"Become job ready in 6 months." "Learn to code in 90 days." You have probably heard statements like these from technology influencers. Going from zero to job ready as quickly as possible seems to be the main selling point at present. I did it. I went from my first <h1> element to my first job in seven months. I am here to say that you cannot do the same.
I will clarify that. Moving through your learning journey as quickly as I did, or as quickly as these YouTube personalities promise, requires the right circumstances and a very large amount of luck. It is better to explain my story.
It was April 2020. I was working in grocery retail management. SARS-CoV-2 was just becoming a pandemic. My employer wanted to move my job location to one halfway across town. I did not own a car at that time, and I still do not. During a pandemic, I was not willing to take public transit and risk exposure for myself and my family. I quit.
I no longer had a job, or any of the responsibilities that came with it.
I played video games for about two weeks before I became bored. I needed a hobby, so I looked for free resources on learning to code. I found freeCodeCamp and committed fully to the curriculum.
I had cashed out my accrued PTO when I quit. I had withdrawn my pension through an economic hardship withdrawal. I had also won an unemployment claim. This put me in a position where I could afford to be jobless for a while. I had no other responsibilities. I had no children and no partner. It was only me and my computer.
I had the time and capacity to spend 10 to 12 hours every day on the freeCodeCamp curriculum.
At that pace, I completed the entire core freeCodeCamp curriculum, as it was at the time, in five months. I also worked on my own projects, such as a portfolio site and a moderation bot for Discord. None of that earned me money. My reserves had not run out, but I knew that taking on more expenses was a bad idea. I could not donate financially to freeCodeCamp.
I still wanted to give back, so I donated the one thing I had in abundance: time. The freeCodeCamp learning platform is open source. I began making contributions alongside my own projects. I did this consistently, at the same pace of 10 to 12 hours a day, for another two months. Then this happened.
Quincy reached out directly and offered me a role on the paid staff team.
In seven months, I had gone from knowing nothing about code to my first developer role. I do not share this story to boast. I share it as a caution. I worked hard and applied myself seriously, but there were other factors:
This is not a common situation. Many people cannot afford to stop working. Most of the learners I meet are studying around an already busy schedule. They may have four hours a week to study, not 12 hours a day. If you are one of those people, it will take you longer. That is acceptable.
This is a marathon, not a sprint.
Learning to code is hard and it takes time. Very few people achieve it in six months. Some take a year. Some take four years. Some take longer. The length of time does not matter. If you keep working and stay committed, you will succeed. What matters is reaching your goals, regardless of when.
Do not feel bad if it takes you longer than six months. The circumstances have to be exactly right for that to be possible.