In a perfect world, I would have a fat trust fund that I could live from while furthering my programming skills. Alas, my world is far from perfect...
Assuming I wanted to get a job-to-pay-the-bills while I work towards my next dev role, which job types would be most compatible with that goal?
Thanks for answering! 👋🏾
Top comments (9)
I worked as an "Advisor" on Codecademy for some time. The job includes explaining to learners why their code isn't working and elaborating on issues they may be facing. It doesn't pay much and you kinda already have to know how to code but explaining coding concepts to others is the best way to teach yourself. I would recommend it as a supplemental income to more advanced learners since most of Codecademy's clients are starting from scratch. Edit: 100% remote.
Wow, that sounds like a really interesting opportunity. I'm a learner myself but I'm really very interested in teaching, both in the short-term and long-term!
You've been doing some freelance web dev right? Could you do more of that? Local businesses and Craigslist, etc. Definitely a way to keep sharpening your skills.
Excellent suggestion Ben. Thing is my freelance work has been on a platform that I am moving away from (Wordpress). Now I've looked up some gigs requiring Rails etc but they tend to require advanced programmers. So that's my catch-22... any thoughts?
I feel like working on Wordpress is still decent work while you keep improving your overall programming knowledges. There is definitely a gap that can sometimes exist to get work in tech like Rails.
I was doing Wordpress dev right up until the point where I got my first Rails work. I actually started finding opportunities to do a bit of Rails work along the way as well though.
Ben and Arit, where did you personally have the best success finding freelance web dev work?
I found work through friends in industries. My brother is in the equestrian industry and he sent some horsey projects my way.
I also did Facebook ads and found consistent work that way. I had a simple landing page that presented myself like an agency of sorts.
Many years ago, I worked a couple of help desk jobs while I worked my way into programming. This was good for learning how to communicate with users and how to understand their problems. The disadvantage was that neither of the two companies I worked at, both industry leaders at the time but both are long gone now, supported the idea of promoting someone from the help desk. So, to get my first programming job, I had to go to a different company.
Working support can be a good option to learn skills and the industry in general. Sadly, like you said a lot of places won't promote sideways from those positions but it's still a good way to learn before finding greener pastures.