evantai

Hey, I teach a very popular online course for web developers... would like to help you out and offer it to you for free. If you google Complete Web Developer in 2018, you can message me if interested.

Thank you for the comment martinmoose. Please note that I never mention I am better than the other developers. As a matter of fact I specifically mention that is not the case in the conclusion of the article. What I do say is that with new tools such as React/Redux, you have the ability to become an expert because it is so NEW and long time programmers like yourself are also learning it at the same time as newbies. So in a year time, the difference between you and I when it comes to React/Redux might not be different, despite the difference in years at the job. That is what you should be convincing your interviewer: That your growth potential is higher than the rest.... plus all the other things beyond just technical experience.

You can never just exploit your way to the top. You need more than just interview skills to do that. You need many many more skills. However, most developers that I have met that are fantastic programmers have a real issue interviewing and they never get a chance to demonstrate their true value at a company.

haha possibly. I was never much of a writer. I wouldn't necessarily call it scheming though. It's just trying to increase your odds of success in a system that can be exploited.

Hi NotQuantum, thank you for reading the article. These methods may seem a bit brash, and frankly I agree that they are. However, from my experience I have found that if you don't stand out from the crowd when applying to jobs you lower your chances. At the end of the day, your work ethic and quality of work determines whether you are a successful employee or not, but most people don't even get the chance to show their true value because of the flawed and archaic hiring processes that we have currently in the industry.

I don't think you can get good at anything non-trivial. I think you can become average. That's why I recommended in the article to start working in teams and on real projects. That's when the real growth happens, and that's why you want to get hired as soon as possible. From there, you're on equal footing with everyone else and the rest is ambition.

Well said. Most of us stand on the shoulders of giants.

Hi RUG3Y. From my experience, there are a ton of jobs for the skill-set I have mentioned above in my article. There will be more jobs in metropolitan areas than rural, but you can also find remote friendly workplaces. I've mentioned some places to check out in the article.

As for CS degree I don't have one so you will have to speak with someone that does. In my opinion there is no better learning than when you are employed and working in teams so I prefer that method for practicality purposes.

Thanks for taking the time to read the article mywittyname. You make a valid point, and the more experience I gain, the more I see the barrier to entry being lowered. One thing that counterbalances this barrier to entry is that the development in the industry is exponential right now that even if you enter the field and overcome this barrier, you have to keep going. Resting on your laurels will make you irrelevant quite quickly as you need to constantly learn the new "tools" that come out. So I believe that if you have the ambitious to constantly learn, then you can stay relevant for the next 40 years.

PS I actually do see a lot of value in a CS degree. I find myself spending more and more time reading and learning about general CS theories and concepts lately. I find them extremely useful for expanding my higher level understanding of the field and I think it's really important. I don't think you can truly be a GREAT programmer without them.

Hi jventura, I completely agree with you with the exception of one axiom: efficiency is more important than time spent when learning. If you read the article, I only mention the best way to get your first programming job with the least amount of friction. It takes years and years to truly develop your skills, but I have met many people that get discouraged because of the little progress they seem to be making when they are starting off (especially when they don't come from a computer science background like yourself). I wanted to write this article to show someone how it might be done in order to get those positive reinforcements as soon as possible so they become good developers in the future and they want to put in those years of practice (but efficiently) to get truly proficient.