I am good enough for this

[Gideon_1]

I am a 19 year old guy who is yet to get a CS degree from the university. I learned web development on my own from resources online. Mostly from youtube videos precisely from thenewboston and phpacademy and a few text-based tutorials from w3schools.com.

I am good with HTML, HTML5, CSS3. I am also good with procedual and function PHP. But by the way I am very cool with OOP in PHP. I don't know much about JS but I know how to do some few AJAX calls to dynamically query my database and show results in my apps. I am very proficient in SQL statements and using MySQL as my RDBMS. I sometimes use already built JQuery functions to implement sliders and carousels in a few of my projects. I don't know any PHP Framework yet I like building my own and also I have fair knowledge in MVC Frameworks.

My problem is with my skills above can I apply for a junior web developer position. It's like a fear to be intimidated by co-workers that I'm a novice or something like that.

Thanks for your comments.

[cereal]

Heh! Good for you, at your age I barely knew about HTML...

It's like a fear to be intimidated by co-workers that I'm a novice or something like that.

Never fear, just be keen to learn from others. It can only improve your skills.

Sorry Gideon, not sure what you're getting at. Are you scared to enter the jobs market? I suppose everybody is a novice in somebody's eyes.

[Gideon_1]

Thanks, diafol and cereal, but that being said are my skills good enough for that position (being junior web developer).

Everyboody has to start somewhere. After being a hobbyist for 20+ years, I took the plunge and went solo (from a teaching career). It's OK - nobody is telling me I'm a novice - just me. I'm quite hard on myself. I don't think working for somebody else would be as intimidating as working for myself. That may sound a bit odd, but it sounds that you have the skills and some confidence but are worried what others will think of you. I'm old enough not to give a toss, but I understand the apprehension. If you start as a junior developer, nobody will be expecting ridiculous things from you. You will be, after all, a JUNIOR developer. The great advantage of working for somebody else (as opposed to what I'm doing), is that you have the opportunity to learn from more experienced programmers. You may be given additional training, be sent on courses, be mentored - the professional development side of things. After all employing somebody is an investment. I wouldn't worry too much about it - your perception of this is certainly worse than the reality of it.

[ryantroop]

I too went from teaching to programming. I had the same worry as you did. The best advice I can give you is to bring code examples with you to any interview, stuff you can explain in your sleep, and be prepared for the interviewer to push you past your comfort area. They will determine if you are what they are looking for, and if they want / need to train you.

Your skill set may be perfect for an older code base, and your experience may be perfect for a company looking to groom a specific style of programmer. If you know your fundamentals, can explain at least SOME code and know the principles behind what you are doing, and are friendly and easy to work with then it really comes down to if they like you and if you are what they are willing to invest in.

If you want to be a professional programmer, be a professional programmer. If you see yourself there, it will be.

As a side note, I learned more from sitting in a handful of interviews than I did in any academic setting - simply by being exposed to production code and being challenged to use my knowledge. You will get to read some interesting stuff, and see how people tackle problems differently than you do, or how you were taught - sometimes in ways you didn't even think of trying!

Interview for whatever position you like :-) What's the worst that will happen? They say no? If so, as them why. Build up the skills you are lacking for the next challenge.

If you love coding, and you enjoy the challenge, that's all you need. Keep learning, cause no matter how much you think you know you will always have room for improvement.

good luck! :)

[jkon]

This seems to be a very touching thread and as such I feel the need to spoil that feeling ;) . No , you should fear Gideon.

You are entering a high competitive world , that even if there is a certain ethos among programmers there are always the tend of any programmer to feel that she / he know best their subject. This tempt has to do that we create a whole new word out of nothing , so an arrogance is normal to come along.

Even you don't pay attention in other responses to threads and repeat the same (or even worse answers) without feeling that you should read what others wrote in the same thread. This must change if you are going to work with others.

As a junior developer you have to go along with various nonsenses. But to be honest this doesn't change as years go by or as you become a manager or even a CEO, just the nonsenses arose in whole new level. But the definition of nonsense will change over the years and its best not have a firm line to others from the ground day.

Many things I thought to be nonsense the first day I worked as programmer , in a big company , turned out to be very useful materials to built my career upon them. So it is always great to keep open minded. Some others , I still believe that are nonsenses but because the word accept them as easy way of communicating for them I bend and use them.

I have to disagree a bit with diafol (that I respect him a lot) . I believe that the final nail to my programming frame was working with others in various languages that I didn't choose an in various architects that my reason was against. That made me work to be good at those specs given to me (although I disagreed) and to search things deeper to understand if I where right , or the architecture imposed to me was the correct in those specs.

It turned out that I wasn't always right , so I learned by my mistakes , also in the cases that I were right and I knew it (after exhausting tests , and many days working almost 24 hours a day) , I knew that I should stick to my arguments presenting facts and not debasing other approaches.

Every person has its own history , and it is great to know other people history to learn by their way , but history never repeats itself entirely (maybe except as a joke). So build you own history if you really love programming , if you don't then there are many things you can do even inside the industry (for example my company pays more to employees that can get demand from clients and write them down to specs than in programmers).

So you must decide it if you really love it or you are just doing it for other reasons. If you really love it you will be good in your job and even soften the arrogance that goes along it.

He he - no worries jkon - disagreement is healthy, otherwise there'd be very little point to a forum. :)
You raise a lot of valid points though - the 'nonsenses'. These will be common to most fields of work - try 'education', then you'll really know what bullcrap is. Having an 'open mind' is key - well said jkon - you can never know what will turn out to be useful - even if it doesn't work for the majority or seems innately ridiculous.