Starting a Career in Web Development

Question
1

I’m a single dad with full-time custody. I got laid off from my construction job, which I’ve done my whole life, during COVID. I got into crypto, and had a kid in 2020, and made a bunch of money, enough to live off for a bit. Anyways, in crypto, I’ve made a bunch of contacts, and I’ve helped do some web stuff, nothing technical, but it is an area I do enjoy working in.

Come present day, I now have full-time custody and need a change of career due to my body not being able to perform in construction anymore. I’ve been doing some research on web development courses, even web design. I’m wondering if any of the boot camps are worth it or if it is more about the experience? I see I can take them on Coursera as well for free (my state DOL pays for it).

Wondering if any of these could lead to employment? I feel having the skills and building a portfolio is much more important than any of these certifications. I’d be looking for remote work or freelance work to accommodate my schedule with my son. TIA!

2

Just realize it’s going to take at least 2-4 years of study to be competitive in the job market, and that assumes 2 years in which you’re twice as productive as an average college student.

3

Kai said:
Just realize it’s going to take at least 2-4 years of study to be competitive in the job market, and that assumes 2 years in which you’re twice as productive as an average college student.

Just realize it’s going to take at least 2-4 years of study to be competitive in the job market

That’s also just talking about today’s job market - we have no way of knowing what this market or industry (or frankly, civilization) will look like in 2026-2028.

4

Kai said:
Just realize it’s going to take at least 2-4 years of study to be competitive in the job market, and that assumes 2 years in which you’re twice as productive as an average college student.

It’s certainly a time commitment. I spent maybe 10 years self-studying from grade 10 all the way to graduating community college with an Associates and getting a respected job in the market. Dedicated adults can do it in half the time, but you’ll need to stay on top of it. Have a goal and work towards it, stay motivated.

5

Kai said:
Just realize it’s going to take at least 2-4 years of study to be competitive in the job market, and that assumes 2 years in which you’re twice as productive as an average college student.

Might get downvoted for this, but it’s easily feasible to gain vastly more practical knowledge (knowledge that actually translates to building production apps) than your average college student.

I say this as a community college CS graduate who benefited from having an easy 2 year course load because it enabled me to ship production web apps for fun in my free time. A more difficult university and academic-focused curriculum would have left major gaps in my ability to actually ship.

6

@Ari
Yes I’ll downvote you for that. You’re just forgetting all the knowledge you learned that would have made understanding the practical knowledge easier. It’s hard to empathize with not knowing things you learned when you’re learning lots.

This approach will lead to frustrating blockers that you can’t get past.

7

Paying to do a boot camp in 2024 (which I’m guessing charges at least $13,000?), when the market is flooded with actual professional devs with years of experience on their résumé who still can’t get hired after a year post-layoff, and 5000 applicants for every single meager mid-level role within an hour of being posted… is a disastrous idea.

8

@Sawyer
This. I have 15+ years experience doing tech for the construction industry (and also a dad). Listen to this man. If you were in construction and can only do a desk job, depending on your specific experience, you should be doing CAD detailing or takeoffs or some sort of customer/product support in the construction world that will extend your existing knowledge/skills instead of trying to start over from scratch.

Simply put, you are a nontraditional candidate in a field absolutely flooded by traditional candidates that you will find extremely challenging to compete with. It’s not impossible, but it will be death by a thousand cuts.

9

Frankly, I wouldn’t suggest it. You’re starting fairly late and the market is really tough right now. You’d be better off getting your project manager certification.

10

No

Very bad timing.

11

I can tell you with 100% certainty that you will be easily overtaken for job ops by people with experience. For example, I have 25 years of web development experience. I have worked at physical companies to manage their websites as well as worked freelance. My whole career has been in the web development field and even I encounter the competition. Point being, there will ALWAYS be someone better than you, especially NOW. So my advice, focus on your edge. What is it you have that others don’t? If it means taking courses/certification programs, do it. But take those to advance your career, not just to have for show. If you don’t want to invest in courses yet, use freeCodeCamp. It will start you on the fundamentals.

Use resources like LeetCode, StackOverflow, etc. and learn daily. You wouldn’t want to build a home if you didn’t have a blueprint, right? Same thing here - learn it and know it so well you can speak intelligently about it. Make W3C your friend. Completely immerse yourself like a sponge in learning this trade because that is what will help your edge.

But, going back to what makes you the better candidate than me or anyone else, focus on things you have that others don’t. That means, reach out to your personal network. Start looking to create websites for friends and family. Offer free websites to them in exchange for building out your portfolio. Build a portfolio. I myself have one and have invested years into it. I always keep it as up-to-date as possible - it matters. People will ask for it. People will want to see it - have it prepared all the time.

Although it’s great that you know PHP, Python, JavaScript, React, blah blah blah, the average small business is not thinking ‘I wonder if this guy knows how to create an array in PHP.’ They are wondering if what you offer is going to be pleasing to the eye, going to convey their business in the best light, and make it appetizing for their web users to convert into buyers. They want to provide their users with all the information a user/customer would need. They want to do whatever they can to get that person off the fence and into being a purchaser of their goods or services.

There will be others that may not need a business website. Maybe they want you to build them a portfolio site - great, but the same holds true, they want to present themselves in the best light to their users because in this case, they are the product.

Learn about the businesses you are going to make a website for. I cannot tell you how many times that has benefited my relationship with a client. Understand it from their shoes, what they want, what they are trying to accomplish. Understand as best you can, their product and their service. It will help you when developing their website. Web Development & Design is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s not all candy canes and roses. It’s hard work and as a freelancer, you are wearing multiple hats - a lot that you may not want to wear. If you really want to do this, immerse yourself 100%. Make it a part of your life because I guarantee you that if you don’t do that, there are plenty of people who will and you do not want to be up against them, especially if you need the money.

People tend to see web work as a cakewalk; they can work from anywhere, they can work from home, it’s easy. It’s not. People who benefit from working from home as a freelancer and are able to get clients have built this over time with their experience and client relationships. It does not happen overnight. You will get out of it what you put in and in some cases, you won’t even get anything out of it regardless of how much you put in (been there, done that). Keep your head down and absorb, learn, put in the work and be consistent. Learn every day - EVERY DAY. Make it a part of your life and with time, consistency, and effort, you will get clients, you will build client relationships, and you will be successful. Hope this helps.

12

Don’t get stuck in tutorial hell. Make something. Actually make a web application that you, or others will use. You will retain much more knowledge if you are actually creating something, rather than reading or watching a video on it.

13

Certifications don’t matter. Showing you have skills is what matters.

When it comes to getting a job, one of the biggest things will be connections. That being said, getting a remote job as your first job is highly unlikely and right now, with this market, you better be willing to move for whatever opportunity arises. Just hoping to find a remote job or job near you isn’t going to put you in the running for finding much.

14

@Noor

When it comes to getting a job one of the biggest things will be connections. That being said, getting a remote job as your first job is highly unlikely and right now, with this market, you better be willing to move for whatever opportunity arises.

None of these things are making any difference right now even for devs with multiple years of experience and eagerness to work in-office, any hours, anywhere. All my connections who used to fall over themselves to ask me to interview or work with them have apologized that their company isn’t hiring devs for the foreseeable future or has been actively laying them off.

15

@Sawyer
No offense, but that’s very anecdotal. You may still be having trouble and it may still be difficult to find a job, but the people with connections and willing to do those things are going to have a much easier time finding a job.

16

@Noor

the people with connections and willing to do those things are going to have a much easier time finding a job.

Easier times zero is still zero.

And you can ignore my anecdote if you want, but you can’t ignore the countless others and the actual news on the subject which has been very clear all year.

17

@Sawyer
You know there are people getting hired as web developers and software developers every day right? Just because things aren’t working out for you right now and you’re in an echo chamber here where it’s just complaints about not finding jobs doesn’t mean other people aren’t. Saying it’s happening 0% is absolute insanity lol.

18

@Noor
It’s a negligible amount compared to the number getting rejected. Reddit isn’t the echo chamber here - actual job boards and applicant-vs-job reports are.

19

Sawyer said:
@Noor
It’s a negligible amount compared to the number getting rejected. Reddit isn’t the echo chamber here - actual job boards and applicant-vs-job reports are.

It is an echo chamber. There are people literally being hired daily. The reason you don’t realize that is because those aren’t the people coming here to talk about it. The people on Reddit talking about their experience are the ones struggling to find jobs. That’s why it’s an echo chamber. You’re not talking to the ones who are having success but the ones who aren’t and then combining that with your own experience.

20

@Noor
Again - I’m not saying people aren’t getting hired daily, I’m saying the number of those people is currently negligible compared to the number not getting hired for unsustainably long periods of time.