Little Known Secrets For Getting Your Dream Tech Job Without A Fancy Degree

A few years ago, I moved to a new country. I was unemployed and did not know what else to do. I know you would say, ‘Start a Business’. It’s not as easy as it is to blurt out. Business takes time to grow before it becomes a steady source of income.

I wrote a new resume. I re-wrote a new one. I deleted that one and wrote another one with different formatting and new keywords. I started and job. Yes, but please don’t say congratulations yet because this was a job of finding a job which is the hardest thing ever. I searched for jobs on the internet. I would apply to more than 10 jobs a day with the same resume. I later discovered that I was being stupid by applying to all these jobs with the same resume. Dumb, right?

Lesson learned: Craft my resume to have all the necessary keywords highlighted in the job description I was applying to.

mindsetnuggets.com

I created separate folders for each job I applied to. The folders, summing up to 300 or more contained the job descriptions, the resume, and the cover letter I applied with. No calls yet. No interview invitations yet. Which means no job. My thoughts then would be, “Why have all the witches and wizards in my village decided to not end this witchcraft meeting on my head”? Crazy thought, hey!

Forget that story, you are your own witchcraft. Your ignorance or lack of knowledge would be your own witchcraft, my brothers, and sisters. Until you discover that you need to reset your mind, learn new things and have an open mind to the universe, you will never get ahead. That condition you have been pegged in for many years will persist until you think outside the box. Yes, I was in a box. The box of my mind. Not witchcraft box.

Things changed when I was able to convince myself to learn a new skill. Let this my Geologist dream job go into hiatus. Chart a new path. A path totally new. A path full of uncertainty and having no one to guide me. Read to the end to find out the courses I took to veer off the Geology lane to the fast highway of Software Development/Engineering.

Enough of my story. Let’s get into the HOW. Shall we? I heard you say, “what are we waiting for”?

STEP ONE: IDENTIFY THE JOBS IN HIGH DEMAND IN YOUR LOCATION

When searching for jobs, a search result indicated that jobs that required programming knowledge were in high demand. Not only that, with the ever-increasing dependency and development of modern technologies in our world today, one doesn’t need to search too far to know that jobs around the technology industry are not going away anytime soon. Web development, mobile application development, data analysis, robotics and artificial intelligence can no longer be taken for granted.

Hmm! This is it! The tech industry. I believed I had found that lane worth changing to. How do I get there? No idea.

Who do I know that had made this switch in my circle of friends and influence? None

STEP TWO: CREATE OR FIND A COMMUNITY TO SUPPORT YOU ON THE JOURNEY

Here’s what I did:

• Downloaded the app; MEETUP and signed up.
• Search for events where tech industry experts and enthusiasts meet. Most of them were free. In my case, I registered in the Technology group.
• Found upcoming events and simply clicked “Going”.
• Save the date and made sure to attend the event which mostly happened at night between 7 and 9 pm.

When I went for these events, I did not just sit alone. I went out and talked to people. Introduced myself. I asked for informational interviews.

In one of the Meetup events, I met a man who happened to be a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in a software development company in my city. One question I asked that helped shape my path was, “What would be your advice to someone eager to start a career in the software development industry without any knowledge of programming”? He told me to start with software testing. He offered lots of advice and assured me that what the companies are looking for are people with great attitude, excellent soft skills, willingness to learn and not afraid to take on challenges.

Can you mentor me, I asked? He agreed. He would send me weekly questions to solve. Reviewed my code with me and explained to me how best to approach the problems. This encouraged me to learn to program or code.

STEP THREE: REGISTER FOR A COURSE IN A TRADITIONAL SCHOOL VS ONLINE COURSE

I applied to a fast track software development course in a polytechnic in my city. The course is designed to be a 6-month intensive program. Classes were supposed to start from 8 am to 5 pm with the possibility of staying back after classes for extra two hours to solve group projects and assignments. You are expected to only work for 15 hours a week. Tuition was $13, 800. I got the admission oh. But…

Reaction/Analysis Time: I have two school-aged kids and one toddler. How would I pay for pre and post-school hours childcare for three children, if I wasn’t going to work for 6 months? No way. It would just be a disaster. I rejected the admission offer.

Online Courses To The Rescue!

With all the google search and asking too many questions on LinkedIn and Meetup events, I got to know about many websites I could learn to code for free and some for a small fee. Here is the list of courses I took that helped me become a software developer.

Paid courses: All these courses put together cost me about $200. Note that I did not buy them all at once. I started with teamtreehouse.org and the software testing courses.

COURSES THAT HELPED ME BECOME A SOFTWARE TESTER AND DEVELOPER

SOFTWARE TESTING

• SELENIUM and Jenkins with JAVA
• SOAPUI for mobile app testing
• SELENIUM WebDriver with Python (Intermediate)

MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT:

• iOS Development
• Android Development
• Teamtreehouse (You can learn any programming language here for $25 per month. I only learned for 4 months and stopped paying when I discovered Udemy)

PYTHON PROGRAMMING:

• The Python Bible | Everything You Need To Program In Python 
• The Python Mega Course: Build 10 Real World Application
• Solve 100 Python Exercises (This will help solidify your knowledge of python)
• Automate the Boring Stuff with Python
• Projects in Python for Intermediate Students

DATA SCIENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING WITH PYTHON AND R

• Machine Learning A-Z™: Hands-On Python & R In Data Science

I am currently taking this course and this has helped me a lot in creating a career path in Machine Learning Engineering in addition to courses I take at Datacamp

FREE COURSES:

1). Freecodecamp.org

Learn Web development by creating exciting projects as you learn for free. You are expected to complete 1409 coding challenges, 30 projects and earn 6 certificates all for FREE. It will cost you only courage, time and the zeal to keep going even in the face of tough coding challenges. They don’t want your money. It is a course worth taking. You also have the opportunity to get training on Coding Interview Prep (Thousands of hours of challenges)

Web Developer Skills You Will Learn From Freecodecamp

• Responsive Web Design Certification (300 hours) 
• Javascript Algorithms And Data Structures Certification (300 hours)
• Front End Libraries Certification (300 hours)
• Data Visualization Certification (300 hours)
• APIs And Microservices Certification (300 hours)
• Information Security And Quality Assurance Certification (300 hours)

2). Tutorialpoint.com

3). Sololearn.com (You can learn on your mobile phone)

When I ran into trouble and didn’t know who to ask, I found help on stackoverflow.com and google search.

STEP 4: USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO FIND LIKE-MINDED INDIVIDUALS

Twitter is an excellent place to find people with the same interest as you without being bombarded with news feeds and timelines you are not interested in. In my case, I found the following hashtags #100daysofcode #girlswhocode #womenintech #womenwhocode #freecodecamp. The #100daysofcode is a challenge that required you to spend at least one-hour writing code, not including tutorial time and commit your work on GitHub (the world’s leading open source software development platform). This challenge and freecodecamp have created a lot of buzz and community around coding in different parts of the world. Connect with people with job titles in the field you want to work in. Tell them what you’ve done and what you can do. Request for coffee meetings with them but be ready to hear a lot of NOs.

STEP5: CREATE  A PORTFOLIO AND APPLY FOR JOBS

If you have a portfolio of your projects, share that on your LinkedIn profile. invite your connections to take a look at your profile. Go out and search for job in-person and online. Get a list of 20 companies in or outside your city, in the industry you are interested in. Pay them a visit with your well-written resume and online project portfolio. If you cannot find any of these companies where you live. Look for companies recruiting for similar jobs and offer to work remotely. Internships are also a great way to learn, get a foot in the door and get referrals as well. 

This post is only a case study of how I upgraded my skills to get the job I want in the software industry. It can be replicated in so many other fields like Project Management, Data Science and Analytics, Business Intelligence, Digital Marketing, Financial Analysis and so on. You can take this course if you’re interested in Project Management Course. Find many other great courses that interest you at Udemy by clicking here. Buy the courses that will help you get there. Most of those courses are just the price of Lunch or the cost of hanging out drinking with friends or the cost of the next Asoebi/Makeup/Virgin hair. You can do this. Get up and learn.

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