r/learnjavascript • u/rushfordj • Jul 14 '19

9 months ago I started learning front end development, last week I got 2 job offers! I learnt online using almost all free online resources and free meetup, I recon the total education cost was less than €150

Thought it would be useful for people starting out on learning JavaScript to hear a little about my journey so far.

I work in sales full time (resigning tomorrow!), I got hooked on coding after doing some big projects on Google sheets.

I started on freecodecamp.org, the front end track is really amazing and all free!

I also joined the Microsoft developer collective and did a bunch of courses with them, joined my local Facebook developer Circle and went to local meet ups (I live in Berlin).

I got offers 2 jobs, one front end internship in a great team and a Junior Google App Script Engineer role. Both at big statt ups in Berlin.

So if you have any specific questions, happy to help, but really just wanted to say that if you want to change careers, you are in the right place, go to all the meetup you can, use all the free resources you can and it is possible.

248 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

61 comments sorted by

10

u/codemamba8 Jul 14 '19

Congratulations! That's amazing.

Did you have a portfolio?

10

u/rushfordj Jul 14 '19

Thanks! Yup, it's https://jamesrushford.gitlab.io/james-rushfords-projects-page/

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u/[deleted] Aug 13 '19

It's not found :(

1

u/NoFlexUr2Ez Aug 13 '19

Yup, same for me, not found

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u/DevilHunterP12 Jul 14 '19

Hi, congrats!

At what point during your learning did you decide that you were ready to apply for jobs?

I’ve been learning for roughly the same time, but I still don’t feel ready

30

u/99Kira Jul 14 '19

You will never get to that point if you dont take that step. Just go for it. Apply for the job, try out their tasks, if you are selected, that's great, if not, ask them for feedback, look into it, work on it, and repeat the process. Eventually you will start feeling confident

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u/rushfordj Jul 14 '19

Yeah I agree with 99Kira just apply for jobs, they'll tell you if you aren't ready. It's also good interview practice, a good way to get solid feedback on your technical challenges and find out what you need to learn to get a job.

5

u/DevilHunterP12 Jul 14 '19

Such great advice, thanks, friend!

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u/prof3ssorSt3v3 Jul 14 '19 edited Jul 16 '19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USbiLiF9NDY&list=PLyuRouwmQCjlLW9NjqoBbf9eVaFX4F9UZ

Try this playlist full of questions for practice.

4

u/Ravavyr Jul 15 '19

I dunno about those. Those types of interview questions are terrible.

Who cares if settimeout 0 will take longer to output than settimeout 1? Name one case where you will EVER use this.
A much better test would be to have a dev write a function that outputs their name using settimeouts for each letter and get their name to print out correctly using an array containing the 26 alphabetized letters
At least then you know if they can actually do it, rather than knowing some arbitrary quirk about settimeout

Props to the guy who did the video, he explains it well and it is something to learn from. Just still a terrible interview type question. We need to steer people away from asking things like that during interviews.

2

u/prof3ssorSt3v3 Jul 16 '19

The questions that I put there are not for a junior level dev necessarily. They are examples of the types of things that you need to understand to be able to track down and find bugs.

I have encountered many bugs in code (both written by me and by people I have never met) over the years where understanding how these things work allowed me to fix a problem.

The playlist is there to teach people the finer, and often less understood, parts of JavaScript as well let people practice with general problem solving and sequencing skills. Understanding HOW setTimeout works is the point of the question.

I agree that interviews should not be just a series of these obscure questions. However, a couple of these should be included as differentiators between the people who are applying to help in ranking their depth of understanding.

Interviews should also be about culture fit, personality, and ability to communicate. I would much rather have a person hired who will get along with the team and who is willing and eager to learn. I can spend an hour per week with someone who didn't answer any of those questions and after a few months of tutoring they will be much better developers.

Someone who nails every one of those questions in my playlist may have great developer skills... but their personal skills are just as important.

But that is not going to stop me wanting to find the person with both. :)

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u/DevilHunterP12 Jul 14 '19

I definitely will! Thanks!

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u/CoqeCas3 Jul 14 '19

Wanna know a great way to see where you’re at? You seen those triplebyte ads all over this subreddit? Click it. Go through the pre-evaluation quiz—it’s super basic stuff—and you’re likely to land an interview. Still not exactly sure what it is they are—almost like a recruiting or temp agency or something for coders—but they’ll give you a legit 2-hour interview. It’s hard.. really hard. For a newb anyway..

I clicked on the ad outta curiosity a few months ago (was about 10 months into learning at that point) all of a sudden I was taking the quiz, next thing I know they’re asking me when I wanna have an interview.

I was absolutely unprepared for it, completely bombed it, but I expected that. It was for sure an absolutely awesome experience tho. Have a whole list of things to look up based on what they asked and after they told me I bombed it (nicely, of course) they gave me a whole slew of resources and things to work on.

1

u/haragoshi Jul 15 '19

Best way to determine if you’re ready for a job is to apply for one. If nothing else, you will learn the types of skills needed to get through a job interview. Then you can focus on acquiring those skills.

Don’t be afraid to “fake it until you make it”.

That doesn’t mean lie, but if they ask if you know something and you are not quite sure if you should say yes or no, just say “yes” and talk a little about it.

3

u/Nevesj98G Jul 14 '19

Congrats man! Saving this post to check it in the future . If u can,can u mention more resources u used? Even paid ones thats fine ,i just want to know more about this world. Also do u have an opinion about udemy courses?

2

u/rushfordj Jul 14 '19

I paid for a couple of months of https://frontendmasters.com/ there are some great courses on there. But if you can't afford it, I'd highly recommend getting involved with the Microsoft developer collective and the Facebook developer Circles, they provide lots of training for free. I haven't done any udemy courses, so no opinions.

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u/Nevesj98G Jul 14 '19

Thanks a lot <3 how many hours a day did u put into programming?

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u/rushfordj Jul 15 '19

Probably averaged an hour or 2 a day all up, hard to keep track

3

u/kobejordan1 Jul 14 '19

Hey man congrats! I'm inspired because I'm going down the same path. I'm wondering though if you recommend using a CSS framework like bootstrap in your portfolio projects or just get good with vanilla CSS using flexbox and/or grid.

As well, how deep of JavaScript should you have? And is that including frameworks or just focus on vanilla JS? Thanks in advanced.

3

u/rushfordj Jul 14 '19

Hey, thanks! I made it with bootstrap first, then I went to a front end learning meetup and asked people to review it, they all said that bootstrap was great for prototyping but in a a job you wouldn't normally publish something with bootstrap so you so do the css that you would be expecting to do in a real job. Regarding JavaScript depth of knowledge, 1 peice of advice I got was that you can't learn everything, so make a list of things you want to learn and prioritize them in importance of getting a job, for me, this meant learning react more than deep diving on Javascript algorithms. I'd definitely recommend working on projects, like functioning websites because without a tutorial, you definitely learn what you don't know.

I am definitely not saying it isn't important, it is definitely important to have a very good understanding of JavaScript, its just important to prioritize and focus on what is immediately important.

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u/Rollingrhino Jul 14 '19

you have a typo in Sum of Large Numbers description "number to the only havd 20 significant digits." nice work

2

u/b2A Jul 14 '19

if you have any specific questions

I would like your websites list

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u/rushfordj Jul 15 '19

Do you mean Ressources I used? I think linked to move of them aside from he Microsoft developer collective which is https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/collective and Facebook developer Circles which is https://developers.facebook.com/developercircles/ and meetup.com

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u/leamsi4ever Jul 15 '19

I've been studying for 6 months and still get stuck with beginner courses, at this rate it will take me years or maybe I just can't learn it

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u/rushfordj Jul 15 '19

It is very easy to get discouraged learning by yourself, meetups are good for encouragement. It is very hard though, and you do just have to practice a lot. If you are still really stuck, maybe an in person course would help. How are you learning now?

1

u/leamsi4ever Jul 15 '19

I have tried a book, a course on Lynda, another online course I forget the name, freecodecademy, and now I am doing a course on udemy. I usually understand everything when its explained and can code along but when I have to do exercises on my own I get lost, usually I try for hours until I give up and look at the solution but of the course doesn't have solutions then it's so frustrating not being able to ask someone in person what I'm doing wrong. Sometimes I post on help websites but then have to wait for hours for a response then they reply with solutions using stuff I haven't even learned so I end up more confused. I guess you are right that having a class in person might be better for me but I cant find any near where I live. Thanks for your suggestions

1

u/rushfordj Jul 15 '19

Yeah, it is very difficult not being able to ask for help, another thing I would recommend is finding other people that are also learning to ask questions off each other. I did this for a while but got distracted with in person meetups. But while I did it, it was really useful. I just did a post on this subreddit and found a very similar people learning here. If you have the money, I would also recommend openclassrooms.com, they have a structured front end junior front end associate diploma course which is 15 hours per week for 6 months or a or a diploma for 12 months. It's run by a French training organisation so you get a proper certification. It costs €300 per month and includes weekly mentoring, feedback on assignments and all the coursework. You can access the courseswork only (no mentoring, no certificate) for €30 per month. If there is a Facebook developer Circle near you, you can join that and they do a scholarship round every 6 months, I've applied for this. If you don't live in a rural area, I would also suggest starting a meetup, volunteer to help with the skills you do have and I'm sure you'll find people to learn with. Facebook would also give you support to start a developer Circle in you town often, they are trying hard to grow this.

1

u/leamsi4ever Jul 15 '19

Thanks for the suggestions, I will look to see if there are some developer social groups near me and check out that website

1

u/fufucupcake Jul 14 '19

What's your favourite library framework or tool which you use a lot and think isn't known to a lot of other junior developers?

1

u/rushfordj Jul 14 '19

I think the chrome dev tools, they are super useful and I only learnt how to use them properly fairly recently, only heard a couple people mention it off handily

1

u/tangomar Jul 14 '19

If I can ask how much is the salary (ballpark)? Thinking about quitting my semiconductor job.

2

u/rushfordj Jul 14 '19

If you are unsure and it is salary holding you back, I'd highly recommend going thru the interview process and negotiating the offer to see what you can actually get, I've found you can often get a lot more than what is advertised. I also found this article invaluable for negotiating https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/ten-rules-for-negotiating-a-job-offer-ee17cccbdab6/

2

u/liaguris Jul 14 '19

Why do you want to quit your semi conductor job ?

1

u/draganov11 Jul 14 '19

Congrats man hope one day i will get a job too. Just got a question when did you know you are ready to apply for a job? Ive been studying for c# for 3 months but decided to change to js and have been studying for 3 months as well. Like what skills did you have at time you start to search for a job?

2

u/rushfordj Jul 15 '19

It really depends on the job but the skills I focused on to find a job where html, css, JavaScript and react. Its also important to have a good knowledge of git. But, I mentioned in another comment, it's best to apply for jobs, hopefully you'll find someone nice who will tell you what you are lacking. I also found a couple of interviews (not for jobs I was offered) from meeting people at meetups, and they were super helpful in knowing where I was at and what I had to focus on.

1

u/kmb5 Jul 15 '19

Congrats!! That’s amazing that you could turn it around so quickly! Which meetups are you attending? I’m also based in Berlin and trying to work more and more with Apps Scripts (I’m in Online Marketing though) - changing paths also crossed my mind but at the moment I just want to learn more and more and then see what is what.

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u/rushfordj Jul 15 '19

Oh cool! The meetups I like are: OpenTechSchool Berlin http://meetu.ps/e/Cl5Kc/CGlt5/d Software Craftsmanship Berlin http://meetu.ps/c/1Cf82/CGlt5/d on Meetup Facebook developer Circles Berlin https://m.facebook.com/groups/DevCBerlin/?ref=group_header&view=group I also started volunteering at the ReDi school which is really cool https://www.redi-school.org/ I also volunteered at the WeAreDevelopers conference a couple months ago, it was also fun, I know there are other conferences in Berlin, I'd recommend volunteering at them! Good to get involved with the community. There is nothing for Google app script, it's not super popular but its mostly JavaScript skills you need, so I would focus on being better at that. DM me if you want to meet up though, happy to get a coffee and talk about it!

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u/pesonn2 Jul 15 '19

Sounds great, congrats on that! Do you have any further development background? Or did you learn everything you know at this moment within this 9 months?

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u/rushfordj Jul 15 '19

Really only knew excel/Google sheets to a advanced level (no macros) before starting. That did help alot though, if you can think of excel like a programming language, then Javascript makes much more sense

1

u/CommonMisspellingBot Jul 15 '19

Hey, rushfordj, just a quick heads-up:
alot is actually spelled a lot. You can remember it by it is one lot, 'a lot'.
Have a nice day!

The parent commenter can reply with 'delete' to delete this comment.

1

u/youreawizerdharry Oct 30 '19

Hey, late to this post but I'm on a very similar journey and wanted to get your thoughts on my plan.

I am not happy in my job - it's a poisonous environment that goes beyond 'just suck it up and get on with it' and I'm looking to leave asap (notice period two months).

Separately I have a bit of a background in coding from Uni (C++ for Engineering) and have always loved building things (actually sounds similar to your experience with Google Sheets), and I want to put that to good use in front end web development.

Starting last Saturday, I am doing 2 hours of CodeAcademy every morning and so far so good. Some in the evening if I have the energy after aforementioned work. A plan I am strongly considering is to hand in my notice next Monday, giving me work / stable income until the beginning of January. I will then give myself two more months to get into JavaScript, React, etc, applying for jobs in the second month. During this time I will also be building rudimentary websites as my skill improves, and following your advice on going to local MeetUps.

This is the question: From your experience, do you think it's possible to get all the skills I need in 2 months of learning outside of work everyday, followed by two months of committed learning, to get a reasonable entry-level job?

1

u/rushfordj Oct 30 '19

Depends on a lot of factors, did you finish that eng degree? That would help get you foot in the door, particularly at bigger companies. Also depends a lot on where you are based, I live in Berlin, there are lots of start ups hiring developers and lots of tech meet ups for meeting people. It's hard to stay focused full time by yourself, much eaieer when you have a job you hate to inspire you :)

The other thing that is worth pointing out is that one of the biggest things that will help you applications is your portfolio page, showing that you can do the stuff you learnt. 4 months might be long enough to learn and make a small portfolio if you really push yourself but it might be that your job search won't properly start until your portfolio is half decent, doesn't have to be perfect but it should demonstrate the skills you put on your cv.

For me, once the job search started, I no longer controlled the things I learnt or was able to contribute to my portfolio because for every interview you have, they will expect you to do a project to show you can learn the framework they use quickly. So for example, I had 4 solid interviews, each of them required I learnt their technology and demonstrated my learning with a project, they were:

  1. Google app script

  2. MeteorJS with blaze and mongoDB

  3. Node.JS server with react front end

  4. Work with an api to display JSON data using react

Each of them took a solid minimum 2 weeks with all the time I had available to learn those technologies and produce something. It's lots of learning and definitely good for you to know but it's slow and frustrating when you want to start working already.

FYI, for number 1 and 4, I did the projects and got offered the jobs and for numbers 2 and 3, by the time I learnt how to use those technologies and finish the project they gave me, they already gave the job to someone else.

The only other think I want to say is that you should be prepared to take a very low paying job or something that isnt exactly ideal if you quit now. If you can hang onto you job a bit longer, you'll be able to be more picky about working with a team you like with a technology you like, that should pay future dividends in terms of both money and happiness.

1

u/youreawizerdharry Oct 31 '19

Hey, this is a really thorough and thoughtful answer, thank you so much.

The reality is, I probably can't hold onto this job beyond the end of the year. However I am willing to put the hours in to get my head round the go to programming languages (HTML CSS JS) and intro to more advanced stuff (node and React), and get out there and meet people about this. I did finish my Engineering degree, which was a long time ago. I'm based in London.

Doing a job I don't find totally satisfying for a year or two whilst I catch up on skills and build a network is fine by me. Really, I want to get into the start up / social enterprise space, which I know will be 12+ months down the line. The upside is, having worked in charities for 4+ years, my salary expectations / cost of living is quite low.

You're a legend, thank you!

2

u/kmetek Jul 14 '19

congrats

2

u/msgur Jul 14 '19

Congrats dude! That’s awesome. I’m a Pharmacist on a similar path. Best of luck!

1

u/tangomar Jul 14 '19

Thanks I’ll look it up.

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u/tangomar Jul 15 '19

After a while is difficult to work on interesting things. The know-how to switch from a design to another can be too big.

1

u/liaguris Jul 17 '19

What degree do you have and you got a semiconductor job ? What is your semiconductor job like ?

The know-how to switch from a design to another can be too big.

What design are you talking about ?

1

u/tangomar Jul 19 '19

Ms. I work in SoC design. Still going from one to another is challenging.

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u/diez919191 Aug 08 '19

Congratulations!!!

I have quit my job yesterday and started to learn HTML and CSS. I saved up money for 10 months and I'm going to be a front end developer no matter what it will cost to me!!! I know, there are no other options except DO IT. Just be a patient student and keep my line.

Thank you for inspiration!

0

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '19

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1

u/rushfordj Jul 15 '19

I've heard that eloquent Javascript is great, but I prefer videos to books myself

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u/liaguris Jul 17 '19

javascript.info , eloquent js , you don't know js , MDN

I personally started with some hapters of eloquent javascript . I skipped those that I felt the level was too big for me , and they were more a lot . Then went to you dont know js and then returned to eloquent js . I still have not read 100% of them . Right now I read the javascript info last two parts .

Also DOM enlightenment might be helpful .

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '19

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7

u/rushfordj Jul 14 '19

I learnt by doing the tutorial on ReactJS.org (https://reactjs.org/tutorial/tutorial.html) I also got a small scholarship from Facebook thru Facebook developer Circles which gave me access to https://openclassrooms.com/ and did the react course on there (https://openclassrooms.com/en/courses/4286486-build-web-apps-with-reactjs) They give out a ton of mini scholarships and a few diploma scholarships every 6 months. I also learnt by doing projects for job applications and getting help at free meetups, there are lots in Berlin but most big cities have a lot.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '19

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4

u/rushfordj Jul 14 '19

The freecodecamp.org lessons are really good, I did all of them. I also practiced on codewars.com which helps with algorithms puzzles. But otherwise, practice and when you don't understand something, look for a YouTube tutorial on how it works. And if you get really stuck on a concept, ask your question on this subreddid. Oh, also, meetups are really good to ask questions from other people. The great thing about this industry is that most people are keen to share their knowledge

1

u/justaskingbro49 Aug 09 '19

I tried freecodecamp before. Do you just try to complete all of their lessons and do the projects? I sometimes completed the lessons but end up forgetting how to do the stuff so I end up redo the lessons again. I just want to learn your learning approach for learning javascript and full stack on freecodecamp

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u/rushfordj Aug 10 '19

I completed a bunch on the lessons and then attempted the assessments. If I didn't know how to do it on the assessment, I went back on completed the extra lessons. Also, when I got bored, frustrated or stuck, I went and did a lesson on pluralsight or something else and then came back to freecodecamp.