Explore a 35-minute video featuring Kevin Tanzyl, a Scrimba student who successfully transitioned from teaching English in Japan to becoming a software developer. Learn about Kevin's journey, including his experience with tutorial hell, discovering Scrimba, and creating a React app for English teachers that caught employers' attention. Gain insights on selecting meaningful portfolio projects, focusing on basic programming principles, and maintaining a technology-agnostic approach. Discover Kevin's strategies for dealing with stubborn bugs, the importance of perseverance in coding, and how learning to code compares to learning a new language. The video also covers Kevin's job search experiences, the importance of willingness to learn in interviews, and differences in work culture between Japan and Western countries.
The Secret to a Meaningful Portfolio - Solve a Real-world Problem
Overview
Syllabus
"Software development involves a lot of math, so I avoided that"
How Kevin started teaching English in Japan
Why Kevin wanted a career change from teaching: the tech world doesn't stop!
How did learning programming compare to learning languages?
Why Kevin struggled to learn to code - and how he solved that
Do you need to go to university to become a software developer?
What are the differences between a software developer and a web developer?
Community break with Jan the Producer
Kevin learned on Udemy, freeCodeCamp, and, ultimately, Scrimba
Tutorial hell
The path of least resistance is not the right one for coding
How to fix very stubborn bugs
How Kevin made his number one portfolio app
Picking a portfolio app: ask your friends and family and solve a real problem they have!
Killing three birds with one stone I mean, feeding three birds with one scone!
How Kevin landed his first dev job... and didn't like it
How Kevin landed his second dev job
"They just wanted to see the willingness to learn"
Quick-fire questions!
Did Kevin have a tech interview?
Your portfolio helps an interviewer help you
"What are the things you think are lacking?"
The working culture in Japan
Taught by
Scrimba
