If you are learning to code, suffering from imposter syndrome, delaying applying for your first tech job while your savings are running out, I want to say I feel you. I was in the same situation.
The good news is: You may succeed sooner than you expected. There are opportunities waiting to shower your life, regardless of your coding competency, as long as you trust your path.
Seems too good to be true? Let me tell you my story.
Last year, I quit my coding bootcamp (read more here if you are curious why), but I did not give up on web development. I still wanted to build pretty websites for myself and others. Hence, I continued reviewing the fundamentals of HTML/CSS and JS. Honestly, I would not consider myself a productive person. There were days I just lay in bed, reading technical articles. I neither finished my portfolio website nor had a strong online presence (my Twitter page in case you don't believe me). With that said, not even in my wildest dream did I expect to land a tech job (three, to be precise).
Is it a matter of pure luck? I don't think so. Followings are what I have done that I believe lead to these opportunities:
1. Start applying early
I was not confident at all with technical skills but I decided to apply anyway. The first reason was to understand the job market. Another one was to strengthen my interviewing skill. Luckily, I passed the HR screening and proceeded further to technical rounds. Plus, rejections (albeit painful) are not the end of the world because:
“Failure shows us the way, by showing us what isn’t the way.” - Ryan Holiday
2. I am worthy. This is key to attracting good things into my life. Despite my lack of confidence in coding, I do believe I deserve a supportive working environment and good pay rate. This also prevents me from blindly accepting any offers or selling myself short. I rejected the first offer because the role was more about business consulting (no remote working, though) while I aimed to become a fullstack developer. The pay was good, which made me a little sad after declining this offer. However, it did not take me long to dwell upon my past decision then the second offer showed up.
🥳 My first tech job 🥳
One day, my mentor (I found him on Twitter) kindly asked me to help with his projects. His tech stack was my favourite, so I agreed without hesitation. The projects were short-term and their pay rate turned out to be higher than that of my first job offer.
"When one door closes, another opens." - Alexander Graham Bell
3. Giving back to the community. Long before I earned anything from coding, I had put effort into building simple websites that migh help my local community.
As I shared these ideas, somehow people wanted to invest in me (I guess). A friend who is also an animal lover introduced me to the company she was working for. That led to my second tech job.
👩💻 My second tech job 👩💻
I messed up the interview, no lies, but the CTO still decided to take me in. I became the only junior developer with no commercial experience in the company. After 3 months of training, I started working on their real projects.
And did I mention the job was remote with flexible working hours? The pay was alright. Till now I cannot fathom what the CTO and my team saw in me. I guess he likes my attitude.
4. Networking
I moved to the UK where I had to build everything from beginning, including my professional network. I went to local tech meetups. I even applied to become a tech speaker as the fastest way to learn something is to teach/talk about it. That's how I got people to know about my tech stack. One day, a startup's CTO asked me to work on their landing pages because our tech stack was similar.
👩💻 My third tech job 👩💻
The technical test was using Svelte to build a reusable dropdown component. Luckily I managed to finish it in time. The team was so supportive and friendly. I enjoyed working with new technologies and found fulfillment in contributing to a greater good.
Final words: I understand that everyone's story is different. You may find mine unbelievable. I am not trying to glamorise the tech industry as I have experienced its dark side. It can be challenging for women and code newbies like us to break into sometimes, but when we choose to believe in the community and direct our thoughts to positive outcomes, opportunities will present themselves.
Believe it or not, our mindset determines our reality. Thanks for reading!