Job Prospects Udemy Full Stack Bootcamp

[Chamkey]

I've been a coder for almost 2 decades now but it's mostly been my own clients that I've used my knowledge on.

I work as a designer in a company at the moment and I'm not particularly happy with my salary. I want to put my knowledge to use as a full stack developer in any other company, but everything I've ever done with regards to that is self-taught. I don't have a cert for it but I have started taking a course on udemy (the course) so that I can get my cert (even if it's not accredited) by the end of it and also to learn things that I didn't realize that I lacked. Once I finish this course I'm going to be looking for other prospects. How likely am I, to land a job as a full stack web developer just based on the cert alone? Has anyone here ever gotten a job from that course? How important is a portfolio as compared to a degree in computer science?

 

[NemoXX7]

In my experience getting a high-ranking developer job requires you to have a lot of experience. Like they will favour a person without a degree who has years of experience vs a fresh uni graduate.

If you have a portfolio you can show of frameworks you have used or coding projects you have finished (also if you have experience with the waterfall and agile development methodologies) then I think you stand a good chance.

Make sure you have a solid Linkedin profile and a GitHub repo or portfolio as mentioned and I think you stand a good chance of landing a full-stack dev job

 

[Scrooloose]

Literally none of the senior devs who I know personally have any form of certification. If you're good, you'll have a portfolio of work that you can present and will be able to answer some reasonably tough questions during an interview.

That's all you need to do, really.

Certifications are demonstrations that one meets the minimum requirement to perform the job adequately. It is not a guarantee that the individual is going to be particularly good.

 

[disipher]

what everyone else says,

start making a portfolio of all your projects,
with technologies used.

 

[Chamkey]

@NemoXX7 @Scrooloose @disipher
Thanks for your advice. I will compile my portfolio. I think I'm going to do it in the form of a website so that I can showcase my skills as well as my past accomplishments and show what I've learned so far. Unfortunately, I won't be able to do that right now but during my December break I'm free and clear to sit with whatever I want to do. Will start applying for jobs in Jan as that's the period where most companies start the hiring frenzy. Maybe I'll also get to build a few more items for my portfolio in that time.

 

[HighVoltage32]

I've been a coder for almost 2 decades now but it's mostly been my own clients that I've used my knowledge on.
/snip

I'm in the same boat as you, although I'm currently looking for a position now.
For one of the positions I applied to, they asked me to build a small React app, instead of an initial interview; this was based on my resume which contained my personal website(built from scratch, made sure to mention this to them as well), a backend project as well as links to my Github account which had been semi-active for the past year or so. Although, I think having a single project and a single website doesn't showcase full breadth of knowledge, it was a great start to know that it's enough to at least get your foot in the door.

Like the others have said, the most important thing is that you're able to demonstrate the knowledge you have, degree or no degree; cert or no cert.

 

[Signor65]

I've been a coder for almost 2 decades now but it's mostly been my own clients that I've used my knowledge on.

I work as a designer in a company at the moment and I'm not particularly happy with my salary. I want to put my knowledge to use as a full stack developer in any other company, but everything I've ever done with regards to that is self-taught. I don't have a cert for it but I have started taking a course on udemy (the course) so that I can get my cert (even if it's not accredited) by the end of it and also to learn things that I didn't realize that I lacked. Once I finish this course I'm going to be looking for other prospects. How likely am I, to land a job as a full stack web developer just based on the cert alone? Has anyone here ever gotten a job from that course? How important is a portfolio as compared to a degree in computer science?

My previous boss had no certifications, no degrees or anything. Fully self taught. One of the best developers I've ever seen.

Not saying you shouldn't do it, just saying there are opportunities out there if you for one reason or another can't do it.

 

[Reegz]

Like most things, terms don't always mean the same across organizations.

Full stack - at least in my mind - is a misnomer. When I started out, it was expected that every developer on the floor knew how to do everything from UML, SQL, primary-language, HTML, JS, CSS, whatever-fanciful-web-framework-was-the-top-of-the-pops-this-week and was expected to be able to work on any layer of the stack, relative to their experience.

And we quickly come to the point - experience.

In an interview with someone with years behind them I'm less inclined to worry about their technical skills and more on their thinking. How do they approach problem solving, what strategies, techniques are applied, how do they manage their project deliverables, stakeholders, deal with difficult situations etc. It is expected that the technical aspects are all checked and a few questions would cover this unless it's a developer-in-a-dark-hole type role in which case hacker rank as prerequisite.

I don't think you should stress it. Perhaps take a good look at what it is you do and try packaging that neatly into nice talking points:-

• project management
• team leadership/management
• stakeholder management
• mentorship
• development
• support
• analysis & design
• research & innovation
• etc

It goes without saying that you need to know your stuff in terms of dev.

Hiring managers typically come back in Feb and expect to hit the ground running. Good luck!