Hi, been doing FCC for over a month now and I’m realising around my current position (50hr a week managing 60 odd people, phone goes off most days off and evenings) its pretty impossible to get consistent time to practice. I’m considering going to SE Asia to spend 3-6 months with 6-8hrs focus on learning to code every day (I have savings to cover this) I’m sure other people have tried this before and would like to know if it helped to really nail down on the studies or did they get distracted in the new surroundings? I would have to be in Asia to not drain through all my savings rather than stay in the UK where its quite expensive.
no, i asked if any people had done the same and did it help or did they get distracted, I’m aware it would be down to the individual but it would be nice to hear from anyone who did the same
I’d ask you to refrain from posting on this topic as you’ve had nothing constructive to add
Hi, from what I understood your point of going to SE Asia is because it’s cheap to leave there.
Rather than a place that far, if you are so sure to move out for a certain period of time, have you thought maybe at the countries in East Europe? Also there the cost of life is supposed to be cheap compared to the Western ones and they are probably more connected to UK in case you need to come back sooner for any reason.
Are you going to look for a work place in that country? Are you proficient in the language spoken there?
Also something else you should consider before moving is if you can legally stay in that country for that amount of time as well as how much an health insurance would cost you (they tend to be quite expensive).
In many countries you might not have a problem to stay untill 3 months, but for something longer you are probably going to need a visa.
Inside the European Union, citizens of the EU don’t have that limit (because of the free circulation of people among the member states), but with Brexit at the doorstep I don’t know how it’s going to change for UK citizens. Probably also for them a visa will be required for periods greater than 3 months.
If you really want to do that and you trust your ability to stay on the path, still be sure to make a very exhaustive list of all the expensive you’ll have before going for it.
Another thing, maybe I’m too cautious, but before doing such a drastic thing as to move to another country without a job, have you thought to apply to an internship in some company? That will still give you the opportunity to learn that could result in a more stable employment with that company in the developing field.
thanks yes its a cost of living thing as I have plenty of savings to do it in the UK but I’d need to get a job immediately after learning whereas a cheap country I’d have another 6 months at least, eastern europe is being considered as well. Ukraine I know is very cheap any other suggestions?
Visas I’m not worried about was considering 3 months in Thailand then 3 months in either Bali or Vietnam to get past the limits (I have friends in Chiang Mai and BKK who do the border run thing too so might just stay there). It would purely be to learn rather than look for a job there as its going to be much easier back in the UK to start the job search I’d imagine (I doubt theres Jr Dev remote jobs for zero experience)
I already have private healthcare with worldwide cover via my parents (they dont trust the nhs but thats another story)
With Brexit I’m not super worried that we will lose free movement within the EEA for quite a while but as you stay no one really knows.
I’ll have a look into internships though, thanks for the idea.
You’d probably have an easier time visiting back home if you picked Eastern Europe. But if you have friends in SE Asia who can set you up, go for it. Hell, go for it even if you don’t learn a thing about coding.
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yeah I will probably be going in February (get xmas out the way and end of year bonus in jan) not fussed about getting back and forth I lived in China for a year and didn’t get the itch to visit then in fact most people use it as an excuse for a hol to come to you. I definitely need to get to get job ready while I’m there though
I understand you do have a job right now (not IT related) and because of that you can’t focus in learning how to code.
If that is the case, can you get a X-days vacation? I’m thinking about you keeping your current job while use a few free weeks to learn how to code and, mostly, if you REALLY want to quit your current career to invest in programming.
Max I can take at a time is 10 days (2 weeks) but that’s every 3 months i’m not going to get far with intermittent learning am I? next time it comes round again I’d probably be going back over the same stuff wouldn’t I?
What’s your goal? To finish all FCC’s certifications? To finish two or three?
FCC’s content is pretty big. Like 1500+ hours.
To at least complete all the front end side plus some other courses away from fcc and build a lot of extra non fcc projects to make a great portfolio, already got the first one (didn’t take 300hrs but html and css is pretty simple compared to whats to come) working through JS at the moment and would hope to have that done before I’d leave in Feb. 300hrs a month should be doable without any work to concentrate on.
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When you are done with the JavaScript part, I suggest you to take a look in Coursera at the courses of the Hong Kong university.
The ones I started doing teach you, in the order, Bootstrap, frontend development with React (there is also another one with Angular, same instructor), mobile app development with React Native and backend development with Node.js, Express and MongoDB.
The videos are very easy to follow and go more in depth compared to FCC lessons, and you can also speed them up to x1.25 or more to save on time.
Also, if you don’t need a certification, you can just audit them for free.
While you take the courses, I encourage you to start working on your side projects to put in the portfolio with the knowledge you are getting from the course.
That way it’ll be easier to retain the information you have learnt.
Lastly, I really wish you good luck with it all, and I’m sure that you’ll see wonderful places 
Especially SE Asia 
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Thanks for the advice
Whether or not you get distracted depends on you. It seems a bit extreme to fly to another part of the world just so you can find a place for you to focus on coding. You could save money by staying home, not eating out, not throwing yourself into a completely different culture (that you’ll have to spend some time adapting to / figuring out how to get around) where people don’t speak your language.
With that said, I did exactly that. For other reasons too, but I spent half a year in Chiang Mai and focused on teaching myself about web development. By the time I returned home, I felt confident enough to start working with real clients. For my first month there though, I don’t think I got any work done. I had a friend there who showed me around, but I still spent that first month trying to figure out a routine for myself. By the end, I had a good routine for myself and was able to spend most of the day focusing on work. You’ll be able to meet a lot of other web developers out there too.
Even though life is cheaper out there, it’s easy to spend a lot of money and perhaps more tempting for that reason. Thai people are super friendly, but there were some things about living there I never got used to and that bothered me. Visa runs aren’t an issue, but I’d recommend just getting a tourist visa, so you don’t have to worry about it as often.
But before deciding on SE Asia, you should consider other places too if you’re set on traveling. You could live cheaply in Mexico, the Caribbean, South America. There are digital nomad communities out there too. Spanish is one of the easier languages to learn as a native English speaker, so that could be a bonus to living there for 6 months.
As others have said, there’s also Eastern Europe. It’s cheap, and you’ll probably have an easier time getting around with English than you would in SE Asia, as well as finding the culture and standard of living easier to navigate.
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Thanks for sharing so 6 months worked for you thats amazing, I’ll def get a tourist visa, I’ve already spent time in Thailand in the past including 3 weeks this year think I’d settle into a routine quickly, I don’t drink and happily live on street food with the occasional western meal and 7/11 toastie! In terms of doing things as long as I have a gym and pool in the condo I’ll be happy and from my research that seems fairly easy to find in low season. I’ve never felt safe in Mexico or my trips to SA so living there I don’t think is an option for me, Eastern Europe might be an option in the summer but as a Brit you crave some hot weather considering we never see it so if I’m making the move I want some sunshine
Fair enough. Now I’m missing those toasties haha. If you end up in Chiang Mai, I ended up staying in Santitham. I liked the location. Not too touristy or western, but close still to the old city and nimman. Several gyms and night markets close by.
Thank I’ll have a look into that area, I’d rather avoid being right in Nimman.