If you are one among the people who are looking to shift jobs and are confused on how to go about it, here is an article from medium.freecodeamp.com in which the author describes how he overcame that problem.
The author says that he learnt coding for for about six months but was not sure how to make the transition.
'I spent my evenings self-teaching and picking up coding skills using the usual websites. But I didn’t see a clear path forward beyond the basics. The way I saw it, I only had a few options, go back to college,try and pick up a few freelance jobs and take it from there, go to a coding bootcamp,' he says.
Explaining on why he rejected the first option he says that he needed to be in work to earn money for his family.
'Had I been younger I would have loved the experience and computer science knowledge, but I wanted to get into web development and we all know how quickly web technologies are evolving, so I didn’t feel spending years at college would be the best use of my time,' he says.
While starting a freelance business seeemed like a good idea he says that it was not for him.
'I believe that while you can learn and progress on your own, the experience that you get being mentored and working on a team is invaluable. This is experience you can’t get from online courses, and anyway, I wasn’t ready to set up camp in my home office yet,' he says.
The author says that though the coding bootcamp was the last and expensive option it guaranteed a job, so he applied for one of those.
'One thing that did put me off the bootcamp though was that the next cohort was 6 months away. I knew I could teach myself a lot in 6 monthswithout it costing me thousands of dollars. I was also dubious as to how much I would actually learn. At the end of the day, it’s 3 months, not 3 years,' he says.
Which is when the author says that he thought of working for free at a web development company for 12 weeks.
'Just like everyone else I also did not like the idea of working for free. Then it clicked. If I could find a company that would pay me minimum wage for 12 weeks, then that would be like having a bootcamp experience for free,' he says.
The author says that the next big challenge was getting a job.
Explaining on how he did it, the author says, 'I shortlisted the companies that were recruiting junior developers. Instead of just applying for the job, I emailed them and created my own role. I targeted these companies though as they were actively recruiting, so I knew that I had more chance of getting an opportunity there rather than just sending random emails,' he says.
The author says that he was surprised by the response he received.
'I didn’t have a degree, but my email was interesting enough for them to want to find out a little more. One company that got back to me sounded really interested, and offered to meet up for a coffee and a chat later on in that week,' he says.
The author says that although they were recruiting for a college graduate PHP developer with symfony experience, they changed the job specification to 'Entry Level Developer' in order to suit him.
The author says that it was the email that he sent that played a crucial role in his employment.
'I recently asked my managers why they’d offered the job to me instead of the university graduate or junior developer they were originally advertising for. They told me that my email had grabbed their attention and stood out. They met me and liked my personality. I had shown that I was willing to work hard and make sacrifices to get an opportunity. From the knowledge I had gained self teaching, I had shown that I had a and ability to learn, and they felt that they could mentor me. They believed that they could teach me programming, whereas you can’t teach the hard work, sacrifice and motivation that I had shown by chasing my dream,' he says.
As a suggestion to the readers, the author says, put yourself out there, talk to some small companies, and see what they can offer you. If an agency is bogged down with content changes, copywriting, small bug fixes, then your email might just come at the right time.
