I'm not gonna go into a lot of detail for this post, I just wanted to share my journey so far, and what kept me going. Hopefully I can help encourage even just one person.
How and Why I Started Learning Code
I was working two full-time jobs as a Dishwasher at a restaurant, and driving Uber at night. On March 16, 2020, I got laid off from the restaurant due to Covid, and pretty much no one was riding Uber. On the same exact day that I got laid off, my wife got hired on at a bank. Imagine the relief. So my wife and I suddenly switched roles, and I was a stay-at-home dad with our 6 month old beautiful daughter. About six months later, we found out we were pregnant with our second child. At that point I knew I had to make a change, and find a way to build a better future for our family.
The Countdown
My wife's pregnancy served as a timeline to make something big happen. I spent one weekend researching high level information on working as a developer, the types of developers, and if you could really break in being self-taught.
I decided to commit to becoming a developer. My wife would be giving birth in about eight months. That was the big countdown. My goal was to get a job in six months. I scheduled myself to work in such a way that I believed would equal attaining a job in three months. I sacrificed my personal sleep and comfort to make that time, so that I was always fully present with my little girl at home, and intentional with family time.
I can't go further without mentioning the support of my wife. Literally none of this would be at all possible without her support. I'm so grateful for the way she supported me and believed in me.. and all of us really.
How I Actually Did It
I woke up everyday at 5am to get two and a half hours in before my wife left work at 7:30. I would then continue for about an hour and a half during my little girls nap. Finally at night, I would start at 7:30pm until midnight. On weekends I had a little more time, since my wife was home. I went every single day, no days off.
How I actually learned to code was just completing one LinkedIn Learning path. That's all I did. I went through the "Become A Front-end Web Developer" path. I think it's like thirty-two hours long, but it took me about 3 months to complete. I went through every single course taking detailed notes to be able to refer back to, and not moving on if I felt like I was not getting something. After each course in the path, I would go build something. I would not move onto the next course unless I actually applied what I had learned and experienced it. Doing that with every single course is in major part why it took me so long to complete.
Applying and Getting The Job
I built a custom portfolio of professional projects and made my LinkedIn profile. I spent a lot of time being super intentional with my LinkedIn profile to supplement my portfolio. I think I spent like a week and a half applying to jobs on LinkedIn and talking to professionals. I started hearing back and getting messages on my applications and had my first interview with the company where I currently work only two weeks after I began applying. I got my first job in tech as a Front-End Developer at an E-Commerce company.
The road to that job was tough, but not tougher than struggling to try to build a life with your family.
To Wrap Up
I know it can be really hard to learn code, and break into the industry especially as someone without a degree, or not having gone to a bootcamp. I am not sharing this story to flaunt anything. I'm sharing this because I genuinely want to help others. I hope someone might be encouraged or interested enough to learn more. Web development has been a life-changing opportunity for me. Like I said, I'm leaving out a lot in this post, but I hope to be sharing more very soon.
Patricio Salazar