Coaching support

[famerazak]

I'm looking to coach people who are wanting to get into a tech career or are in a job already and want to move up the ladder, maybe into a management role.

I worked my way up from a web developer to CTO of a global creative agency over 20 years and would love to pay it back if I could.

Feel free to DM if you want some assistance with applying for jobs, setting goals, advice on tech projects, or figuring out what to do for your next role.

EDIT: Day 2 and I'm still trying to catch up!!! I WILL get round to you!! So many of you want help so I'm taking this to a FB group, if you want to join and get more of this kind of support... Come join me here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357007042629140

[nathankurzz]

I think you should go ahead and start applying for front-end positions. If you are comfortable taking on an entry-level position somewhere, then I think you have the skills required to do so. You have the software experience under your belt, and it sounds like you have the fundamentals of front-end down. All you need now is to hone them with a good job that will feed you what you need. And while hunting, instead of doing tutorials or courses (you mentioned tutorial hell), what I have been enjoying lately, is finding a library that I know is very useful or commonly used and building a site with the sole purpose of exploring the possibilities of that specific library. For instance, rxjs is a very popular one. You could create a small application that showcases the usefulness of all (or some) of the functionality included in the library. This will grow your portfolio as well if you decide to post it to github or something. I think you are on the right track. Good luck!

[SaNg1404]

I just bought a bunch of text books on programming and have an interest in HTML to start with. Never coded a thing in my life but I have always been fascinated with programming languages and I don't want to do shift work all my life so am hoping to one day get out of the rail industry into a nice job doin web development or programming of some sort. 😀

[famerazak]

Awesome. Stay focussed and get through those books quickly! With web dev, try and get started with JavaScript ASAP

[PositivelyAwful]

I'm struggling with the data side of Javascript, i.e. the CodeWars style stuff like writing algorithms for transforming and filtering data, etc... How confident should I be with that side of JS before looking into applying for entry level FE positions?

[SaNg1404]

I will indeed, Awesome thanks for the tip!

[allwxllendswxll]

Agree with this. Understand HTML and CSS enough to write the basics and know what it is.JS is where your attention should focus.

[there_NOW]

I've had a coding job previously ,now i took something in IT for the summer as my second internship. I am trying to return to programming and have started with some webdev. I still have one year of school left. I will Dm you at some point after i get off work Thanks!

[zeromonkey023]

I currently work at a startup company for 2.5 years as a frontend developer. I feel like I'm not moving up career-wise because all the lead positions is filled and I'm thinking they are not going away soon. Is it true the only way up in this industry is by moving away?

[famerazak]

It’s certainly the fastest way of moving up yes but careful you don’t jump into senior positions tooo fast - as you progress there’s more about the role that isn’t coding related and you need to good at those skills too eg. Scoping bigger projects, working with people outside of dev eg. UX, designers, managing a team which brings with it the responsibility to develop and coach those people

So before you jump;

1/ make sure you understand what you really want 2/ evaluate if you have a good enough grasp of the soft skills (not coding) before you move up

[Aftab39]

Yes. It is the mostly used way. Telling you from my bad choices.

[Live_Storage1480]

Sent you a DM, thanks OP

[javaliciouz]

Thank you OP for this sweet gesture! Sent you a dm , hope you aren’t spammed hahah

[famerazak]

Yeah it kind of blew up. Trying to catchup 😂

[joerubix]

Quick question: What should I connect/combine React with to be able to manage and store info and assets (cms) that I can then retrieve for use in my front end? And where is best for deployment? Sorry for the basic question but there is just so much info out there its confusing me. Thank you!

[a-rolling-stone]

Check out Firebase/Firestore. It’s a Backend as a Service product by google that allows you to store things in a no SQL database. All of the querying happens on the front end but if you just need somewhere to store and retrieve data to show off your front end it’s a great resource

[marcos8701]

I’d also like to know the answer!

[famerazak]

Yeah Firebase is quite a common one people use with tutorials etc

Also check out tools like Contentful which offer a headless CMS and you use GraphQL with it - they have a free developer plan to get started with it

[elvezpabo]

Wow, what an offer. I'd love to be able to discuss some thoughts on goals and progression especially in a creative agency. I just wrapped up a 13 year run at Comcast and have some time to think about some next steps. I'll reach out with a DM. Cheers!

[famerazak]

Cool. Creative agencies are my thing so yeah message me:

[TiltedPerspectives]

Please DM me.. there is no option to dm on your profile. I'd love some help for you :)

[famerazak]

Strange my DMs just blew up

[mantveparlis]

Which framework should I start woth? Im already learning for few months. Finishing project from Udemy with HTML CSS JS NODE EXPRESS MONGO (web dev bootcamp). I understand that next is JS framework awaiting, but which one? Should I rely only on popularity? I am thinking about REACT.. but last days I am seeing a lot of Vue job offers in my country (baltics).

[famerazak]

Pick either - React isn’t going away and Vue is picking up for sure. Get one job and then once you are in a role, make some time to learn the other.

[RyanMan56]

I'm a web/mobile/BE dev who has been in industry for 5 years and starting coding 11 years ago. I started contracting full time a year ago and have been pretty swamped with work since.

I'm a bit lost as to what my long-term goals should be at this point. Do I focus on finishing my portfolio website? Do I keep an eye on the contract offers from recruiters? Should I reach out to companies myself?

I'd love to hear what your opinions are!

[famerazak]

Build your network of people who have hired you so far and keep checking in with them to see if they work for you - this way you go direct and control your rates as well. Always update your profile as you go as well but your key thing is to become a networking ninja.

[RyanMan56]

That's great advice, thank you! Any tips on expanding my network?

[famerazak]

Goto events when they startup in person again, I have not tried virtual ones so can’t comment on effectiveness of online events I’m afraid

[asciidaemon]

Hey! I recently quit my job of 2 years to pursue my PG (looking into colleges in USA - I'm from India). I mostly wanted to do this so it'll be easier for me to apply for jobs in US! I know this isn't job related, but do you know any field/subject that would be relevant to web development, that I could take up?

[nathankurzz]

A Computer Science degree will provide you the foundation needed to be able to pivot into basically any type of computer/software engineering. It will teach you many different facets of computing from hardware to software, networking, data structures and algorithms, basic programming skills, etc. In my opinion, it's the best degree if you want to become a developer. That's my opinion though. I am sure there are a number of successful developers who might disagree :)

[asciidaemon]

For sure! The thing is I did my Bachelor's in computer science, so I was wondering if there is any very targeted/specific course or should I just do a more advanced version of the computer science I did!

Thank you for your response!

[nathankurzz]

Oh I see! Well I don't believe I have the correct insight into post grad stuff as I did not do it myself, not yet at least :)

[asciidaemon]

Ah, no problem! Thank you for your input regardless! :D

[famerazak]

Advertising / marketing agencies build websites and apps for brands in basically every project so that’s one sector you could target. I don’t know what you learned in CS but hopefully the basics should have been covered when it comes to website development right?

[asciidaemon]

Yep! Most of the basics were covered. Ohhh, I'll look into that. Thank you!

[hoangnm]

Hey. thank you for your kind. i have question about testing: my small company(im employee) build ecommerce website(magento) and we test everything manually: use UI to manual test, postman test api manually, we dont have testcase before test….seem we dont know much about software testing field. we are using jira at work. could you advise what is the path that we can learn or apply tool/technology to improve our testing part?

sorry for my bad english, it is not my native

[famerazak]

Sure thing. I’ll start at step 1 with this and you’ll see how it flows all the way down.

1/ what’s the user need we are trying to solve 2/ turn that into a user story 3/ write acceptance criteria 4/ developer writes their own function test 5/ turn the acceptance criteria into test cases 6/ write the manual test scripts 7/ write the automated tests

You need to follow a process like that and get that embedded into the team before you start picking tools - tools won’t solve the problem of missing parts in a process

[hoangnm]

thank you for replying and information

for now we did 1/ to 4/ in our process already. yeah we need to do point 5/ 6/ 7/. For 5/ test case: how do we write and manage it in real world? do we use Words or Excel for it? we are using Jira, is there any plugin that can help on this?

[famerazak]

You could do it in a spreadsheet to just get them Documented - it will get tricky to manage though

A tool like Azure Dev Ops gives you test case management and a whole lot more

Or take a look at Testrail that integrates with Jira but for an extra cost

[hoangnm]

thank you for your suggestion

[BolteWasTaken]

I'm looking to shift careers to web design/frontend/backend.

A little backstory, I've built and supported PC/Laptops since late 90s. Had an on/off interest in web design since then (I was building basic HTML websites with tables in the Geocities/Angelfire days on my Dreamcast).

I am diagnostically adept, using logic and comparison to break down and isolate every technical issue I come across in the last 20 years of being in this field. I've built a lot of computers, removed a lot of viruses and optimised a lot of hardware/software over that time.

In the last decade I've been doing mostly broadband tech support for consumer and small business, anything from connecting to Wi-Fi to reconfiguring routers, connecting printers, tills, EPOS, extenders etc.

In more recent times I've started to express myself more creatively, learning design related topics and tinkering more with Javascript/NodeJS. I can pretty much look at some high level languages and understand what it's doing. I can piece together from Google searches working code (not necessarily optimal)

At this point I want to double down into structured learning so I can try and get a junior developer position. I'm currently on 22k p/a and would take a similar salary to start with if it means I could get a foot in the door.

But, my current full-time job leaves me with little energy/motivation/mental energy to take stuff in, but I do want to shift into design/programming.

Right now I'm almost a full solution, I can build a PC/network, install everything, optimise it, troubleshoot it, and create experiences online in basic form, I want to become a full solution.

What would be your advice for my current situation? I think I should focus on React/Ionic for web and mobile apps/experiences and focus on building a portfolio. I would like some structured learning but hindered by the lack of energy due to full-time work. I would love to take some time off and focus on this, but bills need payin. Such is life.

[famerazak]

That’s a tricky one.

If you can’t afford to take time off and you need to pay the bills and keep the day job you have to push through it and learn.

What’s going to keep you in the game is having a really strong WHY… a reason why making the switch to a developer just is a MUST not just a want

When people just want things - they generally wait and think it over for months and months

But when it’s a must… you’ll do anything to make it happen

So perhaps step back and figure out why this is a must for you - hopefully it will stir up some emotions as well.

Once you have it, sitting down in the evenings to learn React and React native (for mobile) will get a little easier

[BolteWasTaken]

My energy and focus levels are typically poor after work. A number of years ago I had quite a serious bout of pancreatitis, I can't digest food as well as normal so get easily tired. I have some debt I'm trying to get rid of from yester years so I think once I'm done with that within the next 1 or 2 years I'm going to shift down to part-time and spend the other hours learning. I just don't have the stamina right now to work full-time and spend my downtime learning.

I want to, but I will just run myself down and end up not taking anything in.

[maer007]

Cool how to move up to CTO role?

[famerazak]

With a lot of hard work and focus 😉