It took him 6 months to go from nothing to a paid software developer.

You know my story. Senior developer at the age of 30, transitioning from an English teacher without a CS degree. But today, the focus won't be not just on me, but on one of my junior developers who got his start at my company last year in winter. I'm sure you've seen them around. In this video, we're going to talk about the steps we took to get our first coding job and talk about what's next after getting that job. So if you find this video useful or valuable to you, please share and like and comment the words job ready. So I know you've watched it all the way through. This is Mini. He's a. He was a developer. We started him out as an intern at the company I was working at. He was a great addition and I think you guys have seen him around Discord and a couple other videos. So I'll just let him get started.

Guys, welcome. Welcome to the. I guess the video. You know, this is a new format for me. Thanks for having me on this amazing channel. We're growing. Yeah. So last year I was very, very new to programming, so I'm a very new developer still. But without Phil, let's just say without Phil, I wouldn't have gotten my start. And pretty much the way it went was I was in a boot camp in Korea. I think it's the same one that Phil went to. And I was. I worked really hard. So I was very close with my teacher at the time who was also very close with Phil. So through him, his name is Scott. He's also in the discord. He was my teacher. He was able to connect me to Phil. I guess Phil was looking for junior developers at the time. Right. And I was not qualified because I was like, fresh out of bootcamp and I didn't even know react at the time. Right. So, you know, I remember like going to. To this cafe, right. Meeting Phil, and he took out his pen and paper, he started writing down notes of what I've done and stuff like that made me all scared. Right. Imposter syndrome went through the roof at that time. But surprisingly, even though I was not able to make the cut as a real junior developer, he did give me an opportunity, an internship opportunity. So I'm very thankful for that. And I think through that I learned so much, I was able to share one thing.

He did pass the algorithm test that I gave you, though.

I did pass it. Yeah.

The sliding window, remember?

Yeah.

So I just want to say that. So, yeah, I did see some potential. You know what I mean?

There you go. There you go. I'm not, I'm not a total right boys. But anyways, I was able to pass that. I guess I don't even remember that. But yes, just through that like I was able to shadow Phil and some of the developers that were working there, they were working on a really big social media project, right? Social media application project with like, I don't know, hundreds of thousands of users, right, that were going to be on it. But pretty much like being there on the job, like I learned, learned the things I needed to know. Like I can't absorb all the information at that time right away, but just by observing the stack they were doing, just observing like how they were doing it, you know, the project management to all the meetings and everything, the organization, I was able to like absorb all the information, right, that goes into a company basically. And with that mindset and with that knowledge I was able to study on my own. You know, I remember like just countless of hours like just trying to catch up to that level. And I think it was then around like Christmas time that Phil had like a simple website that he needed to make that he actually let me work on it, which really helped me a lot because like I learned how to start a project all the way to deployment. So that really helped me have like the understanding of from start to finish what goes into a full project. And then from there I was able to finally put something on my resume where it was like actually hosted somewhere, right? I don't know where that went. Like the Pumna project, I don't know where that went. But I was able to say that hey, I did this for a company and from there on I was able to apply to places and just because I could say, hey, I worked at this place and I have this product like I've done was the hiring process was so much easier after, afterwards, like I was able to get opportunity to do the same thing that I did at Phil's company to get my first job. So that's pretty much like the short form story of how everything turned out for me. But pretty much like one of the biggest things I think that really helped me was networking. Without me being friends with Scott, without him being friends with Phil, I would not have been able to get my foot in the door. Before that I remember like I sent out so many applications, but I wouldn't say like my resume wasn't good enough. I think I had a really good projects on there. It's just that these days I think networking is like top tier Priority for anyone. Because, like, I guess, like, people have trust issues. I don't know. But. And rightfully so. Like, boot camp graduates. Maybe they're not good enough. I don't know. I know for sure I wasn't good enough. And without the knowledge that I got from the internship, I wouldn't be able to know exactly where, like, I stood at the level that I needed to be. So that really helped me. But, yeah, networking without meeting Phil, I wouldn't have been able to get the opportunities afterwards.

Nice story. That was awesome. I'm glad I could help you on your path, because I didn't think I was, like, that much help, to be honest. Like, I was just, you know, I was, like, focused on my own job, you know, I was, like, trying to, like, give you tasks that are going to challenge at the right level. Like that quotes project. That was fun. And, yeah, the pulmonary is actually still up, so if you ever want to check it out, you can check it out. But, yeah, just appreciate all that, all the kind words. But now, like, you know, I'll tell my story about my first job as well. So I went to the boot camp, right, the boot camp that you went to that Scott was teaching at. And I'm. I went there. You know, I worked really hard. I networked. I went to the Christmas parties that Alex was throwing or whatever, like, the. And I just networked as hard as I could. And I met this guy. Alex is the CTO of the bootcamp, by the way. So. And I met this guy. And then, like, a couple months later, like, after I graduated or like, right as I was graduating, I was finishing up the project, he called me, and he was like, oh, there's an opportunity. If you go to this WeWork up in. @ this place. Just go there at this time. And I went there super blindly, you know, like, super, like, naive, you know, just going to this job interview, and it seemed very official because it's at WeWork, and WeWork is pretty expensive. But I get there, and they're like, oh, yeah, dude. Matt Champagne, he's my friend. We're getting this place for free, blah, blah, blah. And he a very good network, too. And I remember him bringing pizzas, and I just sat there, and he brought up his pitch deck, and he blew us away with his idea that was, like, very. What's the word I'm looking for? Very revolutionary. It was trying to make. Put prices on office buildings with AI and predict, like, what prices it would go at. And he was like, okay, this has, like, a lot of interest. But then at the end he was like but we have no money and we can't pay you. So that's like I just, I was.

Like building it up.

But then like yeah, like it was just an idea at that point and I remember I had two things going on. I that one I could have worked on with a pretty high level developers and stuff. So I was like pretty excited and I got that startup. I put up a, I put in a startup application to this startup incubator and I got selected actually. So I remember I had a year long office that was free so I was like okay, I can work on both projects and do outsourced projects at the same time. So I networked through that startup center and I was there for like four years at this startup Startup center sold Global startup center. We used the office and we used all the resources we could all the free coffee that we could get and I worked on both projects. I worked on this reservation tet reservation software that I was working on and then I was working on Zyland like the real estate company that I was working working as Xylen was getting better and better. I always tell the story, you know that. So before I get into there I'm like honestly they were just looking for any develop I'll just say this like outright like they're just looking for any developer to work for free to be honest. And I think a lot of landscape is like that but a lot of ideas are shit, you know what I mean? They're not good and they're filled with and they're dreamers and they're doers and as long as you find the doer I think like of and is a good idea. I think it's worth a shot. If you have no experience at least you'll get the experience. At least you'll. Your GitHub activity will obviously reflect and everything will be. You'll be able to like if they're good at networking, they're going to all the events and stuff. I think they'll try to bring in more developers and then you get to be in business meetings working at startups. Just one thing, I don't think the interview process was that hard. I mean I did interview but I mean I you know I just said hey, I work hard and I just showed up and I was just dedicated and that's what it was also like so my first job and I got that experience like it was a bulk of experience. I worked there for like two and a half, three years. We went from an idea of nothing to taking angel investment, building out mvp, building out a working product, making the data sellable to the banks. And it was. It was very interesting, you know, and it was a cool process. It was a. It was a shit ton of meetings. It was. But I gained a lot of experience and I was able to, through my network, get other jobs and opportunities. But, yeah, that was my first job and I was getting about double experience because I was doing outsourced projects as well because obviously they didn't have money, so I need to make more money on the side. So I was just doing both and keeping my stomach as full as I could.

Yeah, no, I just. The common thing between that and my story was I think we were both willing to work almost for free, basically.

Yes.

To get that. Like, I don't know.

I think I just want to say one thing. I still did give you a couple hundred dollars out of my pocket. He did.

He did give me, like, give me like 400 bucks actually, like every month.

No. Or.

Yeah, yeah. Off to the side, he was like, it was a paid internship. Like, it was like 400 bucks a month, you know? So, like, I want to talk about, like, like.

But yeah, like, I, like, I. I didn't feel good about just like, free, so. That's.

Right. Right.

Yeah.

You know, that was. That was good, man. I could at least eat the bus while learning, you know what I mean? But I also, that whatever you just said right now, like, it really triggered me to talk about this as well, is I also, like, on my road to route to my first job, I made like, websites for, like a dollar for some of my friends. Right. There's another company, like Victoria's company in Korea. It's a designer company. You know, I offer to make a free, you know, but for like, basically a dollar, you know, just to say that I got paid, you know, like, that's.

I. I want to build on that too. Because you don't ever want to do work for free because that cheapens your skill.

Right, Right.

As long as you can say, hey, I got paid for this. Makes it sound more like, gives you a little bit more responsibility as well. Even if it's just a dollar, like you say. Right. At least you say you got paid for a project and you're not. Right. So that's. That's. That's really good point, I think, Minnie.

Yeah. So I think there's like a fantasy where, like, you know, I think 20 YouTubers on, like, programming as well. Programming YouTubers, they, like, got into Got a very high pay job right away. But I think those days are sort of over now.

Right.

Like it's, it's hard to transition right away from even like a college degree to a first paying, high paid job, six figures.

So I mean, yeah, I guess so it is possible. Right. But I mean a hundred thousand dollars isn't what a hundred thousand dollars used to be.

True.

Just in 2017, let's say too.

Right, right, right.

That is something taken into account. But you know, like in America, like a lot higher. If you're definitely at one of the big companies like Fang, it could, it could do well and that just being an intern at one of those big companies, people want to hire you, you know. But I think gaining especially like for me because I was like 29:30 when I was like making that conversion. Right. And anything to grab experience and just it's not like I want to put like, oh, I made a to do list on my application or my resume. I want to actually put things that are actually things that I'm proud about that I can say that I did. And when like one thing the interview is always going to ask you, like, what is something you're proud and what are some like conflicts you had while building it? And it's like a very like, it's like, okay, I'm proud about this, but when I built it, at first I built it like because I didn't know how to code. But then I refactored it to be better and like, and as you learn more, I think you can add newer things and like make things more optimized. But they're always going to ask that kind of question, you know, like something you're proud about. And like you. I think I even asked you that too, right? No, you did even like, what do you like about coding? And then what are some struggles that you feel about coding or you know what I mean? Like, and then kind of answer that question pretty well. So that is just foreshadowing for our next like a future video that we're going to do. So I think, yeah, I mean, and some advices after getting your first job is just soak it up, man, as, as much as you can. Right? Like Minnie did. So he soaked up all the knowledge that he could get. I basically, if I gave him a task, you do it and no questions asked, you know, and I think that's pretty important to show because as soon as you start talking back or people are like, dude, I don't even want to teach you anymore. You know what I mean like, I don't mean, I mean that in like the kindest way. Like no, like I'll teach you no matter what. But I, or I think you know like the senior developer, how they want you to do it is probably how you should do it. Like it's kind of like a teacher, right? Like if you ask him, hey, why do I have to do long division in this way when I have a calculator or something, they're going to be like, dude, I, I'm teaching you this for a reason.

Yeah.

So just I think be open minded and don't be stubborn and just keep trying to move forward.

You got to trust the person that you're working under.

Trust process. Right. Because even you. Like I remember one instance where one of the other developers, he was a junior developer too or like a mid developer. Bill.

Yeah.

Nice guy though. But he was like, why don't you just run Live Server with your HTML and then run your Express server? And I was like, no, I am teaching him that Node Server can run serve static files and this is all part of the process and then we're going to move that to React and then you'll run two servers.

Yeah.

And yeah, I don't know, it's all, it's all, it's all part of a process.

Right.

Like the greatest tutorial is when you're like, dude, I don't know why I'm learning this. And you just kind of push on and then at the end everything connects.

Yeah. Right.

And that's, that's like the masterpiece you're trying to like feeling you're trying to get like I don't know, I'm learning this. I don't, I don't know, I'm learning this. And at the end, can you learn this to connect this and to connect this and then it's just like all one piece in the end. And that's like the sign of a great tutorial. Something that I'm hoping we can create as well. So let us keep going.

I think the biggest thing, if you're like already if you got your first job, the biggest thing you need to overcome is sometimes you just gotta shut up and just do it the way that you're told, you know? Like I'm sure like everyone has like their ego and things like that, but it's good to sometimes not question everything but just trust the process. And you know, as you get experience, you'll figure out your own way. But until that point, just listen to the person that came up before you you know, and yeah, I mean, like, maybe you'll make some improvements to how they've done it, but until then, just, you know, learn as much as you can and just do it the way that they're doing it, because apparently, obviously they wouldn't be in the position that they're in without, you know, having done, you know, having learned good practices. Right. So just trust it. And, you know, I. There's a quote I think. I. I don't know where I got this, but a person who just blindly follows, learns, and does more than a person who questions everything. Right? So, you know, I'm not saying, like, just trust everything, obviously. Right. But just do that until you have enough experience as well.

So, yeah, like, I definitely agree with you, but there are places where meetings happen for a reason where you can put your in. Those chances will come. Right, right. But while, like, some tasks are given, you should kind of just do it the way it's done, you know, but you can give your input during, like, these meetings where your input is allowed, like, or not, you know, like, in the. Right. There's the right place and right time for everything.

Yeah, yeah. I'll say this one more thing. Like, I think the biggest thing that my internsh under you got me through in my first job was, like, during those meetings, like, my first company had, it was like a very small startup. They were making, like, a cloud server. Right. I was making, like, the website for that, marketing for that. But I remember, like, their meetings were very disorganized. So, like, one of the biggest things I learned from your. Your internship was, like, how to set up meetings and how to do them properly. So I was able to kind of tell them, hey, can we do it this way? Maybe then, like, it'll flow better. So already just from those, like, experiences, not even coding, you know, I was able to kind of insert myself better because I knew, like, a good workflow that you've taught. Right. Practiced. So, like, I was able to share that with my company at the time, and they were able to follow that and get more work done. So just like, from that alone itself, I think there was a lot of value from just shadowing you and just seeing how you ran your company. Right. So I just wanted to add that in there real quick.

That's awesome. I mean, there are, like, handbooks for that, you know, like, how to optimize the workflow. Definitely. I, like, take that shit. I take that stuff, like, very seriously. Because meetings are time in the end. Yeah, I need to be coding.

Yeah, they. They actually even gave me, like, a management position for a little bit, too, because, like, they made me pretend I was, like, a senior developer, like, at this one of the meetings, because their actual senior developer couldn't make it. But I was able to speak right? So, like, they put me there and.

Awesome.

It wasn't awesome, because I was. It was like a four hour meeting, bro. But, yeah, thank you for that, like, teaching me how to, like, say the right things at the right time.

Basically, you learn. You learned it yourself.

You're fine.

All right, so, conclusion?

Yeah.

First job is always the hardest one. Once you get your feet in the door, people will be willing to give you more opportunities. Remember, if we can do it, you can do it, too. Coding lives.