better. Kill two birds with one stone and attempt to make them portfolio worthy pieces (learn while also creating something that will aid your job search.)
9. Try not to switch tech stacks too often. Focus on understanding the concepts and build upon it.
10. Unsure of which path to take? Copy a coding bootcamp’s curriculum but do it at your own pace. What you learn will stick much easier if your brain is actually given time to absorb the material.

Job Hunt Tips

1. If you are a self-taught developer, your portfolio is your main ticket to a job. Do everything you can to create a portfolio that stands out and displays your skills to maximum efficiency.
2. Think of the job hunt as a game of battleship with a vast sea with merely 1 or 2 ships. These ships are your prospects and in order to hit them, you must apply nonstop. Prioritize shelling out as many applications as possible.
3. Do your best to get used to missing the ship / being rejected. Remember that you potentially only need one to say yes.
4. Don’t get married to the idea of the perfect job. This will be very difficult to attain as a newbie unless you are extremely talented or lucky. You are still only trying to get your foot in the door. Apply to all the jobs, even if you only know 25% of the tech they’re using and it’s a senior role. You can find a better job later should that be your wish.
5. Write an elevator pitch on why a company should hire you. Create one for a junior role and another for a senior role. For the senior role, graciously explain that you are actually interested in a junior position
6. Abuse easy apply on sites like Indeed, LinkedIn, StackOverflow, etc. You can eventually do 10 applications within 20 minutes using this method.
7. Things will most likely get disheartening at times, but try to remind yourself that as long as you are moving forward, you are bound to get somewhere. Take breaks as needed then get back on your feet.
8. If you are not receiving any response after several hundreds of applications — consider heavily improving your portfolio. Create more original projects and make them highly detailed. (For me, this is the workforce scheduling app.) If possible, add a secondary skill and find a way to emphasize it in your search.