What I did different

I spent the last 7 months researching how others got hired as a developer without a CS degree. Of course I found Joshua Kemp, but I actually found Josh because of a comment on a blog from Jeffrey Baird on a blog. Jeff is actually from the same area I am and got a job within 6 months and outlines how he did it in his blog. He eventually got a position in New York by email his resume to a meetup group in the area. There are others I have found who "made it," but I wanted to take this post outline what I did, which was sourced from others.

Make yourself public:

It really boggles my mind when I see people want to learn code to eventually get a job but don't have a Github account. Bitbucket is great because it offers free private repos, but you will need public repos. My Github is my resume, I had no experience in the industry. Everything I coded, even tutorials were sent to a repo with a README.md. I actually read a blog from a individual who started within weeks of me, he explained that he was starting code but did not want to make anything public until it was good enough. I hate to break it to you guys, but your code is always going to suck while you are learning. My code still sucks, but my repos show a history of my code getting slightly better. Do not sell yourself short by not making your code public, if you are working main project as I did, with Chuych, make it public. Some of my best code is in Chuych, because it is something close to my heart and I cared about it. If I hid it because the code was bad or because I thought someone was going to steal my idea (which most likely will not happen, because the code is not that great) I would not have anything to talk about in my interviews.

If you have no experience and you are just now entering into your journey, push your repos to Gihub, its one of the best things I did... rant over, But this actually leads me to my next rant though.

Blog: 

Write a blog and be consistent about it. I completed the Bloc program back in March, but when I started there was very little info on the program. I searched quora, reddit, google, etc. and there was no one out there I could reach out to about the program, except the people I was paying and I did not want to be sold on it, I wanted an honest opinion. I took it upon myself to make this blog a very vocal place on my experience with Bloc for that reason and countless people have reached out to me on the program. Now the information is a little more available, and the program has exploded into other apprenticeships outside of Rails, but I have also made a lot of valuable friendships because I blogged on Bloc.

In addition to my Bloc blogging, I obviously wrote on my other experiences which actually made it heaps easier for hiring managers and HR recruiters to set you apart from others. Think about this, there is a clear need for Rails developers, but there is a lot of avenues for people to get those jobs. What makes different from the other person if both of you completed the Hartl tutorial or completed X bootcamp? You have to stand out in some way and that is your blog, twitter, and G+. I am not planning on making my entire story public as of yet, but there were other companies interested in me, which I let know of my decision on Monday. One of the two actually got wind of my story prior to me reaching out. I was very vocal on the Facebook and G+ communities, as well as received retweets on Twitter from notable people in the community. My name was out there, even though it was a small name, I was stoke when the companies being mention said they remember seeing me here and there. The Ruby Community is smaller than you think and you have an opportunity to help set its course in the next few years, be vocal because you never who is listening. 

Also don't get hung up writing the best post ever when you first start, because nobody will read it. Just write, I wrote a lot about my decision of choosing to code, because it helped validate me in doing this. I also stayed consistent in writing on set dates, which also pushed me to code soI would have something to write about.

Apply Yourself:

When I applied to the 5 initial jobs, my goal was to gain experience on interviewing. My background is in sales, so I have no problem with rejection which is another reason why I found it so easy to be public about everything. When I was looking for my first round of interviews I knew I had to get my goal of 3 interviews by the end of April, so I first created a simple resume but did not put too much time into it. I just looked a other descriptions and added the information that was relevant to me. I then applied to a few jobs online. *FYI, you are not going to find your first job applying online. You 1/1000 people applying for that one job and chances are slim that you have experiences that jumps off the page, but its still worth a try. What I wish I did for all the jobs I applied to online, and its what I did for the job I got, is reach out to someone in the company. Today a lot of influential people that are very public on Twitter and blogs, just reach out to them directly and they will probably appreciate it enough to grant you an interview.

I emailed the CEO of the company I am now working for, it is kind of bold, but it leads me to my point, What makes you different from everyone else who did the same tutorial you did? I actually reach ed out on Twitter first and then applied online, but received no answer after a week. I then emailed and received an interview the next day! I highly recommend following up on every application this way, but don't become annoying, because as I said the community is small.

Make Friends:

I do not have a single friend in Ruby that I had previous to my journey, I actually don't think most of my friends knew I was pursuing a career in Rails until yesterday when I posted it on Facebook. I actually kept this blog for 7 months and only 1 close friend actually read it, which is fine because the purpose for this blog was to get a job and it succeeded. My point is find others who are going through the same journey and befriend, it could be awkward, they could be in a different country, but the friends you make today could be the door to job you get in 7 months.

Within 2 weeks of me deciding to learn programming I used completed a few sections of Rails for Zombies and found out that Code School was located in Orlando (90 minutes from my house). I also discovered what a meetup was saw they met one Thursday out of the month. I drove out there after work that Thursday and met Greg and Olivier was blown away how cool the office and everyone was. That night actually met 2 of my future coworkers who told me about the company I now work for. At the time they were the only 2 Rails developers in the company and were looking for people to hire. They mentioned the job, but I obviously only had 2 weeks of experience and was not interested in moving 90 minutes from my house (I hate commuting). Fast forward to 6 months later and I ran into them again at Ancient City Ruby, where they again mentioned the job. At this point I was looking to interview anywhere, just for the experience. That is only one story of a connection I made, and this blog is getting a tad bit long winded so I will stop there but just check out the previous I made and you will see my friends listed at the bottom.

During the intro to Ruby Newbies I make it a point to put my info out there, so anyone can connect with me. There are about 100+ Ruby Newbies that participate, but only about 4 people I talked on a regular basis. I need more friends, so join me on Ruby Newbies, even just to hang out, I don't mind. Reach out and ask me questions, some things I dont think to write about just because I don't have time, but there might be something I could that could be beneficial to you getting a job.

My goal for the Ruby group is to have a place where new Rubyst can connect and stay connected, as well as learn Ruby, but I have quite got that connected aspect yet, which is why the project is open sourced. My idea is to maybe start a Ruby partner program where people can connect and pair together on problem sets, but more on that to come.

I wasn't kidding about writing a book (long blog post) I will be writing about my failures tomorrow. This will week will probably be blog posts summarizing my experiences learning and getting a job as a Rails developer.

Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a comment