When you're 30+ years old, married with kids, it may seem impossible to change careers into tech without getting a degree and potentially taking on a bunch of debt.
That's exactly what I thought. I was stuck working at factory jobs that treated me subhuman and so were all my friends. I remember a time I asked for a day off for my daughter's birthday, and was literally laughed by the supervisor. I wasn't making a lot of money, I had to take care of my wife and 6 kids, and work tons of overtime on 12 hours shifts. Sometimes I was working 2 jobs. I was miserable.
How I Got Started Learning To Code
One day I was said, "This can't be life, I have to figure this money thing out". From then I started several things, from a YouTube Channel, a cleaning service, and selling t-shirts on Shopify. I was constantly looking for the right skills to learn so I could dig myself out of this hole.
I stumbled across a forum post and everyone was talking about buying Colt Steele's Web Development Course. I looked up what web development was and the pay and I told my wife "In a year to a year and a half, I'm going to get us out of this".
My wife was super excited she said she "just felt" like this was the right move for our family. So after working 12 hour days I would come home and code. My wife sacrificed her time so I could put in the work and I appreciate her for that. I know it wasn't easy. We both had our eyes on the prize.
Building A Community
I know that since I didn't have a degree, I was "old", and my job history was mostly manual labor and call center work. My resume wasn't going to have people beating down my door to hire me. I figured a way for me to stand out was to get to know as many people in tech as possible.
After about 2 months of learning, I started to go to meet-ups(if they were on my off day), volunteered to teach kids to code with my local CoderDojo once a month, mentored at a workshop to teach women Angular, attended the biggest developer conference in my city. I even spoke at a few meet-ups before I got a job.
I would meet people and tell them what I was doing, ask them questions about what they were doing, and try to learn as much as possible. During this time I'm still learning to code before work, and on weekends. I was super tired and exhausted and always felt like I wasn't doing enough.
Building An Online Community
I wanted to have as many job prospects as possible. So in addition to being active in my local community, I was super active on Twitter. I would share everything I was learning on Twitter. I shared everything I was doing offline on Twitter as well. I would update my progress and ask questions. I helped other people with their questions who were learning to code.
I built relationships with developers, I reached to be on a podcast before I had a job. I was blogging things I was learning on Medium. I consistently showed up and I think I really proved that I was willing to work hard.
The Hard Times
It wasn't all fun & games. This process was stressful, I was getting forced to work overtime every week at my old job. I was rejected from job after job, even the ones I got referrals to.
Most jobs wouldn't even call me back. At one point I thought maybe this is what I'm meant to be. Honestly, it hurt thinking I was stuck here and couldn't do more after trying so hard.
Going to work putting powder in boxes 400 times a day really seemed like a waste of my time and potential. I wanted to do more and experience more.
When I was studying I stopped doing anything fun, no TV shows, no video games, no sports, and no Netflix. I think I saw two movies(Avengers). It was just work, code, and reading books. If I wasn't with my family.
I wouldn't recommend this, but I felt like I had to go hard
like I was making up for the lost time.
I remember when I went to New York for CodeLand Conf (I got a free ticker off Twitter), I took a flight there and back. I took one day off of work and I only had one day left to miss from work or I would've been terminated(We could only miss 4 days in a year). So it decided to rain like crazy that day. Brooklyn looked like it was flooded on the News and my flight got delayed.
I WAS STRESSED. I ended up making it home at 3 AM and was at work at 7 AM. Before I went I asked could I get an excused absence if my flight was delayed of course it was declined.
Just got off of work before heading to NYC
Light At The End Of The Tunnel
I met with the co-founder of egghead Joel Hooks over zoom after interacting a bit over Twitter. He invited me to do a few things like teach on egghead or review courses. I was too busy at the time because we decided to sell our house and look for a new one. I felt bad because I felt like I was wasting an opportunity.
Over the course of the next few months even though I was in the middle of moving. I kept posting on Twitter, I kept learning, I kept networking. My wife kept supporting me, even though she was getting tired.
5 months later after our first zoom meeting, I was offered to come to egghead to foster the community and learn Ruby on Rails. It was the biggest sigh of relief I've ever had.
I had visions of that day where I would walk out that factory and never come back. Through work, luck, and sacrifice I made it happen.
Now I spend plenty of time with my family because I work remotely. We found our dream home and life has been good for us. Looking back I would've never thought I would be here.
What's Next
Currently, I'm aiming to get better at Ruby on Rails and React and continue to build new relationships and help others build themselves professional networks.
Thank you for reading! If you would like to keep up with what I'm doing next follow me on Twitter
Oldest comments (119)
This is amazing. Thanks for for sharing your story.
Thank you for reading Brian. It was a wild ride for sure lol
I love your story. Its easily an inspiration to everyone out there trying to break into this world. 👍
Thank you Brian! I definitely hope this can’t give people inspiration. Just like so many people gave me
Thanks so much for sharing! I'm going to send this to some friends that need to hear it.
Thanks Jordan hopefully this can help them out
Amazing story. Your story is a motivation for me to do more.
Glad I that motivated you, as long as you're doing your best!
Thanks for sharing Will. Awesome to see your journey!
Thanks Andy!
This is so motivating. Thanks for giving us a glimpse into your journey — the good and bad!
You're welcome! I wanted to keep it real and honest. Thank you for reading!
Will, you are inspiring and legit AF. It's been awesome seeing you grow from meetups to where you are now. I'm happy for you.
Thank you for all the support Mat. You made speaking at JavaScriptKC was a super fun point in this journey!
very inspiring story! I try to tell people in their 30s, 40s, and beyond that it is possible to get into tech. There are so many possibilities from running communities, affiliate marketing, developement, servers so much!
keep up the good work and anything you need feel free to reach out!
Indeed, I would love to more people consider tech sales. It pays well, requires some tech knowledge and well is on the opposite spectrum of "client-facing", but can be super fun for the right personality. Same for other tech GTM jobs.
That's what I m doing right now. And one need to be serious about tht.
Awesome story Will. I have no doubt it's only up from here for you. Can't wait to see it all!
Thanks Kyle!
With this kind of stories, it gives me the hope and faith to resume with ninja soul to achieving my goals
You got this!
Don't ever give up and you gonna be rewarded 🎯🚀💯
Keep in mind the image below 😉
Love this image!
Brilliant
Thanks for sharing Will and very inspiring! I can definitely relate to this. I have 2 kids on my own and I was recently laid off. I'm in the middle of learning node and and brushing my js skills to get a new jobs. I've send my resume everywhere and no callbacks so far. I was about to give up but after reading your story it gives me hope and strength. I hope I can get out of this. Thanks again for sharing Will!
You can get out of it! I thought several times that maybe I wouldn't but keep putting yourself out there!
Thanks Will, I really appreciate your encouragement. I hope I can!
Yeah keep it up Febby, don’t every give up, there is a community here to reach out to at anytime. Have you put a listing on Dev yet?
Thank you Lee, thanks for the encouragement.
I'm trying so hard not to. but it's just very difficult :(
I haven't checked the listing yet but I will soon.
Hi @febby , I would suggest that you customize your cover letter/ intro email to each role. That brings better results.
Read the below article.
freecodecamp.org/news/what-i-learn...
Hi @Deji, thank you for the suggestion. I will definitely check that out!
Never give up!!! Show confidence during interviews and do not stop learning. You will get a job for sure!!!
Thanks Sandor, appreciate it :) I hope I can
This is indeed inspirational. I'm in a similar situation. 30+ and started learning coding a year ago. I'm still in a learning process. It's hard, often frustrating and challenging. I have a full time job so I'm coding at night while most of the people enjoying in front of TV watching Netflix or something else.
But at the end I strongly believe the result will make the worth all the struggle.
It will definitely be worth it, keep showing up and putting in the work!
Totally agree. I started at 40!
The best possible way to learn is to build something YOU want. Going through tutorials, it just doesn't stick the same.
One of my demo projects was building a version of the old Microsoft Minesweeper with explosions and physics. Instead of ending the game when you hit a mine, I "exploded" the nearby area which then changed the map a bit. Simple idea, but complex enough to show problem solving.
Wow. Best story I have read for ages 👊🏽👊🏽
Wow! Thank you!
I feel so lucky to have gotten to read this! I've been following you on Twitter for a while and heard you on a podcast months ago, but until now, I didn't realize just how much you went through to change your life. And what a beautiful thing you did. You have already inspired and I know you will continue to inspire so many! Keep telling your story.
Thank you Anna!