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Quickest path to 6 figures: 1. Go to a programming boot camp. Language is immaterial and it should be no longer than one month maximum. 2. Teach yourself Reac

Quickest path to 6 figures: 1. Go to a programming boot camp. Language is immaterial and it should be no longer than one month maximum. 2. Teach yourself ReactJS using YouTube videos over the next two weeks. Double down on your really worthless programming experience from step 1 to get a feel for declarative OOP to fill the gaps in JSX. 3. Learn to setup an automation environment using Docker, Kubernetes, and some popular noSQL DB. 4. Do any side hustles as necessary to pad out a resume. 5. Money. I never mentioned CSS or git. You have to know CSS and won’t be able to fake this. Dabble in CSS here and there in the browser dev tools during those other steps. For git open a GitHub account and go through some basic git commands once a week. Everything else is practically irrelevant to attaining employment. You don’t need to be good at programming. At most places accessibility is extracurricular and they won’t let you touch security considerations.

barrenko 5y ago
Unless you hate web apps, then you are f**d.
- bryanrasmussen 5y ago
  the hatred of any sort of app or platform stems from actual programming experience or preferences though, and the steps outlined are for how to get employed with good money without either of those things at the start.
  - crispyambulance 5y ago
    The "outline-for-success" that the person was responding to was satirical though, right??
    - bryanrasmussen 5y ago
      I read it as cynicism and anger, but satire is often born of those states.
- kwertyoowiyop 5y ago
  Unless love of money > hatred of web apps.
kwertyoowiyop 5y ago
Sigh. Here we are in the 21st century, implementing all our web page UIs in a TEXT EDITOR.
Uehreka 5y ago
Have you ever tried to teach programming to beginners? 6 weeks is an absolutely bonkers timeline for zero-to-employable-as-six-figure-React-Dev (people were pissed at lambda school for dropping from 9 months to 6, and with good reason). I feel like step 0 of this would have to be “Be really familiar with computers to the point where you’re almost a programmer already”, because a lot of people take at least a couple weeks to fully grok things like: - Where to write code - How does a webpage actually work - How webpages and other stuff get served - How does the terminal work - What does a compiler do - What is a syntax error - How scope works - How functions and abstraction work (this one is often a huge mindfuck) Then there’s the CSS and git stuff you mentioned. Beginners often find CSS super frustrating. The tutorials from different years recommend different things, and I occasionally find people trying to build pages using weird combos like position and grid or floats and flexbox. And then there’s git, which has a huge learning curve and is very difficult to pick up without someone to tell you “you’re trying to do this? Here’s what the command is called”. In the end, even if you can figure all this stuff out that quickly (again, starting from zero) you’re going to be starting as a junior dev (You won’t be passing any tough technical interviews) and unless you’re in the bay area there’s no way you’ll be making close to six figures. And finally: > you don’t need to be good at programming If I smell this attitude on someone, I’m not hiring them. If someone is new, applying as a junior, and is willing to learn, that’s fine. But when I hire someone junior, I know I’m going to have to do a lot of work to train them up and fix their stuff as they get acclimated to working in software. And if they don’t follow directions, learn from their mistakes, or show a desire to improve because they’ve internalized the mindset that “you don’t need to be good at programming”, I’m going to be quite disappointed in them.
- austincheney 5y ago
  Yes, the timeline I propose is incredibly ambitious with complete garbage for output, but the proposed end state is still extremely plausible. And yes, the steps I mention do require some unmentioned prerequisites like the ability to read (writing in natural language is unfortunately optional) and the ability to turn on a computer monitor. > If I smell this attitude on someone, I’m not hiring them. I don't think you have worked with the web in a professional capacity. Greater than 90% of the people doing this work now have no idea where the nuts and bolts actually go. They know they cannot do their jobs without some sort of framework to do most of it for them. They also know they need half a million NPM packages to left pad 3 lines of text and writing the equivalent functionality themselves is emotional torture (its like child abuse, except these are adults). While this attitude comes across as code smell it is the industry norm. The unfortunate conclusion there is that it makes life substantially harder for people who are experienced and prefer to not operate in ways you might refer to as code smell.
AlwaysRock 5y ago
I went from 2XXk to xxK when I moved from managing a recruiting office to software development then to 1xxK within a year of software development. I didnt follow this exact path but while "have a skill set people will pay for and know how to negotiate" is a drastic over simplification it is possible and realistic.
- pbrb 5y ago
  Why the move from 2XXk to XXk to 1XXk to move from recruiting to software dev? Why not build on that 2XXk?
  - AlwaysRock 5y ago
    Recruiting is sales and sales is hell unless you love it. I did not love it. A lot of Engineers would be able to make a lot of money in recruiting, or other sales roles, because it is not that hard. Its just draining and a never ending treadmill of metrics. Say what you will about SWE but the expectations to always be beating you previous metrics in sales is unsustainable and why so many companies develop shady sales practices. I wasnt willing to do that stuff and knew I could switch careers.
Zababa 5y ago
You also didn't mention where to work. In my country a React job will get you 50k a year at most as a junior, and almost nobody recruits you if you don't have a master's degree.
bluedino 5y ago
This sounds like a recipe for 'devops' people. They don't know a single thing about anything. It's like their brains are full of copy and paste bullshit. They're almost as useless as "CyberSecurity" graduates. Generalizing here, of course.

barrenko 5y ago

Unless you hate web apps, then you are f**d.

bryanrasmussen 5y ago
the hatred of any sort of app or platform stems from actual programming experience or preferences though, and the steps outlined are for how to get employed with good money without either of those things at the start.
- crispyambulance 5y ago
  The "outline-for-success" that the person was responding to was satirical though, right??
  - bryanrasmussen 5y ago
    I read it as cynicism and anger, but satire is often born of those states.
kwertyoowiyop 5y ago
Unless love of money > hatred of web apps.

kwertyoowiyop 5y ago

Sigh. Here we are in the 21st century, implementing all our web page UIs in a TEXT EDITOR.

Uehreka 5y ago

Have you ever tried to teach programming to beginners? 6 weeks is an absolutely bonkers timeline for zero-to-employable-as-six-figure-React-Dev (people were pissed at lambda school for dropping from 9 months to 6, and with good reason). I feel like step 0 of this would have to be “Be really familiar with computers to the point where you’re almost a programmer already”, because a lot of people take at least a couple weeks to fully grok things like: - Where to write code - How does a webpage actually work - How webpages and other stuff get served - How does the terminal work - What does a compiler do - What is a syntax error - How scope works - How functions and abstraction work (this one is often a huge mindfuck) Then there’s the CSS and git stuff you mentioned. Beginners often find CSS super frustrating. The tutorials from different years recommend different things, and I occasionally find people trying to build pages using weird combos like position and grid or floats and flexbox. And then there’s git, which has a huge learning curve and is very difficult to pick up without someone to tell you “you’re trying to do this? Here’s what the command is called”. In the end, even if you can figure all this stuff out that quickly (again, starting from zero) you’re going to be starting as a junior dev (You won’t be passing any tough technical interviews) and unless you’re in the bay area there’s no way you’ll be making close to six figures. And finally: > you don’t need to be good at programming If I smell this attitude on someone, I’m not hiring them. If someone is new, applying as a junior, and is willing to learn, that’s fine. But when I hire someone junior, I know I’m going to have to do a lot of work to train them up and fix their stuff as they get acclimated to working in software. And if they don’t follow directions, learn from their mistakes, or show a desire to improve because they’ve internalized the mindset that “you don’t need to be good at programming”, I’m going to be quite disappointed in them.

austincheney 5y ago
Yes, the timeline I propose is incredibly ambitious with complete garbage for output, but the proposed end state is still extremely plausible. And yes, the steps I mention do require some unmentioned prerequisites like the ability to read (writing in natural language is unfortunately optional) and the ability to turn on a computer monitor. > If I smell this attitude on someone, I’m not hiring them. I don't think you have worked with the web in a professional capacity. Greater than 90% of the people doing this work now have no idea where the nuts and bolts actually go. They know they cannot do their jobs without some sort of framework to do most of it for them. They also know they need half a million NPM packages to left pad 3 lines of text and writing the equivalent functionality themselves is emotional torture (its like child abuse, except these are adults). While this attitude comes across as code smell it is the industry norm. The unfortunate conclusion there is that it makes life substantially harder for people who are experienced and prefer to not operate in ways you might refer to as code smell.

AlwaysRock 5y ago

I went from 2XXk to xxK when I moved from managing a recruiting office to software development then to 1xxK within a year of software development. I didnt follow this exact path but while "have a skill set people will pay for and know how to negotiate" is a drastic over simplification it is possible and realistic.

pbrb 5y ago
Why the move from 2XXk to XXk to 1XXk to move from recruiting to software dev? Why not build on that 2XXk?
- AlwaysRock 5y ago
  Recruiting is sales and sales is hell unless you love it. I did not love it. A lot of Engineers would be able to make a lot of money in recruiting, or other sales roles, because it is not that hard. Its just draining and a never ending treadmill of metrics. Say what you will about SWE but the expectations to always be beating you previous metrics in sales is unsustainable and why so many companies develop shady sales practices. I wasnt willing to do that stuff and knew I could switch careers.

Zababa 5y ago

You also didn't mention where to work. In my country a React job will get you 50k a year at most as a junior, and almost nobody recruits you if you don't have a master's degree.

bluedino 5y ago

This sounds like a recipe for 'devops' people. They don't know a single thing about anything. It's like their brains are full of copy and paste bullshit. They're almost as useless as "CyberSecurity" graduates. Generalizing here, of course.