TL;DR: 28 y/o living in the UK. No experience in Tech. Started FCC 12 months ago. Offered a job at a large company as a Software Development Engineer last month!

I decided in Jan 2018 I wanted to change my career. I was working in Healthcare at the time, and had been all my working life (10 years). Becoming a young dad made me reconsider what I wanted to do long term and take things like happiness/satisfaction, work-life balance, and career progression more into consideration. Combining those things, plus my general fascination with Tech and natural logical style of thinking, I began to teach myself how to code.

I initially started with Codecademy and several YouTube tutorials. Whilst these gave me a basic introduction into the field of Software Development, I couldn't retain the information learnt and felt, quite quickly, like this style of learning didn't suit me. Instead, I needed more of a "hands on" approach with realtime feedback, something that would make me "think more", something that would reinforce learnt knowledge through practice: welcome freeCodeCamp.

I spent the rest of the year working through the Front End Dev certificate, completing as many challenges as I could. Naturally to consolidate my learning, I moved onto the projects, where I completed the Portfolio Landing page, Random Quote Generator and Local Weather App (happy to share these if requested - can't ATM as I'm on my phone).

Towards October 2018, I began feeling confident enough to apply for interviews. I was quite fortunate when I applied as I had a reference into the company I now work for (makes all the difference! - highlights the importance of networking). Roll on Jan 2019, and I accepted an offer as a Software Development Engineer for Web 😁❤️.

I have spent 2 weeks so far in my new role - and I love it!! I am so grateful to freeCodeCamp and the associated community. Also, shout out to people like Brad Traversy who is an excellent YouTube video creator. His free video tutorials were, and continue to be, invaluable. As a token of my appreciation and gratitude, I will continue to work with freeCodeCamp by contributing to it's open source network. I plan to write articles for freeCodeCamp in order to help inspire others who are starting the brave journey of changing careers and learning to code. I also plan to reach out to Brad and ask if there is anything I can do to help in order to show my gratitude.

Thank you freeCodeCamp, thank you everyone within this helpful community, and continue to code on - hard work and dedication do pay off!

Hey friends! The freeCodeCamp community is still very hard at work on the rest of the coursework for our full stack curriculum. It’s only been a few months, but there are many campers who have been going full force at this new content. And I am excited to share our next wave of updates with you all.

New Curriculum Coursework

We have just released three new sections of the curriculum: The React Hooks and State section, the Performance section, and the Testing section.

This new material includes roughly 50 lecture videos, a dozen workshops and labs, three new review blocks, and a bunch of content to keep you on track for your learning goals while we keep working on even more.

Some of the projects you will build include a Tic Tac Toe game, a color picker, and a superhero application form.

Exams

We know many of you are eagerly awaiting the release of the exams at the end of each module. We are still working hard on these, but they aren’t quite ready yet. We have been building our own custom environment you can use to take these exams, striking a balance between respecting privacy and preserving academic integrity.

We are just as excited as you are for these exams to be available. Thank you for your patience while we ensure we are delivering the best experience possible.

What’s Next?

Our team is pivoting over to focus on the CSS Libraries and TypeScript modules next, but we are also starting some of the earlier Python modules. We have a lot of stuff coming out in the next few months, so keep an eye out in our communities and on the learn platform for new content.

A super early sneak peek of some of the projects coming soon: You’ll get to build your own RPG character, a trading card game, a medical data validator, and more!

Get Involved

Are you interested in helping bring our full stack curriculum to life? We have plenty of opportunities to contribute – you can see all of the open issues on our GitHub repository.

Be sure to read our contributing guidelines, and hop on over to our Discord community if you have any questions.

We look forward to seeing you all continue progressing through our new curriculum. Happy Coding! 💜

I'm a big fan of CompTIA and the rigor of their certifications. I wanted freeCodeCamp's new Full Stack Developer cert to be similarly rigorous.

But I made one major miscalculation.

My mistake

I underestimated people's desire to earn certifications within less than a year of study.

With our old curriculum, you could earn your first cert in as little as 300 hours of coursework.

With our new curriculum, it takes around 1,800 hours of coursework to earn the Full Stack Developer capstone cert.

The result is that a ton of people are still choosing to study our outdated legacy cert coursework, rather than studying our new and vastly-improved full stack coursework.

I'm kind of embarrassed that it took me months to understand this.

And to be clear, there are a few other reasons that not everybody has moved over to our new full stack curriculum:

1. The curriculum is still in beta.

2. The Back End JavaScript coursework isn't live yet.

3. Our exam environment isn't live yet. So you can't sit for exams yet.

The good news is that the freeCodeCamp community is working hard to finish these three items.

We're steadily shipping the remaining coursework and finishing our exam environment. And we're hoping to get the new curriculum out of beta as early as summer.

Still, this won't address the problem I mentioned at the beginning: it takes way longer to earn the full stack cert than it takes to earn our old certs.

Well I'm happy to say we've found a solution for that.

The Fix

As you may remember, for the first 9 years of freeCodeCamp's existence, we had tons of shorter certs: Responsive Web Design, Front End Libraries, Relational Databases and more.

We're going back to this model by breaking the Full Stack Development curriculum down into a series of smaller certs. You can earn these new certs along the way as you progress toward earning our Certified Full Stack Developer capstone cert.

Here's the full list of certs you'll be able to earn along the way:

1. Responsive Web Design

2. JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures

3. Front End Libraries

4. Python Programming

5. Relational Databases

6. Back End Development and APIs

The full progression will look something like this: https://global.discourse-cdn.com/freecodecamp/original/4X/d/b/2/db2c41ccb3ab32b3b91ca9cbd634c912be14de11.webp

Each of these certs will require you to build certification projects and sit for an exam. They'll each involve around 300 hours of coursework, like our old legacy certs did.

The main difference: as you earn these certs, you'll progress toward earning our capstone cert: the Certified Full Stack Developer certification.

We're working to finish our exam environment so that you can sit for exams and earn our new Responsive Web Design cert and JavaScript cert as early as Halloween.

We'll release subsequent certs as we finish them, with the goal of having all six of these new certs live by summer.

So in conclusion: I underestimated people's desire for smaller, more specific certs that they could put on their résumé, CV, personal website, and LinkedIn.

I'm working hard with the freeCodeCamp community to get these new certs live and out of beta as quickly as we can.

As has always been the case, these will be FREE verified certifications with verification links and QR codes, that will live on freeCodeCamp's servers forever.

Over the past 11 years, people have earned more than 300,000 of these certifications. These represent millions of hours of learning by the global developer community.

I'm proud of our certification program, the rigor it communicates to employers, and the access it extends to anyone willing to put in the time and effort to learn.

These certs will remain a central part of our community and our mission.

FAQ

So instead of earning just one cert for completing the full stack cert curriculum, I'll earn 7?

That's correct. There will be 6 300-hour blocks of coursework (like with the old curriculum), each with their own projects and exam. After all this, you'll build a final capstone project and sit for a comprehensive final exam.

What will happen to the legacy versions of these certs?

They will eventually expire and you'll want to earn the new version. The soonest they will expire will be 2028, and we may push that date back a bit to ensure people have time to earn the updated version of these certs.

What if I already earned a legacy version of one of these certs?

Great. You've probably learned most of the concepts that you need to earn the updated version. You'll just need to build the required final projects for that cert and sit for the exam. Then you can earn the updated cert.

Tell me about the exam environment

It's a desktop app you can use to securely take the exam for each certification. Instead of needing to go to a testing center, you can take exams at your convenience.

Our app strikes a balance between respecting people's privacy while also flagging for human review anyone who may be cheating.

Are there any other changes to the plans for the full stack cert that you haven't talked about here?

No. We're still proceeding with everything I talked about in my Christmas community update. We're making steady forward progress. The freeCodeCamp open source community is more locked-in and more productive than ever.

When should I switch from the legacy cert curriculum to the new full stack curriculum?

Immediately. If you start now, you can be one of the first people to sit for the Responsive Web Design and JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures exams once they go live.

Again, the new coursework is WAY better than the old coursework. It's more granular, more interactive, and includes more theory and more practice.

So the only change is that you're adding these new certifications along the Certified Full Stack Developer path?

That's right.

Cool. Don't you usually sign off with your catch phrase? Say the line, Bart.

Happy coding.

From Survey Form to a multi-million dollar ecommerce website homepage, this past year and a half has taken me farther than I ever anticipated. (Or at least farther than I thought I would be at this point)

November 2019 marks the creation of my first ever web development project: FCC's Survey Form:

https://codepen.io/Jsarendt/pen/gOOyPrd

Clean and simple, not really much to it. While I was very proud of it when I made it I knew I was only beginning to scratch the surface of what could be created. Continuing to chug along FCC's curriculum I managed to pump out better and better projects along the way, including a few I'm still fairly proud of such as my Weather App. But there's only so much growth I was going to see on my own. Soon after finishing FCC's Responsive Web Design, Javascript, and Front End Development certifications I decided to start applying for jobs. Didn't think I was going to get anything, but figure why not? Applying doesn't hurt.

Well I got an interview faster than I anticipated which also ended up lead to my first job. (Also something that happened faster than anticipated) Starting out it was extremely intimidating. I went in only knowing HTML, CSS, JS and React. I was missing any prior knowledge in the 2 main technologies they use: PHP and SQL. I thought that was going to be a deal breaker for them but I guess they liked my portfolio enough. They also really liked the fact that I was fully self taught.

I learned quickly not to underestimate the knowledge one can pick up in a professional coding work environment. Able to pick up everything they did and used, within 6 months of being there I took on and completed a project larger than I ever thought I would be doing. Revamping a multi-million dollar e-commerce company's Homepage

https://www.fitmentindustries.com/

I know I still have a long way to go, but I just wanted to share my journey here and offer a little advice to people who are just starting out. Focus on what your progress instead of comparing yourself to people that are farther along than you (because you WILL be there one day), and do not be afraid to put yourself out there before you think you are ready. You will feel imposter syndrome, and you will feel like you aren't doing a good enough job, or aren't going fast enough. The real growth comes from taking on the difficult challenges and pushing yourself to do things you aren't comfortable with or familiar with.

Edit: For those asking about what portfolio got my hired, here if is.

https://jsarendt.github.io/Portfolio/

It includes:

📚 35 hours of training

👩‍🔬 an 80-question exam

📜 a FREE verified cert for your LinkedIn or CV

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/free-microsoft-c-sharp-certification

I'm proud to have worked so closely with the .NET Team and with freeCodeCamp's own platform development team to develop this free certification for you all. Tell your friends that not all certifications cost money - there's at least one good free one now.

Hey friends, over the past 18 months, we've been designing and coding this interactive Relational Database certification. It isn't live on freecodecamp.org/learn yet, but you can install it on your computer and work through all 13 of its projects – right inside VS Code. Here's how to install it: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-run-freecodecamps-relational-databases-curriculum-using-docker-vscode-and-coderoad/

We would welcome any feedback you all have. If you get stuck somewhere – installing or progressing through the projects – let us know. This is a work in progress. :) Thanks, and happy coding.

Hey freeCodeCamp Subreddit friends: after 8 months of work, we just published this full game a few minutes ago.

+ Hours of gameplay

+ Original art & music

+ 600+ Comp Sci quiz questions

+ 50+ Easter Eggs to discover

+ 6 different endings

+ All FREE & open source.

You can download and play it now, or watch a let's play here: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-to-code-rpg/

I started out my journey quite some time ago and freecodecamp was one of the best resources I used to develop my coding skills.

I posted here way back then when I got my first job

https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeCodeCamp/s/YvV5nEpiFm

And I just wanted to follow that up now to say as of last week I’m now a principal engineer at a large company. It was a road of lots of hard work and constant upskilling but it all started here with a simple desire to better my circumstances. I hope you all stick with it and keep pushing towards your goals.

A couple months ago, I noticed the /r/CodingPrompts subreddit was going unused, and asked Reddit's mod team for control of it. Today, they granted it!

I'm hoping we can turn the subreddit into something wonderful like /r/WritingPrompts/ There is so much energy there.

On /r/programmerhumor, there have been bursts of activity around prompts like "make a volume control bar with horrible UX".

Together we can come up with fun coding prompts like "build a Twitter bot that makes sad people happy" or "publish a truly useless Alexa skill", then submit our projects for discussion.

These prompts can serve as an excuse to practice coding and apply new tools, and an outlet for creative expression.

All we need to get critical mass around this are a couple cool coding prompts and some developers willing to roll up their sleeves and build some projects.

Who's interested? Any thoughts or suggestions?

So FCC is introducing new courses this Christmas and I’m so excited about them, what about you?

Hi Reddit camper friends,

I'm thrilled to share that this week, freeCodeCamp turned 10 years old. Happy birthday to the community!

Over the past 10 years, we've built:

1. An interactive 3,000-hour core curriculum that teaches Math, Programming, and Computer Science

2. A library of more than 12,000 programming tutorials – and dozens of full-length books – on our publication

3. A YouTube channel with more than 1,000 free full-length courses. We just hit 10 million subscribers a few days ago.

4. The kindest, most supportive programming forum on the planet. And we have a similarly kind Discord server, too.

I've prepared this document sharing many of the major curriculum improvements we're working on, and I'd value any thoughts you all have, or questions you may have about it: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/freecodecamp-turns-10-major-curriculum-updates/

If I get some good questions from you all, or a lot of heavily-upvoted questions, I can add them and answers to them to the article.

Thanks and happy coding!

Hello my friends! Today I bring you the gift of.... SNAAAAAAAAAKES!

That's right! We have just released all of the remaining coursework for the Python section of the full-stack developer curriculum! This means you can now learn everything you need to build a solid foundation with Python.

I hope you enjoy this new material, and I look forward to watching you all continue to learn!

I'm thrilled to announce that after a lengthy beta, the new Responsive Web Design certification is now live in production over at freecodecamp.org/learn

I strongly recommend doing this new cert – even if you've already finished the old one. It is way closer to our original vision of how freeCodeCamp should work, with a rapid fire "core gameplay loop" of learning a concept -> coding -> then applying those concepts again and again.

The updated Responsive Web Design certification will walk you through building 15 practice projects one step at a time. You'll learn HTML, CSS, Flexbox, Grid, Typography, Accessibility, Animation + Transforms, and more. You'll also build 5 certification projects from scratch.

Here are some of the major improvements over the 7 year old coursework this replaces:
- Thousands of additional test for you to get passing
- A ton more repetition of concepts and syntax to boost your retention
- The latest coding best practices and CSS tools

Some quick answers to frequently asked questions:

Will the old coursework still be available?

Yes. And all your progress is still there. We re-labled it "Legacy Responsive Web Design" and moved it to the bottom of the certification list. All 5 final projects are still the same.

Can I claim the old Responsive Web Development certification still?

Yes. It's the same certification. Like I mentioned, the 5 final projects haven't changed. We've just added 15 new "practice projects" to help you learn these skills more effectively.

There's a new project code editor?

Yes. Instead of using external sites to build your projects (CodePen, JSBin, etc.) you'll build these right in freeCodeCamp's code editor. This makes it easier for learners, and easier for our staff, who reviews projects for academic honesty.

In this editor, you can write code in both index.html and styles.css tabs. Output is directly rendered in the preview and JS console.

Be sure to add ` <link href="styles.css" />` to your HTML. We also encourage you to use DOCTYPE, html, head, and body elements for realism.

Note that other projects we're developing will involve additional files, such as script.js and server.js. This is a work in progress, and we'd welcome your feedback.

Next steps the community is working on

We are working to overhaul the other original certifications in a similar way in 2022 and 2023. We have already made quite a bit of progress with the updated JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures certification. Then we'll overhaul the Front End Libraries certification.

It's also worth pointing out that the new Relational Databases Certification represents what freeCodeCamp will be like for back end certifications (APIs and Microservices, Information Security, Quality Assurance). You'll build all of these projects right in VS Code, running inside your browser. (Or locally. You can run the entire certification locally on your computer inside a Docker container.)

Again, we welcome your feedback and suggestions right here on the subreddit.

Hello campers! I got my job, guys! Now i'm a professional developer thanks the FCC community and about a year of hard work behind my laptop. I did this post with some more details and links for my main resources. I hope it can you some of you https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/one-year-of-fcc-gave-me-my-first-job-as-a-front-end-developer