How I Became a Web Developer in 5 Months

…without spending money on education.

One year ago I was a non-technical founder of a startup at the edge of bankruptcy. Today I work as a front end developer.

Needless to say, I ended my startup, learned how to code and got a job.

This blog post is an attempt at documenting my learning path, in order to share my tips to others who are interested in doing the same.

Closing down Propell

In late 2014 my two co-founders and I decided to give up our kids app startup — Propell — as we had lost our motivation and didn’t see how we could become profitable. It originally started as a side project while I did my economics degree, but soon evolved into a full time job with four people working in the company at its peak.

Disco Fingers — Propell’s last app.

While it certainly sucked to give up, it also gave me the opportunity to do what I had been wanting to do since around 2011, which was to properly learn how to code.

Coding had actually been my hobby the last couple of years, as I had taken courses on evenings, weekends and vacations, so I knew a little bit of programming, but I still considered myself non-technical, and far away from any professional level. The courses that got me started was Udacity’s Intro to Computer Science and Coding for Entrepreneurs on Udemy. They’re both great, even though I didn’t finish any of them.

Anyway, continuing learning on my own online wasn’t an option. I wanted an intensive in-person course, as I knew that would increase my chances of being able to pull the transition off. I wanted an environment where I could spend 100% of my time coding alongside others. So I dug through all coding bootcamps I could find and applied to the following:

I was accepted to all except Hack Reactor and Recurse Center. If you’re considering doing a coding bootcamp yourself, I’d recommend you to do the same. Apply for all schools that seem interesting to you, and then start filtering. By talking to the people who work there and experiencing the application process, you’ll get a good sense of the quality and philosophy of of the school, both of which are highly important.

A few of the schools seemed too eager to accept me, which made me skeptical, as if collecting tuition from as many as possible was more important than getting the best possible candidates.

I’ve heard stories of coding bootcamps that are basically scams, so be careful and picky when you choose one!

After a lot of back and forth, followed by a convincing chat with the brilliant chief of Founders and Coders Dan Sofer, I finally decided to move to London and join FAC on January 26th 2015.

The FAC philosophy

FAC is not like any other bootcamp. First of all it’s entirely free. This meant I could afford it without taking a loan, which wouldn’t be the case for the other bootcamps, as their tuition mostly rages between ten and fifteen thousand USD. Secondly FAC is completely project based, which I like, as I’ve always learned more from practicing stuff than reading about it.

The lack of tuition means that they can’t hire any full time teachers, so it’s based on peer to peer learning, where you mostly learn stuff from your classmates and by yourself. You also get help from previous cohorts though, as they stick around and assist new students while working on their own consulting gigs. FAC also has two great mentors Nelson Correia and Ines Teles who provide invaluable help to the students and the organization.

All in all, this creates an awesome environment — a community of knowledge hungry people eager to share their skills with each other.