I feel bad for a lot of the younger folks who do not realize they do not have mentors, structure, or role models to rely on. It's important to learn what you need to be successful and this can only be done with persistence. You have a great story.
Sure it may be hard but I’ve done it, people trying to get into it in 6 months are failing because sure.. we have universities teaching whole degrees, anybody can learn programming.. that’s the easiest part. What about everything else?
@@TheStickofWar This is underrated.. Learning boolean, long, int, varchar, string, loop, if else, all of these things are such beginner topics that with these alone will not make somebody employable. So much further beyond.
The problem is that we give a 15% tax break to hire a foreign student worker over a local student. The U.S. lost 250,000 engineering jobs, while at the same time there were 400,000 requests for an H-1b visa. Think about these 2 facts. And then take into consideration, Facebook committed 2600+ cases of discrimination against better qualified local engineers in the United States (over just the 1.5 yr period covered by the Federal Investigation) (a similar case for Apple) and this is all documented in DOJ vs Facebook 2020 (and DOJ vs Apple 2023). What do you think is happening? I know what happens. Foreign workers are hired as students because of the 15% discount. The foreign worker gets stuck at the company waiting for an H-1b visa, then a Green Card. The foreign worker needs protection from local competition to get that Green Card, the company does a Sham Green Card certification (documented in DOJ vs Facebook 2020). This creates a feedback loop where the foreign worker gets promoted, and has no issues scoffing at the immigration laws. Favors hiring only from his/her own home country. Talks with HR saying they can't find anyone and a legal team is employed to exploit every loophole (or even do fraud that has a high chance of success, as with the phone Green Card certification. Keep in mind companies have been doing phony Green Card certification for decades (23 years) and the investigation of Apple and Facebook (that's just 2 companies) cover only a few years of this.
I got a junior (design, not dev) job and got laid off after 1.5 years. Then, I got a part time freelance role at Chipotle doing SOME design. I was there 6 months before getting essentially laid off again. I thought 2 years experience and a fortune 500 on my resume was PLENTY to get me rehired. But a year of unemployment later, I've accepted a job in another industry. Today, 3 weeks into my job, I've pulled myself out of the pits and decided to start freelancing, came up with some side projects ideas, and signed myself up for two hackathons as the UX/UI designer. I'm just going to give it time. I feel like things SHOULD be going better, but life is hard and not everyone wins right away. Trying to be patient and grateful that I can at least have a savings account again.
I wish you the best of luck. I just decided to quit UX design yesterday. It's a fucking joke... some sort of parallel universe... nobody outside of the tech bubble knows what I'm talking about and in my eyes that what makes it inherently un-human work. Ill just fucking get a normal job. I'm so done with everything tech-related. I've worked my fucking ass of for the last couple of years, did client work did work with agencies... have a good portfolio with real client projects... reject reject reject and I get it. I can't be angry because companies would rather go with a person who is a senior.. but ill no longer fucking torture myself.
I’m locked into my career field in the military for another 7 years. It’s mechanical and a full time job. Luckily for the last 5 years I’ve been slowly learning programming and languages. Over that time I’ve learned the basics of programming, I also know C#, Java, Python, JavaScript, html/css, SQL, tool use, and now I’m learning rust. Remember, it’s a marathon not a sprint. Now as it is getting closer, I am starting to spend a lot of time deep diving into concepts and creating projects.
Its good to get a taste of different languages and explore different stuff to engineer to pick something that you like, but if you want to get hired you need to pick one and get expert at it, no one gonna hire someone who knows all and nothing, just so you know.
Honestly, I agree with what the last guy said. If you want to get hired just learn one language and become good at it. Once you master that language then you can take the skills you learned from that language and transfer it to other languages. Be real here. What hiring manager is going to believe you know 5 different programming languages with no industry experience.
what people refer with pick one and get expert at it is learn frameworks for these languages. For example for java spring, but also learn cloud development, http protocols, linux etc
I should've specified that I am really well off with C# and Java. Could get hired just with those languages. But thanks to those who are replying thinking I only know surface knowledge of all the languages I listed. Its good for others to see peoples views and the importance of really learning one. I would say I dug really deep with C# and that passed over really nicely to Java.
“People wanted to work with me, not because I was the best but because I’m a nice person” congrats your hired, there is no boot camp for being great to work with!
After being in the working world for almost 17 years, having a coworker you can get along with is extremely underrated. I'm spending 40+ hours a week with the person, i don't care if he's the best as long as he can get the job done and pulls his weight. Might be different for extremely competitive things like investment banking or big tech companies, but for the majority of regular companies, personality is huge.
That helps a lot, unless you're at faang or a highly competitive environment, once you get a good foundation it's about learning the tech stack and getting work done with your fellow engineers.
I've never said 3 months, 6 months etc to learn. Time takes time, and there is no shortcut. It's about building projects and finding your love to solve these bullshit problems. I nearly gave up at the 3 year mark. I've been doing this this for the past 15 years now. I appreciate this video.
Thank you for the honest sharing of your story. I am just starting out the journey to becoming a full-stack developer. I've been a mess myself for most of my twenties and I want to get my life together by starting this new career. I know it will not be easy. Your story gives me the necessary perspective to prepare for the difficulties ahead and to work hard. Thank you so much for what you are doing.
I've been doing this for 9 years and one thing I will say about the industry is that 90% of the time you will try to figure out other peoples badly written code... sometimes you will be asked to jump from one system to another which will put you under even more pressure all the while trying to understand the business and finding your way around toxic colleagues and bosses. There is a reason why most devs spend 2 years on average in a company before moving somewhere else. Sure money could be part of it but in my experience the environment can get so bad you will either start doing really poorly or you will quit on your own.
Do not advertise as a full stack developer. Pick frontend or backend. Being able to do frontend with basic database work won't make others see you a full stack dev. Full stack is considered a mid-senior role
Subscribed! This is so similar to my story. I’m a slow learner. The bootcamp I did I was bottom of the class. But I’ve been willing to work hard and not give up.
Thanks for this. The road is a little less lonely when you know some other people are in it. When all you see is the story of a lot of people landing a job in months it's difficult to keep some kind of sanity when years go by. I spent more than 3 years working on something other than software development after college too and unfortunately, although I made a huge effort, working a lot on weekends, nights and all, I wasn't renewed for next year. It was a great experience though, 2 years working with react native mobile development. It's crazy tough to get another job right now and I'll probably have to work on another thing again while trying to get another job in tech, but I hope in the end I can have some years of good work with decent pay ahead.
Thank you for the support. Yes it’s not easy and I’m sorry that thing didn’t work out. Looking back it may seem like a failure, but as you mentioned the experience will become useful in one way or another in the future. Let’s keep grinding
Man I can’t tell you how much I relate to this. I finished my Bootcamp back in August 2022 and I’m still going, I’ve definitely learned a lot but still have many challenges ahead of me. Especially while maintaining a 9-5 blue collar job. Really appreciate this vid.
@viewsbyblur Thanks for the support. Keep on pushing, and I feel the pain of trying to work and learn at the same time. But just know its going to add up as you keep on chipping away. What bootcamp did you do?
Thank for sharing your story, it's refreshing to see someone being so transparent about this process. I'm expecting this journey to be difficult, but I think it will be worth it. I always felt that learning to be a programmer was a play at the long game. The gratification isn't instant, and there will be many times where you feel stuck. Overcoming those challenges and pushing one's limits constantly in that way is part of makes programming great to learn imo.
@@Karuska22ps there are a multitude of paths you can take with programming that wouldn't take you into the big tech sphere. if i look for relative software development jobs in my area, they exist and people are getting them. even if things never get better and my efforts to create a life with programming doesn't work out, i'll find something else. life goes on and just because things seem bleak doesn't mean i still stand still and do nothing
@@Karuska22ps CS isn't the core of what I study nor will programming be the only skill set I possess. I know people without CS degrees still finding jobs and forging paths within tech. You can look at mountains and tell yourself you can't climb them, or you can be the exception.
Bro I ended up taking a help desk job after my associates 7 years later I climed up to system admin and moved jobs to a company with a huge dev team.. asked at every interview I had a chance to get into (system admin).. once at my current job as an admin I began expressing my interest and building a rapport with the dev manager.. long story short, I finally broke through! I transitioned from help desk to system admin and now software developer! Started my journey 2014! ITT Tech scammed me into a degree I did not want.. smh but I'm here now!
This is the reality, thanks for posting it. Meanwhile, tech companies made 400,000 requests for people on H-1b visas, 80% freshers right out of college. It works this way because people who come from India and China get stuck at the same company, they then get promoted (because many people who try dev, wind up hating it, and are promoted by their friends out undesirable jobs). The managers prefer people from their home country, or they would happily avoid trying promote or hire locals when their countrymen are trying get certified for a Green Card (this happened at Facebook 2600+ times over just the 1.5 year period of the DOJ investigation).
@@SandraWantsCoke Late reply here.. Network system administration, wanted to go for the Software Developer degree. The recruiter sold me on that eventually I would be able to switch over to the dev degree... but that never became a thing since they could not get enough students for that class. Also, I didn't even get my degree as the school closed on my last semester.. been a ride for sure.
Hey guys, sharing my story as well. I attended a part time bootcamp in 2021 from feb until May and got an internship in June and officially hired right after in August’s of the same year. I also struggled really bad and even in the internship I struggled. Towards the end of the internship things started clicking and I was able to ultimately land a junior position at 75k a year! What helped me most was being social talking with my peers and genuinely getting to know them and had fun working instead of stressing about “if I don’t get the job”. Another thing to note in my bootcamp I was paired up with a now close friend who at the time was QA at the company I am now working with.
Despite what everyone says, competition for remote positions is extremely competitive. I recently had an interview and solved the coding challenge, discussed my thoughts while going through the problem, made sure my code was clean, also described other strategies to solve the problem and didn’t get the job. If you’re going through this with employers, you’re not alone. I moved into a software engineer role from my current employer. If this role is what you want, try starting in app support or QA to get there while also applying. Good luck. 😊
Thanks for being honest with your struggles. Too many "Coders" come up here on UA-cam acting like it's so easy and that they know everything. Like it's "smooth sailing" and it's all about money, luxury apartments, gourmet coffee, "work from home", etc.
Similar journey here. Wanted to make apps but ended up in web dev. My first job was lower than a junior dev salary. Stayed there for 2 years because not many employers want to take a chance on someone without experience. There’s something to be said for paying your dues. People see dev salaries and expect to do a boot camp and make that much right off the bat. It really is a journey to get there. Thanks for sharing.
We were born problem solver. I learned computer science in college but never get a job as programmer, so I worked at financial company for 16 years and graduated with BA Philosophy and MBA. I just started making a simple game in September 2023 with C/C++ and SDL2; I believe I can do programming and decided to go back to school for my 2nd Bachelor to be game programmer. Everyone struggles and if we believe and keep on working and improve our problem solving skills. I am sure we will get the job into programming jobs.
I failed to become a software engineer. I wrote my first line of code 6 yrs ago, I had friends in big tech but I didn't have consistency, direction or follow through.
Great video and story Thanks! Not many people are willing to share one of they're failures, but this really helps us people who might be in a similar situation that you were in And this gives us a lot of hope and motivation! :)
hey brother, i had a very similar experience breaking into the industry as you, and am now underpaid but still holding it down. i was working class, came from a shit background and a shit school, studied liberal arts and had a 2.0 gpa..... now making 100k. fellow giants fan!! peace bro keep up the good work
Thank you for sharing, your videos touches us who relate. I too am taking the self-taught path, I too have worked construction to pay the bills, and I too just try to stay focused and patient without losing hope, but those moments where you catch yourself losing some faith still comes for a drive by sometimes...
Thanks for this video. I’m still struggling to find that first job, but I really want to do this! I have had many interviews, almost got an offer until I got passed up for more experience. Life after college is tough.
Thank you for making this video. I was also at the bottom of my cohort and graduated by the skin of my teeth. 6 months later, I got lucky and landed a job in tech support for a SaaS startup, learned a ton but never actually became a software engineer. Still working on coding projects but not actively looking for a dev job. At my age, it's difficult to compete with the up and coming devs. As you mentioned, I'm more focused on solving "real" problems for small businesses in my network. It's nice to hear about other's taking a different route
@khamla719able Thanks for sharing your story. The journey isnt linear, if youre still passionate about coding i hope you keep on going. Apply for jobs and interviewing is a whole different game then actually doing the job. I hope you continue to code, keep interviewing even just as practice and take your shots. I personally believe programming is a very easy profession to undervalue your skills because of the difficultly of the job search. But just know there are people WORST and better than you right now that have dev jobs. You can do it.
In 2014 I was learning html, cas and jQuery to build responsive websites. The biggest change was when I got junior role in IT company. Then I had to learn agile methodology and how to setup project work flow. Even how to install our app into virtual machines. The problem with self thought programmer is that they are not learning the most important things as git, GitHub, Jira, agile , scrum and they learn basics of JavaScript and maybe, React, but without context of user stories, acceptance criteria. Learn things as you would work for big company and plus train your skills in communication don't be afraid of asking questions but before try to solve problems by studying but not too long, better ask more senior dev
The problem people have is there are too many things to do/learn and you never get deep enough into a course/study Don't get trapped. Stick with one, finish one, then move on to the next
I really like your story and I do think it is important to share it. I also think that it is extremely important that we be honest with people and tell them the reality of the situation. That reality being that over 90% of the people in the CS field have a degree from a university not a bootcamp. While some people do make it from bootcamps to jobs it is about 5% or less of the CS work force that only have a bootcamp/self taught knowledge. As someone who myself is going back to school to learn CS I think it is important to tell the truth. This is the reason I went for university training and not a bootcamp. If I'm going to spend thousands on something to help me get a job then I want the best chances possible.
I'm very very impressed by your level of success now. It sounds like it was absolutely the opposite of easy, but your level of hustle and persistence is absolutely amazing
I gave up looking for a job. Such a relief. Breaking into programming is an uphill battle and it’s probably only going to get worse. 17% of Spotify’s staff just got laid off this year. Good luck competing with them in the job market! Besides, a lot of tech these days isn’t even making life better for human beings and more and more devs are reporting dissatisfaction with their jobs.
I gave up too. Took a service desk job which also isn't really working out for me so I don't know what I'm going to do now honestly. Going to maybe try something other than tech but we'll see
I broke into programming with 2 years of tech school, side projects, and developing WordPress plug-ins. C# is a booming ecosystem, and will persist (like Java) once the React and JS trendiness slows, like it already is.
@@ag4244 I love React, but the reality is that with ViewTransitions API and HTMX it will no longer be needed in the near future. I'd say in 2 years there will be some framework that just does it better on the backend and everyone will just abandon React. Like Go + Templ + HTMX is already amazing. You will no longer have to deal with all this babel / yarn / build steps / webpack nonsense. So, the advice is "learn backend" if you want to keep your job. C# and Java are safe bets.
I'll share my story too, decided that I want to pursue a carrier in gamedev, so started to just code, then got in Khan Academy and almost finished all high school math preq for a cs degree, alg1, alg2, geo, trig, pre calc, statistics, and after plan to go straight into the 2 year program of OSSU on github, by the end of the program will write a game in unity or a few of them and plan to land a job as a junior software engineer, only hardcore, god bless web and internet.
Thank you for the inspiration. I have also been trying to break into data analysis after completing 2 online courses plus a bootcamp. I’ve been applying for jobs almost everyday but in over 3 years I’ve managed to interview twice. It’s so hard to keep going when all you get are rejection emails and no call backs. I’m now building a portfolio as I continue to apply for jobs hoping one day I’ll be successful.
@felixalvin1665 Thanks for sharing, youre doing the right things. I would say consider if you arnt getting any hits from applying to hundreds and thousands of jobs. it might be helpful to get your resume looked at. But yes i feel your pain. Its like an endless black hole. But you can do it!
I also failed for 3+ years to become a software Engineer as self taught . Happy to see a real story! I really do not like to see SDE in 6 moths like most of the stories.
Hello Jeff, nice to meet you. I can relate to your story, I have kind of the same experience struggling a lot trying to get my dream job. I haven't tried that hard as you've done for various reasons. But I'll always remember one chance I had where I passed the interviews, some tests and talked to the software architect. At the end i decided to decline due to a lack of knowledge on some important skills for that role. And I noticed that what made me get as far as I did was some projects I have online, I started building my own videogames store a few years ago and even if it's not that big of a deal it is something "real", useful and proves what I'm capable of. I hope you all get your dream job and enjoy working on what you love. Have a good one! ( ^__^)/
Job market is scarce so when someone says do a boot camp or you should just teach yourself its not really that easy now a days. The market is down so usually most big companies wont look at your application if you dont have a degree. There is of course exception like testla and others but that is not standard now a day. If you do choose to take this route just know that it could be difficult. Before anyone comments "Well Im self taught and I have a job at X Y Z" yes that could be your case or maybe the case a couple years ago it is not the case now.
I got nothing but real respect for you g! You kept pushing till you got what you wanted from this tech field regardless of setbacks. I'm on that type of timing too. 😤
Thank you so much for this! This was so valuable for me, the points you mentioned here. I'm really looking out for a stable and permanent position after being 2 years into web dev.
One thing I notice about my friends who work in FAANG is that they don’t just study indefinitely. They set up measurable goals, timeline and milestones. There are always more things to study. The question is what to prioritize, what will add more values. Identify those and you will be an effective learner.
i've been trying for 5+ years now as a self taught/bootcamp....maybe i should've quit yesterday and go into something else as i'm turning 31 years old with no education
I'm 31 with a bachelor's degree in IT and it's just as hard. I got my first paid job this year and then made redundant in November so I'm now job hunting again
Self taught with no education? Which one is it? There’s only so many excuses an individual can come up with. Build an app, even it its a TODO app, and go from there.
@@schoolstuff5235facts no one is going to take you off bootcamps and self taught stuff. You have to go to the Interview with proof of your abilities to be successful in that position. Even a degree is just not enough these days.
I would say to get a bachelor's degree now. Even if you don't get a job in programming, many companies value degree-holders holding positions over no-degree. You deserve job security, so go get it.
I am happy to see this because I am in the same boat. Our background is actually similar lol. Like 75% similar. I am going all in on 2024. I read and updated my skills yesterday. This year I make the side projects. I had some but I wiped it because after reading I realized the code was a joke. I realize I should not have done that lol. I deleted my change over time.
I usually don’t comment on videos but college is the way to go in my opinion. It’s about playing the long game and setting yourself up for future success. I got my BS in computer Science, started at the age of 31. I had no mentor, high school drop out, worked 60+ hours a week in manufacturing making $12 an hour. Bootcamps didn’t exist back then and even if they did there’s no way I could afford to not work. At the end of the day code bootcamps are a business too.
I disagree. Leon Noel gives the best bootcamp I've seen so far who is on UA-cam. He offers a FREE 30 week bootcamp on how to become a Software Engineer specializing in Full Stack Web Development. A lot of people are getting jobs. It's called 100Devs. Google UA-cam for the Class below Become A Software Engineer For Free (Class 01) - 100Devs
this story reminded me on how I entered in this industry. i was lucky to have a great opportunity, and in the end, it was (and still is) very rewarding. however, i'm looking at the younger generations from my country that are passionate about programming and they're struggling to enter, while those who does this for money sits on huge pile of cash while doing nothing. it's unfair. i'd love to see an improvement on this side, tho, so everyone could get equal opportunity and those who aren't passionate enough to leave.
@hacktor_92 I appreciate you sharing this, I agree with you. For many people including myself this is a game of passion, I do hope folks that also have this passion for coding could have an improved route.
Hey, your story is same as mine and i am in the self taught route, and thanks for breaking it in that a bootcamp helps and i am so thankful that i got a right path now
Unfortunately I think a lot of this market and even people just generally give bad advice to people that are trying to break into the industry. As you've stated towards the end here, companies are looking for some type of validation of your skillset, as not every job is willing to go through the investment of training up a junior in the role. To get that validation you're probably going to have to do some stuff that you don't really want to do for free on your own to get that validation from the real world.
Our company hired entry level for the first time (young company, two years old). They are soooooo.......slowwwwww.......... The fear with hiring entry level is they take forver to get up to speed, and once they do they just jump to another company - after we trained them. That already happened with one of them after six months of training. During the interview process, this is the concern you must address. These outcomes are absolute killers for small companies and studios like ours. After going through junior dev training for almost a year, we decided to scrap it altogether and partnered with a few offshore shops at one-third of our intern's pay. That's the competition.
This is the key comment right here. It explains it all. This is the reason why it's hard to get in the field as a new grad. Companies can't invest so it's better to hire contract at a cheap rate to some overseas country.
As a recent grad, it really doesn't help that colleges leave students knowing very little after grad. I have been doing some amount of programming since middle school and breezed through my degree. I'm still learning new things now. But most students I went to school with, they simply didn't know much of anything because the classes didn't really teach them much
Can I ask for advice then since it took as long for you. I've been trying to get a job in data science for 2 years now, after I finished my MSc in math. I first learned python many years ago in my undergrad in physics, and self-taught machine learning on and off since then, so I've been coding for a while before I started job hunting. After grad school initially I didn't know what I was doing or what I wanted to do, so I struggled quite a bit despite the market being good at the time. By the time I had any clarity it was too late - the tech layoffs happened and I've applied to over 1000 jobs now with only 1 interview (applied to all sorts of jobs including junior data analyst to senior ML engineer). I even did a data science bootcamp with a job guarantee - but it hasn't helped much. At this point I am just tired, and wondering if I should give up. I'm 27, miserable stuck in my parents basement, with no friends either since I'm in a small city in Canada and they all moved to bigger cities.
Hello sir , Its a struggle to get a job in the current market but considering you have all these papers. Be open minded to options that come to you ,its not always what you study that has to bring you opportunities at first . Just do side jobs as you apply for your studied jobs that way you will not feel like life is slipping away. Control life do not let the circumstances control you. Good luck.
In the same boat as you brother, just gotta keep trying, revise your resume over and over again, make it look clean, might have the knowledge, but missing the "business" end, network, talk to others showcase your projects, use referrals, fiend for it more. It sounds like the same bs someone else would say, but unfortunately, it's true.
@@dracoreeper how long have you been going at it? I saw someone on youtube who is 19, no degree, and in Toronto - he literally lied and said he had 5 years of exp and got a job. Makes me question morality honestly. It was in ios development though.
All I can say is "you get into the industry at the worst time." When I did my degree in the 90s, I knew this day will come but surprise didn't happen sooner. I tried to warn people, they thought I was crazy. All colleges massively churn out IT graduates but the job market growth has never kept up with the supply year on year. Maths don't lie.
Not to mention people who try to get into the tech to work remotely. The battles for remote jobs are fierce. Not to mention that there is almost none jobs for junior remote devs. All remote junior positions I have seen already require 1-2 years of experience. Junior now is a dev working 2 years in the field.
Thank you for sharing. I will go back to grind in another day job next month and take another reroute hopefully coming out with another good shot because I'm at that stage you described, needing to actually learn more bc. there's still so much I don't know.
I luckily learned how to do Interviews & Resume before the experience. I am a Sys engineer in IT and I want to get into Coding to eventually learn AI. You obviously will need project work to prove your worth.
I think the market is in a super bad spot rn (we're in a recession), and my biggest advice to anyone is this; apply to ANY job, doesn't matter if it asks for senior dev with 20+ years, and ask for the lowest salary. At some point, SOMEONE will hire you.
At this point getting into coding seems like a poor idea. However, I believe understanding programming concepts can be quite valuable since it teaches you how software works. I wrote small projects for a long time and never made any money in it (plenty of mistakes on my end in how I pursued it) but I did get a lot of benefits from it. In my opinion, if you actually want to get a job, the best way to stand out is to make something yourself that can show off your skill. It has various benefits, shows you have an interest to do it on your own, and people can look at your code and audit it. They can ask questions off your work, see how you code, etc. Coding is going to be a dead profession in the future, however you can write software through AI as long as you know what you want. You won't be writing the code, you'll be writing the instructions telling AI how to generate the code. I used it a little bit ago to generate a project and it saved me quite a bit of time. It made mistakes but I knew what I needed and knew how it should work so I fixed the code.
I have a computer engineering degree and have been trying to get a job for the past 2 years. I am honestly about to give up, then all this talk of AI replacing us developers. It is quite overwhelming to say the least
I said it in 2020, while the market started looking great and it was a peak in terms of hiring. "Most people will get a job after 2-3 years of learning. Many will drop off" I been hated for that. So many people said that they get into the field in 6 months or a year. I never believed that. Everybody who works in the industry see how difficult is to get a job. In many countries self-taught are less than 30% of staff.
The big takeaway from any of the Bootcamps is "How to learn software development" (and how to job search/interview). Yeah, you learned how to build a full-stack app (HTML/CSS/JS + Python/Java + MySQL, MERN, etc)....but that's basically just "how to learn all this stuff". If you don't come out of a Bootcamp with a list of stuff you are now going to tackle, and a self-study/project plan....you're kidding yourself. Hit the Leetcode, build out your portfolio, Always Be Coding, etc.
My other advice is "read code" and read millions and millions line of code before you write or going to these camps which I think it's pointless. A great novelist doesn't start off writing their own novels, they obsessively read and read before they write, same for the developers. Best to learn the code of an OS, that will get your complex brain working. This is also a test whether you are up for the job. I am sorry but passion should not be the only reason you get into the trade. I suggest you read Scott Adam's passion is BS. There is a subtle difference between developers and engineers. I have worked with some mediocre developers, they are just "coders". Their answers are always "rewrite" the damn thing instead of picking the bones which a trait of hiding their weakness. An engineer will come into the system and start reading millions and millions line over convoluted code and slowly "engineer" and morph the products into something else. Reading someone's code is frustrating but the skill and experience you gained are worth it. Good Luck.
I am so glad to have come across your video here. It's inspiring and gives me some hope as long as I push myself further to do better and to build side projects. Just out of curiosity, when you sent out 5000 applications, did you include the cover letters for each of them, or were the resumes sent out by shotgun approach.
Damn I feel really bad for you. I'm a developer and I feel very sorry for new junior people. It's very hard to get to the level they expect a junior dev to be these days. I'll be extremely blunt ... companies only want junior dev that are, essentially, senior dev without experience. I know this sounds crazy but... there are 3 types of people when it comes to software engineering. 1. the people who are made for it, they breeze through CS classes, their brain is made for this, no question about it. 2. people who aren't born with the CS brain but are smart and with enough hard work, they become good programmers, they think like programmers, they can do the jobs. 3. people that just will never get to the level companies will pay decent salary for, even with years and years of training, even with years of experience, they will always need help. Not sure if that helps or discourage you since I only watched this video... but eh, that's my take lol.
@Philippe275 I can see your points. They make sense to me. One aspect that made it hard for me was that I came from a low income background. I was lacking a lot of basic skills (learning how to learn, solid reading/writing level/how to study) Programming was for me was also a breaking out of that. Im a Staff level Eng now I was lucky enough to be able to go at it on something that I loved but maybe my background probably didnt have a straight line towards it. I agree I do feel like junior has it harder than ever. But our profession is evolving. Lets see what happens in the next few years.
Thanks for sharing. Video feedback: Whatever you're using that's micro-skipping bits of the video (like all the time), it needs to be dialled waay down; it's quite bothersome and unnecessary.
I am a professional web developer. If you want to be a great web developer master HTML first. Once that is mastered then move on to CSS. Get that mastered. After that try and master Javascript. Lastly I would go try and master PHP. Only once you have all those under your belt would I move onto frameworks like Laravel and React.
And I spent most of my 30's scanning pieces of paper for the local council - was soul crushing. Eventually got my dream job on more than double the pay I was on at the council. Don't give up. I found my job advertised on the job wall of a local shop.
This is what I want to get into. Web development. Any other tips to increase the chances of getting hired. I have graduated not too long ago with a computer science degree
@@marco7838 Yes the best way to show off your new skills is to get some cool web pages developed. Don't be afraid to take ideas from other popular sites. Pick a subject you are interested, maybe a hobby and create a nice web page for it. Maybe buy a domain name but it gets it on the web so people can see it. Have it linked to your Facebook, Twitter etc. Good luck
I'm in the same situation right now. It's been 3 months I've been out of college and so far, got only one semi-successfull application at entry level jobs, though still rejected after another interview. Doing dozens of coursera/udemy courses and/or projects isn't helping much. This is hell.
The reason why you can't get a job is because the industry made 400,000 application for H-1b workers (80% of which are freshers right out of college). Meaning, there are 320,000 computer science jobs, not open to locals, which is literally discrimination. How about we require companies that apply for an H-1b visa, first have to check the local market for talent. What do you think will happen, when 250,000 engineers were laid off this year? What will happen is lawyers working for those companies will look for every possible way they can to not hire a local. We know this from DOJ vs Facebook 2020, 2600+ cases of discrimination against local candidates for job currently held by foreign workers at Facebook undergoing Green Card certification. The information in that indictment comes directly from Facebook's own HR personnel, interviewed by DOJ investigators. You can lie all you want to the press and public about a mythical engineering shortage, but you can't lie to DOJ investigators.
Facebook routinely gets hundreds of applications for every engineering job it openly advertises. Of those hundreds, 30+ were found to be better qualified than foreign workers at Facebook undergoing Green Card certification, for similar jobs. Facebook never forwarded of the better qualified locals they turn away to the hiring managers involved in Green Card certification, because that would immediately invalidate the Green Card application. Further, Facebook would only advertise the Green Card certification ads in 2-Sunday print editions of the Chronicle, Facebook refused the free offer of the Chronicle to place these job ads on the Chronicle jobs board. If, anyone found those job ads (few did) they had to send a printed copy of their resume to a lawyers office in Palo Alto. Facebook did this for decades, but the investigation only covered 1.5 years. Apple did the same thing see DOJ vs Apple 2023. Neither company has refuted the statements of their own employees. The material facts were never challenged in court. Both companies settled out of court to keep the whole matter hush-hush.
How did you support yourself during the time you were doing the bootcamp? How did you get your bills paid? Did parents help you? This is what's stopping me, I have a family and no savings, living paycheck to paycheck, and both parents dead..
A roadmap is the first thing you should make on this journey and then just follow it. That's what I did. No degree, no bootcamp, never spent a dime. How to level up is blindingly obvious. You just learn the skills often put in job descriptions that you are too scared to touch.
I’m on year 3 of being self taught, it’s horrendous. I work 55-60hour weeks then study in the evening when I can. I spent about 2 years on vanilla js because I didn’t know where to go after, I’ve only recently started react and will start building projects in the new year and will then begin applying to jobs.
I'd say don't waste your time. Programming is a dead field. AI is killing it incredibly fast. I got into programming over 20 years ago and at that time software development was heavily outsourced and they were using some basic automation tools. This is so much worse.
The problem is with this idea of learning a bit JavaScript, then react a bit more. This is just a bad path to follow. One should get their fundamentals right and not become React dev because the second they are thrown to a different technology they become useless. Fundamentals can make you versatile and unstoppable.
Yes. There's a new JS framework every 10 seconds. Better to learn things like .NET, C, C++, Python, etc. Get the fundamentals, learn many languages, and be adaptable
When I did that same math you did as far as everyone having the same resume, I switched up my learning and involved devops, some really high level programming compared to the everyday fullstack MERN resume that jobs see everyday.
Thank you. Great video filled with great advice. I recently started learning Python on codecademy. I dont know what I want to do with it, but I've felt drawn to coding and so far I am enjoying it.
@@HCforLife1 It's possible. I'm not really sure what the goal is at this point. It could be the skills gained just aid me in my current career enough to pivot or move up.
I hate code. But I'm CTO. I would hire you instantly if you told me your background. I would even fire one of the lazy arrogant developers to get you in.
People don't understand the struggle because no one talks about it. Thanks for sharing your story!
Survivorship bias
Yes!
this guy is talking about it
I feel bad for a lot of the younger folks who do not realize they do not have mentors, structure, or role models to rely on. It's important to learn what you need to be successful and this can only be done with persistence. You have a great story.
Sure it may be hard but I’ve done it, people trying to get into it in 6 months are failing because sure.. we have universities teaching whole degrees, anybody can learn programming.. that’s the easiest part. What about everything else?
@@TheStickofWar This is underrated.. Learning boolean, long, int, varchar, string, loop, if else, all of these things are such beginner topics that with these alone will not make somebody employable. So much further beyond.
The issue with me is not with knowing that I could benefit from mentors, but with where and how to court them.
@@LeftoverSundriesMan this right here. I feel like living life without a father figure/mentor is living handicapped.
The problem is that we give a 15% tax break to hire a foreign student worker over a local student. The U.S. lost 250,000 engineering jobs, while at the same time there were 400,000 requests for an H-1b visa. Think about these 2 facts. And then take into consideration, Facebook committed 2600+ cases of discrimination against better qualified local engineers in the United States (over just the 1.5 yr period covered by the Federal Investigation) (a similar case for Apple) and this is all documented in DOJ vs Facebook 2020 (and DOJ vs Apple 2023). What do you think is happening? I know what happens. Foreign workers are hired as students because of the 15% discount. The foreign worker gets stuck at the company waiting for an H-1b visa, then a Green Card. The foreign worker needs protection from local competition to get that Green Card, the company does a Sham Green Card certification (documented in DOJ vs Facebook 2020). This creates a feedback loop where the foreign worker gets promoted, and has no issues scoffing at the immigration laws. Favors hiring only from his/her own home country. Talks with HR saying they can't find anyone and a legal team is employed to exploit every loophole (or even do fraud that has a high chance of success, as with the phone Green Card certification. Keep in mind companies have been doing phony Green Card certification for decades (23 years) and the investigation of Apple and Facebook (that's just 2 companies) cover only a few years of this.
I got a junior (design, not dev) job and got laid off after 1.5 years. Then, I got a part time freelance role at Chipotle doing SOME design. I was there 6 months before getting essentially laid off again. I thought 2 years experience and a fortune 500 on my resume was PLENTY to get me rehired. But a year of unemployment later, I've accepted a job in another industry. Today, 3 weeks into my job, I've pulled myself out of the pits and decided to start freelancing, came up with some side projects ideas, and signed myself up for two hackathons as the UX/UI designer. I'm just going to give it time. I feel like things SHOULD be going better, but life is hard and not everyone wins right away. Trying to be patient and grateful that I can at least have a savings account again.
love uuu right thing comes at right time
Hello, I am replying from the year 2026 and you are doing great. You wont believe it trust me
I pray you find something that works for you in the tech field soon.
I wish you the best of luck. I just decided to quit UX design yesterday. It's a fucking joke... some sort of parallel universe... nobody outside of the tech bubble knows what I'm talking about and in my eyes that what makes it inherently un-human work. Ill just fucking get a normal job. I'm so done with everything tech-related. I've worked my fucking ass of for the last couple of years, did client work did work with agencies... have a good portfolio with real client projects... reject reject reject and I get it. I can't be angry because companies would rather go with a person who is a senior.. but ill no longer fucking torture myself.
Yeah man, it’s hard.
I’m locked into my career field in the military for another 7 years. It’s mechanical and a full time job. Luckily for the last 5 years I’ve been slowly learning programming and languages. Over that time I’ve learned the basics of programming, I also know C#, Java, Python, JavaScript, html/css, SQL, tool use, and now I’m learning rust. Remember, it’s a marathon not a sprint. Now as it is getting closer, I am starting to spend a lot of time deep diving into concepts and creating projects.
Its good to get a taste of different languages and explore different stuff to engineer to pick something that you like, but if you want to get hired you need to pick one and get expert at it, no one gonna hire someone who knows all and nothing, just so you know.
Honestly, I agree with what the last guy said. If you want to get hired just learn one language and become good at it. Once you master that language then you can take the skills you learned from that language and transfer it to other languages. Be real here. What hiring manager is going to believe you know 5 different programming languages with no industry experience.
what people refer with pick one and get expert at it is learn frameworks for these languages. For example for java spring, but also learn cloud development, http protocols, linux etc
I should've specified that I am really well off with C# and Java. Could get hired just with those languages. But thanks to those who are replying thinking I only know surface knowledge of all the languages I listed. Its good for others to see peoples views and the importance of really learning one. I would say I dug really deep with C# and that passed over really nicely to Java.
I wanted to do cybersecurity, I was disappointed to find out there's not much if any programming involved generally, the movies lied to me😂
“People wanted to work with me, not because I was the best but because I’m a nice person” congrats your hired, there is no boot camp for being great to work with!
After being in the working world for almost 17 years, having a coworker you can get along with is extremely underrated. I'm spending 40+ hours a week with the person, i don't care if he's the best as long as he can get the job done and pulls his weight. Might be different for extremely competitive things like investment banking or big tech companies, but for the majority of regular companies, personality is huge.
100% agree with you. @@Rjcuatrocinco
That helps a lot, unless you're at faang or a highly competitive environment, once you get a good foundation it's about learning the tech stack and getting work done with your fellow engineers.
I've never said 3 months, 6 months etc to learn. Time takes time, and there is no shortcut. It's about building projects and finding your love to solve these bullshit problems. I nearly gave up at the 3 year mark. I've been doing this this for the past 15 years now. I appreciate this video.
I appreciate this.
Thank you for the honest sharing of your story. I am just starting out the journey to becoming a full-stack developer. I've been a mess myself for most of my twenties and I want to get my life together by starting this new career. I know it will not be easy. Your story gives me the necessary perspective to prepare for the difficulties ahead and to work hard. Thank you so much for what you are doing.
i've made a few attempts over the years, i'm starting over once again. let's do it 🔥
I've been doing this for 9 years and one thing I will say about the industry is that 90% of the time you will try to figure out other peoples badly written code... sometimes you will be asked to jump from one system to another which will put you under even more pressure all the while trying to understand the business and finding your way around toxic colleagues and bosses.
There is a reason why most devs spend 2 years on average in a company before moving somewhere else. Sure money could be part of it but in my experience the environment can get so bad you will either start doing really poorly or you will quit on your own.
Just heads up, the job market in europe is not friendly to juniors and entry level devs these days
@@tra3476 Like that here in the United States as well. At least in my state. I think it varies wildly by state.
Do not advertise as a full stack developer. Pick frontend or backend. Being able to do frontend with basic database work won't make others see you a full stack dev. Full stack is considered a mid-senior role
Subscribed! This is so similar to my story. I’m a slow learner. The bootcamp I did I was bottom of the class. But I’ve been willing to work hard and not give up.
Thanks for this. The road is a little less lonely when you know some other people are in it. When all you see is the story of a lot of people landing a job in months it's difficult to keep some kind of sanity when years go by. I spent more than 3 years working on something other than software development after college too and unfortunately, although I made a huge effort, working a lot on weekends, nights and all, I wasn't renewed for next year. It was a great experience though, 2 years working with react native mobile development. It's crazy tough to get another job right now and I'll probably have to work on another thing again while trying to get another job in tech, but I hope in the end I can have some years of good work with decent pay ahead.
Thank you for the support. Yes it’s not easy and I’m sorry that thing didn’t work out. Looking back it may seem like a failure, but as you mentioned the experience will become useful in one way or another in the future. Let’s keep grinding
Man I can’t tell you how much I relate to this. I finished my Bootcamp back in August 2022 and I’m still going, I’ve definitely learned a lot but still have many challenges ahead of me. Especially while maintaining a 9-5 blue collar job. Really appreciate this vid.
@viewsbyblur Thanks for the support. Keep on pushing, and I feel the pain of trying to work and learn at the same time. But just know its going to add up as you keep on chipping away. What bootcamp did you do?
I did Rice University's coding bootcamp but it was done by a third party company, i forgot the name, i think it was tri something@@AdviceFromADad
@@AdviceFromADad I went to rice university coding boot
camp
how's it going ? did you land a job ?
Thank for sharing your story, it's refreshing to see someone being so transparent about this process. I'm expecting this journey to be difficult, but I think it will be worth it. I always felt that learning to be a programmer was a play at the long game. The gratification isn't instant, and there will be many times where you feel stuck. Overcoming those challenges and pushing one's limits constantly in that way is part of makes programming great to learn imo.
It's oversaturated why tech? There's 20k layoffs in 2024 already
@@Karuska22ps there are a multitude of paths you can take with programming that wouldn't take you into the big tech sphere. if i look for relative software development jobs in my area, they exist and people are getting them. even if things never get better and my efforts to create a life with programming doesn't work out, i'll find something else. life goes on and just because things seem bleak doesn't mean i still stand still and do nothing
@@-ASTROMAGIC you're better off not doing CS. I think every year there's 200k new CS grads
@@Karuska22ps CS isn't the core of what I study nor will programming be the only skill set I possess. I know people without CS degrees still finding jobs and forging paths within tech. You can look at mountains and tell yourself you can't climb them, or you can be the exception.
Bro I ended up taking a help desk job after my associates 7 years later I climed up to system admin and moved jobs to a company with a huge dev team.. asked at every interview I had a chance to get into (system admin).. once at my current job as an admin I began expressing my interest and building a rapport with the dev manager.. long story short, I finally broke through! I transitioned from help desk to system admin and now software developer! Started my journey 2014! ITT Tech scammed me into a degree I did not want.. smh but I'm here now!
This is the reality, thanks for posting it. Meanwhile, tech companies made 400,000 requests for people on H-1b visas, 80% freshers right out of college. It works this way because people who come from India and China get stuck at the same company, they then get promoted (because many people who try dev, wind up hating it, and are promoted by their friends out undesirable jobs). The managers prefer people from their home country, or they would happily avoid trying promote or hire locals when their countrymen are trying get certified for a Green Card (this happened at Facebook 2600+ times over just the 1.5 year period of the DOJ investigation).
Which degree did you have?
@@SandraWantsCoke Late reply here.. Network system administration, wanted to go for the Software Developer degree. The recruiter sold me on that eventually I would be able to switch over to the dev degree... but that never became a thing since they could not get enough students for that class. Also, I didn't even get my degree as the school closed on my last semester.. been a ride for sure.
Hey guys, sharing my story as well.
I attended a part time bootcamp in 2021 from feb until May and got an internship in June and officially hired right after in August’s of the same year. I also struggled really bad and even in the internship I struggled. Towards the end of the internship things started clicking and I was able to ultimately land a junior position at 75k a year! What helped me most was being social talking with my peers and genuinely getting to know them and had fun working instead of stressing about “if I don’t get the job”. Another thing to note in my bootcamp I was paired up with a now close friend who at the time was QA at the company I am now working with.
What bootcamp do you did?
I’d like to know too 🙏 I just finished a bootcamp and Long Beach it was pretty good !
@@noelhdez3640left you hanging 😂
Despite what everyone says, competition for remote positions is extremely competitive. I recently had an interview and solved the coding challenge, discussed my thoughts while going through the problem, made sure my code was clean, also described other strategies to solve the problem and didn’t get the job. If you’re going through this with employers, you’re not alone. I moved into a software engineer role from my current employer. If this role is what you want, try starting in app support or QA to get there while also applying. Good luck. 😊
I am self taught full stack developer from Belarus with 5 years experience now. Good luck guys, it's very hard time to get a job in industry.
so inspiring, am going thru the same and am 39 years now
Thanks for being honest with your struggles.
Too many "Coders" come up here on UA-cam acting like it's so easy and that they know everything.
Like it's "smooth sailing" and it's all about money, luxury apartments, gourmet coffee, "work from home", etc.
Similar journey here. Wanted to make apps but ended up in web dev. My first job was lower than a junior dev salary. Stayed there for 2 years because not many employers want to take a chance on someone without experience. There’s something to be said for paying your dues. People see dev salaries and expect to do a boot camp and make that much right off the bat. It really is a journey to get there. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you. This is a much needed video. By the way, that dog looks beyond comfortable.
We were born problem solver. I learned computer science in college but never get a job as programmer, so I worked at financial company for 16 years and graduated with BA Philosophy and MBA. I just started making a simple game in September 2023 with C/C++ and SDL2; I believe I can do programming and decided to go back to school for my 2nd Bachelor to be game programmer. Everyone struggles and if we believe and keep on working and improve our problem solving skills. I am sure we will get the job into programming jobs.
I failed to become a software engineer. I wrote my first line of code 6 yrs ago, I had friends in big tech but I didn't have consistency, direction or follow through.
"in the end i realized that this was something i was incredibly passionate about and really wanted to do" beautiful bro.
Great video and story
Thanks!
Not many people are willing to share one of they're failures, but this really helps us people who might be in a similar situation that you were in
And this gives us a lot of hope and motivation! :)
It's amazing hearing how you persevered! I'm so glad you were able to break thru
hey brother, i had a very similar experience breaking into the industry as you, and am now underpaid but still holding it down. i was working class, came from a shit background and a shit school, studied liberal arts and had a 2.0 gpa..... now making 100k. fellow giants fan!! peace bro keep up the good work
Thank you for sharing, your videos touches us who relate. I too am taking the self-taught path, I too have worked construction to pay the bills, and I too just try to stay focused and patient without losing hope, but those moments where you catch yourself losing some faith still comes for a drive by sometimes...
Thanks for this video. I’m still struggling to find that first job, but I really want to do this! I have had many interviews, almost got an offer until I got passed up for more experience. Life after college is tough.
Thank you for making this video. I was also at the bottom of my cohort and graduated by the skin of my teeth. 6 months later, I got lucky and landed a job in tech support for a SaaS startup, learned a ton but never actually became a software engineer. Still working on coding projects but not actively looking for a dev job. At my age, it's difficult to compete with the up and coming devs. As you mentioned, I'm more focused on solving "real" problems for small businesses in my network. It's nice to hear about other's taking a different route
@khamla719able Thanks for sharing your story. The journey isnt linear, if youre still passionate about coding i hope you keep on going. Apply for jobs and interviewing is a whole different game then actually doing the job. I hope you continue to code, keep interviewing even just as practice and take your shots. I personally believe programming is a very easy profession to undervalue your skills because of the difficultly of the job search. But just know there are people WORST and better than you right now that have dev jobs. You can do it.
In 2014 I was learning html, cas and jQuery to build responsive websites. The biggest change was when I got junior role in IT company. Then I had to learn agile methodology and how to setup project work flow. Even how to install our app into virtual machines. The problem with self thought programmer is that they are not learning the most important things as git, GitHub, Jira, agile , scrum and they learn basics of JavaScript and maybe, React, but without context of user stories, acceptance criteria. Learn things as you would work for big company and plus train your skills in communication don't be afraid of asking questions but before try to solve problems by studying but not too long, better ask more senior dev
The problem people have is there are too many things to do/learn and you never get deep enough into a course/study
Don't get trapped. Stick with one, finish one, then move on to the next
One of the best pieces of advice out there
I really like your story and I do think it is important to share it. I also think that it is extremely important that we be honest with people and tell them the reality of the situation. That reality being that over 90% of the people in the CS field have a degree from a university not a bootcamp. While some people do make it from bootcamps to jobs it is about 5% or less of the CS work force that only have a bootcamp/self taught knowledge.
As someone who myself is going back to school to learn CS I think it is important to tell the truth. This is the reason I went for university training and not a bootcamp. If I'm going to spend thousands on something to help me get a job then I want the best chances possible.
I'm very very impressed by your level of success now. It sounds like it was absolutely the opposite of easy, but your level of hustle and persistence is absolutely amazing
I gave up looking for a job. Such a relief. Breaking into programming is an uphill battle and it’s probably only going to get worse. 17% of Spotify’s staff just got laid off this year. Good luck competing with them in the job market! Besides, a lot of tech these days isn’t even making life better for human beings and more and more devs are reporting dissatisfaction with their jobs.
We're in the degrowth part of the cycle right now, but once we hit the growth again in a year or 2 there will be plenty of jobs available for juniors
I gave up too. Took a service desk job which also isn't really working out for me so I don't know what I'm going to do now honestly. Going to maybe try something other than tech but we'll see
You would be surprised how bad those 17% are. You can beat them at everything in 2 years worth of study.
I broke into programming with 2 years of tech school, side projects, and developing WordPress plug-ins. C# is a booming ecosystem, and will persist (like Java) once the React and JS trendiness slows, like it already is.
@@ag4244 I love React, but the reality is that with ViewTransitions API and HTMX it will no longer be needed in the near future. I'd say in 2 years there will be some framework that just does it better on the backend and everyone will just abandon React. Like Go + Templ + HTMX is already amazing. You will no longer have to deal with all this babel / yarn / build steps / webpack nonsense. So, the advice is "learn backend" if you want to keep your job. C# and Java are safe bets.
I'll share my story too, decided that I want to pursue a carrier in gamedev, so started to just code, then got in Khan Academy and almost finished all high school math preq for a cs degree, alg1, alg2, geo, trig, pre calc, statistics, and after plan to go straight into the 2 year program of OSSU on github, by the end of the program will write a game in unity or a few of them and plan to land a job as a junior software engineer, only hardcore, god bless web and internet.
Thank you for the inspiration. I have also been trying to break into data analysis after completing 2 online courses plus a bootcamp. I’ve been applying for jobs almost everyday but in over 3 years I’ve managed to interview twice. It’s so hard to keep going when all you get are rejection emails and no call backs. I’m now building a portfolio as I continue to apply for jobs hoping one day I’ll be successful.
@felixalvin1665 Thanks for sharing, youre doing the right things. I would say consider if you arnt getting any hits from applying to hundreds and thousands of jobs. it might be helpful to get your resume looked at. But yes i feel your pain. Its like an endless black hole. But you can do it!
@@AdviceFromADad thank you so much. I’ll look into that.
I also failed for 3+ years to become a software Engineer as self taught . Happy to see a real story! I really do not like to see SDE in 6 moths like most of the stories.
Hello Jeff, nice to meet you. I can relate to your story, I have kind of the same experience struggling a lot trying to get my dream job. I haven't tried that hard as you've done for various reasons. But I'll always remember one chance I had where I passed the interviews, some tests and talked to the software architect. At the end i decided to decline due to a lack of knowledge on some important skills for that role. And I noticed that what made me get as far as I did was some projects I have online, I started building my own videogames store a few years ago and even if it's not that big of a deal it is something "real", useful and proves what I'm capable of. I hope you all get your dream job and enjoy working on what you love. Have a good one! ( ^__^)/
Job market is scarce so when someone says do a boot camp or you should just teach yourself its not really that easy now a days. The market is down so usually most big companies wont look at your application if you dont have a degree. There is of course exception like testla and others but that is not standard now a day. If you do choose to take this route just know that it could be difficult. Before anyone comments "Well Im self taught and I have a job at X Y Z" yes that could be your case or maybe the case a couple years ago it is not the case now.
I got nothing but real respect for you g! You kept pushing till you got what you wanted from this tech field regardless of setbacks. I'm on that type of timing too. 😤
@towlatrip6529 I appreciate this a lot. Lets make it happen!
Thank you so much for this! This was so valuable for me, the points you mentioned here. I'm really looking out for a stable and permanent position after being 2 years into web dev.
One thing I notice about my friends who work in FAANG is that they don’t just study indefinitely. They set up measurable goals, timeline and milestones. There are always more things to study. The question is what to prioritize, what will add more values. Identify those and you will be an effective learner.
i've been trying for 5+ years now as a self taught/bootcamp....maybe i should've quit yesterday and go into something else as i'm turning 31 years old with no education
I'm 31 with a bachelor's degree in IT and it's just as hard. I got my first paid job this year and then made redundant in November so I'm now job hunting again
Self taught with no education? Which one is it? There’s only so many excuses an individual can come up with. Build an app, even it its a TODO app, and go from there.
@@schoolstuff5235 even Chatgpt can build a TODO app. That's nothing special.
@@schoolstuff5235facts no one is going to take you off bootcamps and self taught stuff. You have to go to the Interview with proof of your abilities to be successful in that position. Even a degree is just not enough these days.
I would say to get a bachelor's degree now. Even if you don't get a job in programming, many companies value degree-holders holding positions over no-degree. You deserve job security, so go get it.
I am happy to see this because I am in the same boat. Our background is actually similar lol. Like 75% similar. I am going all in on 2024. I read and updated my skills yesterday. This year I make the side projects. I had some but I wiped it because after reading I realized the code was a joke. I realize I should not have done that lol. I deleted my change over time.
I usually don’t comment on videos but college is the way to go in my opinion. It’s about playing the long game and setting yourself up for future success. I got my BS in computer Science, started at the age of 31. I had no mentor, high school drop out, worked 60+ hours a week in manufacturing making $12 an hour. Bootcamps didn’t exist back then and even if they did there’s no way I could afford to not work. At the end of the day code bootcamps are a business too.
I disagree. Leon Noel gives the best bootcamp I've seen so far who is on UA-cam. He offers a FREE 30 week bootcamp on how to become a Software Engineer specializing in Full Stack Web Development. A lot of people are getting jobs. It's called 100Devs.
Google UA-cam for the Class below
Become A Software Engineer For Free (Class 01) - 100Devs
this story reminded me on how I entered in this industry. i was lucky to have a great opportunity, and in the end, it was (and still is) very rewarding. however, i'm looking at the younger generations from my country that are passionate about programming and they're struggling to enter, while those who does this for money sits on huge pile of cash while doing nothing. it's unfair. i'd love to see an improvement on this side, tho, so everyone could get equal opportunity and those who aren't passionate enough to leave.
@hacktor_92 I appreciate you sharing this, I agree with you. For many people including myself this is a game of passion, I do hope folks that also have this passion for coding could have an improved route.
Hey, your story is same as mine and i am in the self taught route, and thanks for breaking it in that a bootcamp helps and i am so thankful that i got a right path now
Unfortunately I think a lot of this market and even people just generally give bad advice to people that are trying to break into the industry. As you've stated towards the end here, companies are looking for some type of validation of your skillset, as not every job is willing to go through the investment of training up a junior in the role. To get that validation you're probably going to have to do some stuff that you don't really want to do for free on your own to get that validation from the real world.
On the same path. Construction company, low grades and all. Thanks for this.
felt like i needed to hear this type of encouragement! appreciate you for sharing!
Our company hired entry level for the first time (young company, two years old). They are soooooo.......slowwwwww.......... The fear with hiring entry level is they take forver to get up to speed, and once they do they just jump to another company - after we trained them. That already happened with one of them after six months of training.
During the interview process, this is the concern you must address. These outcomes are absolute killers for small companies and studios like ours. After going through junior dev training for almost a year, we decided to scrap it altogether and partnered with a few offshore shops at one-third of our intern's pay. That's the competition.
This is the key comment right here. It explains it all. This is the reason why it's hard to get in the field as a new grad. Companies can't invest so it's better to hire contract at a cheap rate to some overseas country.
Maybe they moved because the salary is trash.
Honestly, my company did no onboarding. I was hired on as a junior and it was sink or swim. Luckily I swam and I swam well 😂
As a recent grad, it really doesn't help that colleges leave students knowing very little after grad. I have been doing some amount of programming since middle school and breezed through my degree. I'm still learning new things now. But most students I went to school with, they simply didn't know much of anything because the classes didn't really teach them much
That's a lot of words to say "my company paid poorly and people left so we went overseas so we could continue to pay poorly".
Can I ask for advice then since it took as long for you. I've been trying to get a job in data science for 2 years now, after I finished my MSc in math. I first learned python many years ago in my undergrad in physics, and self-taught machine learning on and off since then, so I've been coding for a while before I started job hunting. After grad school initially I didn't know what I was doing or what I wanted to do, so I struggled quite a bit despite the market being good at the time. By the time I had any clarity it was too late - the tech layoffs happened and I've applied to over 1000 jobs now with only 1 interview (applied to all sorts of jobs including junior data analyst to senior ML engineer). I even did a data science bootcamp with a job guarantee - but it hasn't helped much.
At this point I am just tired, and wondering if I should give up. I'm 27, miserable stuck in my parents basement, with no friends either since I'm in a small city in Canada and they all moved to bigger cities.
Hello sir , Its a struggle to get a job in the current market but considering you have all these papers. Be open minded to options that come to you ,its not always what you study that has to bring you opportunities at first . Just do side jobs as you apply for your studied jobs that way you will not feel like life is slipping away. Control life do not let the circumstances control you. Good luck.
Indian?
In the same boat as you brother, just gotta keep trying, revise your resume over and over again, make it look clean, might have the knowledge, but missing the "business" end, network, talk to others showcase your projects, use referrals, fiend for it more. It sounds like the same bs someone else would say, but unfortunately, it's true.
@@meteoriteeeee lol yes, born and raised here though so I'm a coconut. I was going to try a less ethnic name to see if it helps
@@dracoreeper how long have you been going at it? I saw someone on youtube who is 19, no degree, and in Toronto - he literally lied and said he had 5 years of exp and got a job. Makes me question morality honestly. It was in ios development though.
I am you. You are me. Same path, falling flat on my face for 4 years. The industry is a scam.
Such an inspirational story and crazy dedication!
All I can say is "you get into the industry at the worst time." When I did my degree in the 90s, I knew this day will come but surprise didn't happen sooner. I tried to warn people, they thought I was crazy. All colleges massively churn out IT graduates but the job market growth has never kept up with the supply year on year. Maths don't lie.
The barrier for entry is incredibly high and even if you mastered the coding part, getting the first job is even higher hurdle
Not to mention people who try to get into the tech to work remotely. The battles for remote jobs are fierce. Not to mention that there is almost none jobs for junior remote devs.
All remote junior positions I have seen already require 1-2 years of experience. Junior now is a dev working 2 years in the field.
Thank you for sharing. I will go back to grind in another day job next month and take another reroute hopefully coming out with another good shot because I'm at that stage you described, needing to actually learn more bc. there's still so much I don't know.
I luckily learned how to do Interviews & Resume before the experience. I am a Sys engineer in IT and I want to get into Coding to eventually learn AI. You obviously will need project work to prove your worth.
I think the market is in a super bad spot rn (we're in a recession), and my biggest advice to anyone is this; apply to ANY job, doesn't matter if it asks for senior dev with 20+ years, and ask for the lowest salary. At some point, SOMEONE will hire you.
Worst advice ever, u are destroying market even more.
Needed this, I'm in construction now and got my security + cert and I've been a little discouraged cuz I havnt found my first job in cyber yet.
At this point getting into coding seems like a poor idea. However, I believe understanding programming concepts can be quite valuable since it teaches you how software works. I wrote small projects for a long time and never made any money in it (plenty of mistakes on my end in how I pursued it) but I did get a lot of benefits from it. In my opinion, if you actually want to get a job, the best way to stand out is to make something yourself that can show off your skill. It has various benefits, shows you have an interest to do it on your own, and people can look at your code and audit it. They can ask questions off your work, see how you code, etc. Coding is going to be a dead profession in the future, however you can write software through AI as long as you know what you want. You won't be writing the code, you'll be writing the instructions telling AI how to generate the code. I used it a little bit ago to generate a project and it saved me quite a bit of time. It made mistakes but I knew what I needed and knew how it should work so I fixed the code.
this is really helpful, thanks for sharing your story/insights!
Thanks for your genuine story. Many fancy stories out there.
I have a computer engineering degree and have been trying to get a job for the past 2 years. I am honestly about to give up, then all this talk of AI replacing us developers. It is quite overwhelming to say the least
Bro just start building out side projects that helps you stand out especially how every is easier now and with a lot of opportunities out there.
I said it in 2020, while the market started looking great and it was a peak in terms of hiring. "Most people will get a job after 2-3 years of learning. Many will drop off" I been hated for that. So many people said that they get into the field in 6 months or a year. I never believed that. Everybody who works in the industry see how difficult is to get a job. In many countries self-taught are less than 30% of staff.
Wow what a inspiring story, happy you landed the job at the end
Wow man, mad respect to your hard work and tenacity!
Thank you so much for sharing your story it shows that talent is not everything and that you can get through with hard work
I appreciate the support
The big takeaway from any of the Bootcamps is "How to learn software development" (and how to job search/interview). Yeah, you learned how to build a full-stack app (HTML/CSS/JS + Python/Java + MySQL, MERN, etc)....but that's basically just "how to learn all this stuff". If you don't come out of a Bootcamp with a list of stuff you are now going to tackle, and a self-study/project plan....you're kidding yourself. Hit the Leetcode, build out your portfolio, Always Be Coding, etc.
Great honest story of how hard it is to get in and much knowledge/experience you need.
Thanks man, you should make a video on what you think about the future of Computer Science
My other advice is "read code" and read millions and millions line of code before you write or going to these camps which I think it's pointless. A great novelist doesn't start off writing their own novels, they obsessively read and read before they write, same for the developers. Best to learn the code of an OS, that will get your complex brain working. This is also a test whether you are up for the job. I am sorry but passion should not be the only reason you get into the trade. I suggest you read Scott Adam's passion is BS.
There is a subtle difference between developers and engineers. I have worked with some mediocre developers, they are just "coders". Their answers are always "rewrite" the damn thing instead of picking the bones which a trait of hiding their weakness. An engineer will come into the system and start reading millions and millions line over convoluted code and slowly "engineer" and morph the products into something else. Reading someone's code is frustrating but the skill and experience you gained are worth it.
Good Luck.
I am so glad to have come across your video here. It's inspiring and gives me some hope as long as I push myself further to do better and to build side projects. Just out of curiosity, when you sent out 5000 applications, did you include the cover letters for each of them, or were the resumes sent out by shotgun approach.
Damn I feel really bad for you. I'm a developer and I feel very sorry for new junior people. It's very hard to get to the level they expect a junior dev to be these days. I'll be extremely blunt ... companies only want junior dev that are, essentially, senior dev without experience. I know this sounds crazy but... there are 3 types of people when it comes to software engineering. 1. the people who are made for it, they breeze through CS classes, their brain is made for this, no question about it. 2. people who aren't born with the CS brain but are smart and with enough hard work, they become good programmers, they think like programmers, they can do the jobs. 3. people that just will never get to the level companies will pay decent salary for, even with years and years of training, even with years of experience, they will always need help. Not sure if that helps or discourage you since I only watched this video... but eh, that's my take lol.
@Philippe275 I can see your points. They make sense to me. One aspect that made it hard for me was that I came from a low income background. I was lacking a lot of basic skills (learning how to learn, solid reading/writing level/how to study) Programming was for me was also a breaking out of that. Im a Staff level Eng now I was lucky enough to be able to go at it on something that I loved but maybe my background probably didnt have a straight line towards it. I agree I do feel like junior has it harder than ever. But our profession is evolving. Lets see what happens in the next few years.
Thanks for sharing. Video feedback: Whatever you're using that's micro-skipping bits of the video (like all the time), it needs to be dialled waay down; it's quite bothersome and unnecessary.
Congratulations on your success. Inspiring stuff
thanks dad, I needed this. Merry Christmas
You made it bro. You are in the secret society of software engineers. Now, go forth.
A much needed reminder that the "path to successis not linear".
@thegreenranger9524 it never is. Most people dont go from a->b->c . This i think needs to be talked about more often.
Bro, you can do it don’t give up dad
The vast majority of people are self taught. The biggest hurdle is just finding that first gig
I am a professional web developer. If you want to be a great web developer master HTML first. Once that is mastered then move on to CSS. Get that mastered. After that try and master Javascript. Lastly I would go try and master PHP. Only once you have all those under your belt would I move onto frameworks like Laravel and React.
And I spent most of my 30's scanning pieces of paper for the local council - was soul crushing. Eventually got my dream job on more than double the pay I was on at the council. Don't give up. I found my job advertised on the job wall of a local shop.
This is what I want to get into. Web development. Any other tips to increase the chances of getting hired. I have graduated not too long ago with a computer science degree
@@marco7838 Yes the best way to show off your new skills is to get some cool web pages developed. Don't be afraid to take ideas from other popular sites. Pick a subject you are interested, maybe a hobby and create a nice web page for it. Maybe buy a domain name but it gets it on the web so people can see it. Have it linked to your Facebook, Twitter etc. Good luck
would love to hear more about your real estate ventures
I'm in the same situation right now. It's been 3 months I've been out of college and so far, got only one semi-successfull application at entry level jobs, though still rejected after another interview. Doing dozens of coursera/udemy courses and/or projects isn't helping much. This is hell.
3 months is not that long though I have been looking for 3 years
thank you very much for sharing, this is really valuable experience. I will be trying to change careers into tech work...
The reason why you can't get a job is because the industry made 400,000 application for H-1b workers (80% of which are freshers right out of college). Meaning, there are 320,000 computer science jobs, not open to locals, which is literally discrimination. How about we require companies that apply for an H-1b visa, first have to check the local market for talent. What do you think will happen, when 250,000 engineers were laid off this year? What will happen is lawyers working for those companies will look for every possible way they can to not hire a local. We know this from DOJ vs Facebook 2020, 2600+ cases of discrimination against local candidates for job currently held by foreign workers at Facebook undergoing Green Card certification. The information in that indictment comes directly from Facebook's own HR personnel, interviewed by DOJ investigators. You can lie all you want to the press and public about a mythical engineering shortage, but you can't lie to DOJ investigators.
Facebook routinely gets hundreds of applications for every engineering job it openly advertises. Of those hundreds, 30+ were found to be better qualified than foreign workers at Facebook undergoing Green Card certification, for similar jobs. Facebook never forwarded of the better qualified locals they turn away to the hiring managers involved in Green Card certification, because that would immediately invalidate the Green Card application. Further, Facebook would only advertise the Green Card certification ads in 2-Sunday print editions of the Chronicle, Facebook refused the free offer of the Chronicle to place these job ads on the Chronicle jobs board. If, anyone found those job ads (few did) they had to send a printed copy of their resume to a lawyers office in Palo Alto. Facebook did this for decades, but the investigation only covered 1.5 years. Apple did the same thing see DOJ vs Apple 2023. Neither company has refuted the statements of their own employees. The material facts were never challenged in court. Both companies settled out of court to keep the whole matter hush-hush.
How did you support yourself during the time you were doing the bootcamp? How did you get your bills paid? Did parents help you? This is what's stopping me, I have a family and no savings, living paycheck to paycheck, and both parents dead..
Software Engineer is so boring (I work at a FAANG), im working on transitioning into construction and becoming a General Contractor.
Thanks for the video just decided this is what I want my career to be and this have me motivation to try my hardest
@zachjulian6703 Keep on grinding it out. Lets make it happen
A roadmap is the first thing you should make on this journey and then just follow it. That's what I did. No degree, no bootcamp, never spent a dime. How to level up is blindingly obvious. You just learn the skills often put in job descriptions that you are too scared to touch.
I’m on year 3 of being self taught, it’s horrendous. I work 55-60hour weeks then study in the evening when I can. I spent about 2 years on vanilla js because I didn’t know where to go after, I’ve only recently started react and will start building projects in the new year and will then begin applying to jobs.
I'd say don't waste your time. Programming is a dead field. AI is killing it incredibly fast. I got into programming over 20 years ago and at that time software development was heavily outsourced and they were using some basic automation tools. This is so much worse.
LMAO you couldnt be more wrong my friend@@geneanthony3421
@@geneanthony3421 Ai is just a tool for developers and it will be a tool for very long time.
The problem is with this idea of learning a bit JavaScript, then react a bit more. This is just a bad path to follow. One should get their fundamentals right and not become React dev because the second they are thrown to a different technology they become useless. Fundamentals can make you versatile and unstoppable.
Yes. There's a new JS framework every 10 seconds. Better to learn things like .NET, C, C++, Python, etc. Get the fundamentals, learn many languages, and be adaptable
As someone who has sat on hiring boards, all things being equal a college grad will always be chosen over boot camper
When I did that same math you did as far as everyone having the same resume, I switched up my learning and involved devops, some really high level programming compared to the everyday fullstack MERN resume that jobs see everyday.
Thank you. Great video filled with great advice. I recently started learning Python on codecademy. I dont know what I want to do with it, but I've felt drawn to coding and so far I am enjoying it.
@NoDetective221 Appreciate this. Good im glad you are enjoying it. As long as you keep moving a reason will find you.
Be ready for a long ride: 2-4 years of grinding for junior position.
@@HCforLife1 It's possible. I'm not really sure what the goal is at this point. It could be the skills gained just aid me in my current career enough to pivot or move up.
Great story, thanks for sharing!
Raw determination. Cool story!
Don’t see anything wrong with construction at all. If anything that is sometimes more flexible then the flood of programmers
I loved construction and still do.
2020 grad still here skrugglin; will never give up
Problem is the demand is already met by senior developers
I hate code. But I'm CTO. I would hire you instantly if you told me your background. I would even fire one of the lazy arrogant developers to get you in.