everythingisblue

I used Acuity like 5 years ago when I was running a small business and I LOVED it. Their customer service was excellent and the software was great.

It doesn’t make sense to me to interview without at least getting an idea of the range. If I can’t get a ballpark up front, I’m not going to take the time off my current job to interview for a position that could be a pay cut.

I’ve never had any pushback on this. The demand is too high for good engineers for most employers to balk at you asking about a range.

Also a (self taught, junior, primarily web) developer. 2 hours a day isn’t overkill. Consistency is key. I have had about 4 friends in the past few years say that they want to become developers and they all made one of two mistakes. They either 1) Picked a project too big to try and build, and got frustrated when they couldn’t make real progress, or 2) Got stuck in the planning-how-to-learn phase and never really put anything into action.

Based on those experiences as well as my own, I would suggest the following things: - Pick a language or stack and stick with it for a while. Use it as your main vehicle for learning all the basics. Bonus points if the language lines up well with the type of development you want to do, and double bonus points if it’s beginner-friendly (google this stuff). - Once you’ve got the basics down-ish and understand what the language can do, choose a simple project and start working towards it. Getting stuck on things and working past them will help you grow past the basics. If you find yourself googling complicated things that lead down multiple rabbit holes, you need to simplify/mock that feature or perhaps your project isn’t simple enough. - Be consistent without burning out. Commit to writing some code (or learning something code related) every day, and tone it back if you start to feel burned out, but never stop. It’s all too common for people to stop for months and take forever to get back into it.

Personal/Bonus tips: - I recommend Python or JavaScript for beginners. I’d choose JS if you plan on working on webpages and applications with sleek UI’s, otherwise Python. - Learn git early on, and start using GitHub no later than your first mini project I mentioned above. This is a very strong portfolio when you start applying for jobs. - Have fun! Seriously, if you’re not having fun (in general) then programming may not be for you! But give it time and some patience and you’ll eventually know. And worst case scenario, you tried something new and you can move on to trying other new things!