Becoming A Senior Developer In 4 Months
With almost no previous developer experience I was able to land a full-time Senior Developer job in 4 months for under $50 (yes, really). It might sound crazy, but just like with anything in life, if you want it badly enough you can make it happen. I’ll tell you about my process and hopefully it will help someone to have more of a clear road-map for success.
DISCLAIMER: There is an element of luck in everyone’s success and my story is no different. I am writing this to show that it is possible to work in this field without traditional (expensive) schooling. Also, everyone learns at different rates so your results will probably vary, but I’m hoping you can refine your path to success based on what’s worked for me.
ANNOUNCEMENT: I have recently partnered with Andrei Neagoie to create an awesome VanillaJS Projects course, where I walk through 20 great projects you can use in your portfolio. You can check it out at the Zero to Mastery Academy where you can have access to dozens of courses that will take you from beginner to job-ready developer.
I began dedicating myself to learning development full-time in February 2018, taking three courses on Udemy that were the foundation for my learning, you can see them below:
The most important course for me was Andrei’s Zero To Mastery course. His delivery is very enthusiastic and it made me stick with it by reminding me that no one is born a developer and though you might feel like an imposter, anyone can become a developer through hard work. The other amazing thing is the very large community on Discord which allows you to get help and learn together with people from all over the world.
Working through the ZTM course, I would do around 4 hours on average a day, sometimes as much as 12 hours (working on it 7 days a week). The first course took me about 2 months, and Andrei’s Junior To Senior course I finished most of in about a month.
While working through the courses, I also attempted to design other websites, and I even won a coding challenge which included integrating Watson speech-to-text into a web app. I created a Morse Code Generator which allowed you to speak and have it transcribed into a visual Morse Code which you could then tap out with an included virtual telegraph.
I then stumbled upon the 100 Days of Code challenge which allowed me to hold myself accountable and to try and learn as much as I could each day. I began this around the time I finished the first course (2 months in). I understood the value of working on something each day in order to stay sharp and get comfortable with problem-solving (which is the most important part of being a developer, IMO). I was also pursuing things I was interested in and Codepen was great for this, especially because they have tons of cool 3D animation projects.
After finishing the first course, I figured the best thing I could do was to make my own website. I started by googling around to find the best examples of developer websites in order to gain inspiration. I began with a simple Bootstrap template and thought of how I could modify it. I decided to include mock-ups of my projects, I designed a logo, and used a render of my logo for the splash page. After finishing my website, I decided I would begin applying to jobs on LinkedIn. I even spent a few hours one day creating an unorthodox resume which was three images that linked to an online resume, my GitHub page, and my website (which ultimately landed me the interview, that landed me the job).
On Day 43, I had my first in-person interview for a Senior Developer job. They asked me some technical questions that I was only able to answer thanks to the Junior to Senior course I had just started (Thanks Andrei!). They asked about HTTP 2, code review, source control, among other things and I was able to answer most of the technical questions. I later found out I was actually hired for my honesty about not being able to answer questions I didn’t know, and the drive and initiative I took in teaching myself to develop in such a short time. I was thrilled to find out a week and a half later that I had landed the job! On Day 70, I officially started my career as a Senior Developer, which I will write about more in future posts.
Here’s the first one about the new job!, here is the second one, and here is the third one! I even wrote one recapping my first year on the job.
I hope that you have taken away from my story that it is possible to become a developer very quickly if you are willing to put in the time and effort. Making sure that you’re coding every day for a few hours a day is a good starting point for achieving your goals. Lastly, despite the fact that this might seem like a daunting task in the beginning, remember that even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
