Making your own way: Working as a Remote Developer

[cmgorton]

This answer to a previous question might help as far as finding a mentor.

Making your own way: Working as a Remote Developer

I think this is a little different for everyone so take my experience with a grain of salt. I actually found my mentor through a course he was offering. It was called the Advanced Beginner Challenge and since I was one of the first people to sign up he offered weekly mentoring via WhatsApp. He got up to date with my background information and then we would work together to create achievable goals that I could do each week. They had to be specific. Not " I want to learn JavaScript" It had to be…

For an advantage in remote work, see these replies.

Making your own way: Working as a Remote Developer

A lot of people are scared to go for remote jobs. I had to take it as “the worst they can do it say no” So far both my tech jobs have been remote. It’s not always the easiest job to get but definitely worth trying for. Groups like Chingu are great to get experience working with a remote team. If you can do something like that you will have an advantage when you apply even without a lot of other experience.

Making your own way: Working as a Remote Developer

Yeah, I know Chingu has grown a lot ( I was in one of their first cohorts) and they work on some pretty exciting things now so they take a little more time to place people. It’s definitely worth it if you can get a spot. Some other ways to get experience is to see if there are any slack groups, people on Twitter, or even in this forum with similar interests to what you are learning and ask if they will pair on a project with you.

[Shofol1]

Many many thanks for your reply. I’ll follow your strategy and hope can get around some remote jobs. Best of luck with your journey.

[itjosephgeorge]

Nice Article and inspiring a lot.
my question to you is how you find the remote sites who can trust you to do the job in starting basis?

[hanen11]

Super helpful article, thank you. My question is about Chingu is it for web development only? I want to participate but for mobile development.

[cmgorton]

Hey, I am actually not sure if mobile development is apart of Chingu or not. I haven’t been apart of the group in some time so not sure where their focus is but you could try contacting Chance who facilitates the group and ask him before you sign up.

Chance Taken – Medium

[cmgorton]

Hey, I am actually not sure if I understand what you are asking. Do you mind trying to clarify and then I might be able to answer more fully? Are you asking what sites I used to find remote work or how I found companies to work for remotely?

[hanen11]

ok I will, thank you

[itjosephgeorge]

Do you mind trying to clarify and then I might be able to answer more fully? Are you asking what sites I used to find remote work or how I found companies to work for remotely?

i asked Both questions

[tropicalchancer]

Loved reading this! Your journey is wonderful to read about and your tenacity inspiring!

[cndragn]

How did I miss this awesome post!!! Great to read about your journey, and congratulations!!! Lots of great advice, especially getting over the fear of putting yourself out there when you think you are not ready and dont know enough yet. I battle with that so hard…crazily enough, the more I learn, the more I feel I should know before Im absolutely ready… I need to snap out of that! lol

Again…congrats!!!

[pschorey]

Thank you for sharing your story. I’ve found it very inspirational and have shared it with my 7th and 8th grade Computer Applications students. I tend to be overly analytical and right brained, so your example (and codepen) is great for showing my students how extremely creative people can use the same tools to be expressive and artistic.

I’ve been looking for tutorials geared towards beginners to share with my classes, do you happen to have any super basic introductory tutorials you’d recommend for intro css/svg art?

(No worries if you’re too busy or don’t know of any)

Thanks again, hope your job is still going great.

[cmgorton]

Thanks, I can think of a few
This is who I originally learned CSS art from.

Coding Artist – Medium

He has a lot of little tutorials on Medium.

I learned how to work with SVG’s mainly from Sarah Drasner. She has courses on Frontend Masters (that one is not free)

Learn the Essentials of SVG – the Scalable Graphics Format – and Animation

I also have a course on SkillShare (again not free but you can usually get a 1-3 month free membership.)

Learn Code by Creating Art: Developing CSS Skills in CodePen | Christina Gorton...

Here is a free workshop by Ali Spittel

Learning CSS Through Creating Art

[Gunjan]

Amazing story i love reading and still reading it thank you so much

[bradfahey79]

Wow good job you see sometimes it is better to run before we can walk. If you didnt try at all you wouldn’t have gotten the that remote developer job. Hats off to you @cmgorton.

[MikeTheMadCoder]

Sounds like you found success with this working from home. That’s good. I’m getting back into the game after 20 years away from it. I’m taking it as a hobby since i’m doing well in the Nursing field. I’ll probably get serious with it when my body starts falling apart. Nothing like becoming 51 these days.

[triplebc123]

Thank you so much for the advice, and congrats on the job! I’m very early in my programming journey, and I’m hoping to get a remote job, too. I agree that some algorithms can be so confusing, and I’ve found that I enjoy working with CSS animations the most. Perhaps I’ll also try to hone my skills in that area, too.

[Globalleads]

I couldn’t refrain from commenting. Very well written!

[BitsInMyBlood]

Yeah, I agree. Its a really nice story. My problem is I I never feel like my skills are good enough when I see all the amazing things other people are doing. I’ve tried applying to some remote jobs but nothing has panned out.

[cmgorton]

I think most developers feel this way. I always feel there is more I need to learn and more I could be doing. It’s hard not to get overwhelmed. I recently lost my job while on maternity leave. I spent a lot of time over the last 2 years building up a network. A lot of people reached out when I said I was looking for a job. I did a ton of interviews. I have been working as a dev for almost 3 years and I still didn’t feel prepared for most of the interviews. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Interviewing is rough. It can tear down your self esteem/ self-worth.

In the end I did get an offer and really all you need is one good offer right? Sometimes you have to apply to a lot of jobs and get turned down by a lot of them. I think I did 20+ interviews and got one offer. Not sure if that helps at all. Just being honest about the realities of the job hunt.

[fundamentalpr]

That’s so cool! I commend you on pushing forward! I’m actually looking for more remote work too! I know a little bit of JS but need to get way better!

Thanks and much success on your Dev Career