All posts in Success Stories

Although Oskana did have some coding experience, she subscribed to the Complete Web Developer Course and went through the video tutorials to not only to refresh her skills but find a new job with these skills.

It was exactly a year ago when I got interested in web development. I had done a degree in teaching IT which included some programming but forgotten nearly everything after 8 years out of practice, and was teaching English in a language school in Oxford. Before leaving for France for 5 months, my partner, who is a developer, suggested signing up for a Complete Web Developer course on www.udemy.com and I thought ‘Hey why not, and it is discounted as well’. So began the long winter of 2014, with my boyfriend seasoneering in the Alps and me learning to code everyday after work. I guess because he was away I managed to get through a lot of the course and learnt more than in 5 years of being at university! By the end of the course I was determined to change jobs - with my thirst for knowledge I knew that web development would suit me as I would need to keep abreast of changes in this constantly evolving area.

I must say that getting a job with no experience whatsoever was not easy at all, and I was very sceptical of Rob’s claims that you can earn money while learning to code. I registered on various websites, sent a lot of applications for junior positions and internships (which paid half of what I was earning) to no avail, or just to get a reply that I didn’t have experience (unfortunately, a lot of Junior Dev positions require some sort of commercial experience). On the positive side, I did receive a lot of calls from recruitment agencies who were looking for experienced coders, and realising how many jobs there are made me persevere with applying and further developing my skills.

I finally managed to get an interview for a Junior Developer position in a small marketing agency and as they work in C# I thought I wouldn’t get the job -my knowledge of C# was non-existent.In the interview I was asked why I wanted to change jobs so drastically, if I had any experience, what kind of things I´ve been working on in my free time. Of course, I mentioned projects like Weather Predictor and Secret diary and explained how they work. I think the interviewers probably realised that I´d only gone back to programming recently, but I like to think that they saw how passionate and determined I was about web development.

Imagine my surprise when I got the job offer! I was ecstatic and a bit scared at the same time - teaching English and coding are so different and I only knew the basics of web development. I accepted the offer and I haven’t had any regrets despite longer hours and travel distances, lower salary, a few days less holiday and pushing myself way out of my comfort zone (which a lot of people are afraid to do, I guess). I now maintain existing websites and am currently building a store locator using GoogleAPI.

I really enjoy my job because it is very varied - I use HTML, CSS, Javascript, JQuery, SQL, C# and ASP.NET, and yes, I am being paid for learning to code! I am very grateful to my employer for putting their trust in me even though they knew I did not have any experience, and to Rob Percival for creating a course that gave me a solid foundation to build up from.

Well done Oksana! Not only did you complete the course but you have built on those skills by getting a job that lets you learn other web developments skills and more importantly, you enjoy it!

Tak

Sales and marketing executive.
3rd degree black belt in Taekwon-Do.
Lives at the gym.
Enjoys burgers and cake.
Likes fast cars and lie-ins.

http://www.ecowebhosting.co.uk

Thanks to Jean-Luc for sharing with us his success story.

I discovered Udemy a little over a year ago. At the time, I had been working as an English to French senior translator for a big IT company since the year 2000, and I had also set up my own business as a photographer as a second activity since 2003.

I met Rob Percival in October 2014 through photography, after he hired me to take pictures of his family. That photo shoot became an insight into a brand new world for me after Rob extensively explained the principles of the online courses platform.

I had been unhappy in my day job for over three years and Rob on top of his chit chat about Udemy, wondered why I would stay in a job I did not like for so long just because it was well paid. Surely there were alternative careers to be pursued using languages, my love for web design or photography.

Six months later. In April 2015, my day job position was being made redundant as part of a restructuring exercise, and the decision I had been dreading to make for years was taken for me and I was let go, finding myself jobless for the first time in 15 years.

It was the end of an era, however it felt more like a beginning from then on. I had created a Udemy account right after meeting Rob and had taken advantage of the Black Friday promotion to get myself a few courses to improve my skills set for my photography business: digital marketing, SEO, and social media. Including Rob’s own Web Development course.

Strong from all this e-learning, I did not even think of going to the job centre to get my dole money, instead I embarked on a full time career as a photographer and web designer creating photography websites while still taking Udemy courses throughout 2015 to better my knowledge.

The year went very well. Making me realise that if I had known earlier on in my life how good it feels to work for oneself I would have left my day job a long time ago, or I would have developed my side activity as a business rather than just a hobby. Hindsight is a beautiful thing…

But as the Autumn was drawing in I realised that photography was a very seasonal activity and that I may need to go back to a full time job for the time being to have the security of a monthly pay cheque while still building my business in the wings until it reaches a self sufficient stage.

So I looked at what I could do next as I was not so keen to go back to a translation career with relatively low wages and hardly any room for further personal growth. I was however keen to get more technical and use more coding languages as part of my daily work tasks.

Just as I was pondering my next career move, an agency head hunted me for a French technical support specialist role in a growing company specialising in Internet transactions and payments. They were looking for someone to help their French speaking customers resolve their issues and adapt the company’s e-commerce basket to the look and feel of their website - a very interesting and exciting prospect.

I prepared for my first job interview in 15 years using Rob’s Web development course and more specifically the HTML, CSS and JavaScript sections of the course as I had to solve a small technical riddle for the technical part of the interview.

The interview went well and I was praised for finding a satisfying solution to the technical issue I had to solve. So much so that I was not even asked to come back for a second interview but was offered the job outright! That came as a huge surprise especially as it was the first interview I had had in 15 years, the Udemy courses made me more able to sustain the technical questioning and answer the questions with confidence.

I’m very grateful to the Udemy instructors whose courses I followed and I cannot wait to get stuck into more courses to better myself further.

Well done Jean-Luc!

Tak

Sales and marketing executive.
3rd degree black belt in Taekwon-Do.
Lives at the gym.
Enjoys burgers and cake.
Likes fast cars and lie-ins.

http://www.ecowebhosting.co.uk