First off, no, I am not asking anyone for a job. I just want some honest opinions and answers.
I have attempting to self-teach myself web development for almost 2 years and I am pretty confident with my skills. However, since I am a 33-year-old career maintenance man, I feel like I have to go the extra mile and have other skills that can set me apart from the 22-year-olds with CS degrees. With that in mind, I would like to present a list to you. This list includes my web dev skills as well as my "other" skills. This list will also be written in a resume or portfolio type fashion as though I am attempting to "sell" myself to you.
Any feedback, negative or positive, is GREATLY APPRECIATED!!
Now, ON TO THE LIST
Would consider myself fluent with HTML and CSS.
Adequate with JavaScript, but there is room for improvement.
Have worked with Python, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Vue, and React, but would not say I am proficient with them. However, given a good mentor, feel like I could pick them all up quickly.
To go along with the previous entry, I feel like I have learned enough about "Programming" to be able to pick up many of the common languages quickly, given a good mentor or a bit of guidance.
Working in maintenance for the last decade in Alzheimers and Dementia Health Care Facilities has given me, what I consider, some transferable skills as well. Skills like,
Ability to look at a large problem and break it down into smaller more manageable problems.
Very good at thinking of "outside the box" solutions to problems.
Ability to look at a problem and visualize all the different components and functions it is supposed to have in order to work properly, thus allowing me to find the part that is malfunctioning much quicker.
I have GREAT communication skills. People who have Alzheimers and Dementia, sometimes cannot understand what it is that I need to do, or may not be able to properly communicate what they need. So, top-notch communication skills are a must in my current field. This includes non-verbal communication as well as the ability to explain something, that we as developers think is a simple concept, to someone that may not be tech-savvy in a way that doesn't make them feel like I think they are dumb.
I know how to ask a good question. This may sound a little odd, but I believe it is a great asset. Asking good questions can get me to the solution much faster.
Dedication and willingness to learn. Since making the decision to learn web development, I have treated my learning as though I am in an actual college class. I have to practice every single day, NO EXCEPTIONS! I will bring the same dedication with me to your company.
Last but not least, let us not forget that I have been in maintenance for a long time and have done well enough to rise through the ranks and become Director of Maintenance over 2 skilled nursing centers at the same time at the age of only 33. This would mean you are getting someone with the knowledge and skills to be able to fix anything around the office. If you were to give me the career that I have dreamed of I would be more than happy to show my appreciation by saving you money in repair bills and fixing what needs fixing.
And that it! As I said before, any feedback at all is appreciated.
Top comments (4)
The right company with a big enough team and budget to support you would offer you a job.
There are some fairly glaring gaps in your knowledge that will put many off however. I'd suggest looking at all the tooling around the languages. Coding is only half the battle.
You have GitHub so that's a start but it's fairly sparse for commits. Start using git more, commit often and push all your work. This is an essential tool that takes more learning than people realise.
Look at the front end ecosystem of tools, gulp, webpack, Babel, sass, CSS frameworks.
Also look at server stuff, learn bash (only to a beginner level but be comfortable using the command line for most things). Docker or vagrant for local development.
Finally and possibly most importantly, look at automated testing. Unit tests. Write them, write a lot of them! Cover every line of code with a test for a particular project. This is invaluable and will make you instantly more employable
Thank you very much for the feedback. I definitely agree with the testing. I am not very knowledgeable with that yet, but it is definitely something that I am going to start focusing on.
Can't speak for big-tech-companies, but if you're willing to accept a junior-ish salary, we would surely invite you to an interview. Tbh I prefer people with diverse/"off-topic" backgrounds when choosing candidates.
Thank you for your reply! That is somewhat what I am hoping for when I start applying. I need to figure out how many of the skills I have picked up through the years can apply to programming and try to really show the potential employer that I am willing and capable of picking up the skills they want as well. From my personal experience with hiring employees, I almost always prefer someone with SOME experience, but not a boatload. That way I can sort of mold them into what I need them to be.