This month marks my first 6 months as a front end developer and I'm glad I'm doing so at Coletiv. As a self-taught developer, I would like to share some reflections and thoughts on the job path! (I'll leave my specific coding experience to another post)
Starting Out 💭
I started at a sort of dev job at a marketing agency with WordPress but I really wasn't feeling like a dev (I'm not bashing on WordPress developers; I like WordPress but all I was doing was working with Elementor and mixing it up with my own CSS). It was, however, an entry job and I took it so I could get some work experience while I honed my skills. It wasn't perfect but at least I wasn't idle!
Job Seeking 💭
I did a lot of interviews while I was working and I did it for 6 months. I even had to create a sheet file to track every IT company I talked with :laugh: The 1st wave of interviews taught me that I didn't know enough so I worked harder although I was really on the downslope (my self-confidence was taking a toll with so many interviews, denials and "We need someone with more experience")
My Skills 💭
I knew that I had to get a dev job to properly learn. I had to get in touch with the field. And I was honest about that in the interviews. I didn't have much on my favor but I did have my willingness to learn and I knew what skills I actually knew!
Career Path 💭
I needed a backup plan, tho, and I knew I enjoyed design so I worked on both skills: developing and designing. I was great at none but one helped the other and they gave me a slight advantage since front end and design go hand in hand
End Result 💭
I believe that my personality, willingness to learn, design+code skills, and job experience got me the job. I knew I would enter the field by
- having great coding skills
- combining all I know and do.
And I'm actually glad that 2. was the winner since life is more than code!
Conclusion
Be human 🙋♂️ You're not just your coding skills and if you want a good working environment you don't want a job that sees you just as a developer. Be honest and resilient and hone all your skills that you actually want to carry with you
Thank you for reading 🤘 If you want you can follow me on Twitter or maybe Youtube