Start Over Coder

It's another pair of discoveries this week! The website Financial Toolbelt has some great calculators if you want to start getting to know your personal finances. And the Second Career Devs podcast is a must for any and all Start Over Coders!

Show Links:

• Financial Toolbelt
• Second Career Devs podcast

More in the Discoveries! series:

• Ep 18: Learn to Code With Me Podcast & Free Lynda.com Access
• Ep 41: Coding Solo Podcast & Millennial Money Diaries Blog

Introduction overload! There are plenty of good introductory workshops, blog posts, and articles out there. But is it too much of a good thing? Recently I've felt like the sheer number of articles and events have been taking away from my efforts to become a developer.

In this episode I talk about the good & bad aspects of introductory resources, and some tips about how to figure out which ones are worth spending time on.

Thoughts on this episode? Leave a comment at startovercoder.com/063 or tweet me @startovercoder.

Figma is a great prototyping tool I've been experimenting with this week. It's a software tool available for Mac or PC, and they also have a great web interface that allows you to collaborate on designs live (!) with other people.

I've been using it to mock up a redesign for the Start Over Coder website, and also for a new web project I've started for someone else. Bottom line, I can highly recommend Figma for creating UI mockups and expect I will be using it for time to come!

• Figma website
• Episode 56 — Planning A New Web Project
• YouTube Playlist — Level Up Tutorials Intro to Figma

Thoughts on this episode? Leave a comment at startovercoder.com/062 or tweet me @startovercoder.

This week's episode it about my first attempts at learning the React framework…it was a mixed bag but here are my first impressions:

Bottom line: I don't think I've hit the pain points yet that React can solve. Also, using React requires a pretty solid foundation on ES6 methods which I could use some brushing up on. There are a few more pluses and minuses I discuss in the episode, so give it a listen! And if you have any suggested resources for learning React please share 😄

• React and React Native and React VR sites
• Create React App
• Learn about other front-end frameworks and how they stack up against each other
• Episode 29 - The Web Developer Bootcamp course review
• Episode 51 - Static Site Generators Are Awesome
• Advanced Web Developer Bootcamp

Thoughts on this episode? Leave a comment at startovercoder.com/061 or tweet me @startovercoder.

It's been a year since I started this podcast! But I still haven't become a full-time developer. Does it really have to take over a year to change careers and become a programmer?

Short answer: no, I really don't think so!

But for me, a few things along the way have slowed down my progress. You can get the full story by listening to this episode, but to recap what I think I'd do differently to speed the transition up a bit:

• Set a firm date for when I'd quit my job and STICK TO IT! My "deadline" kept being pushed farther and farther away from me.
• Work on a single program or curriculum that will provide you with full projects to complete and add to your portfolio. This is massively necessary when it comes to actually looking and interviewing for jobs. Some good examples are the freeCodeCamp certificates and Udacity nanodegree programs. Coding bootcamps are another viable option, though they can be costly.

Despite my (I think) slow timeline so far, I'm still excited by what's still to come and look forward to sharing more updates soon!

Thoughts on this episode? Leave a comment at startovercoder.com/060 or tweet me @startovercoder.

It's the last episode (for now) in the How I FI series and today I'm talking my top 10 actions for getting myself to financial independence. To recap:

1. Know my expenses.
2. Know my net worth.
3. Have zero debt.
4. Keep an emergency fund.
5. Save before spending.
6. Optimize big expenses.
7. Spend wisely.
8. Invest wisely.
9. Get help often.
10. Keep the long game in mind.

• How I FI: The Starting Point
• How I FI: Learning The Basics

• Mr. Money Mustache - The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
• Expense tracking:
  • Banktivity
  • Quicken
  • Mint.com
  • Pen & paper!
• The Simple Dollar - How to Calculate Net Worth
• Mr. Money Mustache - News Flash: Your Debt is an Emergency!!
• Book - The Four Pillars of Investing by William Bernstein
• Fee-Only Financial Advisors:
  • National Assoc. of Personal Financial Advisors
  • XY Planning Network
• Mad FIentist blog & podcast
• Martinis & Your Money podcast
• Mr. Money Mustache blog
• Choose FI podcast

Thoughts on this episode? Leave a comment at startovercoder.com/059 or tweet me @startovercoder.

Continuing on with a favorite topic of mine—financial independence! In last week's episode I shared a bit about what my mindset around personal finances was before I discovered the concept of FI. Tl;dr: the more I earned, the more I spent, and I couldn't imagine a reality where things would or could be different. I'm so glad I learned that there is a better way!

For me, finding that better way came in three parts:

1) getting introduced to the idea & basic concepts of financial independence

2) applying that information to figure out my current FI status;

3) making a long term plan to actually work towards FI. To summarize the steps I talked about in the podcast…

1. Getting A Proper Introduction

While I'd love to take the credit for making a conscious decision to improve my finances, the credit actually goes to the book The Four Pillars of Investing by William Bernstein, which I got on a whim when it was on sale on Amazon. This book covers all the basics & history of the stock market.

Most importantly, it gave me understanding and the confidence to realize I can manage finances pretty easily on my own, and set myself up for a comfortable retirement without paying a lot for professional help.

Once I understood this I fell down the rabbit hole and found an endless supply of other great resources to learn more about personal finances, FI, investing, and more. Check the links below for some of my favorites.

2. Applying The Information

Once there was a basic understanding of how it all works, I took a look at my own situation to see how I stacked up. Some basic questions needed to be answered:

• What is my net worth?
• How are my employer retirement accounts invested? Are they invested? What fees are they charging?
• Do I even remember all of the accounts I have out there!?

Full disclosure: this may not turn out to be a pretty picture but at least you know where you're starting, and can then figure out how to make it better.

3. Put A Plan In Place

While answering the questions above, it's helpful to gather all of the information into one place. Tools like Mint and Personal Capital make it really easy to do if you're based in the US. Since some of my accounts aren't in the US, I just used a good old Excel spreadsheet to collect the information.

Once I had everything in one place, it was easier to figure out how I could make changes, and also how to think about my day-to-day spending and saving. I'll be talking more about that in depth next week so stay tuned!

• Book: The Four Pillars of Investing by William Bernstein
• Book: Your Money Or Your Life
• Bogleheads Web Forum
• Mad Fientist blog and podcast
• ChooseFI Podcast, and check out their local listings to find a meetup group near you
• Plain English explanation of how to achieve FI
• Mint online personal finance tracker
• Personal Capital - another online personal finance tracker (I personally like this one better)

Let's talk about financial independence!

Up until now I've shied away from talking about the FI side of this Start Over Coder project. I've made so many wrong moves with my own money that it's like, who am I to talk about the subject with any kind of authority!? Not to mention the fact that I'm years away from seeing the outcomes of my actions...maybe I'm still doing it wrong. Plus it's just a sensitive topic!

But I do think one of the main reasons why it can feel so sensitive is because people don't really talk about it, and since FI is a big part of why I started learning to code, I definitely don't want to hold anything back about that side of things.

So over the next few episodes I'll share a bit about how I FI, what I'm doing to become financially independent.

But before getting into the specifics, it might be helpful to know a bit of my background to get a sense of what led me to do all of this in the first place. Here's a quick recap from the podcast (listen for more context!):

• Pretty solid upbringing with all of the basic needs (safe home, food, education) covered.
• At the same time I was very aware that there wasn't extra money available for the "wants."
• My "money mindset" evolved as:
  • There isn't enough money for everything.
  • Whatever money there is *will* run out.
  • You have to work work work to earn money in order to survive. It's the only way.
• As a result, when I earned more, it meant I could afford more, so I just spent more.
• There was no big picture: no savings goals, no retirement plans, no money plans in general.

I lived with this mindset for years and years, but eventually I realized that this outlook wasn't working for me. In fact, I was working for it! Literally: working for the bi-weekly paycheck that I needed to keep up the lifestyle I built for myself (not exactly music to my ears).

I'll share more about what changed, and what changes I made as a result in future episodes in this series. But the biggest change was finding some goals to work towards. Financial independence means having enough income to cover all of your expenses without having to work for that income. Instead, money comes in through savings interest, investment income, businesses that generate income without your personal hours of labor...all of this is often referred to as passive income.

Being financially independent gives you the freedom and flexibility to live life exactly how you want to. For me that involves a lot of travel...long-term travel ideally. And contrary to popular belief, it doesn't necessarily mean not working! I actually really like working when it means having interesting projects, solving problems, and working with interesting, dynamic people. Reaching FI means having the freedom to work only when you find work that meets these criteria.

That's the kind of life I want!

So with these goals in mind, how do you actually do it? I've found some ideas, and I'll talk about them in the next few episodes. Stay tuned!

Thoughts on this episode? Leave a comment at startovercoder.com or tweet me @startovercoder.

Verdict on CSS Grid…it is awesome! This episode is about what I learned after digging in to the syntax and how you can learn it as well.

CSS Grid is a new display method that is part of the native CSS3 syntax, and is supported in the majority of modern web browsers. The primary advantage of using grid is that you can create a web page layout by placing your content anywhere you like on a grid that you define yourself. No more floats, clears, or adapting to someone else's grid system—just build what you need and it works. Using CSS grid also make is incredibly simple to make layouts responsive with not very much code at all.

Feedback Request!

Click here for a pre-release version of the new Start Over Coder website that I built using CSS Grid and Hexo, a static site generator...and let me know what you think! Contact me on Twitter or by email. Thanks in advance!

Below is a list of the CSS Grid resources I've found to be the most helpful as I learned.

• Start Here! CSS Grid Changes Everything - YouTube video
• Learn Here! Wes Bos' CSS Grid Video Course - highly recommended!

• Start Using CSS Grid Layouts Today (conference talk)
• Build a Mosaic Portfolio Layout with CSS Grid
• Creating a nice layout CSS Grid layout using grid template areas
• How to Create Website Layouts Using CSS Grid
• CSS Grid Layout Crash Course
• Flexibility & The Fold – new possibilities with CSS Grid

• CSS Tricks Complete Guide to Grid
• Grid By Example - Rachel Andrew demos
• Jen Simmons Labs
• Learn CSS Grid
• MDN Documentation

Whether you're actively looking for a job or not, you should be recruitment ready! I learned that the hard way this week. This episode is about what I wish I'd done ahead of time.

What is recruitment ready?

• Up-to-date CV/resumé that is written with the type of job you want in mind. So if you're transitioning from another career to being a developer, your old CV won't do!
• Up-to-date LinkedIn profile, again with programmer-relevant skills highlighted.
• Bonus: online portfolio website to introduce yourself and show off your skills

While this might seem like obvious advice, I wish I had taken it a lot earlier! These things have a way of not being prioritized if you're not actively looking for a job. Why? Well it's hard! How do you write about programming experience when you don't have any? What on earth can you write about that will make someone want to hire you? For these reasons and more, I put off preparing these things for a new career as a developer.

AND THEN...randomly out of the blue I was introduced to the hiring manager at a company I would love to work for, and they are searching for a junior developer! We had a great conversation that made me even more excited about the opportunity to work there. And what was the first thing she asked for? A relevant CV!

So I spent the weekend getting this together—not ideal on a short deadline, without time to finesse it and get others' feedback. But here was my approach:

For LinkedIn

• Start with LinkedIn: working on it piece-by-piece is less intimidating (for me at least) than being faced with a blank slate resumé document.
• Remove old positions from LinkedIn if they have no relevance to a dev career.
• In your current position, include accomplishments that demonstrate whatever skills cross over between your old career and new career as a developer (working well with people? managing client deliverables?).
• Use the ability on LinkedIn to add links, files, media to your profile so that you can show examples of anything relevant.
• Put a lot of attention into the 'Description' section on LinkedIn—this is your opportunity to tell your own story and highlight programming skills in your own words. You can also include relevant links (GitHub, personal website, etc.) in this section.

For The Resumé

• Ideally start from scratch rather than trying to re-work an old copy from your previous career. 
• Use what you've already written on LinkedIn to determine what programming-career-related skills or accomplishments you can highlight.
• Most importantly: GET FEEDBACK! Preferably from people who have experience looking at developer CVs.

I was tremendously fortunate to have @itamarst offer to review my CV and he gave some excellent feedback. Amazingly he's offered to do the same for any Start Over Coder listeners when time allows so feel free to reach out to him directly! Likewise I'm happy to give feedback on your CV; if you're interested you can email it to me. And do be sure to check out a super-helpful blog post from Itamar about what not to do in your resumé.

In the end I created documents I was happy with, but it would have been nice to do so with less stress. So do yourself a favor—get yourself recruitment ready before you really need to!

Show Links

• Start Over Coder episodes on how to host a website–part one and part two–and an episode about static website generators
• Article: 9 LinkedIn Profile Tips For Junior Developers
• Article: The worst kind of resume is a list of technologies
• Article: Software Engineer Resume: Guide and a Sample [+20 Examples]

Thoughts on this episode? Leave a comment at startovercoder.com/054 or tweet me @startovercoder.