I’m wondering about the feedback others are getting from the job market when they use Codecademy for job retraining purposes.
I have a non-computer related technical degree from a good university and am middle aged. Are there others out there that can shared their stories, successes or disappointments, in starting a new career in the computer field give an similar background?
Thanks for sharing.
It means about the same thing as having graduated grade nine. The only question I would answer with CC in the reply is, “Where did you get you first introduction to coding?”. Beyond that, accreditation and your CV are what will get you hired. CC doesn’t count in your CV.
My first introduction to coding in school was in high school learning Basic, then Pascal and some Unix command line script writing in college. My B.S. and work experience are in another tech field. On the job though, I learned on my own and wrote simple Visual Basic code to help with some data management/analysis tasks on spread sheets. Also after college, I completed courses in PERL, Oracle DBA plus PL/Sql, HTML/CSS and intro courses in C# and Asp.Net. Oh, and now CC’s JavaScript course and half of the jQuery course.
After thousands of hours invested in learning those tools, at grant it an educational level, and thousands of dollars spent, I have only been able to obtain a 6 month internship where I largely created a position up-dating an employers site by hand-editting HTML and some CSS. Of course that gig paid peanuts and offered little direction or training.
In your opinion then, how does one receive accreditation for say, JavaScript and jQuery. I’m taking (now paying for) these courses through CC to add skills and to make me marketable in the job market as some sort of code jockey. Are you implying that completing CC’s courses are not likely to help open doors of employment for me?
Appreciate the feedback.
Paid for and recognized programs that are earned by merit would have more creditability. CC is far too loose a learning environment and with no supervision there is no way to verify our work. It is just too easy to obtain code and pass the units. As stated before, this is an introduction only, and then only to help determine if one possesses the aptitude for the field.
I have not got firsthand knowledge of where to look for accreditation. Udemy may be one way of distance learning. Most universities and technical colleges have distance learning programs that offer a certificate of some kind that is recognized by potential employers.
Sharpening your skillset with sites like Project Euler and CodeWars is something you can do for free on your own time. This will help prepare you for employer interview tests which I’m sure any employer would have applicants complete. Sorry I cannot offer any better feedback than this.
I value immensely you sounding to be forthright in those comments though, they cause me some heartbreak. For example, when completing CCs course of JavaScript, I slowly went through each exercise frequently attempting to memorize basic patterns of syntax when a new concept or pattern was introduced as well as looking up new vocabulary and concepts introduced in the lessons through other sources for a richer understanding.
I’ve also recently seen somewhere that for CCs JavaScript course one is expected to only invest somewhere in the order of 10-20 hrs to complete that course. That might be possible. But for me, I invested an estimated 160 hours of time over three and a half months in the process described above. And I don’t believe it’s because I have some lack of capability with syntax as I’ve already completed a number of programming classes over time as well as completing a very challenging technical degree from a regarded university in the past. It’s more do to with my methodical nature while hoping that these investments of time will produce some value towards helping me transition a career.
Crud… Excuse me but, WTF. Now it seems that I need to re-invest money and time in yet another learning environment. One that offers a recognized certification at the end of it.
The amount you have invested has been in yourself, so kudos for that. Maybe you don’t have a certificate, but you are much better prepared to earn one for real. When others will be struggling with basic and intermediate concepts you’ll be exploring advanced ones. You have a leg up that can earn you an upper crust result in a certificate course/program.
What ever…
@jnl2
I’ve been looking for something that does carry weight in the job market, but the only thing I found that gives a certificate upon completion is SoloLearn
https://www.sololearn.com/courses/
It’s also a very simple learning thing, and I’d say that Codecademy taught me way more than that did. But I do have every certificate from every course there.
I actually am trying to start my own business, I’m starting it off in web design, but I will move forward from there and do more. I’d say I’m very good with HTML, CSS, and Javascript etc, but I’m still learning more coding and languages.
I have to say though, you’ve done more than I have. I started my coding/programming learning only about 3 years ago. I haven’t been able to go to collage or anything, only online courses and books. What I’ve learned is that the best way to open doors of employment without a certificate is to have a portfolio of your work.
Good luck.
I think it helps in increasing your knowledge and giving you an insight about the basics. Job opportunities for programmers and coders are out there,but they all depend on your knowledge and what can you do.
Study hard and learn through codeacademy and other sources out there and show your work on different platforms. Once you think you are ready and equipped with enough knowledge you can start applying for jobs and see what’s their feedback.
Sooner or later when you are qualified enough you will certainly land on a job that fits you and you can take it from there. The most important thing is if you have true passion for programming don’t let it go.
Hello, just a heads up. save your money, although W3Schools do provide an easy way to learn the barebones basics they are not a recognised certification and the code they provide as examples (lets take the php as an exampe) is generally poor and vulnerable and certainly never to be used in a production environment, its kept that way for simplicity of getting a grasp of it.
If you do some research you will find out that:
a) They are not in anyway affiliated or associated with W3Consortium. Its just a couple of guys who set up a website.
b) Dev agencies give it no credit what so ever.
A cheaper and far better option is to create a github account, get some code samples up on there, lets say your main work area is going to be Wordpress (example) then code up a couple of WP plugins and get thise on the WP plugin repository, especially important for people who do not have much of a portfolio when starting out, in your job applications be it freelance or to a dev house give out the links to your WP and Git account, let prospective employers see your code first hand. This is a far better, far cheaper and more recognised way to hit the ground running when going for your first job and has way more recognition than any W3schools. certification
I removed @iknights reply, the w3schools certificate are absolutely worthless.
If you do some serious research, you will find the certificates as explained here by people who here front end web developer (don’t take my word for it if you don’t believe it, do your own research)
the people who should hire you even increase it: It will most likely work against you. They are a waste of money, and utterly worthless.
@peterpan192 suggestion is 1000x better and cheaper 
Precisely, research is king, its easy to get carried away and make assumptions based on one name looking almost the same as a recognised body. An active Git is a serious platform for pushing oneself and as i said in my example for a WP dev then get a couple of plugins up on the WP repository, for a designer then have some free themes available for download on your own web portfolio etc.
But some points to note (and again i will use php as an example as its waht i do, but it applies across the board), don’t use code found on the internet, use your own as you will be showing it to the world, internet code is full of holes, its generally outdated and even if the date the code was uploaded was only yesterday it could easily be 10 years out of date, MD5 hashing and MySQl queries are two classic examples, if you see those in any code examples/tutorials ignore them and move on, MySQLI is ok, PDO is better as its more upto date and more flexible and password_hash is for now almost future proof.
Set yourself a standard, make it a high standard and keep it a high standard, comment your code, make it public via git etc, make people aware that it exists as it is the code and quality of it that is going to sell you to them right away not some dodgy online certification.
Self-learning comes at a cost, the first one being mentioned above… Holes. We leave all kinds of holes in our knowledge base unless we are highly driven to dig ever deeper into every new concept. I find very few people have that kind of drive, inherently. They need motivation, and college or technical schools can provide that through organized and thorough curricullums, knowledgeable instructors, extensive resources and peer support.
I’m not paying for their certificate, I’m just quickly going through all their courses. Truthfully certificates, even college certificates, mean nothing if you don’t have a portfolio or some other way to show your own work. That’s what I’ve learned. I have loads of certificates, but employers want to see your work, not a sheet of paper that claims you know it.
My goal is just to learn all there is to learn, I don’t have the money to pay for actual colleges or schools, but I’d say I’m learning pretty well. I truly do all my work from dirt low scratch. I have to take all the information I can and put together the pieces, I saw that there were a few things in there not taught yet here so I thought perhaps it may teach a little bit. I reccomend to save your money. Just build a portfolio and show that to your employers.
be careful with w3schools, they sometimes have bad coding practice and in some cases like PHP they have very dangerous code.
Yes, the interface is easy and the code simple to understand, but it is like a trapdoor.
I agree with you there, they have terrible coding practice. The only thing I actually found really useful was their color picker 
yes, but there are more color pickers like this one, also quit good
Yes, quite good indeed.
Check out launchschool.com
They actually referred me to CC to complete the Ruby course as the very beginning of an introduction to basic syntax.
I’ve learned so much since then. They are really an excellent program.
However, first you should make sure that you know what kind of jobs are offered in your area.
I ended up switching to Java after building a good foundation for procedural program with launchschool. There simply were not many ruby jobs around my area. Java and javascript are all over the country though.
Couldn’t agree more. The problem with self-learning is sometimes, you didn’t even know what you learnt by yourself is wrong, until you encounter an error being pointed out or you read/found some contradicting facts you learnt previously. I might be the one who lacks the drive inherently. Just get tired on keep digging with every new things coming up. 
Schools/college offers the place and platform to kick start the understanding pace. I could be asking more technical questions if my basic foundation is good and verify it with different instructors.
One more thing to look at is how connected those instructors towards the industry. Certain lecturers can be quite academical and lost touch on current industry practices or skills requirements.
Side note: sorry, English is not my native language. I felt something is wrong with my sentences/grammar, if anyone sees that please point that out for me/PM me. Would really appreciate it. Thanks.