How I Learned to Code in 4 Months & Got a Job

No CS Degree, No Bootcamp

I dropped out of college, was in debt, working 60 hours a week, hated my job, and most importantly, I felt stuck.

Photo by Fotis Fotopoulos on Unsplash

This is the story of How I Learned to Code in 4 Months & Got a Job.

I did it with no computer science degree or a coding BootCamp. I am going to explain exactly what I learned, how I got a job, and how much that job paid.

Let’s go.

From Sales Jobs to Something More

Before I got into tech, I was working a lot of dead-end sales jobs, because I dropped out of community college and I didn’t really have any other skills.

I didn’t like the idea of always having to hop from job to job if I didn’t like something. I wanted something with a little bit more career mobility long term.

I didn’t even really know what coding was. I just knew that the tech industry was, let’s say, a great environment for $180 grand, now $200-ish, $250,000, $400,000 annually growth… Yeah.

By the way, I’m not knocking sales. I think sales is a really important skill to learn. I just needed a change, and it really just wasn’t for me long term. And I wanted to gain the ability to build something of my own.

The idea of building something from zero to one seemed like a superpower to me.

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash

The First Step: Googling “How to Code”

Day one, I just went on Google and typed in “how to code.” That’s when I found a site called FreeCodeCamp, and I started to learn about web development.

I quickly learned about HTML, CSS, and my first real programming language called JavaScript.

There’s a bunch of different programming languages that you could learn, but I personally chose JavaScript because I wanted to build web apps.

Even major companies like Uber and Airbnb use it, and there’s a massive demand for it in the job market.

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Learning the Basics

By using FreeCodeCamp, I started to learn the basics of coding. I learned things like variables, loops, objects, and functions.

But even after doing the tutorials, I didn’t really feel like I could apply to anything. I still didn’t even know how to do something as basic as building a website.

I realized that I learned how to code, not exactly how to program. I was writing code to solve logic problems, but I didn’t know how to program — which is using the code to build something useful.

At this point, though, I was already starting to love the journey. I really liked problem solving, and I could see myself doing something like this long term.

Photo by Wes Hicks on Unsplash

Going All In — Full-Time Learning

So I did what any sane person would do: I quit my job and moved to Korea to minimize my expenses. I decided to learn full time.

Learning full time was a lot harder than I thought. I’ve actually never studied anything this complicated or tough before, and I was quickly starting to realize that I didn’t really know how to study at this pace.

That’s when I went online, typed in “how to learn,” and I found a course called Learning How to Learn by Barbara Oakley.

This course was life-changing.

The Breakthrough: Learning How to Learn

My two main takeaways were:

1. It taught me how to learn in spaced segments — a technique called Pomodoros.
2. The course taught me that I needed to create a dedicated space for learning.
3. So I joined a coworking space so I could focus better. Now, armed with new knowledge, I got back to studying. And it worked.

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My Daily Schedule

• Wake up
• Head to the train station
• Arrive at the coworking space
• Coffee, journaling, reviewing the curriculum
• 3-hour Pomodoro study session
• 1-hour lunch break
• 4.5 more hours of Pomodoros
• Gym three times a week
• Dinner and clean-up with my grandma

This was my schedule for six days a week — no exceptions.

Real Projects, Real Frustration

The next part of FreeCodeCamp was a lot more challenging — Front End Projects.

They give you a list of projects that you have to build using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

To me, this felt like a massive jump because I had never actually built anything before. I felt stuck — until I found a YouTube channel of this guy named Stephen who streamed himself building these projects line by line.

By copying him and recreating what he was doing, I was able to use that experience and build the next couple of projects on my own.

Photo by Julien L on Unsplash

Becoming a Real Developer

I was learning a lot, but I had never built anything full stack before — with a front end, database, and a back end server.

I still felt like an imposter. You’re not an intellectual. You’re a fake and a fraud.

So to actually become a programmer, I decided to build my first full stack project.

The Pinterest Clone

Remember Stephen from YouTube? I reached out to him and we decided to meet three times a week to build a full stack web app.

We picked one major overarching project that would teach me the basics of CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) — the foundation of any web application.

We decided to clone Pinterest.

Photo by Souvik Banerjee on Unsplash

Treating It Like a Real Job

This next part was crucial to How I Learned to Code in 4 Months & Got a Job.

I asked Stephen to treat me like a real junior developer.

We used a project management tool called Jira to compartmentalize the project and list out exact requirements.

We also used GitHub for version control — learning to work on different branches and manage versions.

This taught me the professional skills needed to work collaboratively, not just how to code.

Photo by Magnet.me on Unsplash

Growth Under Pressure

Stephen grilled me during our pair programming sessions.

He was strict about deadlines and estimates. He constantly questioned why I was doing what I was doing.

He introduced me to the DRY principle — Don’t Repeat Yourself — and pushed me to Google for answers, debug my code, and use Stack Overflow.

This made me feel like a real developer.

Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash

Supplementing With Udemy

At the same time, I took Udemy courses on React and Node — the two frameworks I used to build my Pinterest clone.

As a result, I learned to design a database, build APIs, set up Auth, and eventually deploy the app to a cloud server.

None of this would’ve happened through tutorials alone.

Photo by Rubaitul Azad on Unsplash

The Final Push

In around two months, I finished my first full-stack web app. I felt like a real programmer.

Then reality hit: I was still broke and needed a job.

The Job Hunt

It was time to see if How I Learned to Code in 4 Months & Got a Job would really pay off.

I defined what I wanted:

• Remote work
• Small to medium-sized company
• No corporate environment

I searched job sites like weworkremotely.com and remoteok.io. Instead of just applying, I found contact details of hiring managers and developers and messaged them.

I explained what I had learned, what I was looking for, and sent them my GitHub.

Most importantly, I made them an offer they couldn’t refuse — I offered to work for free.

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The Result

I applied to 22 jobs. I got 6 responses. 4 interviews. 3 job offers.

Even though I offered to work for free, the technical interviews showed them I had enough skills to be hired full-time.

I chose the job with the best opportunity to learn — and the best compensation.

My first salary was $50,000 a year. After the probation period, I was making $65,000 a year.

I got health and dental benefits. And the biggest perk? I got to work remotely full-time.

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Final Thoughts

I’m not saying you’ll be an expert developer if you follow this plan.

But I’m showing you exactly How I Learned to Code in 4 Months & Got a Job.

Most of my growth happened on the job. No luck — just focused effort.

Now, after over a decade in tech, let me be the first to tell you: Nobody cares about your credentials.

Learning how to code was about two things:

1. Learning how to solve problems
2. Persisting until you find the answer.

Photo by Kevin Butz on Unsplash

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