I made a thread in this forum back at the start of December asking for advice on learning how to code, since then I have been making use of mainly Codeacademy, but also Coursera, Edx, Udacity, YouTube videos, blogs, etc. All of this is to hopefully become experienced in all the languages and tasks expected of someone in a front-end web development role.
I have been working for the last year on a couple of my own projects, from a technology startup idea, which is proving to be quite a big fish to fry, to a non-profit that I am now running successfully. I have also completed a functional ecommerce website on Wordpress mainly to get a bit of experience in that area. I was always limited by my coding knowledge, which is why I originally made the thread to try and get a better understanding of coding.
At this stage, I am starting to consider future job prospects, and would love to work in a front-end web dev role to get more experience, and would especially like to work with startup type businesses now that I'm beginning to be able to bring a technical role to a startup team. I also do some piece meal design work for an importing company so am well versed in using Photoshop and Illustrator.
However, my qualifications don't go past A-Level and I have no qualifications at all really that relate to IT or web development, which all companies seem to require.
I basically work from home at the minute, with the exception of a few meetings up and down the country, so have been able to dedicate a lot of time to learning to code so feel that I am, whilst still a beginner, capable of completing tasks required in these roles.
So, the reason for this thread is basically to ask what can I do in terms of getting real life qualifications that are recognised by companies, that will give me good prospects in terms of getting employed as a front end web dev? Will Coursera certificates stack up, or should I create a portfolio of all my work as it goes? Even if I do do this will it stack up when compared to people with CompSci degrees and a few years experience? Should I try and seek an apprenticeship type role within a company to build experience?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers.
I have been working for the last year on a couple of my own projects, from a technology startup idea, which is proving to be quite a big fish to fry, to a non-profit that I am now running successfully. I have also completed a functional ecommerce website on Wordpress mainly to get a bit of experience in that area. I was always limited by my coding knowledge, which is why I originally made the thread to try and get a better understanding of coding.
At this stage, I am starting to consider future job prospects, and would love to work in a front-end web dev role to get more experience, and would especially like to work with startup type businesses now that I'm beginning to be able to bring a technical role to a startup team. I also do some piece meal design work for an importing company so am well versed in using Photoshop and Illustrator.
However, my qualifications don't go past A-Level and I have no qualifications at all really that relate to IT or web development, which all companies seem to require.
I basically work from home at the minute, with the exception of a few meetings up and down the country, so have been able to dedicate a lot of time to learning to code so feel that I am, whilst still a beginner, capable of completing tasks required in these roles.
So, the reason for this thread is basically to ask what can I do in terms of getting real life qualifications that are recognised by companies, that will give me good prospects in terms of getting employed as a front end web dev? Will Coursera certificates stack up, or should I create a portfolio of all my work as it goes? Even if I do do this will it stack up when compared to people with CompSci degrees and a few years experience? Should I try and seek an apprenticeship type role within a company to build experience?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers.
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