My Unconventional Coding Story | Self-Taught
Travis Media・32 minutes read
Travis shares his unconventional coding journey from self-taught to professional, facing challenges, and finding success through dedication and hard work. Starting from a dead-end job in data entry, Travis invested in coding boot camps, freelancing, and eventually landed a full-stack software developer role, showcasing his journey through blogging and YouTube content.
Insights
- Learning from successful coders, Travis embarked on a self-taught journey, transitioning from dead-end data entry to a full-stack WordPress developer role, showcasing the importance of determination and continuous learning in coding careers.
- Travis's career trajectory highlights the significance of adapting to market demands, transitioning from WordPress and PHP development to site reliability engineering, demonstrating the value of versatility and willingness to explore new technologies in the tech industry.
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Recent questions
How did Travis start his coding journey?
Travis began by learning CSS and HTML snippets.
What challenges did Travis face while learning to code?
Travis struggled with JavaScript and balancing coding with work and family.
How did Travis transition from learning to freelancing?
Travis started freelancing on Upwork and locally, building websites.
What led Travis to pursue a software engineer role?
Travis felt overwhelmed by administrative tasks in freelancing.
How did Travis secure his current role as a Developer Relations Engineer?
Travis showcased his skills by creating an API with a security flaw.
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Summary
00:00
Travis's Unconventional Coding Journey: From Dead-End to Success
- Travis shares his unconventional self-taught coding journey, emphasizing the importance of learning from others who have succeeded in coding.
- Initially, Travis had no coding experience and believed it was only for those with degrees and strong math skills.
- Travis worked various jobs, including as a park ranger, ice cream scooper, and in radio, but found himself in a dead-end job at LabCorp doing data entry.
- Despite feeling stuck, Travis started a blog and learned CSS and HTML snippets, sparking his interest in coding.
- Facing potential job outsourcing, Travis decided to pursue coding seriously and joined a boot camp called Bloc, investing $15,000 in the program.
- Balancing a full-time job and family, Travis dedicated significant time to coding, learning HTML, CSS, and struggling with JavaScript.
- Travis also took on side jobs on Upwork, gaining experience and earning money with front-end programming tasks.
- While preparing to learn Ruby on Rails in the boot camp, Travis realized it wasn't widely used in his area and opted to drop out, focusing on WordPress and PHP development.
- Through Upwork, Travis landed a part-time full-stack WordPress developer role with a web agency in Colorado, working 30 hours a week alongside his full-time job.
- Travis faced challenges with increased workload due to job outsourcing but found fulfillment and success in his new coding career.
12:11
From Developer to SRE: A Journey
- Worked as a developer for an agency with a senior developer, using tools like Bitbucket for WordPress sites.
- Quit the job after 10 years to pursue freelancing, initially struggling with complex tasks like adding hooks to plugins.
- Started freelancing, building websites on Upwork and locally, eventually reaching out to a web agency for overflow work.
- Documented freelancing journey on a blog and YouTube, despite initial poor video quality, to share learning experiences.
- Transitioned back to corporate space as a software engineer after feeling overwhelmed by administrative tasks in freelancing.
- Applied for jobs on LinkedIn, eventually landing a full-stack software developer role at a company for $90,000.
- Learned scrum and agile methodologies, devops practices, and new technologies like CI/CD and GitLab in the new role.
- Left the job after being the only one handling non-cleared work, facing a lack of new tasks and uncertainty.
- Joined a software company as a site reliability engineer, learning about deploying the ELK stack on Linux servers in Azure.
- Progressed to working with Kubernetes and containers, eventually feeling confident in these technologies after months of learning.
24:19
From SQL to Developer Relations Engineer
- The individual started their career working with SQL scripts on a contract, delving into advanced SQL concepts like cursors and functions for about six months before contemplating their career direction.
- After realizing a passion for creating content through blog posts and videos, they pursued a Developer Relations Engineer role, facing challenges in interviews but ultimately succeeding by showcasing their skills through creating an API with a security flaw, containerizing it, and writing a blog post on fixing the flaw, leading to their current role where they can engage with the community, attend conferences, and continue coding.
