College dropouts, what you doing now?

Dolla$

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coding full time :blessed:

all big tech companies basically gave 4 year degrees the middle finger
How did you get started? Do you need any specialized skills or previous knowledge to start coding ?
 

Dolla$

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I’m in the telecommunications field. I guess I’m doing pretty good. But i decided to go back in the fall and get that degree. God forbid something happens with my job, it’s hard for me to imagine me bouncing back to the same level I’m at now so i need a fall back option
 

RadaMillz

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Did you ever feel like you were at a disadvantage over not having a Degree?

It's hard to get your foot in the door because you have to prove to these companies that you know ur stuff, at the end of the day, in this field it's all about what you can do. Tech companies are starting to realize that degrees do not not equal skils, but they almost always ask for a degree when applying unless you have a portfolio to showcase all your work.

How did you get started? Do you need any specialized skills or previous knowledge to start coding ?

I knew nothing about coding, I started from scratch and worked my way up. There's enough material out there to teach urself, u don't need school or coding bootcamps to become a coder. All you u need is the right mind set and at least 4 hours a day.
 

Balla

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It's hard to get your foot in the door because you have to prove to these companies that you know ur stuff, at the end of the day, in this field it's all about what you can do. Tech companies are starting to realize that degrees do not not equal skils, but they almost always ask for a degree when applying unless you have a portfolio to showcase all your work.



I knew nothing about coding, I started from scratch and worked my way up. There's enough material out there to teach urself, u don't need school or coding bootcamps to become a coder. All you u need is the right mind set and at least 4 hours a day.


What did you use to self learn (code academy, etc?), did you do 4 hours everyday? and how long did it take for you to get a job? And how did you get said job?
 

Balla

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I got tired of looking at them white folks everyday.

:francis:

It was ok... in addition to the helpdesk/PC repair work, they had me doing admin work that they should have just hired someone else to do. That shyt was grueling. I really couldn't take it anymore, so I put in my 2 weeks notice.

Depending on how things work out, I might go back into it, but I really don't have a passion for IT.


I feel u, I had a contract gig full of nothing but cacs and women. It was driving me crazy.

Idk how people can deal with office life for like 40+ years.
 

Rozay Oro

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It's hard to get your foot in the door because you have to prove to these companies that you know ur stuff, at the end of the day, in this field it's all about what you can do. Tech companies are starting to realize that degrees do not not equal skils, but they almost always ask for a degree when applying unless you have a portfolio to showcase all your work.



I knew nothing about coding, I started from scratch and worked my way up. There's enough material out there to teach urself, u don't need school or coding bootcamps to become a coder. All you u need is the right mind set and at least 4 hours a day.
What programming languages do you use?
 

RadaMillz

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What did you use to self learn (code academy, etc?), did you do 4 hours everyday? and how long did it take for you to get a job? And how did you get said job?

Yes sometimes even 10+ hours a day, when u are working on a project and it clicks, it's like a video game...you get so in to it that you lose track of time and the sun light in the morning indicates it's time to get some rest.

There are endless amount of resources, from youtube tutorials to udemy, lynda courses, websites like w3schools and so on. Basically you have to master 3 core languages of web development (HTML, CSS and JavaScript). HTML is easy, it takes less than a week. CSS and JS are the hard ones that need practice.

What programming languages do you use?

JavaScript, it's only getting stronger. It used to be a toy language that coders laughed at but it has grown and made other languages kind of irrelevant. If we are talking jobs, this is the one to start off with and then later you can pick up other languages like c# in no time.
 

Balla

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Yes sometimes even 10+ hours a day, when u are working on a project and it clicks, it's like a video game...you get so in to it that you lose track of time and the sun light in the morning indicates it's time to get some rest.

There are endless amount of resources, from youtube tutorials to udemy, lynda courses, websites like w3schools and so on. Basically you have to master 3 core languages of web development (HTML, CSS and JavaScript). HTML is easy, it takes less than a week. CSS and JS are the hard ones that need practice.



JavaScript, it's only getting stronger. It used to be a toy language that coders laughed at but it has grown and made other languages kind of irrelevant. If we are talking jobs, this is the one to start off with and then later you can pick up other languages like c# in no time.

How did you get a job? Did you show a portfolio? How did they look at your application? Did you put anything specific?

I’m just tryna figure out how to get hired over someone that has a degree. What makes me better and how do I make them see it in my resume?
 

RadaMillz

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How did you get a job? Did you show a portfolio? How did they look at your application? Did you put anything specific?

I’m just tryna figure out how to get hired over someone that has a degree. What makes me better and how do I make them see it in my resume?

Yes a well polished Portfolio is probably the single most important thing after coding in order to land a job, you have to build projects that use all the modern technologies like (react+redux+sass+webpack) and talk about why those projects are important to you. I built a homeless shelter app using some api I found online. Basically you put the zip code in and it shows you the nearest shelter. If you can also build a real estate or ecommerce app, then it will not be difficult to get a job.

Whatever you do, always keep applying tho, do not wait until you are 'good' because you will always feel like u don't know enough and most of the time these companies are looking for someone to do small tasks like css, making sites responsive etc , once u have been at a job for 6months + recruiters will be all up on you.
 

Balla

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Help desk is fukking draining.
I'm working at one currently, there's people been here years I don't know how the hell they've done it.

Thankfully I'm leaving soon, never doing this shyt again over my dead body lol


Lol really? How you get the job? A+? What u moving on to now?

I only did help desk for a short time and it was a contract, so I didn’t get to do too much, what made it suck so much?

I’m asking a lot of questions because I wanted to have a career in IT.
 

Balla

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Yes a well polished Portfolio is probably the single most important thing after coding in order to land a job, you have to build projects that use all the modern technologies like (react+redux+sass+webpack) and talk about why those projects are important to you. I built a homeless shelter app using some api I found online. Basically you put the zip code in and it shows you the nearest shelter. If you can also build a real estate or ecommerce app, then it will not be difficult to get a job.

Whatever you do, always keep applying tho, do not wait until you are 'good' because you will always feel like u don't know enough and most of the time these companies are looking for someone to do small tasks like css, making sites responsive etc , once u have been at a job for 6months + recruiters will be all up on you.


Could never imagine making an app on my own. Sounds hard af! But you can really get good at this and get a career in 6 months?

Is there math involved? I’m useless with math lol.
 
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