Supper Club × How To Get Your First Dev Job With Stuart Bloxham

At the end of the day, I looked at the long term benefit of doing it, real technical interview, which really threw me.

It was yeah. When she just turned 1. So,

was about just getting to know me,

Easier than others that I had gone through.

I know I said to him in in the conversation, I said, although I really enjoy working with Next. Js, roles here and there so that we because, obviously, the baby has a schedule.

So congratulations on that. Do you wanna tell the story about the the interview? What was that like? Yeah.

rather than slogging away. Mhmm. Yeah. It could do that.

to get a career going and

kind but I Did it it took me longer than that because this was for a mid level role, but I was a junior developer. So, but they're very aggressive. Like, they they'll attack any other fish, And they like, I clean the tank, and it'll bite me. It draw draws blood. Really? Yeah.

all of that, I thought that's gonna be quite risky. But example, I think I started applying when I had 3 projects on my portfolio, and it was The best holiday ever, and it was beautiful. Like, the weather was unreal.

it it was a tricky nervous, actually. If you go near a piranha tank, they they just wanna hide. Whereas this guy, he,

The

and I just felt that It's just something I need to commit to. I spoke to my other half, Hayley, and,

Obviously, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, I Just wanna get into the industry, but

She sort of passed on as much information as was required of me to to know before going to the interview.

the the initial call was with the in house recruiter.

Yeah. I quit my my job the week of my my child's birth because it was just like,

it was kind of a technical, but it wasn't a technical.

it was I and also as well, I where I My portfolio. I once I built a I feel like I've ingested quite a lot of information over this time. And I stage, even before having the conversation, was a technical.

and The rest of it, And we flew back, and I when I got the feedback.

oh, shoot. I'm not doing the right things here. I gotta

The next step to that interview process was, she knew how much I wanted to do it and how much much I had already committed to it before, Yeah. I mean, it it was yeah. I I mean, I was at the time, when we bought the house and had the baby, I was working I learned a lot, and I I put it into practice, but It was hard. I'm not gonna lie. It was really hard. I've the construction job, it ended up I got promoted within the company, how the result went, and they they they had to put a lot of the work in themselves.

what I'm interested in, and and I had been learning Next. Js talk through the technical technical interview that I'd done at home I think just stick at it. The amount of times I've said I'm gonna quit,

about how I learn, It's the amount of time that you dedicate to the interview process as well. Like I say, with the the AB testing

of yeah. I'd say, like, Just going back to what you say, like, it was kind of the turning point. It did make me realize I need to sort my life out. I need

learning JavaScript, show like, a before and after section, and I wanted to complex bits of code that you have to work out.

She was really nice.

I

it's hard. It was a hard time, but it's good. It was good. So you ended up getting a job. That's what you said. You you are starting on Monday, which is 4 or 5 days from now, which is is awesome.

kind of know the importance of getting the foundations of

having a family, it's like,

You take a course to learn tech.

you do. But

I mean, I'd I'd just let you know what that is. It's it I I would watch a tutorial, Like, the timing of the interview. So Finished the course. I was just networking, trying to contact people and see,

get a sentence out

And that's because we get a sometimes you see people who are like, If you don't love coding, if you don't if you don't aren't doing side projects, evenings, weekends, absolutely all day long. It's not a cut out for you.

And

it wouldn't really reflect on my CV. So, For instance, 5 o'clock in the morning, and then I was coming back at show I did

Certified.

time and experience of previous interviews.

and then I would go away and build to learn coding.

thing that I I did those, and

do you like coding? is is sort of constricted now that budget Budgets are are cut and whatnot. Mhmm.

did you leave that interview having the feeling like You were going to get the job, or

elegantly, and it's another thing to be able to,

And then, unfortunately, it's not something where you can just Build one thing and you're a genius. It's literally everything in life is like that, but coding is no different. Yeah. And to to add to that as well is, I think it's quite important if you if you you know, your your main goal is to apply for jobs,

more projects just to get them out the door rather than They got the job Because they had worked in the industry before doing AB testing,

you have to

Building stuff that that's that can be put on show.

Really frustrating situation to be in. Really, really frustrating. So Yeah. People ask me that a lot. They say, like, if I take your course, will I be ready for a job? And and The answer is no.

Just just getting the practice in of speaking The,

reviews of the on plumbing, YouTube, things like that.

I could I the these questions were coming out, and I was Answering them quite efficiently.

I was able to answer them pretty efficiently.

I've just enjoyed trying to figure it out, quite a smooth process, actually.

Okay. Obviously, you know, having a job

actually do the work. You actually have to Go ahead and build many, many things over and over again before you're going to get comfortable with it.

and it's obviously being a beginner.

Yeah. There's no one I can really talk to about it. So

in 2 words. But this podcast and doing tutorials certainly have helped a lot, especially when you're trying to Talk to talk about technical concepts. It's it's one thing to, like, Certified.

I feel like that probably show them how I organize my day, how I organize projects,

there's always stumbling blocks. And I'm always having to go off and learn something and come back. Speaking of love, was it love at first sight? Did you, like,

how I learned, like, just building stuff, which advice I took from from your show.

I had a gut feeling that this was gonna be the right thing for me. That that's that's for sure. Beautiful.

was pretty Oh, I fed him, like, prawns and things like that, but and how I iterated over a load of metadata towards the, It's a bad. It's actually a fish. It's a, you kind of

and doing a boot camp, having a child,

And I am certainly in that camp in web development. I freaking love it. I I every day I wake up and said it Learn more about web development. Do more web development. But I don't know if that is actually true for everybody who wants to get in this industry. So, like, Do you do you like coding? I love it. Yeah. I think it's great.

You take a course to understand how these things work together.

But then

a, I decided that Probably the the quickest way to sort of

I can't I can't actually code it. So So he kinda I think there's an element of trust there that I haven't just

if I had done those, maybe not as I was really focusing on the style being really good, And I probably should have done

And,

I mean, that's One of the reasons, I think, in my message to you guys about the one of the questions that was asked of me was, bar 1 or 2,

but sold the business, and I had to move on to to find something else. So

was it still, who knows? I'll wait and see. Like, because, you know, sometimes you can walk out of an interview and be like, I got it. No no question about it. They were they were loving what I was, telling them and everything.

when you're having interviews, you're just getting practice to have those conversations, and,

an enjoyment of that sort of thing. Just creating and back to back courses. And then when you get around to doing something, you because you haven't done it yourself. You

The projects that stood out for him, he said that's why

recall technical concepts and be able to talk about them and look them up really quickly as we're going through them.

It's true, though. Like, I

when you completed the interview,

the guy built it after

which

He took my note course, and I I love seeing that because it's like

I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I kind of that's a trait that I have. And So I got out of sales because it was it just took up all my time, and then I Not just that one, but there were others that I kind of just was able to weren't too optimistic about sort of how And then the last stage was,

Know immediately that it was something that you were gonna latch onto, or did it take some time? I don't know. I think it probably did take a little bit of time.

And I built X, Y, and Z off of it. This this app we're using right now, Riverside,

what am I most excited about that's new coming to CSS.

They look at all the new tech. Anything new they look at, like, bobcat in there, and it Cleans the bone. Comes out of the bone. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

about coding because And I went back, and I've forgotten so much so much information just writing a function and simple things getting to the end.

I knew I had

But in order for you to really, truly understand it and to be able to build stuff, you got to like, I love seeing this people. Someone must be on Instagram today. They said, like, I took your course

and I know some plumbers who are stoked. They go to plumbing conferences.

there. Like, so when you did your the interview that you got here,

Another question I have is,

with the dialogue and how to how to speak about concepts and things. So It's it's the best way to get a job is to listen to this podcast. I'll tell you that.

speed run new career is that was, yeah. I don't know how much you could've sped it up, but it's it's it is pretty impressive that you were able to to go

Spitting out my thoughts

I learned yeah, things that you get stuck on, like complex,

I used to do the posters for the the shopfront. So I used to design the post we had electric screens out the front, so they would roll through different posters. And I used to design them Everything's safe. Oh, come.

how I structure everything.

Trello. I use Trello quite often. So I use that to show them where I do things, and then I use Notion for my note taking. So I showed them that. And then So I just had, You're really under a lot of pressure.

had some I had to prepare 3 things. So the first thing was to, But the problem with that was that And I think that just came over Sorry.

So, basically, I mean, it was done using MutationObserver,

so it was if I wasn't looking and reading about coding, I would the the interview I just got a job for, as well, but, Nearly a day and a half, so, you know, it's quite a lot of investment.

I was

you you you know, you think the companies are hiring all sorts of people, but it it's often like, You know, you get whittled down,

just how advice and things like that.

in real time because I've encountered that a a number of times. Yeah. No. That's the weird thing about this this actual interview. He And then the initial chat with the the hiring manager,

and, just doing that. So I'd have my main portfolio, and then I'll have mini projects at the bottom Just to add to it. And and code in the evening I don't know what theme I've got. I've used the s code.

it was But I probably a little bit too complex to sort of talk too much about, but I can't get up early to code, so I code later on in the evenings.

with the technical interviews that I have done, So I would kind of fit into that, but I We've got a 2 year old, So I

had to Some of the people I spoke to had done my course before in previous years, and because I quit my job in October, I've just dedicated all of my time to learning and,

an image slider to show the before and after, over cropping over the top of each other.

So I went through the code on that using, like, CSS clip path and Bits and pieces, so that was really good. I he was happy with that. And then the JavaScript one,

keep on persevering

inject code into,

They wanted me to show 2 examples of,

So it was kinda just showing the complexity behind that. When you said there was, like, some aspects. Like, what what were the the like, was it just inside of the like, what were these problem solving aspects you did, or did they have you write any code for them

on the mobile view, I had to

He said because I've looked into your code, and learned something, and I was halfway through a project.

an e commerce API I just buy, like, it's it's a, like, a cichlid make sure you finish the projects.

for a technical, was that, And coding was the first thing that struck me.

So Mhmm.

forked someone else's projects or,

And, yeah, I basically showed them

where I've come across a problem and overcome them.

add a, So what was the vibes like coming out of there? Yeah. I to be honest, I It was the best I'd felt coming out of an interview.

I have all my code, obviously, on GitHub and everything.

Really tough. I I he said work on it for 3, 4 hours, which I thought was quite a long time for The thing is piranhas are quite to go for a boot camp so that they can I've always been into sort of designing and stuff like that. When I worked for my dad in the betting shops, it's, But,

And he said Nice. Yeah. I can see that you can code. I can see that, you know, the quality of your work.

And because this interview process was,

Quite a few technicals, and they're not fun.

data to the users.

I it naturally took me longer.

I suppose a bit easier, more conversational.

I had done pretty well, caring for the baby while I would be able to work I'm sure a lot of people are the same, but I can't speak to but the soft skills is a little bit harder one example was a CSS Just googling googling, going on forums just to sort of see how other people do it, and then I would sort of give that a go. There was quite a lot of Trial and error, to be honest. There were some platforms that like, learning platforms that you get in, like, free trial sort of it's gonna push me to work hard to To stick with the decision rather than and it really hit me hard. And I thought, oh, I'm gonna have to go through the whole process again, and I've got less time. So, So that's that was kind of my girlfriend about coding. She just fall asleep.

and only 1 person can often get a job doing something. And even if 10 people apply for it, you know, 9 people didn't get it.

And, yeah, I did it, sent it over, just taking in as much information as I can.

a bit more comfortable because I I don't I wouldn't say I So, Yeah. As I know you. Yeah. Maybe one thing's Yeah. Were were some of the other interviews

It it's frustrating out there for people looking for jobs because And and pushing through, did you did you feel prepared going into this interview, or did you feel like it this role, the one that you got, not not this past one you're talking about, But the one that you got, did you feel prepared going into the into the interview, or did you feel, like, a little concerned that you were out of your depths? I'd say I was Prepared, really.

I pellet So from where I am, that can take 2 and a half to 3 hours in the morning,

So I said in the interview, obviously, I I rather than pulling in a plug in or whatever, I decided to code it myself.

And it it's hard to take that that loss, but it it's, always good to, you know,

A little bit more, like, whiteboarding. Like, what were some of the really tricky ones that

so I had to I did have to chase the feedback on a couple just because I wanted to know. Wow. Yeah. That that's a ton of time. And how did you know

It's a bit of a a different interview that we do, but I thought it was kinda cool to get a look into

like, a piece of

Head on over to syntax.fm

How big is it? Are they like a fun fish to have? Yeah. They they're very aggressive,

what does the hiring process and learning

that I just drop in there. I have fed condense even if I was working. So yeah. That's I I love hearing that because was

Okay. Well, I suppose

unless it is just towards other fish. Yeah. Well you.

Barp. Oh, that's a good sick pick. I like that. What about shameless plugs? have never been very good at

You you might wanna look it up, but

and, sharing

Aw. Pretty sweet.

Right on. That's great. Yeah. That that's actually 1 question. I don't know if did you add that, Scott? It just got onto the end of this list. I did add that. Yeah. That question. But I I don't think I added it independently. I think we had that conversation, and then I was like, oh, I should add this to the list. Oh. So I I can't take full I would love to take full credit for that, but I don't know if I can. I'll give it to you. We'll start out. I think we should start asking that one. That's good. I did it. It was me.

stuartblockson.tech

Oh, and what what do you feed a flowerhorn?

I don't like it because it can make them sick. So I I don't see the point in. Oh, okay. You're not, like, you're not putting, like, a deer leg or a a a rabbit in there or something like that. No? No. No. No.

look like these days. So thank you so much. Yeah. No worries. Thanks, Stewart. Peace. Hey. Peace.

They wanna And, you know, it's something that's always basically, You do fall off it. Sometimes you kind of forget that, and you get into sort of tutorial hell, which to

Woah.

I was gonna say, like, what is aggressive for a fish? Because, like, For me, a fish is gonna have to be a piranha before I'm classifying it as aggressive, How do you find the time, and how did you find the time

Big brain fish. Yeah. Yeah. Look at the big brain on Brian. Flower horn. Oh, that's awesome. And

for a full archive of all of our shows,

Yeah.

or drop a review if you like this show.

And don't forget to subscribe in your podcast player

Right on.

I mean, my girlfriend doesn't even listen to me anymore. Just like every time I say it, she's she doesn't even acknowledge me. So,

I've got one. His name's Kevin.

Oh, yeah. Look at this guy.

remote or in the office? Fully remote.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just just Stick to it as long as you, you know, you you you can.

eat

Alright. So we'll wrap things up with a sick pick and a shameless plug. What do you got for us today? Okay. I've got a bit of a weird one.

maybe in the future if, I she goes down at 8. She luckily, now she sleeps through the night, so took myself away, and I I can tell I can notice when I get that That burnout feeling. So I take myself away. I'll take the day off tomorrow, The weather can't still listening. Just it's that's what kind of got me involved. I just

you.

Just, as well as I probably could or there isn't a I mean, I

it's a it's called a flower horn.

just keep an eye on that, and I'll put Put some more projects on there. Well, well, thank you so much for taking the time. I know it's late over there in the UK,

everything. And you You have to turn up from 8 AM till 5 PM, and you're given the tasks to do for the day, and you're working with colleagues, you're speaking to the TAs. So, yeah, that that was kind of the main idea of that was so that I could get back into it and really pick things up quickly.

One thing which I suppose is worth pointing out is when I finished my which I hadn't and it just went from there. And, I mean, at that time, when I was doing a state agency, I was just able to carry on learning from from listening to the show and I would code after my girlfriend goes to bed. So, literally, it's like a full slug of just Working, ever used before, never worked with before. And, so I had to learn all of that and a load of other stuff.

but some people are looking to get into you kind of look at it and go, well, I I just learned all this, but you can't

like it's I think the personality type of being willing to

that I was okay at before, or something like that. But,

what we're seeing right now, at least from afar, is a lot of boot camps are either changing their business model entirely or

the personal aspect of showing that you care

portfolio and I had And I'd think, well, I've I'm I'm good enough on that aspect. I wanna learn something else now, and I've tried fast forward everything.

but he just didn't. So Mhmm.

one of 1 of the fit bits of feedback or a few rather. A few bits of the feedback Follow the industry

changed jobs in the past, and then

Just just in, like, the job hunt, keeping it up and Anyone listening, this is not necessarily a question for you, but this is Just having talked to you for half an hour now,

and than it is to train someone to code. Like, they say anyone can code, Which I believe is true,

showing that you care is is really important, and it's an important thing in this this job hunt. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. It's, congratulations

Shutting down because

Let's let's talk about, like like, what did you

Of course, you know how to code and you're probably good at this type of stuff, but I think those skills are also really important.

When you were able to start applying for jobs, that's that's a question we get through our potluck at least once a month is, like, at what point,

You're willing to take on new stuff. Like you sent me an Instagram and I was like, hey, want to come on the show? A lot of people would be like, oh,

Take on construction and try real estate and, be organized and and show that you okay. I use Trello to to organize this type of stuff. I think, like, that type of stuff

Didn't have the I didn't have the time to learn, but I also had to pick things up again. I I went back to coding after taking it was about a year break, a a moment just struck me. I was like, alright. That's I'm not I can't be doing this. I need to be able to Find a job that I can do anywhere in the world so I can go back to Thailand.

The next stage was, And,

that I did and I would, I've seen that there's a fair chunk of the not with different styling and everything to that initial project that I I did on the course.

about what you do and and asking for feedback.

you're proactive.

Have you kept in touch with anyone? Do you know how how they are doing? A lot of people ask me, like, is it still worth doing a boot camp? Obviously, it panned out for you, but I think there's a lot more work on your end than just going to a boot camp. Yeah. Personally, I I mean,

They talk it out. They present their case. End of the day, that's it. But,

interview, which is a take home.

you know, if I could get any help or just get any sort of,

I think for me, it was once I had Especially at first, where I was coding first thing in the morning before work, then I was working, then I was getting home. And when while we had the TV on, I would code, today. I felt just exhausted. I just felt you kinda went back and Home and goes, ugh. One tricky one was which it was actually a take home exercise. It was, Tricky

I mean,

from your interviews. You know, a lot of people, they they They submit their resume, and they either get a call and they show up and they do the tech stuff, whatever.

Is that the one that people can kinda take a look at? There's a people always like to see I've got 2. So that that's like my freelance one,

So I saw it as kind of a A question from him to say, you know, is this right for you? It's that's where I decided

to to train someone up on if they're a junior developer. So, Yeah. That was a bit of feedback. I think it's really important that you you ask for feedback spoke about on the show and, yeah, they would they they were happy with it, but had, where I was

learning JavaScript, and, no typography or anything like that. But I've got some, I think What I what I enjoy about the coding is just building stuff and overcoming problems and and I had to have that conversation every now and then. It was hard because, obviously, when the baby's screaming and where I've and I just built on that as the process went on. But getting those under my belt is more important than carrying on with the framework that I've kind of just loosely

It's harder to train someone with the soft skills I can see because I've I've as the boot camp finished, it was basically interacting with an API, I wanted to quit my job, try and make them perfect.

Other things and just for personal development and things like that. But, to try and get into the industry myself, On some occasions, but, I mean, the the the key sort of time I was learning is Yeah. Right. So Okay. That's a personal project on top of that. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And it's something that I had to commit to because I had already pulled the fuel box up. So Yeah. It's, while you put the baby to bed.

got a new job, in web development,

talk to the line manager. Then another technical I have kept in touch with some people, but the people that I have kept in touch with are the ones that have Managed to get a get a job.

like, I did have good soft skills, and that's something that this I can work. I work quite till quite late. So I used to Get up early in the morning before work So I'm 35.

that was kind of once I had that going, that's when I was happy to start sending my workout and Sending CV with with my portfolio. And is it block c web services dotco.uk? really tricky.

Done the boot camp because

And,

Like, how do I know when I'm ready to start applying for jobs, and and which one should I be applying for? Yeah.

And go through the technicalities of it. So that whole situation, but having the baby

Do you agree with that? Yeah. I do.

No. Like, it's kind of scary, you know, like and you it's not that

Like, there's really nothing that beats

the 2 technicals

people always ask about, like, soft skills as a developer. And I can already Get a sense from you that you're

I mean, I asked The feedback in interviews so all my interviews nearly, but,

I made it work just by sort of having an agreement

really dive into tweaking your editor nonstop until that becomes boring in itself.

we drive to the shops like a a supermarket, We add a take home document. Then the next stage was talk to the HR person.

I've got some plug ins on there for, like, the icons, but It's just that, yeah, I've got a dark theme, They basically If I kinda just got it out there, I think I probably could've speeded sped up the process a bit. But yeah. I mean, you you it was a pretty fast speed run, so I, You know, And Okay. Yeah. So the the test was I had to luckily, they they did come back to me, but, and react. And but this job doesn't involve any react. So, I I I feel like I was wasting my time. Like, say if We had the TV on, and we were watching some program, Can I switch it up? Yeah. Yeah. I I quit when my daughter was 1, I think.

I felt it actually Which is my portfolio, like, my Gotcha. Portfolio. Yeah.

6 and 8 in the evening, I think I just got better and better. And listening to your podcast is like I I feel like that helped I am confident in my skills. I've put a lot into That's that's my buzz, really. Just getting getting projects completed and well, not even projects. Just, like, just focus on some bits around the house. I find doing other tasks Mhmm.

Yeah. Yeah. I I yeah. It it that is exactly it. It's communication.

And then the next day, I'll do that. And we kind of swapped like AB testing, that sort of thing.

But Comfortably Just build stuff. Like, it just kind of ring it was ringing in my ears that you just have to build stuff. So,

I would hate it, and I would have to get my laptop out, and I would work. My girlfriend would understand.

A lot of the other questions we usually ask on supper club is is kind of what this whole thing was about. It's like, how do you stay up to date? If you were to start coding from scratch, what would you learn? Like, You sort of you sort of answered all those, but maybe we'll end it off with just like, if you have any advice for people who are sort of thinking the same thing, they're

Yeah.

questioned a lot of what I was doing. So And how do you how do you get through that that burnout? That's always a question because, like, yeah, like Like, hustle, hustle, hustle. Go, go, go. But before you know it, you're gonna start

I'd make use of the time. I what I I got myself into little bit of a rut where MX Keys.

being a web developer.

if like, Let your mind wander as well. So if you're cleaning or doing work on the house,

So once you once you get bored of the the work itself,

and code on My laptop. I would take my laptop with me and tether it to my phone instead of the Internet.

hating the stuff that you're doing because it's making you feel so awful. Yeah. No. Now Now I can feel it coming. So,

my other half would be I worked in a family business, which was in betting shops.

mouse and a Logitech keyboard. I don't know which one.

my daughter gets up at, like, 5 o'clock in the morning every day. So Different, Have something that I'm I'm I'm happy doing Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So The background of that is basically

She understood that I

with my girlfriend.

You just get I just got very depressed and Questioned website. Just my portfolio.

but most of them didn't work out. I had my own way of learning, which I figured out as the process went on, which was basically

Yeah. That's what I still do. I'll be doing it Through the weekend. Oh, that's amazing. So would you say that, like, your your biggest he mentioned that the last 2 projects that I did were So I, I decided to have a look at what I could do, discovered coding, A project using the same technologies,

to make it all work? Yeah. It was it wasn't easy to find the time,

Oh, yeah. What about, your your text editor theme and font?

freedom before you start your job next week.

tips or points there would be, 1, communication,

plug ins for, like, icons and things like that. That's it. Mhmm.

And Don't sort of go through a project and go, right. I've kind of learned that now. I'm gonna move on to something else. Try and finish it and then get it on your portfolio. That's something that I Failed it a few times. I kind of

your mind wanders elsewhere away from what you're usually focusing on, and I find that that is really, really good. Like, I do a lot of running as well. So that Yeah. Take the rest of the week off. Sorry to Steal your your last free week of, I,

I so decoding at

I'd read through some bits. I would listen to interviews, so, like, the technical interviews, Even if they're just a small technical challenge, they're usually quite unique. So I would take those home sort of thing, and I would Build them again, and I'll put them on my portfolio, job, I, England always rains, but bit of a push for me. I thought if I signed up to this, it's gonna help me get into the industry, but, also, yeah, just

and I hit burnout. I didn't know what burnout was until it happened to me twice.

podcasts,

or I'm learning is in the evenings, like, when She goes to bed.

even though I've got this job, I want to carry on learning just so that I can hit the ground running.

my girlfriend will go in, do some shopping, just kill an hour, hour and a half, and I would sit in the car It was they

we drive, How it's done, just the one whole process of building website, just to get an idea.

Do you have any advice for them? Yeah. I mean,

Oh, yeah. MX Keys.

which is sort of just midweek TV.

2, like, compromising that time, and then, like, 3, finding any spare time you can it in. It's amazing. Like, Sometimes I think, I only have half an hour now. There's nothing you can really do for half an hour. Can't even install known modules in half an hour.

But like you say, I mean, I I find half hour Half an hour just isn't really enough time to take in a lot of information. So if I do find myself with half hour half an hour, I would Kind of just got involved with with watching videos, doing some Basic HTML and CSS, Plenty of times.

Tom White.

You'll start to,

Needed to do this, but where I was so busy, I

between I wasn't there able to concentrate properly.

Driving home, sitting in traffic right now from their job. They're listening to syntax. Maybe I will make that jump into

And, like, we have to take it home and do it or, like, me and Scott try to go through an interview or something like that? I think it'd be kind of fun to I would love to do that. Some content out of it, see how we Fair up. As we were having this conversation, Wes, it's, like, put me into a space where I'm I'm thinking about

Dot Tech,

what was that, like, initial step For you, did you go into Google and say how to become web developer? Or, like, what was it that you you started with to be able to even know what you needed to know? Yeah. I I Pretty much went straight on Google or YouTube. I I think it might have been YouTube just to sort of get a feel of how Yeah. Sure. It you still didn't get the job, so, you know, what's it gonna

they like, the web development world, the first thing they do is, like, I have no idea where to start. Right? Like, I don't even know

I I was wondering, Stuart, about your your learning choices. You know, a lot of times when people decide to learn something new, especially Especially in this world,

of things there that, Like, the the creative aspect of somebody asking you to do that Amazon one, I think that was, like, really a pretty interesting

And then, I have had

the interviews that I've had and the technical challenges that I've done and just, like, all of the different variety there, there there's a lot of interesting aspects,

If we did some sort of video, Scott and I, where we we get, like, an interview challenge

No. I I just wanna say, like, I think it would be really fun

little nugget there. I've never heard of that type of specific

Example. So it it just sparked all of these feelings in my brain. It's like, what have I been given to do as a take a home but also on the spot interview and, like, Would have been the good and bad interviews that I've done personally.

I want to know what to know. Like, I don't even know how to figure that out. So, like, be if you you care or not to them? But Still,

at what point do I know that I'm I'm ready to apply for a job? And what types of jobs. How many do I need to apply for? There's all these questions.

especially the last 6 months or so. It's Not

so buckle up and grab that o handle because this was going to get wide eyed as old.

This is

This

Wash those hands, pull up a chair, and secure that feed bag, because it's time to listen to Scott Tolinski and Wes Bos attempt to use human language to converse with and pick the brains of other developers. I thought there was gonna be food,

when Stewart said he just landed his 1st gig,

and it's kind of cool story. We'll we'll talk about that. But What I'm really interested here, and even if you're not looking for a job, I'm just curious, like, what does the job landscape look like?

someone who just messaged me on Instagram, Stuart Blocksum, and he said, hey. I just got a job, and I owe part of it to syntax, which is incredibly flattering,

as well as like I know developers all the time have people come to them and say, Hey, I want to do what you do. Like, I love computers. I love technology. I love figuring out problems. I would like to become a developer.

I wanna be a a web developer. How did you get into this position in the 1st place? Yeah. Okay. So it's quite a long story, but I'll try and keep it as short as possible.

is the Syntax supper club.

In 2 weeks, you know, it's it's totally different. So, like, I don't I don't necessarily know. I know some plumbers who love plumbing,

like there's not all these companies clamoring to pay is really going to go a long way.

we can talk about that all day long, but I'm sure Stewart has some some firsthand experience. So welcome. Thanks so much for coming on. Hi, Wace. Hi, Scott. Alright. So let's start, Stewart. Like, what was your background,

I sure hope you're hungry.

And a question we get all the time is like,

400 k to someone who went through a boot camp for

Welcome to Syntax, the podcast with the tastiest web development treats out there. We've got a good one for you today.

And like the the landscape of getting a job is just is changing,

Hoo. I'm starving.

What do I do? You know? And,

before you decided coding? And and, like, how did you decide,

if I went into web development, I knew that I'd have Start at a lower salary.

I think you told me you have a a baby in a house. Yeah.

I it was Kind of just take in as much information as possible wherever possible,

You know, I suddenly, a lot of the things in my career didn't make sense.

And, obviously, with the mortgage, with the baby, started learning. So There's a lot to learn, so, and then the ropes as you go. So I I was doing sales for about 3 years, he said to me, even after the 1st interview, he said, developer job, which was which is, Being that it was a full time boot camp, I had to quit my job.

at 8 o'clock. Not every day, but They pretty relaxed, and, obviously, it was a really nice surprise.

and he called me in for the interview. With those 2 projects, role that I interviewed for. Mhmm. I mean, I I did I the the the first

Like, how old you are, and, Learn. And I know you said you went to a boot camp for 9 weeks, but you're primarily self taught. Is that true?

Yeah. Oh, I like that. To give everyone, like, a bit of a context, after some Crazy life decisions, which I'm excited to talk about. I thought, like, oh, we got we got to have them on the podcast because this is super interesting. It's going to answer a lot of questions, both for people who are interested

I remember, like, reading articles on my phone when I had, like, minutes waiting for the bus or something like that and just squeezing it in here and there. And obviously, our podcast is a interesting way to do that. Definitely.

for where you are in life, I don't know if you you mind sharing,

I'd say 3 to 4 days a week, I was doing that. So like, syntax, basically.

a day.

dang. I need to, I need to think about some things here. Yeah. Definitely. I mean,

Sometimes I feel that way. It's like I don't have time

It was I I was earning quite good money as well. So answer.

Again, it's kind of going back to the story, but it's I was working in construction when we bought the house, and the reason I took the construction job was so that I could buy myself more time what we do is And the 6 hours Pretty bad, really, because you kind of go into a rabbit hole of just doing container queries, which you've

which was useful because we bought a house that needed renovating.

Was there, like, a moment at that like, when the child was born where you're all of a sudden, like,

So, yeah, long time listener of the show, and, Oh, that's you you you update the quantity, and it had Had to update the quantity on the actual product when you added it to the basket.

thing. I also love having Brits on the podcast because I look I get to learn about Alright. Let's get into some supper club questions. What computer mouse and keyboard are you using? Okay. So it's an MX Master, I always think, like, like, a like, from the Flintstones, you know, you put a,

It was a crossroads for me, really, because I was doing quite well in construction. I got on really well with the boss, and, just my

pretty brutal. Yeah. Oh, nothing like a a soul crushing commute and having a baby the I think the gravy days of we need more developers

I've been looking at a a a pulling out ripping out the carpet in 1 room, and I keep looking at it as that step. Like, well, once I rip out the carpet, I'm committed to finishing this project. So I have I was just, like, waiting to do that. Yeah. It's a can of worms. Can of worms. Yeah. I was gonna say that, like, when I when I had my first child,

So that was a good 5 years ago.

I can sort of passively feed myself information about it. So It gets and I remember when I was first getting into it as well. It's like I was just trying to figure out, like

new fun words like bedding shop, Which I, I just looked up, which is like a place where you you place bets on sports and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's quite big in in the UK, the betting shops Seem.

we bought the house 2 years ago. So when we had When we bought the house, we had the baby and the first thing I could think of was,

West London.

There are ways that you can be passively learning things. And sometimes I even find myself, like, catching myself scrolling TikTok too long, And I realized like, oh, man, you know what? Like, if I'm doing this for half an hour, maybe it's better to be researching and watching a YouTube video or something. Like, I can't go Build something or or learn a new piece of tech right now, but We gotta get this kid those kind of bed, Scott.

evening. So I was driving five

just the time that was taken up, I was we were getting jobs I kinda you get distracted by, you know, like, work situations, and you can fall off the rails. So Yeah. Have you kept in touch with anyone else that has I I wanted a way of

to specifically dedicate myself to sitting down and learning a skill, but

To really kick your ass out of gear. And I decided to pull up our old flooring as well in our house.

Did construction,

Kind of an aside

and Everything I learned from that was built up over a long period of time, and I kind of just chucked it all in together

and A website that I built Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, which was The sales it I would've been more than happy to do the test If he if he sent it if he sent 1,

I said I was gonna keep this short, but I basically, we went on holiday. We went to we went to Thailand, in a call to action that popped up when the buy now button was off The screen or on the screen, and that call to action And then when she naps, she doesn't nap in her cot, So she naps in the car. And It was a CRO

And,

make money to an extent was to get into sales because you can kind of just get Straight in,

this weather was just continuous rain for 2, 3 weeks.

what's the word? You know? A bit bit optimistic, but I mean, it was weird because, obviously, there wasn't a tech like, a We're a real technical stage, but there were some technical questions, and and that was the feedback my he was working for my My my dad, and he

and, Yeah. I mean, that's that's kind of where it started. I I I found I Googled, basically, ways to sort of make a living online, And It it wasn't Mhmm. That I kind of had times blocked out. So I would say, like, I it was down to me and 1 other guy, and it me having no experience.

And I was working and slogging away, and haven't People on the course that you know, before everything. So Everyone sent out their social media links and everything like that. So stick to it. It it will come eventually. You just have to work very hard. Yeah. That's good. Is your new job, 2 or 3 projects

A little bit,

that's where I discovered, And yeah, I I just couldn't fit in the coding. It was it was too much. I was leaving at and,

learning while I was working. And, obviously, being an estate agent, You do a lot of driving, so took me an Amazon product page. And and I've also got Okay. Stuart Blockson yeah, it was just,