Self-Taught Developer In Finding Mentors
By: Ann Adaya
Tags: Software, Software Development, Web Design, Web Development, Freelance

The power of having mentors will take you further than you thought.

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“You become who you spend time with” – Tony Robbins

The idea of Mentorship can be of many things to different people, we kind of interpret the idea depending on how we need them to be, and on how we want them to be, in our case, in our world, in Web Development, our mentors are our teachers or at least in this topic, specifically our virtual teachers.

We needed them more than we know, whenever we want to learn something new or pursue something that is out of our comfort zone, it’s really hard to dive into something without tasting the water or not having an idea what is it about, right?

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It would take us a lot of time to build the puzzle without really knowing what we are trying to build, same as diving into Web Development or diving into a certain area in technology without having someone who will serve as our guide, our go-to whenever we encounter problems, our 24-hr go to whenever we are solving some technical issues while debugging.

Mentors, sometimes are our go-to whenever we feel down, lost, uninspired, or simply just tired, they will serve as our star, we don’t actually stare on the night sky if we aren’t looking for a shooting star, and we don’t look for shooting star if we don’t have a wish or if we aren’t looking for a sign, right? It wouldn’t make any sense, our mentor sometimes feeds our needs of validation or someone who will remind us whenever we forgot why we do what we do.

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Choosing a mentor can be one of life’s most important decisions, in our case, it would be slightly different, I am referring to mentors who don’t know us but we follow them, we chose them, we listen to them, and we admire them because they help us, they mold us, they teach us the technical knowledge we needed to start, and they share to us their techniques, they push us to become better and change our life like no other.

“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself. A mentor is someone who allows you to know that no matter how dark the night, in the morning joy will come. A mentor is someone who allows you to see the higher part of yourself when sometimes it becomes hidden to your own view.”

When I started Web Development 4 years ago I don’t have any idea how I can carve my way from a noob to someone who can actually code, it was a colleague of mine who told me about Web Development because, to be honest, we hated our job at that time, the management sucks, at that time he was planning to leave our previous job and pursue Web Development through a 6-month 8hr/day course, web development wasn’t that popular at that time in our country, so we didn’t have much of a choice, it was a study now pay later program, he was so interested and so he left and pursue his dream.

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In my case, I really couldn’t afford not working for 6 months, so I need to think of a better way to make it happen, I’m not gonna spend that much for school, I already finished my degree and my parents will kill me if I told them, so I came up with an idea, I don’t have money to invest at that time, I don’t have a spare money to keep me afloat, and after thinking it thoroughly all I had was an extra 16hrs after work.

So as ambitious as I am, I created a plan, I called it my timeline of freedom. I promised myself that I will work as hard as I can, as smart as I can, no party, no vacation, all work, all study on weekends and holidays, study and learn 14hrs/day for the next 10months, that was the goal.

My main reason at that time is to be able to leave that job within the year and find a better opportunity where I can have more freedom, more space to do all other things I wanted to do, other than just working, I thought that if I’d be lucky enough one day and find a remote-based job, I would be really happy, who would have thought, fast forward 6 months, I got my dream job.

I started the journey by asking questions, not just questions but the right questions to get me from where I was to where I want to be.

“How can I get there?” was the million-dollar question.

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You really have to ask the right questions to get the right answers, thanks to google I met Brad Traversy and some young dude who teaches database MySQL. I learned a lot from them, learning from them every single day made me feel like I am on the right path, whenever I needed to learn something it’s all there in there YouTube Channel and website tutorials, they even have Udemy courses now, day by day I am beginning to be like them, months after months I’m beginning to feel like I belong.

So basically for the entire 6 months, I worked and study like crazy, and all because of them I land my first job, however as I told before getting the job was only just the beginning, working with other Computer Science developers made me realized that I was the weakest link in the group, it was so intimidating and it scares the hell out of me day by day but who cares, I’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain, more and more I was becoming just like them, best feeling ever.

Eventually, I met several other mentors, the more you seek, the more you follow other senior developers the more you can see the difference between those who are claiming to be one vs the underrated and talented ones, you literally can see that they know what they are doing, they are incredible.

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Personal Recommendations

Here are my recommendations, I don’t just admire them, I owe them big time, they helped me become who I am today, especially in my professional career.

I am being biased but this list I am sharing you are my favorites, they have their own strength that I admire, and you can see even when they are really good in programming, you can see that they have their own expertise, they are a master of their craft and not some dude who learn everything and claim everything without really knowing something.

Brad Traversy

Brad Traversy has been my mentor since Day 1, he doesn’t know me but I admire him so much and I am very thankful, he is one of the few who helped me achieved my dream, without him even knowing, he had helped thousands of other students just like me, and not just on learning the technical skills but he help me changed my life, and I couldn’t be more thankful.

I’ve recommended him over and over even to my other colleagues who are Software Developers, they don’t have much experience with the new technologies especially Javascript Frameworks, now my Software Developer colleagues love him very much.

He is very practical, he knows what he is doing, LITERALLY! and he is very humble.

YouTube Channel:

Website: https://www.traversymedia.com/

Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/user/brad-traversy/

Tutorial Videos Sample:

Web Development 2020 A Practical Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pThnRneDjw

Angela Yu

Another favorite! She is a star! She has become one of my inspiration, she was my go-to when I was transitioning from Web Development to Native Mobile IOS, she is good at teaching, she’s Asian, she’s a woman, a woman in tech is admirable, I’ve experienced some gender preferences issues before especially when I was looking for jobs years ago, I’ve been beaten several times (I got a close fight though! :)) I was as close as a final interview and in the end, they hired the dude.

She is really good in teaching, you will never get bored, she knows what she is doing, she always knows how to prepare the dessert with toppings on her tutorials, I highly recommend her tutorial with learning Web Development 2020, I wish I had that course when I was starting.

YouTube Channel:

Website: https://www.londonappbrewery.com/

Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/user/4b4368a3-b5c8-4529-aa65-2056ec31f37e/

Colt Steele

Have you ever experienced that heavy feeling to someone or something just because you had some bad experience with that person or with that place or thing? I’m not sure if I made any sense, but Colt Steele was my go-to with Javascript, and Javascript is really hard to learn in the beginning.

Javascript is not easy, I’ve enrolled to Colt Steele’s courses about Javascript and Javascript Framework, and had several bad experiences, it’s not about the course, he is really good at teaching, it’s just that I had a hard time understanding its advanced concept, but Colt Steele did a really good job, I’ve learned a lot from him.

Watch this HTML/CSS/Javascript Crash Course of his:

Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/user/coltsteele/

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrqAGUPPMOdo0jfQ6grikZw

Mosh Hamedani

Programming with Mosh is my favorite teacher in Javascript Frameworks, and now he is teaching several new courses like Data Science, Python, Databases. He is a good teacher, he explains every difficult topic into smaller parts to understand it better, basically, he tries to make all the difficult languages or frameworks into an easy one, more English and more understandable.

I am planning to study python in the next few months so I’d probably be active with Mosh’s courses soon.

Javascript in 1 Hour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6NZfCO5SIk&t=2s

So, that’s it for our Part 2, I hope you learn some golden nuggets, and I would be really happy if you can click as many claps as possible, you can give up to 50 or probably more, I would be very happy and inspired knowing that I am providing something of value and I can help, follow me too! :)

Complete Series Content: Part 3 and 4 Coming Soon.

Self-Taught Developer: Let’s Get That Developer Job 1/4 — Creating My Own Path

Self-Taught Developer: Let’s Get That Developer Job 2/4 — Finding Mentors

Self-Taught Developer: Let’s Get That Developer Job 3/4 — Designing The Portfolio

Self-Taught Developer: Let’s Get That Developer Job 4/4 — Job Hunts and Interviews