About... (continued)
I'm all self taught when it comes to the web world. I love to learn and want to do so many things.
Maybe you too ?
Upcycling pallets into furniture is fun.
Anyhoo... here's my story (a small part).
In a prior life, I built dozens of websites as an affiliate marketer.
Working from home also allowed me to live in 6 cities in 8 years.
When my girlfriend found a job close to her hometown, we thought maybe we could stop here.
It's a nice place.
New locations, new challenges. I wanted to code digital solutions, applications, softwares, plugins. Everything!
Well... it's not that easy.
So... Font-End Developer?
The world wide web has a TON of information to offer, on any topic.
And when you love learning, you're never done with programming/development.
I just needed to stop looking and get started.
Education
I found freeCodeCamp, which gets you coding without preparation.
When you get stuck, just search for more info and get back at it.
However I was missing some serious fundamentals knowledge.
Fortunately, I found a great learning path (P1xt's guides) created by a great lady, mentor and senior software engineer.
Obligatory Mention!
She compiled a list of the best courses from top universities and companies that make the web, books and articles from reknown experts to create an all free, high level programming education.
Thank you, P1xt.
I chose the Web Development guide, which is summed up as:
Get prepared, over the long haul, to be an established senior level web developer, at the level where companies would be lucky to have you and people would be following your blog because you're an expert
"not in a rush" plan that focuses on pushing beyond beginner level, and intermediate level, to expert level as a web developer with a reasonable foundation in software engineering
Here's only a tiny fraction of the whole path:
- You Don't Know JavaScript (a book series by Kyle Simpson)
- CS50 - Introduction to Computer Science (Harvard University)
- Software Development Program (University of British Columbia)
- Learn to Code HTML/CSS and Advanced HTML/CSS (by Shay Howe)
Fine print: THIS IS HARD! (and I'm far from done...)
I came back later to freeCodeCamp and completed 3 front-end certifications:
Of course MDN, StackOverflow and Google are your friends too.
Projects
The freeCodeCamp Curriculum makes you build projects that need to pass all their tests to be submitted for certifications.
10 total for the front-end certifications.
Here's my React Pomodoro Clock project, choose the test in the top left menu (note that their test script is optimized for Google Chrome).
I joined the Chingu developers community where you can learn and build projects in a remote team, stay motivated, discover incredible resources.
The very first project I built in a remote team of 2 is a new tab Chrome extension inspired by the momentum app.
It definitely needs to be refactored and updated (on todo list yes), but we shipped it on time!
Note: The Chingu community has a study group (slack channel) for the guides mentionned above and you may even get your ass kicked by P1xt herself.
Now of course everything above is jut a start.
And I keep learning.
It's clear enough that doing, practicing, executing is the best way to learn.
And an even better way is to work within a team and be part of the process.
That's the real world condition that only... the real world provides.
That's also how I can grow as an individual. By being surrounded by others who inspire change, and getting focused on a common goal.
And What About Webmarketing?
Right.
I said earlier, I ran my own business as a webmarketer.
I won't get into much details but since you're still here reading, I'll give you a quick view.
Even with a background in sales, I never really knew what to do for a living (remember, I'd want to do more than just one life allows), I knew already I loved the internet.
So running a business from home!? Woohoo!
I built my very first website in HTML/CSS, with almost no skills. It still generated the biggest sale of all the sites I built next.
Then I discovered this thing called WordPress which allowed me t build sites much faster.
The websites relied mainly on SEO and organic channels for traffic, and monetized through affiliate marketing.
I also conducted paid marketing campaigns, built and managed facebook pages, as well as list building and email marketing.
My Heroes
Throughout 10 years I had time to discover pratices and content from other marketers t inspire me during my career.
Well, not everyone is worth listening to.
I will only list a couple:
Andre Chaperon, author of AutoResponder Madness is a master of email marketing. But he's also delivering content that matters to his audience, which is exactly how and why you should do marketing. Don't be everything to everyone. Choose to serve a pocket of people. Choose to matter to the few who care. The whole process is taught in his Sphere of Influence course (read his blog posts if you need more context). You'll become a better marketer, period.
Justin Brooke. I'm not a big paid advertising guy, but the insights on the industry and training from Justin are top notch (and constantly updated). If you have the money to join one of his bootcamp, just do so. To the very least check the AdSkills website.
Though I stopped webmarketing to focus on learning web development, it's still one of my BIG interests.
Damn you made it to the end!
Thank you for your time, this means a lot.
Tom