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May 9 2017 08:10am
I have a bachelors in an unrelated field close to kinesiology. Been around athletics, sports, and sciences (mostly bio and physiology related)

I need a plan for my life and i know you can make a good living in this field. Dont get me wrong i love computers and games etc growing up and still do. Im a nerdy athlete. But i have some financial obligations that this kind of career can definitely take care of. I live in toronto so its an expensive city but the salaries here are pretty good for things like javascript devs.

Im wondering if going for front end with html css and javascript strictly would be the best option to get job ready asap in which i can then learn on the job. Im a creative person so i think front end would suit me.

Freecodecamp is pribably going to be my go-to with other random resources if i need more depth on a topic. Any suggestions about any of this guys? Even the pros and cons of sitting all day coding? Whats the typical day like? More meetings vs coding or what?

Appreciate the help from anyone
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May 9 2017 09:12am
One of most harmful things you can do to urself is to think about earning big paycheck before starting something. I suggest to start with something small that you are interested in that fit your strengths that you are REALLY enjoyed. There are many open source projects that you can start to contribute while learning that can start with documentation, testing, art works, fixing simple bugs etc. Almost every of your contribution to those open source projects is open and ranks your earned through the journey that can be seen by everybody. When the time you want to submit a resume, companies will see your contributions and value those. In fact, many companies nowadays requires open source communities involvement. For example, if you like web programming, you can join a web teams in Fedora Linux, Debian or Ubuntu to help maintain their websites.

I have a bachelor degree in architecture, but I starts to learn Linux when it was first introduced in the world by myself, install it, hack it and involve with the community. I had worked in documentation (translation) for GIMP in GNOME project, and then a developer (package maintainer) in Debian. Now, I am working in one of Linux-distro company and get paid.
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May 10 2017 12:39pm
Quote (matthewg9 @ May 9 2017 09:10am)
I have a bachelors in an unrelated field close to kinesiology. Been around athletics, sports, and sciences (mostly bio and physiology related)

I need a plan for my life and i know you can make a good living in this field. Dont get me wrong i love computers and games etc growing up and still do. Im a nerdy athlete. But i have some financial obligations that this kind of career can definitely take care of. I live in toronto so its an expensive city but the salaries here are pretty good for things like javascript devs.

Im wondering if going for front end with html css and javascript strictly would be the best option to get job ready asap in which i can then learn on the job. Im a creative person so i think front end would suit me.

Freecodecamp is pribably going to be my go-to with other random resources if i need more depth on a topic. Any suggestions about any of this guys? Even the pros and cons of sitting all day coding? Whats the typical day like? More meetings vs coding or what?

Appreciate the help from anyone


I have a bachelor's in CS but honestly didn't learn much from the 4 years. I learned 99% of what I know from side projects and on the job learning. Get a solid base built up to "impress" an interviewer and then you're golden.

It's a very demanding field so if you don't work well under pressure or don't like having product owners breathing down your neck every sprint then I'd stay away.
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May 11 2017 03:42pm
I'm also from the GTA and can say the job market is way too competitive to get a programming job without some education to back it up.

I have an advanced engineering diploma and certs and was still in a pool of 60 people for my current position, and the job isn't even glamorous.

This post was edited by ROM on May 11 2017 03:43pm
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May 11 2017 06:39pm
Quote (PuppyMonkeyBaby @ May 10 2017 01:39pm)
It's a very demanding field so if you don't work well under pressure or don't like having product owners breathing down your neck every sprint then I'd stay away.


I think that would depend heavily both on how your present yourself and the company you work at.
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May 11 2017 07:46pm
Quote (waraholic @ May 11 2017 08:39pm)
I think that would depend heavily both on how your present yourself and the company you work at.


Yes probably more true for small start up no?
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May 11 2017 08:29pm
Quote (Zekdawg @ May 11 2017 08:46pm)
Yes probably more true for small start up no?


Definitely true for a startup, but the atmosphere within larger companies can be wildly different also.
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May 11 2017 10:38pm
Quote (ROM @ May 11 2017 05:42pm)
I'm also from the GTA and can say the job market is way too competitive to get a programming job without some education to back it up.

I have an advanced engineering diploma and certs and was still in a pool of 60 people for my current position, and the job isn't even glamorous.


Not going to pretend like i know anything about this field and the market but from the little knowledge i do have, sure it may be competitive but wouldnt that be for like the top 5% of positions? (aka 100k+ a year) because lets be real...i go on indeed.com and type in javascript and there are 2500 jobs posted with that keyword. I type in something else, even in a really in demand field such as nursing...around 1000-1500 jobs posted.

This is for Toronto btw ^^

How is it possible that its that competitive as you say if there are 2500 jobs waiting to be filled at any moment ONLY for javascript devs? whether it be from a jr-sr level or anywhere in between.
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May 12 2017 05:52am
Quote (matthewg9 @ May 12 2017 12:38am)
Not going to pretend like i know anything about this field and the market but from the little knowledge i do have, sure it may be competitive but wouldnt that be for like the top 5% of positions? (aka 100k+ a year) because lets be real...i go on indeed.com and type in javascript and there are 2500 jobs posted with that keyword. I type in something else, even in a really in demand field such as nursing...around 1000-1500 jobs posted.

This is for Toronto btw ^^

How is it possible that its that competitive as you say if there are 2500 jobs waiting to be filled at any moment ONLY for javascript devs? whether it be from a jr-sr level or anywhere in between.


Here is an example of what I was talking about in PM

https://ca.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=f5058d47c718a122&from=serp&prevUrl=https://ca.indeed.com/m/jobs?q=javascript&l=Toronto+ON&start=20&pp=ABQAAAFbZ4rmwAAAAAEMveKsAQEBBjgQZKXgjQhCRrtHNVL3fyrsC2MgjLWoN_c7L8oAbqmAqS7nrcjZLSuMx15W83im

Not sure if link will work. But Junior Programming Dev

Quote
Technical Skills

Strong knowledge of relational databases (Oracle specifically)
SQL query writing
Table indexes to improve database performance
Programming views, stored procedures, and functions
Understanding of data models * Knowledge of Java and Perl required
Some knowledge of Linux shell and shell scripting
Knowledge of web technologies like HTML, CSS, JavaScript
jQuery, Bootstrap experience is an asset * Experience with version control (Git)
Familiarity with Eclipse IDE
Must feel comfortable working in Linux and Windows OS environments
Job Type: Full-time

Salary: $38,000.00 to $40,000.00 /year

Job Location:

Toronto, ON
Required education:

Bachelor's
Required experience:

New Graduate: 1 year


Basically they are looking for a degree, new grad, to get a 38-40k...

This post was edited by ROM on May 12 2017 05:54am
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May 12 2017 07:21am
38-40k hahahahahahahanaa
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