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How Creating Content as a Developer Changed My Life

Chaoo Charles on November 05, 2023

Hello everyone, I want to encourage some of you who want to start a career in coding but find it difficult to get your first job or internship. And...
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jodoesgit profile image
Jo

Charles, what a crazy journey you've been on my brother! Hahaha!

You're a good spirit encouraging others to get theirs however they can. I can sympathize with the journey, even if we've got different paths. Especially with the part where everyone's always partying. I swear that's part of the crab-pot. People don't even see it. It'd be worse if it was a loan from someone/something - because that ish has interest.

What has been your focus content wise? There's a sea of folks out there. Was the content used explicitly as an expression of authenticity or did you find your audience? These things popped into me head as I went. Cause nowadays your online presence seems to matter more than your offline one. So you'd show a lot of authenticity being publicly visible in several spheres.

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Chaoo Charles

Yeah, it's been a crazy one. I started creating content on web development tutorials. I taught Git, React, CSS and shared my videos on relevant coding communities on Reddit and Facebook. It took about an year to build an audience of 1k. This was acceptable because my video production was slow and my video quality was not the best. Also its not like I was a dev with several years of experience, I was just teaching the simple things I knew and doing more research on them. This actually helped me to understand the concepts better and improved my skills. If you are an experienced dev you'd probably build an audience faster that I did.

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Jo

To be honest, the simple things are the things the web is missing the most. We get a lot of people starting when they are coming from a place of mastery/understanding. But there is nothing better than to be taught as a student - by students because there is a terrifying wall in front of you and you two can figure out how to get over it together versus someone throwing you down a rope.

I mean both help - but there's a real meeting of the minds when you both don't know what you're doing and you're banging all the pots and pans together trying to make something happen. You might not do it in a pretty way - but you end up gaining more knowledge because you begin to understand how things actually work instead of copying someone and concepts staying abstract.

This is fun though, it says - do it because you're going to grow and it will help you get there. I'm no experienced dev, but this was a fun read and some good food for though. Thank you <3~!

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Chaoo Charles

💯 Thank you man, and glad you found it fun

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Jima Victor

This is inspiring

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Chaoo Charles

Thank you!

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Daniel Kabagambe

This is truly inspiring! I wish you could become my mentor and guide me. I feel that a bit of guidance can help me bridge the gap between where I am now and where I want to be. Your journey resonates with mine, but I've faced challenges even after graduating from university. I've encountered setbacks in securing a remote job, but recently, I've committed to working on real projects. I believe that accomplishing them could mark a significant milestone in my coding journey.

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Chaoo Charles

while you create the real projects share your progress, what you have learnt or even challenges you are facing on twitter or on blog post. with time people will notice the amazing work you are doing and offer you projects or even refer you for jobs.

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Mosaab Emam

Keep pushing and you will eventually prevail ✌️

BTW: I like your pronouns 😂

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Chaoo Charles

Haha, thank youu!

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Ted Ngeene • Edited

As someone who studied with Charles, I can absolutely vouch for his work ethic and resilience (was probably among the first 100 subs on youtube 😅). Super happy to see the progress you've made and witness your growth!

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Chaoo Charles

You definitely were among the first 100 😂

Thank you man, y'all encouraged me to keep going 🤝

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EmediongPeter

Wow Charles this is inspiring.
I've been wondering why I've not been able to get an edge in this tech thing.

I have been looking for jobs rather than ATTRACTING it. Thank you for your story.

I promise to act immediately without hesitation.

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Chaoo Charles

yeah, you need to attract the job, if you don't want to create content like me you can just build your projects in public, share on twitter your progress and problems you are facing, sooner or later people will invite you to collaborate on projects or even get fulltime job

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Mosaab Emam

I love your story!
I'm a fellow developer from Sudan who also got into coding in 2016. So many of your struggles resonated with me; starting with a phone, having it stolen, and finally getting a laptop ✌️, but extra claps 👏 for you for starting with a Samsung pocket 😂
Creating content was never my thing, though. I only thought about starting very recently, and your article is really inspiring in that regard 🌹.
Keep going buddy, I subscribed to your channel and followed you on twitter, and I would love it if we connected in the future.

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Chaoo Charles

Glad to hear you could relate, kepp going too. Thank you!

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raslanove

Looks very familiar! I know lots of people with similar circumstances, that's why we at NOMone decided to build an app that crosses the gap between desktop computing and mobile phones:
play.google.com/store/apps/details...
This app allows you to run a Linux system on your phone with little to no background knowledge. It's the perfect place to start your learning journey. We are working on a video tutorial that teaches how to run Android Studio on this app (yes it works perfectly). It should be published in a week or two.

Best of luck and keep moving forward!

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Chaoo Charles

Great product you are working on, 👏

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webdev408

Great story Charles. I like it with a point of view of success is a journey not instant gratification. I have been learning and coding for over 3 years and have over 50 git repos. I have not had any monetization of my skills but I enjoy it. I experiment with JavaScript using react and every day I discover new method of doing/completing a task. Reading stories like yours helps cope with imposter syndrome. Thank you for sharing.

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Chaoo Charles

It's definitely a journey. There is no get rich scheme, that's how people get scammed.

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coco

I love it. I’m trying to start blogging. I weave written some post in English because I’m learning the language and I was not convince to publish them. I think you are right, I cannot sit waiting forever! :)

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Chaoo Charles

Just publish them, your first might not be that good but you will get better the more you write..

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Liliana Barrea

Charles, this is an amazing article! Thank you for sharing your experience with us. One question, what if one feels like the learn-to-code blog field is saturated with qualified people and all one knows to do is center a div? How do I get started? I will bookmark your article for inspiration on days when there is none. All the best to you, my friend!

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Chaoo Charles

Steal ideas and explain them in your own way and understanding, create projects, clone apps, research more..

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Afazee

Thanks Bro

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Chaoo Charles

It's okay bro 🤝

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Alex

👏🏼!

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Chaoo Charles

🤝

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Ellie

Maan, i felt in love with your story. Much inspirational to me at least, and i'm gonna bookmark it for future rereading and probably share out too. Great Thanks !:)

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Chaoo Charles

I am glad it was helpful 🤝

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COLLINS KINOTI

Amazing Read. Thank you for the inspiration.

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Chaoo Charles

no problem, glad it was inspiring 🤝

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Chukwuma Anyadike

Very inspirational. Great story about hard work and creativity.

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Chaoo Charles

Thank you 👌

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Khairunnisaas

yoooo.... what a journey you've had! so inspiring! keep hustling my man, you can't achieve success in instant way

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Chaoo Charles

Yes, you have to work for it. Will keep going 🙌

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Huy Kon

Thanks for your sharing

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Chaoo Charles

Welcome buddy 👍

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Ohene Adjei

Great story Charles...

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Chaoo Charles

Thank you!

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Raj Kiran Chaudhary

Loved your story. Thank you for sharing

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Chaoo Charles

No problem brother 🤝

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EasyCode

Awesome 💯.
What a journey it is.

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Chaoo Charles

Thank you 💯

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Kiru8165

Hey! This is really inspirable....even i wanna pursue like you. your story gave me the spirit and i am gonna learn coding. thanks yaar

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Chaoo Charles

You got this man, start learning and practice as much as you can.

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herrhanch33

I just wanna say thank you for sharing your awesome journey. It must not have been an easy road but your story motivates me to keep on going so again, thank you for sharing your inspiring story.

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Chaoo Charles

Welcome, you go this, don't give up on your journey, keep going..

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Zain Mp

👍🔥

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Artem Baziuk

Very inspiring story. Wish you all the best! Keep it up 💪

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Chaoo Charles

Thank youu 👌

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Vasil

Very cool story, i love it. Keep up the good work mate :)

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Chaoo Charles

Thank you mate

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Varsha Venkat

Very inspiring story.. 👏

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Chaoo Charles

Thank you 🤝

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tony

Nice journey. This is great and inspiring.

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Chaoo Charles

Thank you 🤝

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towet

this insightfull brother the fact that ur also from kenya is inspiring me I started my journey in AI 4 moths ago I had problems signing clients for my automation agency I think I will follow the path document and create content

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Chaoo Charles

Yes keep going, create content revolving around your agency. All these big companies have blogs too or youtube channels..

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Rudransh Bhardwaj

Nice boi , keep coding
beat of luck😄

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Rudransh Bhardwaj

best*

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Chaoo Charles

😂😂 thank you

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Harsha S

Very Cool Story
Would you recommend writing blog posts on this site or creating my own website or making a YouTube channels?

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Chaoo Charles

depends on what you feel comfortable with, writing or creating videos? starting your own blog is nice because you can get to monetize it with ads, but when starting you may not have enough audience following your blog. I think you can do both here and your own blog and when you post here you can direct some traffic to your blog with a link. Do more research on that one. Also you can blog on hashnode.

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Harsha S

Thank you :)

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Manoj

Hey I'm new here it is first content where I read with focus, I learned many things. Thank you for sharing your journey.☺️

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Chaoo Charles

Hey, welcome to DEV, I glad you found this post helpful 🤝

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Glory Akoto

You have such an inspirational story, Charles. Your story serves as a motivation for me and many other young tech enthusiasts all around the world.

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NgoThanhHoang

Thank you for your sharing

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Chaoo Charles

🤝

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Manka Velda

Wow, this is so inspiring. Thanks for sharing Charles

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Chaoo Charles

no problem 🤝

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Murad Gojayev

👍👍👍👍👍❤️❤️❤️❤️

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Chaoo Charles

🤝👍