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I became a software engineer without college as well - thanks to TFF!

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lobo

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Inspired by @GrayCode and @csalvato, I started learning to code in late 2019. It was actually this forum thread that inspired me!

I took immediate action after I read that thread, enrolled in an online software engineering school, followed tons of tutorials on Udemy, and built a few side projects. After about 1.5 years of learning (learning 6-8 hours every day), I just started applying for jobs. I interviewed with 4 companies and got two offers. I started learning when I was 20 and got hired at 22!

Luckily I had some savings from selling my previous business, and the help of my parents (letting me live for free basically). Along the way, I had my first son (this was about half a year into learning, so there was a burning fire to hustle).

I had some basic html/css knowledge beforehand and had built WordPress sites. I also had always been pretty technical and was always the computer "wiz" in the family.

Where I'm At Now:
I'm still working as a software engineer full-time, and I think it's the best thing ever in terms of 9-5 Jobs. I work remotely, flexible schedule, comfy salary, etc.

I want to become self-employed fully again. I'd like to start consulting full-time and help other people work on their products, or build a product myself. I'm not sure which route will get me to where I want to go. But I'm willing to work for it either way.

Would I recommend this path?
If you're interested in tech, and writing code, and you don't have anything to work on, I'd recommend it! I'd say if you start writing code and don't enjoy it when learning, you probably won't enjoy it as a job. There are lots of companies that are very lax, but I'm sure there are some that would make the job stressful.

If you are just interested in finding a way to make money, this may not be for you either (or maybe it is, who am I to say).

For me, I think it aligns perfectly because I want to build a software product at some point.

Anyways...
I'm not sure what this thread is for, maybe I can inspire someone else to do the same thing. This is a win for me in my book, but I know there is more out there for me. This is one of the first things I started, executed on, and saw it the whole way through.
 
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MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
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Congrats on building a strong foundation for Fastlane asymmetry, very exciting for yourself. Be proud!
 

lobo

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Happy for you. Can you imagine if you spent 4 years and $70k to get a Sociology degree? Then working at Sprouts or Target to pay it off.
I’ve never been more happy about my decision to
not attend college. In some cases it makes sense, but majority of the time I think it’s a terrible financial decision.
 

DamienRoche

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I love seeing stories like this!

As a self-taught developer it makes me sick seeing so many degreed professionals try to gatekeep the profession. There are too many engineers who are oblivious or in denial that you can do this without shelling over $$$$$ and 4 years for a degree.

As you touched on, also great to now be able to build your own software! It does feel like a superpower. I started with consulting then got a job, now back consulting (part-time) while I try to build my own software products.

The last 5 years of part-time have cemented my decision to never touch full-time ever again. Good luck on your journey! Try not to get sucked into the self-employment trap, that's still a job in disguise. The key for me is to make money in your sleep (i.e. semi-passive income).
 
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Redwolf

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I’ve never been more happy about my decision to
not attend college. In some cases it makes sense, but majority of the time I think it’s a terrible financial decision.
Congrats!

In my opinion, unless your chosen career path REQUIRES a degree, then there's probably no reason to get one since the year ~2000 when the internet really came into it's own as an information repository - or late 2000's if you're a YouTube University kinda person. Medical, engineering, etc, you pretty much have to have a real degree, but otherwise, if you have a discipline to learn on your own, then do it!

I am self taught as well. I wrote the software for my photography business, which I sold in Jan, but kept the software side of it. Onboarding client #3 today. I learn most of my coding from googling the issue and ending up at Stack Overflow.
 
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Damien C

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Try not to get sucked into the self-employment trap, that's still a job in disguise. The key for me is to make money in your sleep (i.e. semi-passive income).

Yes exactly. I vowed never to write code for someone else again. It's a great skill to have but there are many out there willing to squeeze, devalue, and shake you down hard. It's well paid but taxing.

I decided to take a job in Marketing and Communications so I can use all of my free mental bandwidth to create SaaS products, while learning how to sell them. Doing it the other way around left me with money, but no mental energy to complete big projects.
 

Geekour

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Was your focus on Ruby/Rails? What area of software engineering or language path would you recommend a beginner go all in on in 2022 that will pay off and is in demand?
 
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srodrigo

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Was your focus on Ruby/Rails? What area of software engineering or language path would you recommend a beginner go all in on in 2022 that will pay off and is in demand?

I think Ruby/Rails is still popular (for some reason...) in the US. But outside that, JavaScript (mainly front-end) is what's hot in remote positions worldwide. If that's not an issue, then you can actually choose any path. Things such as AI would overwhelm a beginner more, as you need to learn a ton of things on top of actually coding.

There are so many posible paths, that I'd say explore a few and see what resonates with you. Think in terms of actual different paths (AI, web development, mobile development, real-time applications, embedded programming, etc.), then think about the actual technologies/programming languages. From your question, I guess you are interested in web development though, but still worth mentioning.
 

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