Newbie Web Developer - 33 & starting from scratch - Need Advice

Hi Marcus, I was in the same situation not long time ago. Here is my experience.

Was unemployed, no experience in the web industry, and no real skills to sell myself to web employers. All I had is some skills on graphics softwares, but nothing related to the web so far. I had some basics from a previous course for coding, but...honestly, it didn't help me much, I had the impression to have a semi-knowledge, so when you have an interview (and you are honest enough to not lie), I knew I couldn't do the jobs, and I couldn't get any.

I looked on the net, and found Treehouse. I loved the atmosphere, and the first videos I watched caught me to pay for the account. I started last August, took me about 1 month to end the webdesigner track (HTML/CSS/Javascript), and one more month to end the PHP developper track (PHP, business, design, Mysql, etc...).

Still no experience so far, but enough precise knowledge to have self-confidence that I can do the job (and if I can't, I always can look again at the courses, what I do often, I admit). I had 2 interviews last november, and got 2 job propositions, one as a polyvalent multimedia employee in a public institution, and one as a part-time webmaster in a small association. I took the last one, and here I am. I'm still a newbie, but I have enough time, no pressure, and I'm trying my best to apply treehouse courses and tips, to make good and robust code, and master it.

With this, my goal is to have enough experience for other jobs.

So took about about 3 months from starting point to get a first job. In the meantime, Treehouse provided new courses (really good stuff), especially for design and business skills (I recommend the soft skills course, a killer), giving me more skills to improve mysef.

What I can say so far is, I don't regret having started Treehouse courses, gave me a turnaround in my professional life.

Hope it'll help.

Hi Marcus!

First of all, congratulations to you for stepping up and making the life decision to make a change. I did the exact same thing! But, first off let me say one thing; if you have been importing and/or direct shipping items from China and facilitating sales through eBay for 10 years I would say you definitely have skills. I have no clue where to even start doing something like that. It also takes a great deal of organization, communication, commitment, and perseverance. That being said, your ability to maintain sales through eBay for 10 years shows me that you are able to commit to an idea. As an employer, this holds value. I cannot tell you how many times I have interviewed people and their resumes list 20 jobs lasting no longer than 6 months a piece. Although they have a college degree, I'm wary to the fact that they were unable to maintain a position. So... don't sell yourself short, you have talents and skills you just need to acknowledge them.

About 4 years ago I did the exact same thing as you. I was tired of my job, felt since I didn't go to college I had no marketable talents and I sought out a change. I knew I wanted to program, but I had no idea where to start. A friend of mine randomly turned me on to Ruby on Rails, promising me how easy it was to learn. So, I jumped online, bought some books and signed up for some affordable online courses similar to treehouse. I'm not going to lie, it took a while for me to grasp the concepts of programming and since I didn't have a teacher or anyone else to lean on it took a little longer than most people. I would say I finally grasped most of the concepts (anyone who says they know ALL of the concepts is a liar!) after about a year. But, in that time I was working a full time job!

Since then, I have risen to the position of "Director of IT" at my company where I oversee three teams of developers and two designers. I work closely with the developers because I understand their lingo a bit better.

So to answer your questions...

1. Understand that "web design" is different than being a Graphic Artist. I really appreciate that Treehouse makes that distinction. Designing a webpage isn't always about how it looks, but rather how it's navigation is setup, how you drive your readers to accomplish goals, or more importantly how you can get your visitors to accomplish what YOU want them to. When you take that knowledge and use it with the skills of a Graphic Artist, you can really get something incredible. So yes, it's a good thing to learn!

2. See above!

3. Yes, and I now make a very comfortable living for myself, my wife and my two daughters. It took me roughly 2 years to really settle in.

4. (Note: I do not work for Treehouse) Treehouse is a little geared more towards beginners. But remember that you have to crawl before you can walk. It fits a huge niche market for individuals like yourself to take initiative and build the foundation you will need to continue to grow. Heck, I feel that I know programming concepts pretty well, but I still maintain my Treehouse account because I enjoy the variety of tutorials. I'm currently working through the Business section and learning a whole lot of new things which I will be applying to my wife's new company.

Sorry for the long answer Marcus. The beer from the SuperBowl is lingering I guess, but really I was eager to give you my 2 cents after reading your post. I think it's great what you're doing and wish you the best of luck on a very, very fun and exciting learning adventure.

One last thing to note too... If you see the link in the bottom left of your screen "Developer at Treehouse". You should click it and look at what they request as an application. First of all, no resumes (I love that), secondly they don't seem to care (I could be wrong?) if you have a degree. What they are interested in is your knowledge/skill level, your communication skills and your ability to problem solve. There are lots of companies like Treehouse that understand just because a person did not attend a college or university, does not mean they're less talented than those whom did. Who knows... one day you could work at Treehouse?

Sorry for the super long answer!!

1. It's worth learning as much design as you find interesting and valuable. As an independent worker, you'll often find yourself coming up with jobs where you'll need to step over the border between design and development. If you end up working in a shop, you'll often find yourself having to argue with creatives or other devs about an interface point or something and the more informed you are in design, the better arguments and decisions you can make. This goes the same for learning server stuff. It's valuable, just don't spend all your time with it.

2. Design can absolutely be learned and it has little to do with artistic ability. You may not design a ton of things yourself but you can train yourself to understand design and typography. It's incredibly valuable. Most of my work has come from being able to speak with designers at a deep level about design. I only design myself maybe 1-2 print things and websites a year but I have a lot of input on the designs I work with.

3. I have zero official computer credentials and I make a well above median salary and pay zero in healthcare costs for my family largely based on references and portfolio. I also make another 30 to 50K a year freelancing on nights and weekends depending on how much work I'm willing to take on. I do not feel overworked around the lower number at all.

4. "Beginners" encompasses a wide range of skills and the current Treehouse content will get you to the point where you can read documentation, books, and code yourself to learn. You won't really want to sit and watch videos and do exercises by that point anyway. It's good to learn from different sources and learn to get into reading official documentation as soon as you can so even if Treehouse does expand into more advanced topics, you would want to pursue other sources anyway.

Just chiming in here... I know it's a bit socially unacceptable to still live with your parents, but that's all it is... a social formality. I say, as long as you don't hate it, and as long as you're not "bumming it up," it's a good thing to live WITH your parents and not OFF your parents... if that makes sense. And to those people who think that just because someone lives with their parents that it makes them a "loser" or undesirable in any way... screw you! You don't know anything about their situation. Maybe they get along great with their parents. Maybe they take care of their parents. Maybe they reduce costs and donate to charity because they live with their parents.

Also, don't think you're climbing the social latter just because you finally moved out of mums. There are a lot of good reasons to leave home, and there are equally a lot of bad reasons as well. Most importantly, do what you WANT to do, not what you THINK you should do.

Okay, I've ranted enough. Go Treehouse!

whoops posted in the wrong spot.

Hi Marcus,

I, too, am in a similar boat as you. I'm almost 30 and have been stuck in the restaurant industry for the last 7+ years. It's tough to get out of, because despite inherent and acquired skills, most employers see "Bartender" on a resume and assume you can't transpose your talents.

Through Treehouse, I'm hoping to build a knowledge base and leverage these skills into employment opportunities. I'm still on my 2-week trial thing but if you've got the motivation to keep plugging away you'll be all right. We're all on this journey together, my man.

All the best.

Thank you everybody for your answers and insight, it has all being very helpful.

I have one more question, I'm looking to buy a domain that'll act as a portfolio. Is it a good idea for the domain name to be my full name or maybe just initials and surname ? Also is there any advantage in going for a .com/.info over a .co.uk (I'm based in the UK)?

I'm not an expert, someone will have a better answer than me. However, my opinion is: it's up to you, how you want to sell yourself.

You may have a classic approach with a full name, or initials & cie...but you could as well have a nickname (but it has to be cool ^^). It can be something representing you, or just a brand name.

I would chose a nickname for my portefolio, even if it may seem that for googling you it's not optimum, but it means that you have a personality, and you have thought of your marketing image.

For the .com or .co.uk, depends on the clients pool you are aiming for. If you know that it will be local, .co.uk might be enough. Else go for a .com.

Thanks guys, I think I'll definitely go for a dot com but still undecided on going for initials or full name. I won't be making anything for a little while yet so I got time to decide.

Now at 1000 points and quite enjoying it. Looking forward to the latter stages of CSS as the content seems more interesting than the selectors etc I've just worked through. Then onto Aesthetics (I need this) and then the responsive site :)

Hey guys! I hope my Trello board helps! I have spent hours upon hours coming up with a complete checklist for managing a design project from start to finish! Tell me what you think, I really hope it helps someone :)

Website Design Project Template