My Journey Becoming A Web Developer In My 30s
I recently changed careers to become a web developer and I thought it'd be interesting to document a bit of that journey. Both for my own interest and also in case it's useful for anyone else who might be considering the same thing.
Why did you want a new career?
I didn't really have a career before this, to be honest. All I had was a crappy law clerk diploma, though that had been enough to get me in the door with a good company doing customer service and order processing. Then the owners sold that company to a corporation who came in and laid a bunch of us off.
I was able to find other jobs, but each one I found left me feeling miserable and bored. I quit one after only a week (I still feel bad about that), then I found another one but quickly hated it there, too. I knew I couldn't keep doing this and saw that I was going to need to try something different.
Why did you choose web development?
I had no idea what kind of career I should try, and web development was not even on my radar at the time. I knew I really liked reading and writing (still do!), but that's about it. So I went online and looked up a bunch of different programs being offered at colleges in Ontario (Canada) to see if any might pop out.
I looked at a lot of programs, but web development stuck out for a couple reasons. First was that it involved some design and creativity as well as logic and problem solving, which seemed interesting. I thought maybe writing code was like a distant cousin to other types of writing and involved a similar kind of creativity, which turned out to be true.
Working in tech also seemed to be a lot more economically secure. The demand for software developers was very high and with no signs of that slowing down. (That didn't really end up being the case by the time I graduated, but I didn't know that then.)
So web development was starting to look pretty good, but I still didn't have a good enough idea of what it would be like. Thankfully, and much to my surprise, my boss at the company I was with at the time, after I told him that I wanted to go back to school, offered to introduce me to some web developers he knew. So I got to talk to two people in web development and ask them about their jobs, what it was like, what they liked about it, what they didn't like, and other questions like that. That really helped give me a more tangible sense that this career might be a good fit for me.
It also really surprised me how my boss went out of his way to help me out like that. But this theme of people offering to help is something that would come up again and again.
Why did you want to go to school? Why not teach yourself?
I actually thought about this question a lot. I used YouTube a ton while I was at school. And I found that the free tutorials you can watch there were better than many of the classes I was taking.
But going to school was still very important for a few reasons.
One, it puts you together with other people who are also trying to become web developers. This is such an important part of learning how to do anything: to put yourself around other people who share the same goal as you, other people you can work with, hang out with, and learn with. You don't need to go to college to find that, but college is a pretty surefire way to get it. If you can find people who share your goals, who you like being with, and who you like working with, that will really help sustain you through the work you need to do, and even make it fun. Going back to school really helped me find that.
Two, having deadlines. College makes you finish what you're working on and makes you finish it by a certain date. Sure, you don't need to go to college to get that either. If you have the discipline to finish several 3 hour video tutorials all the way, and finish all those coding project ideas for your portfolio, that's great. But for myself, I found it tough to stay disciplined enough without having something external to hold me accountable.
Three, colleges have connections with companies. I was in a co-op program so I had some terms doing work placements. It was ultimately my responsibility to find a placement, but a lot of companies had postings for co-op positions through the college that I wouldn't have had access to otherwise. Not only that, but a lot of these were companies that regularly hired students from the program. So by being part of that program, I had a leg up in getting interviews with good companies to help me find my first job.
The main thing about learning how to become a web developer is that it's a long term, multi-year process. It's hard to stay motivated that whole time if you're trying to do it on your own. College helped me with that because it connected me with other people, gave me structure, and gave me the motivation to work hard.
Colleges also have tons of problems. Some of the classes I took were very boring, or badly taught, or completely irrelevant. I'm not lying when I say that there are plenty of videos you can watch for free on YouTube that are better quality in many cases. But, that said, gaining those three things I mentioned made it well worth it.
How did you afford it?
With a mixture of savings, loans, working part-time, and grants. I actually got some grants from the Government of Ontario, which really helped.
How did you get your first job?
My program was a co-op, like I mentioned. But co-op was by no means a free ride. You had to maintain your GPA above a certain level to qualify, and you had to seek out and apply for work placement positions just like you would any other job. A lot of other people in the co-op program didn't find anything.
One thing that helped me was taking the time to build a personal website. I only knew basic stuff at that point and I didn't have a lot of projects to my name either. But I still put a together a little website that I could link to in my resume. One guy that interviewed me made a point of saying that he wanted to invite me after he saw my website and liked it.
Another thing is that your attitude and level of engagement count for a lot, and they may even count for more than how well you do in a technical interview.
For example, I had one interview at that time which started off very well, but when it came to the technical portion and they asked me to solve a coding problem, I completely froze up. They did their best to give me hints and help me along. They asked me to share how I was thinking about it, what questions I had, but I was totally frozen. It was a very embarrassing five minutes before they moved on. I thought I had totally blown it, but they still offered me the job! (This wasn't the one I ended up taking though.)
I also got a lot of help by reaching out to my co-op advisor. She made herself available for regular chats so I could talk through how I was thinking about things and get her help through the interview process. I honestly can't overstate how helpful that was. And it was more than just having someone to talk to. She even communicated with some companies I'd interviewed with on my behalf, almost like she was my agent, to nudge them into giving us their response faster.
She really had my back and it gave me a big boost. Like I was saying before, this theme of people offering to help came up again and again. I'm glad I made the effort to reach out and ask for it.
So you did get a job somewhere though...?
Yes! I got my first co-op job with a company called Vehikl in Waterloo, Ontario. They were a really unique company to work for. And I saw that right away during their technical interview.
This was during covid, so everything was remote. Vehikl hosted their technical interview on Discord with over 30 candidates. There were a series of rounds, and during each one they put us in small groups for a mob programming session. Mob programming has a particular set of rules and a kind of etiquette to follow, but the general idea is that the group works to solve the coding problem together. Vehikl was looking at our ability to co-operate and work well with others more than at our technical know-how.
It felt kind of exhilarating being part of this interview and I knew by the end of it that this was the company I wanted to work for.
I'd had another job offer going into this interview, and my co-op advisor encouraged me to follow up and let them know that I had an offer with someone else and I needed to know right away whether they wanted to hire me. And so they came back very fast and said, "Sure!"
What was it like working at your first web development job with Vehikl?
Working at Vehikl was a fantastic experience, especially for my first job in web development. They do mob programming 100% of the time so you're always working together as a team. It was still really nerve-racking at first, but by working that way I had constant support from other people whenever I had questions to ask or didn't know what I was doing. This had the benefit I was talking about before, too, about learning by being around other people who are working towards the same thing. Even if I didn't know what was going on right away, by continuing to show up every day, working bit by bit on jobs with my team, I got incrementally better and better.
They were also great at handling issues having to do with imposter syndrome. First, we all had weekly one-on-one meetings with our team lead. This was a chance to talk about absolutely anything you wanted, ask any questions, or share anything you were nervous, uncertain, or insecure about. Or you could just hang out and talk about whatever. These were absolutely massive in helping me feel more comfortable and also reassured that I wasn't a complete fraud.
Another helpful thing was that we had a weekly retro every Friday. A retro is a meeting with the team where we reflect back on the week and talk about things that went well and things we could improve. I remember one of the first retros our team did (I was on a team with 6 other co-ops) where we all confessed how nervous we felt, feeling the pressure to look like we knew what we were doing when we often didn't. It was a huge relief to get that off our chests, and to see that we were all experiencing the same thing.
It's funny looking back on this and it almost sounds like we all needed (and were getting) talk therapy to deal with our nervousness trying to become developers. But imposter syndrome is a real thing and I think it's a big part of trying to make it in a new career.
What were some other cool things that Vehikl did?
I do think it's worthwhile to describe more of this to get into what it's like working as a developer and the things that can make it work really well.
I've already kind of mentioned this one but it's worth mentioning again: that is, being around and learning from other developers is huge. Vehikl had about 60-70 developers while I was there and there were lots of opportunities to meet and work together with them, even while we were all online.
One thing they did with the co-ops that I really liked was that they would occasionally send us away to another team to work with for a week. This way we would get more exposure to different kinds of projects, different kinds of developers, and different ways of working.
Being surrounded by all these more senior developers was a huge benefit. Plus a lot of them were very happy to answer different questions I had, and I definitely took advantage of that. It was great to be able to ask about whatever I was curious about, for advice, or any other kinds of questions about tech, careers, books, really anything. Everyone was very generous.
Vehikl has a great culture of learning out loud and never shaming someone for not knowing something. This was a great environment to work in and to take with me into my other jobs. To be constantly learning is a crucial orientation to have in web development, but probably also in any kind of career. You have to be okay saying you don't know something, and to be able to try things out even when they might be wrong. If you're too afraid of getting something wrong or of looking stupid, then you won't be able to grow.
One last thing about Vehikl was the emphasis they put on communication. Working as a mob, you are constantly talking and thinking out loud with other developers. Contrary to what people may think, working as a web developer involves a lot of talking and figuring things out with other people. Not to mention that you need to develop trust with the people you work with and that usually involves talking with them and establishing positive relationships, in addition to delivering good quality work.
So why did you leave...?
The way my co-op worked was that we had a total of 16 months that was broken up into four terms of four months each. I could have done all 16 months at Vehikl, and many other co-ops I worked with did, but I decided I didn't want to do that. A co-op is a unique opportunity to explore the industry, and I didn't want to spend it all in one place. I wanted to get more exposure to other types of companies, too.
Also, I didn't want to do mob programming anymore. As fun and as helpful as it was in the beginning, after two terms working there I was more interested in finding something where I could be more independent.
How did you go about finding another job?
I did do some applying the normal way, but this time I also reached out to a contact I had. I'd talked to him maybe two times before this, but he was also a web developer and worked for a company in Guelph, where I lived. I reached out to say I was coming up to the half way point in my co-op and was thinking about seeing what else was out there, and did he have any advice?
We went out for a beer and I told him about school and what it was like working at Vehikl. He asked a few technical questions to get a sense of the kind of work I'd been doing, and then he hinted that there was a possibility of doing a co-op at Tag Digital Studios, where he was working. I followed up with him a couple days later, we set up a meeting with the owner, and they offered me the job! They didn't even ask for my resume.
Just goes to show you never know what might happen when you reach out for a conversation with someone.
How was it working at Tag?
Tag Digital Studios was another great company to work for, too. The owners were fantastic and fun to be around, as were the other people working there. The whole company was about eight people in total. I found the projects they had much more suitable for me, too. Vehikl worked a lot with large companies supporting their very complicated, legacy software sytsems. Tag developed more modern stuff with more of the mainstream technologies like React and Node. I had lots of support and I got to work more independently just like I was hoping for. I'm really happy I took the chance at trying out something different.
And all the same things I mentioned about communication, asking for help, being around people who are smarter than me and having interesting conversations with them continued at Tag in a delightful and unique way. It made a big difference that I could go into the office and work with everyone in-person, too.
By the time I had finished there, I felt like I was a legit web developer.
What's it been like since then?
There have been some rough waters after I finished co-op and graduated from school. I got laid off from a job I got right after graduation, and the job market got a lot tighter than it was when I was starting school, with lots of layoffs happening all over the place. But I've still managed to stay employed and to have good opportunities working on cool things with good people.
Even with the job market as it is, I have no regrets about becoming a web developer. It's actually one of the best decisions I've ever made.
What are the main lessons you took away from this experience of becoming a web developer?
A few things:
Don't do it by yourself. Find other people who share the same goals as you. That might mean going to school or a hackathon, or something like that.
Find a system that will hold you accountable, or else it will be a lot easier to give up after a few months, if not earlier. You won't become a web developer overnight and you'll need something to help you stay on track over the long haul.
Software and web development is mostly about communication and building trust with the people you're working with, in addition to writing code.
You're going to look stupid sometimes, but that's okay as long as you're putting in the effort. Ask lots of questions and look for opportunities to hang out with people who know more than you.
Never stop learning.
Reach out to people to ask for help, advice, or just a conversation. Most people are friendly and want to help you.
Anyway, I hope you found this useful! And If you're thinking about a career in web development or you're just starting out and you're interested in having a chat, please feel free to reach out. I'd be more than happy to connect.
Like I said, lots of people were there to help me and I'd be happy for the chance to pay it forward and help someone else out, too.