Scott and Wes give their best advice for beginners, including tech skills, applying for jobs, focus, imposter syndrome, and more…
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Show Notes
4:46 - Advice for gaining new skills
- Patience and momentum are key
- You likely won’t get anywhere significant in two months
- Think about where you want to be in five years
- Start small
- Start with was excites you and let that drive your exploration
- Start writing code ASAP. Don’t worry about the right way, just get started.
17:15 - Advice for applying to jobs
- Apply for everything. Failing an interview is no big deal.
- Each interview is an opportunity to gain experience
- Putting yourself out there is huge - one blog post, YouTube video, or open source project will put you miles ahead
- Have an entrepreneurial mindset - you can negotiate money, hardware, vacation time, flexible schedule, etc. Don’t just google “average salary”
- Negotiate salaries and perks.
29:32 - Advice for knowing what to focus on
- What gets you jazzed? Find something cool and figure out how to recreate it.
- Find a problem and figure out how to solve it - build real things.
- Don’t focus on tech - tech is just a tool.
38:32 - Advice for impostor syndrome
- Listen to this podcast! ;)
- Almost everyone has it.
- Don’t worry about other people’s progress.
- You don’t need to know how to do everything, but you should be able to figure out how to learn.
46:45 - Misc advice
- Evaluate things for yourself - don’t blindly follow the loudest voices on the internet
- Focus on soft skills as well - time management, communication
- Get a mentor
- Health and Hobbies - don’t let yourself burnout
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