Sure, Devon, I’m always interested in speaking with people in the field. I’ve held various IT positions, from Desktop Support to Business Analyst to Information Security. I’m wanting to make the switch because I’ve had my fill of supporting and policing users—I want to build and create and be creative. It also seems that web dev offers a greater freedom and flexibility than my previous roles, which is definitely attractive. I have a wife and two children and we’re currently a single-income family, which as you might imagine, makes the idea of switching industries a little more daunting and tricky.
As far as where I am in regards to coding, I feel like I have somewhat of a grasp on coding concepts. I use Python at work to build scripts to automate tasks such as collating data from databases and outputting them to excel files, or using the APIs of the tools we use in order to automate scans or reporting. I put in a bit of effort to try to learn Django, but that was confusing. I recently started TheOdinProject’s Javascript/NodeJS curriculum.
What I want to accomplish… front-end web dev seems more fun, but I think I want to set my goal to become a full-stack web dev, as it would allow for greater flexibility. One thing I’m interested in is how you knew when you were ready to take a job and if you have any tips or insight into switching to web dev when gaps in income or health insurance aren’t really an option.
I’d love to have a session w/ you if you have the availability!
Btw, I heard about you via your episode on the CodeNewbie podcast. It was realty insightful. Thank you for sharing your story!
Session Notes
- Send crash course