I was in a very similar situation about 5 years ago: wanting to transition into web development with 0 professional experience. I used this method to create a successful freelance practice followed by an amazing job offer for a permanent position.
Build some personal projects. They don't have to be massive projects. I'd steer you away from redesigning popular web sites. Instead, focus on tightly scoped original projects.
Use these projects as your portfolio to get freelance work.
Use the freelance work as you professional experience to get a permanent position. On the other hand, if your freelance practice is going really well, you might just want to keep doing that.
I am a self-taught programmer, my first language is RPL.
I love to learn cool maths and facts about creation.
I am currently the tech leader for an open-source project
I think this is the biggest challenge for any personal project. At least I realize how stupid my ideas are before I start working on it. I think Devon has a great point though - we need to work on many small tightly scoped projects instead of one big one.
I was in a very similar situation about 5 years ago: wanting to transition into web development with 0 professional experience. I used this method to create a successful freelance practice followed by an amazing job offer for a permanent position.
Thanks for the advice on personal projects! I've started many of them but never had any gumption to finish them(mostly because they were stupid).
I think this is the biggest challenge for any personal project. At least I realize how stupid my ideas are before I start working on it. I think Devon has a great point though - we need to work on many small tightly scoped projects instead of one big one.
Great advice, thank you.