Hi Devon,
My name is Alonso. I will try to summarise my situation as short as possible. I am 29 years old and soon turning 30 in June. I have worked all my life for NGOs. I spent 5 years in Korea and that’s where I felt that I needed some change. I don’t remember how but I started learning about programming through Solo Learn app on the phone, starting with Python and I liked it. I remember spending hours reading the community Q&A for different topics until late at night in order to understand those difficult topics. I felt I joined this new world of coding and programming geeks which has a different skill set and thinking from what I was used too. I then moved on to Javascript since I got more interested in Web Apps.
I think the thing that drove me to programming was that Idea of building an app that could reach many people and influence their lives with something meaningful. All the fundamental knowledge I got from Tutorials on Udemy and other free resources. It has been 2 years of learning and I like learning new stuff and new technologies. I feel I have gotten used to the technologies out there and how they work in a nutshell. The problem I have is that is so hard for me to start something on my own or to do something without a tutorial or with the help of an instructor.
I have thought a lot about it and sometimes I think is not related to the programming itself and must be something about me. Sometimes I feel it is the fear of failure or disappointing myself and others. I have gained a lot of knowledge, some of my friends tell me that I do know a lot, to the point of studying algorithms and data structures. But I lack my own projects and the confidence to build something useful and worthy in order to give to the job interviewers. Currently, I am living in the US, New Jersey, it has been almost a year since I moved here. I know there is a lot of opportunities around and I have just to find a way to break through my temporary block. Would appreciate your help and advice anytime.
Thanks for doing this and looking forward to the mentoring.
Wants to intern or work at big company. Already worked on algorithms and data structures but probably needs some practice. Told him he could make a career without that if he’s interested. He was interested in freelancing. Told him I would follow up with a roadmap.