By: Leon 2K Asare
The global pandemic known as the coranavirus has proven that any business or economy can be shutdown. But, unlike the United States of America or foreign superpowers, as indivduals citizens, it is illegal for us to print our own money. Therefore, if we want to produce cashflow during an economic decline, it will have to be by improving our skillset and hustling. One of the best skills you should considering learning (for economic reasons), is web development. You can turn that skillset into a grand hustle by freelancing (contract work) for indivdual aspiring entrepreneurs, mom and pop businesses to large international companies like Apple and Microsoft.
With remote coding, unlike most 9-5 jobs like hotels, restaurants, bars and tourism related companies who had to layoff or fire staff members during the global pandemic, no one can lay you off as a freelance web developer. Sure, some people can decide to stop doing business with you, and you can decide to stop doing business with them for whatever reason, but no one can prevent you from freelancing , and acquiring new clients and projects.
The Option of Self-Study:
Unlike many other professionals like Plumbers, construction workers, electricians, lawyers and doctors, you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to attend a trade school or university. Hell, you don’t even have to spend money going to a coding bootcamp, because it is known in the software engineering industry that a lot of web developers are self-taught.
The University Of You:
Your education as a self-taught web developer will come come via books by authors like Jon Duckett, who has written and published books on various coding languages and libraries like HTML, CSS, Javascript, Jquery, PHP and Mysql. There are also websites like W3schools.com, which is a free online coding academy, with its own coding editor. W3school has various coding certificate programs, but you don’t need to take one of the certificate programs to use the code editors or complete the courses for free. But, for those people who would still like to have a certificate to add to their portfolio, you can take the examine for a certificate program for about 100 US bucks. That being said, the true test of your knowledge is not going to be gained through taking coding exams, and most of the people who will seek your service could careless about what exams you have passed and the certificates you have acquired. The people who seek your services only care about what you can do for them. And no better way to show a potential client about the work you can do is by showing them your past projects in your portfolio.
The Pay:
As a newbie web developer if you have little or no reputation, you should expect little or no pay (this will change over time if your skills and reputation continue to grow). In fact your first projects on your portfolio should be your own passion projects. They don’t have to be your dream projects, but projects that you have a passion for, this will give you the motivation to code, even when you don’t want to. For example, if you are a hobbist photographer, you may want to create a photography blog from scratch. Your next step should be getting a web development blog, so that you can share your knowledge with aspiring programmers, and you can in return grow your name in the coding community.
Note: Make sure to share your blog posts on all of your social networks, including : Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.
The Next Step:
Your next step I would suggest the aspiring web developer do is sign-up to freelance and employment websites like: Upwork, Steady, Craigslist, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, etc. So, that you can connect with people and businesses that want to pay for your programming skills. I would suggest charging lower prices at first, to increase the likelihood of getting a gig contract offer, and as your reputation icreases on the previously mentioned websites/apps, you will be able to steadily increase your price, which in the Bay Area can reach well over a hundred thousand dollars a year.
Leon The Progressive Coder 