Hi all! My name is Kenneth and I am an aspiring web developer. For 2 years I have been spending, literally, just about every free minute I have trying to self teach myself programming. I will say that I am a great, great deal closer to my goal than when I first started, but I still feel like I have an insane amount to learn.
The problem is that, without the structure of a classroom, I have trouble knowing where to start, what to learn next, should I keep focusing on this? Or should I move on and learn about that? It seems like I spend a quarter of my time just trying to figure out what to focus on, then another quarter of my time trying to find a good resource to learn from.
The next problem I have is that I don't have the time or money to go back to school or attend a bootcamp. I am 33 years old and have a home and family I have to worry about. Trust me, even if I just had the time to do one of these things, I would. I do, however, have the time to spend a few hours everyday to sit and try to learn what I can. I think with a bit of structure and guidance I could really take off and make web development a career.
So, that brings me to why I am writing this. I would love to find a mentor to work with me. Give me that little bit of structure and guidance I need. I have seen some of the mentoring programs online and, while I would love to do that, I just can't afford the hourly rate most are asking for. As I said, I have a family and home I need to worry about, and am living paycheck to paycheck just to provide for them. So, does anyone out there know of any options for me? Anyway to find a mentoring program that is fairly cheap? Any ideas at all are welcome.
I have poured my heart and mind into learning all of this and sometimes I feel like I am just going around and around in circles and not getting anywhere at all. If ANYONE out there can help, I would be forever grateful.
Thank You in advance for any responses
Kenneth Olsen
Top comments (6)
I started very similar to your story. I was 28 though and had 2 kids and a wife to worry about. I was stuck in a job I had to work at to keep the money coming in. Couldn’t go to school and very much had a passion for coding. I ended up starting my own company and taking on clients for web development. I never turned down a job even if I didn’t know what I was doing. And I stumbled and fell so many times. Eventually, that side business I started turned into a full time business, then a job offer later. Where I got a lot of my training. Everyone’s path is going to be different, but maybe if you really want it, you’ll figure it out. Are you interested in continuing to open source. I’ve got several projects I’m working on right now and would love to take someone like you under my supervision to mentor. Would that be something you’re open to?
I am very open to that. I would really appreciate that more than you know. How can I get started?
I know you said web developer. Which languages are you interested in? I’ve got some JavaScript and PHP.
Email me at josh@ua1.us so that we can coordinate a time this week to have a face to face over Google Hangouts. I’d like to get to know you more and what you are thing to accomplish.
First of, congrats ! Caring for your family while learning to code by your own looks like a lot.
I would say you don't need to spend a dollar to become a good dev, don't sweat it. You seems to be able to spend some time reading by your own and that's all that you need.
Dev.to offer some mentorship. In your settings, you can specify what you're looking for.
Finally, for the "where to focus" bit, no-one have the right answer (me included). Dev and especially web-dev moves at lightspeed. Chasing all the new shiny thing is the most common source of frustration for beginners. Don't try to learn specifics (one framework or one paradigm) but learn deeper (all the inside and out of a language) so that you can apply it to any situation.
Remember, successful devs do.
Luckily for coding, the need for mentor is less absolute neccessary than learning violin.
I think many tutorials online are very good.
If you need structure, I think there is a lot of online courses, while you can find similar minded people. Sometimes the best mentors are your peers who share the same motivation as you.
It is like finding a workout partner, where you two can push each and keep going.
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