Milestone 100th Issue: Using Blogging to Elevate Your Career
Published: 2023-10-11 21:51:50

#### In this milestone event article, I share how starting a blog has led me to career-advancing opportunities and how I believe you can achieve similar success as a web developer by creating a blog, too!

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![TN-TXG-100](https://github.com/MichaelLarocca/blog-michael-jude-larocca/blob/main/posts/2023/10-23/img/10-09-2023/TN-TXG-100.png?raw=true)

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### Celebrating milestone achievements

*This article celebrates the 100th entry in my "Self-Taught: The X Generation" blog!*

As a self-taught web developer, establishing this blog and publishing articles on a "somewhat frequent schedule" has opened doors to career-advancing opportunities for me! Although I haven't finished learning front-end web development, I already earn a side income by writing articles and providing code reviews.

***In this article, I'd like to share my insights with you, as I believe you can achieve similar success in elevating your career by starting your own blog!***

**Writing articles advanced my career by:**

* Reinforcing what I learn
    
* Becoming a better developer by teaching what I learn
    
* Helping me build my online presence
    
* Growing my network with industry experts and fellow coders
    
* Regularly receiving job offers
    
* Becoming a paid freelance article writer
    
* Becoming a part-time paid code reviewer
    
* And becoming a freeCodeCamp contributor!
    

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### Reinforce learning

When it comes to learning web development, boy, is there a lot to learn! It's not just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript! It includes UI/UX Design, version control, working with Git repositories, algorithms & data structures, not to mention interview prep and resume enhancement. The list goes on and on!

**Starting a blog and writing in-depth articles about what I'm learning helps me reinforce the topics I'm covering and acts as a valuable reference resource!**

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### Becoming a Better Developer

It truly is surprising how difficult it is to teach programming concepts to others! Most of the time, when I am learning something new, I will get to code to work as expected. I then assume I understand my newly gained coding concepts until I try to write an article trying to teach it to others!

**Writing articles intending to teach others has made me a better developer because it necessitates further research and the development of the skill of conveying complicated concepts clearly and effectively.**

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### Building an online presence

I've realized that starting this blog has helped me create an invaluable online presence. Not only am I easily "Google searchable" for hiring managers to learn more about me, but when I participate in online events such as YouTube, LinkedIn, Discord, Twitter spaces, and more, I am often recognized by fellow participants!

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### Growing my network

Starting this blog has also helped me to grow my network. Not only have I connected with fellow web developers, but I have also networked with industry professionals by writing featured articles about them!

**I see this scenario as a win-win-win:**

1. I write articles covering what I learn from industry professionals, which not only reinforces my knowledge but also helps grow my online presence.
    
2. It highlights industry professionals with a well-deserved spotlight, which helps spread the word about them to other developers.
    
3. I expand my network by connecting with developers who read these articles and occasionally with the industry professionals themselves!
    

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### Regularly receiving job offers

As part of my mentioned coverage articles, I've learned a lot about LinkedIn optimization which has resulted in a constant flow of opportunities by direct messages. I receive offers from hiring managers, recruiters, online coding schools, and even tech industry celebrities, which has directly led to my becoming a paid code reviewer and article writer.

I wrote the following in-depth freeCodeCamp exclusive article that you might find helpful: [LinkedIn Profile Optimization – A Web Developer's Guide to Attract Opportunity](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/linkedin-profile-optimization/)

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### Becoming a freeCodeCamp contributor

But what I am most excited about is my recent opportunity to become a freeCodeCamp contributor!

For the freeCodeCamp application, they ask you to submit the three articles you are most proud of. So, for my best chance of being accepted, I strategically chose [an article I published on Scrimba](https://scrimba.com/articles/linkedin-for-developers/) (*to show I'm already published on another reputable website*), an [in-depth instructional article teaching how to create Scrimba screencasts](https://selftaughttxg.com/2021/02-21/CreateAScrimbaScreencast/) (*to display my technical writing capabilities*), and finally, an [article that was featured on Hashnode](https://michaeljudelarocca.hashnode.dev/how-to-create-a-local-react-environment-with-vite) teaching how to create a local React environment with Vite (*to showcase a badge of recognition I have earned*).

***I have also increased my chances of being accepted as a freeCodeCamp contributor by previously writing about freeCodeCamp on my blog, 'Self-Taught: The X Generation.' This captured the attention of Quincy Larson, the founder of freeCodeCamp, so he had already heard of me when I applied!***

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### My article links as an author on other websites

As I am now an author on multiple websites, although I continue to write articles weekly, it's not exclusively on this website. I do advertise every article on both LinkedIn and Twitter, so if you are interested in reading my latest articles as I post them, I'd be glad to connect with you there!

**Below are links to my author pages on other websites:**

[Author - freeCodeCamp](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/author/michael-larocca/)

[Author - iCodeThis](https://icodethis.com/blog/authors/Michael_Larocca)

[Author - Scrimba](https://scrimba.com/articles/author/michael/)

[Author - HTML All The Things](https://www.htmlallthethings.com/) (No author page, but five articles to date)

* 1\. [How to Get Started Learning Web Development from Scratch](https://www.htmlallthethings.com/blog-posts/how-to-get-started-learning-web-development-from-scratch)
    
* 2\. [How to Transition from JR Dev to an In-Demand Developer: Your Path to Getting Hired](https://www.htmlallthethings.com/blog-posts/how-to-transition-from-jr-dev-to-an-in-demand-developer-your-path-to-getting-hired)
    
* 3\. [Mastering JavaScript Fundamentals: Unleashing Your Framework Readiness](https://www.htmlallthethings.com/blog-posts/mastering-javascript-fundamentals-unleashing-your-framework-readiness)
    
* 4\. [From JavaScript to TypeScript: Enhance Your Skills and Your Web Development Career](https://www.htmlallthethings.com/blog-posts/from-javascript-to-typescript-enhance-your-skills-and-your-web-development-career)
    
* 5\. [Mastering CSS Fundamentals: Knowing When To Transition from Basics to Frameworks](https://www.htmlallthethings.com/blog-posts/mastering-css-fundamentals-knowing-when-to-transition-from-basics-to-frameworks)
    

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### Conclusion

Blogging has helped me reinforce my learning, become a better developer, create an online presence, and grow my professional network. As a result, I continually receive job offers and already earn side income as a freelance writer and code reviewer.

I believe if you start blogging now, you will also achieve similar results! So, I encourage YOU to consider starting to blog today to elevate your career!

I am currently working on an exclusive article for freeCodeCamp that delves deeply into the reasons and methods behind starting a blog, as well as offering valuable resources. This article will serve as a complementary piece to my LinkedIn profile optimization to help YOU by sharing everything that has contributed to my success! So be sure to check out my [freeCodeCamp author page](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/author/michael-larocca/) for the release!

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**Let's connect! I'm active on** [**LinkedIn**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljudelarocca/) **and** [**Twitter**](https://twitter.com/MikeJudeLarocca)**.**

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###### *Are you now encouraged to start a blog? Have you already started a blog and achieved similar career elevation success? Please share the article and comment!*

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