I started my journey of learning in 2019 and spent around 5 months landing my first software developer job. This is a quick recap and I hope it might help some of you who wish to get started (especially those who do not have a CS degree).
Learning
First of all, I do not have a Computer Science degree (but I am a degree holder, just not related). I started by just sitting in front of the computer, searching on Udemy platform (I am not sponsored), and bought this course: The Web Developer Bootcamp, instructed by Colt Steele. This course gave me a good insight into how web development works overall. You get to build a basic full stack web app that you can extend the functionalities, and eventually make it as part of your own portfolio.
Besides this, I will also recommend picking up a front-end framework, and React is still one of the most popular ones in the job market. Check out the courses for React on Udemy as well and watch the preview videos of them first. You might want to know the capstone projects that these courses are building since they will be your portfolio for showcasing.
If you want to get more exposure to the full stack, I suggest taking up a MERN stacks course (MongoDB, Express, React, Node.js). With these technologies, you will be able to build more interesting projects to demonstrate your skills.
Building
This is a crucial part to land your first job. Show off the projects you built while or after learning. There are several approaches to this:
Follow through the projects built in taken courses
Volunteer to build a website for someone
Collaborate with other developers (Some of the courses do have communities for the learners. Make use of them!)
After building the projects, put them onto GitHub, and write a nice readme for each of them.
The next would be your LinkedIn profile. If you are collaborating with others, or you did build a website for someone, ask for their help to give a recommendation on your LinkedIn! This will definitely help you to stand out from the competition. Link GitHub to your LinkedIn profile as well, so that recruiters or hiring managers could easily see what you got.
Resume
Time to write your resume! I would suggest trying to keep the contents within a page since you do not have much experience in this field for showcasing. Do put in the highlighted projects (as in the projects you really want to show), and give a very brief summary of the technologies used. Remember to also include your GitHub, LinkedIn profile, and your portfolio website (if you have one).
You may now start applying for jobs on LinkedIn, or any other local platform for your country.
I know sometimes it's hard to force yourself to be disciplined to just sit in front of the computer after a tiring day's job. I had been there but I knew this is something that I shall not regret.
Keep it up and you may ping me on LinkedIn if you are unsure of what to do, or need some motivation and suggestions.
Oldest comments (5)
building a network in linkedin is also useful , thank youu for sharing your experience
Agree on that! Thanks for sharing too
How can one do that as a beginner?
Hey Pawan, I started by buying a new course on Udemy and start learning on basics of web development! This is the entry point that I recommended to everyone who asked me :)
I'm currently doing the same thing while being a junior in college, and I can't help I found a new interest in it. I'm hoping to follow a similar path and get a job to refine my abilities to be better.