I've been a professional web developer for eight
years working in both back and front end. But what's surprising to people is that I didn't go to
school for computer science. In fact, I never took a course or even enrolled in a coding bootcamp.
And I didn't get into the field until my late 20s. So how did I learn to code
without a computer science degree? And what can you learn from my story? Stick around and find out! It started back in high school,
when I discovered the internet and began making web pages dedicated to
my obsession at the time: snowboarding. I taught myself basic HTML and CSS so
I could customize my pages and fill them with animated gifs and blinking text. Hey, it was the 90s! What do you expect? Looking back, it seems crazy that
I didn't consider computer science or web development in school.
But to me it was just a hobby, and I assumed I would become a
doctor like my parents wanted me to. But that didn't pan out, and instead I spent the next several years
struggling to figure out a path. What happened? In college, after dropping
the whole pre-med thing, I decided to embrace my
creative side and major in art! I graduated with a photography degree and
got a job working in a commercial photo lab. The lab was fun and all, but it
only paid 8 dollars an hour. Also, the entire film photography
industry was a sinking ship. Film was being phased out and
replaced by digital cameras. Less than two years after I got there, the lab
went bankrupt and things got bad. I was out of a job at this point, with
an obsolete degree, and I didn't know what to do. Eventually I found temporary office work,
scanning papers, stapling, stuffing envelopes, and generally being a lowly cog in the corporate machine. Not the most glamorous work,
but it paid the bills... mostly. For a number of years I floated from
gig to gig and paycheck to paycheck. But one temp job I found
ended up changing everything. One day, while scouring Craigslist,
I found a job posting for a data entry position. I was comfortable doing computer work,
so I applied for the job and was hired! The company was a small web dev shop
that had multiple clients with websites. I started out doing simple tasks like
updating inventory in their computer system. But as time went on my bosses started teaching
me some back-end programming and database work. The job paid okay, maybe 10 to 12 dollars
an hour, but it was only part time. I mainly stayed there because I was gaining experience in
programming and learning some valuable skills. Learning programming was tough,
but it was also rewarding. And I was getting good at learning new skills! For example, I learned
how to find solutions on my own via Google. You see, my boss would get annoyed if he had
to explain the same thing more than once. I learned that the hard way. I also took detailed notes to remember new things,
especially if I'd spent a long time figuring it all out. Then the next time, I could refer to
my notebook for the solution instead of Googling all over again or worse,
asking my grumpy boss. After two years working at that web dev shop
I had gained a lot of programming experience, but I could still barely cover my living expenses. I knew I had to make a change, and
that's when things really got going. After two years at the Craigslist job, I felt like I knew enough coding skills to
apply to some actual web developer jobs. There were a lot of rejections
because of my lack of experience, but eventually I landed an interview
at an advertising agency! On the day of the interview,
I ended up impressing the boss with my listening skills, note-taking,
and willingness to learn. Everything went well, and they offered me a job! An actual job, with a salary and benefits--
the whole nine yards! I'm pretty sure my mom did a cartwheel
when I told my parents about getting hired. They were thrilled. But getting the job was only the beginning. Starting out in a new field is never easy, and
after all, I only knew basic coding at that point. So how is someone who is essentially self-taught
gonna succeed in a fast-paced job like this? I'm gonna be honest here. The first
year of my new job was super stressful, and I struggled with imposter syndrome big time. My boss and co-workers had all gone to
school for computer science, and some of them
had even gotten master's degrees in it too! I was terrified that I would be "found out"
and fired due to incompetence, and it didn't help that so much of my
work required completely new skills. I would have to spend sometimes
hours on tasks that I know my boss could complete in 30 minutes or less. Personally, I hate being bad at things, so feeling like I didn't know anything
every single day kind of sucked. But I stuck to it and did what I always did--
I googled. A lot. I always tried to find the solution myself
before asking for help, and thankfully, my boss was willing to point me in
the right direction when I did get truly stuck. I ended up staying at that job for six years total, and over time
I became more competent and confident! I even got promoted to
a senior level developer in year 4. I learned a ton at that job. Not just coding itself, but how to learn new skills,
especially if you're self-taught. If you're learning to code, here are my
biggest takeaways from my time there. First, I learned that I could figure out
how to do anything with enough googling! Of course, you might not be able to build a super
complex app if you're still learning basic HTML, but you can build up to that eventually. I also learned how to reverse-engineer code.
I could study existing projects at my company, figure out how it all worked, and then turn around
and use a similar solution for my new projects. You can do this yourself by inspecting
the code in existing websites, and finding projects on GitHub to learn from. Now, I'm not suggesting
plagiarizing someone else's code, but learning the principles
behind it so you can do it yourself. One of the biggest lessons I learned
was that imposter syndrome is hard, but it really does get better over time. At some point I was picking up
a new skill almost every day! Combine that over all the days in the year,
and it added up. So by year 5 at my job, I wasn't afraid
of things I didn't know how to do anymore because I could trust in my
own skills to get it done. I've since moved on from that job, but
I'm still working as a web developer today and earning a six-figure salary. I hope that my story can inspire you. If you're thinking about
getting into web development. Let me know your thoughts down in the comments! And as always, thanks for
watching and keep on coding!
